My friend and I purchased a France & Italy Rail pass, as we plan to travel from Paris to Venice, then Florence, and Rome. Another friend of mine suggested breaking up the Paris-Venice train trip with a day or two in Nice. She suggested that a day or two unwinding from London and Paris would be useful before going to the Italian "Big 3". We would have to cut a day off of the 5 days we planned for Paris and I was wondering if anyone else would suggest doing this. Thanks!

I haven't visited Nice so I can't comment there but I'd suggest relaxing on the train, sleeping when you return from your great holiday, and don't cut a day from either Paris or Venice. Both cities are very special. Enjoy!

Please don't cut a day from either Paris or your Italy stops to visit Nice. Nice is nice but not worth a stop when it means cutting other destinations short. You can relax on the train as Linda suggests.

Aren't you spending over $300 per person on train travel (or over $260 if you are both under age 26) - - when you add the pass plus the Eurostar, plus the "shipping and handling"?

I would have thought that less than half that amount would suffice to "connect the dots" by flying from London to Italy, travel A->B->C by train (fares as low as 15 euro on each of these two segments), and then back to Paris. Even with taxes and shuttle buses, the Ryanair fares would be in the general range of $50-65 each (at their lowest, admittedly - - depends on whether you could find dates that work for you). London to Venice (Treviso) or rome are both available on sale right now for a base fare of only 1.99 GBP (with taxes, comes to about 16 GBP or $30 USD).

Is it too late to "un-do" the purchase of that rail pass?

I fear that you will take this information as an attempt to make you feel bad about your rail pass decision, but it seems equally important to advise other prospective travelers reading this that there are (almost always) lower cost options to a rail pass.

Best wishes,

Rex

Rex,

I totally understand that you are just giving advice and are not attempting to make me feel bad Thanks for the concern though.

We actually haven't bought the passes yet but have been swayed by many posts that the train is the best way to go. We want to take the Chunnel from London to Paris because it is the first time to Europe for both of us. We had considered flying from Paris to Venice but it just seemed like the inconveniences outweighed the benefits (i.e baggage weight restrictions, airports far from the city centers, etc.) The price wasn't that appealing in the long run either. The analysis yoonie did in her post way rather convincing: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34564458

Also, our departing flight leaves from Rome, so we figured we would just take the train N to S. What do you think?

Hi as,

Before you buy a rail pass, check your itinerary at www.railsaver.com.

Click "only if it saves money".

You have a flight HOME from Rome? I thought I read on an earlier post that you could NOT find an open jaw that was affordable, and thus planned to fly from Rome back to London?

Is your air travel already purchased?

If you factor in an overnight train as eliminating a hotel, then the arguments start falling in different ways. It's not a choice I would ever make - - despite my saying that the analysis for the specific route Paris-Venice was indeed pretty favorable.

I say that the travel can be done cheaper and more comfortably by putting Italy in the middle, and flying open jaw XXX-LON/PAR-XXX.

But perhaps I don't understand all your factors.

I did look at railsaver.com and entered in all of our destinations. For "only if saves me money", they suggested buying a youth Chunnel ticket for $60 and a youth France-Italy pass for $199. Both prices were in USD, and S/H is free to the US.

As for the flight, when we originally began looking, flights in and out of London were the most affordable. A few weeks later, we found an American Air flight into London and out of Rome for a few dollars less. (Sorry I didn't update that post.) We figured this would be more convenient and would prevent any backtracking.

While we know the overnight train won't be the most comfortable option, we have been pretty lucky finding hotel deals so we figured we'd "suck it up" for the night Our biggest issue is time because we only have three weeks. (Not that I'm complaining about that. I have a really nice boss!) I guess it seems like Nice isn't worth losing a Paris day. Thanks!