robertlicuria

Hi everyone

Have been looking into this trip even more, and have come up with the following itinerary - I have a feeling that I'm fitting in too much, so any advice at all is greatly appreciated.

11 June 2005 - Depart Sydney (Australia)

11 June - London and England (one night to stay with relatives outside London)
15 June - Paris (get there by train)
18 June - Florence (by air)
23 June - Cinque Terre (by train)
27 June - Fly back to London, and depart.
28 June - Thailand (Bangkok and Phuket) stopover
3 July - Arrive Sydney

Eagerly awaiting all of your fantastic advice!

nytraveler

Without knowing your interests - and which if any of these places you've been to before - it's hard to make specific recos. With no basis my first thought is - why are you spending more time in Florence than either London or Paris? (I love Florence - but not at the cost of two places I like even more.)

Have you made lists of what your must sees are in each place? Have you allowed enough time to do them? More info from you would help.

rex

Sounds cogent enough to me. More time for the Cinque Terre than most travelers alot.

Best wishes,

Rex

robertlicuria

Thanks for your replies guys.

On second thoughts, nytraveler, you are right, I need to spend more time in Paris and London.

I have been to London, but my wife hasn't, so we are going there first. I have not been to Paris or CT, and we both have been to Florence (and loved it).

My prelim itinerary should probably look like this:

11 June 2005 - Depart Sydney
11 June - Arrive London. 4 nights in London and 2 in England (relatives outside London).
17 June - Train to Paris (Chunnel), 5 nights Paris.
22 June - Fly to Pisa airport, train to Florence. 4 nights Florence (side
trips to San Gimignano, Lucca, etc)
26 June - Train to Cinque Terre, stay 4 nights.
30 June - Train back to Pisa airport, Fly to London and depart.
1 July - Bangkok stopover
3 July - Arrive Sydney


In England, we basically want to get to
- Tower of London
- Westminster Abbey
- Buckingham Palace
- a West End Show
- Portobello Road Markets
- National Gallery
- London Eye
- Globe Theatre
- Stonehenge

In Paris, the usual suspects, including
- Arc de Triomph
- Louvre
- Versailles
- Montmatre
- Sacre-Coeur
- Notre Dame
- shopping spree

In Florence, we missed out on the Uffizi, and want to base oursevles there so we can see San Gimignano and Lucca.

I don't know much about Cinque Terre, but have always wanted to go there. We would probably stay in Manarola, or even out of the CT in Levanto. Another option is to stop by the CT on the way to Monaco, and then fly to London from there (as opposed to going back to Pisa airport).

Our budget is moderate, and we have limited time, hence that's why we are trying to fit in as much as possible.

How long do most people stay in the CT? Am I spending too much time there?

Is there somewhere else that I'm perhaps not aware of that I should try to see in substitution for the CT?

rex

The seemingly obvious omission is Venice.

robertlicuria

rex - yeah, you are right - however, I've been there twice already, my wife and I spent quite some time there in 2002, so we thought we would give it a miss this time.

May I also say, anyone reading this thread, we also spent some time in Verona, and it ended up being one of our favourite places.

ira

Hi Robert,

Much better, but I think that 4 nights in the CT is 2 too many.

I would add 1 night to Paris and one to Florence. (or 2 to Paris)

robertlicuria

Thanks Ira (love your trip reports BTW!). I guess that besides relaxing, there's not much more to do in the CT besides the hikes and the strolling (in comparison to Paris, etc).

Some questions:

Would you go from Florence to CT, and then go back to Pisa airport and fly out, or would you go to CT, then move on to say Monaco or somewhere, and fly to London.

The question everybody asks: where to stay? Not so much hotels, but what town? In the CT or maybe in Levanto (so we can get to Portofino).

Can we realistically stay in Florence and make day trips to Lucca and San Gimingano and get a feel for Tuscany? Last time, we stayed in Florence and caught a SITA bus to Siena, and missed most of the countryside (we were so dead tired, we fell asleep on the bus to get some rest).

Do we need to pre-book our train travel from London to Paris, Pisa to Florence, Florence to CT and CT to wherever we are going to fly out to London?

Is mid to late June a good time to travel in Paris and Italy?

If we stay in Paris 7 days, will that be sufficient to also include some day trips, say to Versailles?

Getting from Paris to Pisa - what is the absolute best way, including transfers?

Another much-asked question - roller luggae or backpacks? Last time, we took hand-me-down backpacks, and my wife really struggled with hers (way too big).

OK, that about does it for now! I'm sure I'll think of more, but I don't want to bombard you all.

This forum ROCKS!!!