Plane or Train?
 

I'm in the process of planning a Europe trip for the month of June with two sisters. We're on a tight budget, and so far the itinerary goes like this: Paris, Venice, Rome, Siena, Florence, Cinqe Terre, Barcelona, (Switzerland?), Amsterdam, then back to Paris to fly home. We plan on taking the train for short distances (between cities in Italy, for example), but we'd like to fly for the longer trips. I've found some cheap flights on whichbudget.com and airlines like easyjet, and was wondering if anyone has experience with flying Europe's budget airlines and has any suggestions? We noticed that they have some pretty tight weight requirements for checked luggage, but we'll be packing light so this should be okay.
Also, I'm wondering what is the best/cheapest way to get from Amsterdam to Paris? And how is Switzerland in June? I've heard that a lot of towns are shut down at this time of year, any suggestions?

"We noticed that they have some pretty tight weight requirements for checked luggage"

Actually they are pretty typical of all airlines -including full cost ones - outside the US

The budget airlines work fine, and are among the most on-time airlines on the continent. Just don't make changes or miss your flight or anything. Also, the earlier you can be to the airport, the better the seat you'll get (but as long as you get there within the checkin window, you'll get a seat, and it doesn't matter that much as short as many of the flights are, though you won't be together if you're in one of the later groups). And make sure you're under the weight limits, or the charges are very high.

Amsterdam to Paris is probably best done by train, purchased ahead of time to get the best fare (esp. from Brussels, where it's Thalys only).

Just wondering, why are you going from Venice to Rome, then backtracking to Florence? It'd save travel time to do Florence first, unless there's some other reason.

The weight allowances do vary significantly from airline to airline, but alan is right that they're not massively lower than full-fare flights. And if you need more than the 50-some pounds that ryanair allows, you're packing too heavy.

Last time I looked, Ryanair's checked luggage limit was 15 Kg per person and that translates to 33 pounds..not 50; Easyjet's is 20 Kg or 44 pounds..and yes, they are VERY strict for the most part.

We've had excellent service from EasyJet in the past but be aware that as stated above, the check-in times are STRICTLY enforced.

In my experience, nothing is "shut down" in June in Switzerland.

15 checked, plus 10 carryon, translates to slightly over 50 pounds combined.

15 checked, plus 10 carryon, translates to slightly over 50 pounds combined for Ryanair. Easyjet doesn't have a max carryon (within reason), so if you've got any small, dense objects, that's where to put them (so long as you can still lift the bag).

Thanks for the info, I'm really not so concerned about the weight requirements because I agree that if we each have more than 50 pounds of luggage we will be packing too heavy. About the itinerary in Italy, we wanted to go to Venice first because we found some cheap flights from Paris to Venice, and then it made sense to just take the train all the way to Rome and go North from there to Florence and North again to Cinqe Terre. We also want to have some cities between Venice and Cinqe Terre because those are both going to be more relaxing (we are staying at a really nice campsite near Venice, and Cinqe Terre is supposed to be very chill) as compared to Rome and Florence, which might be a bit more fast-paced.

Switzerland is June is gorgeous. I don't know what would be shut down. Maybe some of the ski villages?

On a tight budget I would modify your itinerary. 9 places in 30 days will be expensive simply because of all the transportation.

Have you already purchased your plane tickets to Paris. If not, it would be easier if you booked into Amsterdam and out of Rome (open jaw) to avoid backtracking on the ground

Unfortunately, we have already purchased our tickets round-trip to Paris. We're traveling from Montreal, and this was by far the cheapest ticket we could find (we tried looking for open-jawed tickets first).

Hi eva,

How important is Barcelona? It is something of an outlier.

Venice, Florence, Rome and the CT make a good 14-16 day trip. Add 7 days in Paris and some time in Amsterdam for a very nice visit.

Keep in mind that you lose at least 1/2 day each time you change locations.

Have a nice visit.

((I))