I am overwhelmed and am looking for some wisdom and experience...

My daughter is going to school in Paris for a semester and so Hubby and I are visiting her in early October.

H was born in Switzerland and has not been back there since the age of 6. We'd like to go to Basel and Horgen to see some of the places he lived, went to school, etc...

I escaped from Hungary at the age of 5, entering Italy through Trieste from Koper (Croatia). I'd like to see where our journey began and where we finally made it to safety. It would be incredible if I could actually make the trek through the mountains. It could/should have taken 2 -3 hours but took us between 8 and 9 hours because we kept losing our view of Trieste's light ... while my cousin (who escaped 6 months after us) was lost for 2 nights and 3 days there...

I'd like to see where the refugee camp was/is that we stayed in initially...

Also, we lived in a refugee camp in Latina for 3 months. I have a lot of pictures of my family there. I'd like to see Latina and hopefully trace some of my history there too.

Our friends are traveling to Paris/Switzerland/Italy during this same period for their 25th anniversary.

We thought about renting a car together when we leave Paris and driving throughout the rest of the trip.

For our friends ... it is their 25th anniversary and a trip to Europe has been a long time dream.

For us, we want to visit our daughter, trace our roots a bit, and experience Europe together ...

I know we are trying to do ALOT! in 14 days...

I don't want to jam pack our schedule to the point that we are miserable... yet we want to travel through a fairly large area...

We arrive in to Paris at 8:30 on Oct. 2 ... our friends arrive at 8:30, Oct. 3.

We plan on spending Oct.the 2nd and 3rd in Paris with my daughter and then leave for Switzerland in the morning on Tuesday, Oct. 4th.

Stay in Switzerland till Fri. Oct. 7th, then go to Bellagio for a couple of days...

On Mon. Oct. 10, leave Bellagio and go to Venice(our friends) and Trieste for my husband and I.

I don't know how much time I would need in Trieste to trace my little bit of history, but our friends would stay in Venice while we did that.

Then we are thinking of driving to Latina by driving through Verona, Florence, Chianti, Rome, (at this point our friends would probably stay in Rome while we go on to Latina.

We would like to, if nothing else, at least peek into as much as we can along our path...

THEN! we still need to get back to Paris for our flight home. I wanted to spend one more full day there with my daughter before we fly out on Sun. Oct. 16 at noon...

Does anyone have any suggestions about how this might work out in a way that could actually be *fun*?

I am open to planes, trains, automobiles... whatever it would take to make this an adventure rather than a nightmare.

Please be gentle... If this is crazy, and impossible ... I'm all ears...

I have been surfing the threads in the Europe forum for the past three days trying to find the answers and suggestions that I am looking for.

I have found a TON of wonderful information that I am tucking away in a folder to refer to as I continue to make my travel plans.

If anyone has any suggestions, I really appreciate you sharing them with me...

thanks in advance...
marym64

a few more thoughts...

I am thinking that if I can cover the area in the 14 days I am there and can find some nice places to stay ... good restaurants to eat at ... a few vinyards to visit and sample ... beautiful scenery with places to stop for coffee and gelato... it would be *very nice*...

Maybe next time we can take two or three places and give them the time and attention to truly *experience* them in a way that will be impossible this time around...

again, any suggestions are greatly appreciated...

marym64

I drove with two others around France for 17 days and still did not see everything that we had planned on our itinerary. I also bought a France rail pass on a different trip and saw about the same amount in six days. You may want to reconsider the car rental and get a rail pass so you can take the bullet/speed trains allowing you more time at your intended destinations.

thanks parisnow...

I am very open to rail passes... we are even considering flying from Rome to Paris at the end...

I was hoping to get some input about where a car might be good for a short period and where train travel would be best...

I have been looking at train travel times ... road travel times... and now we are even looking into the possibility of flying...

marym64

I am thinking about skipping Trieste all together for this trip... Head toward Rome, since Latina is approx. another hour south of Rome. Then I think we will fly from Rome to Paris...

Now to figure out when and where to drive or rail...

Hi mary,

It seems to me that you have two sets of people interested in different things.

I also think that you have too much on your plate.

Pick out the three or 4 most important things and figure out how to see them.

thanks ira...

my brain is strategizing day and night(whether I want it to or not) in my attempt to figure out what is most important ... lol

Do you think it is doable if H and I:

*go to Paris for two days

*fast rail to Switz., stay for three days

rail to Como, ferry to Bellagio, stay for three days

*ferry and whatever else it takes to Como or Milan to fly to Latina for one or two days ...

*and then fly or rail back to Paris...

Not even sure yet if a person can fly into Latina... Maybe in and out of Rome.. (will have to check that out...

thanks again... I will keep working on this...

In december of '04, my husband, son and parents did the Paris/Montreux switzerland/venice/florence/rome all by rail. We flew into Paris and out of Rome. I would recommend you look into an open-jaw ticket to save you from back tracking.

thanks Sandi ... The problem is that we already have our tickets. We are flying non stop to and from Paris.

I think taking a flight back to Paris is probably going to be the best idea.

How many days did you vacation when you took that route. If you don't mind, I would love to know your itinerary to help me try to guage what I am trying to do..

thanks again...

marym

Actually, we didn't fly into Paris because we thought we were going to spend a few days in London, but plans changed after we bought our tickets. We flew into London and immediately took the channel tunnel train to Paris. Spent 4 nights in Paris and took the train to Montreux. We only spent one night in Montreux. Switzerland was put in because my parents wanted to see as many different places as possible. This was their first European trip. We then took the train from Montreux to Venice where we spent 4 nights, then train to Florence for 2 nights, train to Rome 3 nights and flew out of Rome.

If I could do it over again, I would take a day off of Venice and add it to Montreux and maybe even a few more days to see other towns around there. We were gone a total of 16 days.

the 16 day included the day lost while in flight and the travel day home.

Thank you *SO MUCH* sandi!

It really helps to see itineraries that have worked and to hear what people enjoyed and what they would do differently...

Our plans are finally beginning to take shape! I am so excited!

I posted our new "tentative" itinerary under "Our Italy trip plans are finally beginning to take shape!!!

We too have 16 days total minus our travel days... leaving us 14 days to play...

It will be a lot to do but it will be quite an adventure.

My Dad asked if they can tag along...

*yikes!!!!*

We just returned from a 12 day trip on an Alaskan cruise and land Tour in early July that we took them on. We planned that whole trip with their disabilities in mind... oi! We even had to rent those motorized scooters for them...

As if we are not at our wits end already in our attempts to make this enjoyable!

ANYWAY!!! Sorry Dad... not this trip...

I think we have them hooked and right now, I am not sure if that is good or bad...

No... I know it is good. I just have to have my boundaries in place when necessary.

thanks again sandi... I am getting really excited.

marym

Go to raileurope website and you can type in point to point and it will tell you how long it takes by train. You can also go to mapquest or websites like that and also do a point to point for car trip. I actually printed out an itineray from this when we drove around France. Add on about 1/2 drive to your destinations because of traffic/missed road signs/ect. Also don't forget to figure in the time you will spend at an airport getting there/checking in ect. vs how long the speed trains take. You can do alot of time comparisons if you figure out your routes and then compare using the websites mentioned above.

If this is your first trip back to Europe, I honestly think it would be best if you and your husband went on your own. Your friends who are celebrating their wedding anniversary will undoubtedly have a travel agenda that is completely unrelated to yours. And now with parents with disabilities coming into the mix, you've got three sets of different agendas. AND you're looking to cover a LOT of ground in a relatively short period. No wonder you're overwhelmed - I would be too!

I would seriously reconsider your plans. As a practical matter, consider an open-jaw ticket so you don't have to loop back to Paris.

thank you both for taking the time to respond...

Parents with disabilities will not be traveling with us... not this trip anyway.

We continue to map out our plans using the sites that have been mentioned. I can't seem to figure out the speed trains though. I keep getting the reg. times for travel.

Will have to keep chipping away...

thanks again... marym64

marym64, let me know if I can help in any way. I have a trip report that I can email you too...whatever you need.

Why not spend a day or two meeting your friends for dinner and some sightseeing in Paris, and then split up and go separate way. I think your interest in following the path of your personal history should determine the course of your trip, beyond the first few days in Paris. You shouldn't have to give up any part of this very special focus in order to accommodate your friends' interest in taking a more standard taste-of-Europe trip, and unless your friends are very unusual, they probably wouldn't want to follow the very personal itenerary that you will need to plan in order to revist your roots and trace the path of your escape. If they are flying home the same day from Paris, you can meet again for dinner the last night and cshare stories about your very different trips.

thanks all...

I have considered all that everyone has suggested and am taking bits and pieces from everywhere on this site and on slow travel.

Now we just need to make reservations and figure out which train pass will work best for us.

Sandi, I would love to read your trip report. You can email it to [email protected].

thanks in advance!
marym