Need help with my Europe Itinerary!!
 

Hi everyone. My family and I are taking a vacation next June 2013. My itinerary is as follows. We have from the first to the fifteen as days for vacation. So we arr going to take the plane to Paris on June 1st, arriving in Paris 3rd. We are planning to visit Paris, Venice, Florence a,d Rome. We have twelve days not counting travel times to visit four cities. Any suggestion in how would be the most efficient way to do it? I really appreciate it. This trip is very valuable for us because is my daughter's fifteen's birthday and we want to make me memorable for her and all of us. Thanks in advance. I really need help in developing a good itinerary. I have planned out to do it as follows: 4 days in Paris, two days in Venice, @ days in Florence, and 4 days in Rome. Does this look doable? Thank you

To be honest with you, that's not enough time to see all you want to see, or even scratch the surface.

Get an open jaw ticket to Rome, allocate your time there and train up to Florence, then Venice.

Fly from Venice to Paris and end your trip there.

Specific days at each place... otheres will say this or that is great.

I'm not a biggie on Florence, but I love Venice and Paris.

It will be crowded.

Yes, too many cities.

First thing is to see if you can fly open jaw into Paris and out of Rome.

There is an overnight train from Paris to Venice. Personally I don't sleep well on trains, some do. Perhaps this would be something different for your daughter to experience.

From Venice, I suggest going directly to Rome. That is not to say that Florence is one of my favorite cities.

If you had to fly in and out of Paris, I could suggest a much different scenario.

Or you could do the entire trip in Italy.

twelve days and four cities . . . you won't have 4 days in Rome and Paris and 2 days in Venice and Florence because you have not factored in all the time you lose traveling. You will lose between 1/2 and one full day every time you move. Even for cities relatively close to each other like Florence and Rome. By the time you check out of your Florence hotel, go to the train station, travel to Rome and check in to you next hotel . . . you've blown more than half a day.

I'd cut one of the cities - they are all wonderful, but you need to lose one of them . . .

Definitely keep Venice and Paris. In between, in June, I would see something of the Italian lakes. Lake Como, particular the Bellagio area, is magical. You don't need a car. You can take the train from Venice to Varrenna (via Milan), walk down the hill and catch the ferry to Bellagio. Stay 2 or 3 nights and take the ferries to other lake towns. It's a walking around, relaxing area. I loved the ferries (short rides) and watching one town recede and the other one approach. From Bellagio you can take a day trip to Lugano, Switzerland.

Day 1 - Arrive Venice
Day 2 - Venice
Day 3 - Venice
Day 4 - take the train to Bellagio (1/2 day)
Day 5 - Bellagio
Day 6 - Bellagio
Day 7 - Paris
Day 8 - Paris
Day 9 - Paris
Day 10 - Paris
Day 11 - Paris
Day 12 - Paris

A great adventure for a 15 year old would be the night train from Milan to Paris. Pack some drinks and snacks for the morning and definitely bring bottled water to brush your teeth. There's a 23:20 train that makes only 1 stop (no changes) and arrives in Paris at 10:56. If you leave Bellagio in the morning you can spend the day in Milan (see the Last Supper perhaps) and catch the train that night.

Another option is to travel via Annecy and see that pretty Alp town.

I agree that you just can't, as you say, make it memorable for all of you if you try to squeeze 4 cities in 12 days. I would either spend the 12 days in Rome, Florence and Venice or in Paris and Rome. You will be jet lagged after two days of travel and will not enjoy the next days where you are moving around frm place to place more than you are enjoying the sights.

I know this will be a hard decision but have your whole family but have them do some research and together decide what you most want to see.

Good luck and come back with questions once you have decided on an itinerary.

I agree with others that 12 cities in 4 days is just too much, and agree with the suggestion of Rome, Florence and Venice or Paris and Rome. There would be plenty to do by spending 6 nights each in Paris and Rome, and would probably leave time for one daytrip in each location to get outside of the city.
Here are some links to my trip reports along with pictures when we went to those cities with our kids. This should give you an idea of all there is to see and do in these cities:

http://www.fromhometoroam.com/catego...eflorence2005/
http://www.fromhometoroam.com/2012/05/a-week-in-paris/

i like adrienne's idea. i really love variety in a trip - i think it makes things easier to absorb and to remember.

the other ideas are good too.

the only thing I would definitely NOT do is your original itinerary. just too many places in too little time.

Hi G,

>We have twelve days not counting travel times to visit four cities. <

I strongly suggest that you limit your visit to
Fly into Venice - 3 nights,
train to Florence - 4 nights, visit Siena, and Pisa or Orvieto
Train to Rome - 4 nights - visit Orvieto and Ostia Antica,
fly home

and actually enjoy yourselves.

((I))

Thank you very much everyone for your input. I will probably be taking Florence out. I figure is such a short time there. My husband had already suggested to take it out. IThink no Florence at this point. However, I have already booked the fly to Paris first, then perhaps venice, last Rome. We are suppose to fly back from Rome. Thank you. Have any more suggestions, please do. Thank you have been very helpful. I will share it with my family. We are so excited!!!

I found the night train from Paris to be a fun experience, whether I slept well or not. Waking up at a stop in the middle of the night and peering out in the darkness at the name of some unknown station outside is kind of cool, IMO. So I agree with the advice to do that.

when planning your days in each of three cities, look at it in terms of now many nights you will be there. For example, 2 nights in a city might be only one full day to see a place unless you arrived early in the morning to start with. that may help you decide how to divide your time.

Be sure to get hotels with air conditioning as it will be hot, especially in Rome.

ok - Paris -Venice - Rome.

more than enough to see in the time you've got.

Glad that's settled.

Train schedules here:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?

there is an overnight train between Paris and Venice - kid may find it something special - save on a hotel costs - www.thell.com and if book way in advance can snag some deep discounted fares - daytime train it takes all day with often so-so scenery.

Other tremendous sources of info on trains in those countries - http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id8.html; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com (the latter has great info on online discounted tickets that should be booked weeks in advance but can result in huge savings but are train-specific and hard or impossible to change so you are locked in stone if that is OK fine. For flexible travel to hop trains as you go along investigate the France-Italy Railpass.

So we arr going to take the plane to Paris on June 1st, arriving in Paris 3rd. We are planning to visit Paris, Venice, Florence a,d Rome. We have twelve days not counting travel times to visit four cities. Any suggestion in how would be the most efficient way to do it?>

If you want to keep all those cities IMO fine - I have done similar travels that many veteran travelers call too much in too little - but it is up to the individuals and what they want - IMO you do not need to spend several days in each city to make it worthwhile - I would myself do the following itinerary -

12 Days of being in a city - not counting travel days as OP says

1- Paris
2- Paris
3- Paris
4- Paris - overnight train to Venice
5- Venice
6- Venice
7- Florence
8- Florence
9- Rome
10- Rome
11- Rome
12 - Rome

Venice and Florence are compact and two full days there is enough for most travelers and four days in Rome and Paris also is enough for most travelers.

I do not find this itinerary too rushed at all - keep all those wondrous cities in the mix or regret not seeing one once back home - who knows you may never get back to Europe again or very soon!

topping for the OP . . .

ttt for OP

She has a new thread.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-to-europe.cfm

I know she has a new thread -- but she had received lots of response on this one and it seemed she couldn't find it. Now we're sort of reinventing the wheel on the new one.