Please review our itinerary
 

Here is our revised travel plans for next May. Please let us know what you think. Thank you for your input and suggestions!

Day One: Arrive in Zurich from the US at 8:40am
Train to St. Moritz
Train Ride: 3 ½ - 4 hours
(or town within a short (30 minutes or less) train ride to St. Moritz)
Relax in the town that we stay in.

Day Two: Take the Glacier Express from St. Moritz to Zermatt
Arrive in Zermatt around 16:52

Depart Zermatt at 19:13 and arrive in Bologna at 01:24
**OR**
Stay the night in Zermatt and depart the next morning for Bologna

Day Three:
Day in Bologna

Day Four:
Day trip from Bologna to San Marino
Train ride: 1 – 1 ½ hours

Day Five:
Depart Bologna
Arrive in Cinque Terre (specific city TBD)
Train Ride: 3 ½ - 4 ½ hours
Explore Cinque Terre City

Day Six:
Day in Cinque Terre region

Day Seven:
Morning in Cinque Terre
Depart Cinque Terre in the early afternoon
Arrive in Rome
Train ride: 3-4 hours

Day Eight:
Day in Rome

Day Nine:
Day in Rome

Day Ten:
Day trip to Naples
Train Ride: 1 ½ hours

Day Eleven:
Morning in Rome
Depart Rome in afternoon
Arrive in Ancona
Train Ride: 3-4 hours

Overnight ferry from Ancona to Split

Day Twelve:
Arrive in Split
Bus ride to Dubrovnik
Afternoon and evening in Dubrovnik

Day Thirteen:
Day in Dubrovnik

Day Fourteen:
Day in Dubrovnik

Day Fifteen:
Depart Dubrovnik (at 06:25)
Fly to Zagreb (arrive in Zagreb at 07:20)
Train to Ljubljana
Train Ride: 2 – 2 ½ hours
Afternoon and evening in Ljubljana

Day Sixteen:
Day Trip to Bled

Day Seventeen:
Day in Ljubljana area

Day Eighteen:
Fly from Ljubljana back to the US

A day trip of 3-4 hours normally leaves you very little time to go around. To enjoy our trips, we should not get stuck in one train after another without enjoying each destination. Example under the proposed trip plan U R going to St Moritz - a wonderful destination - and are hardly staying over for few hours and same with Zermatt. A few observations:
1.Probably U need to adjust your first few days, rest is could be ok
2.Not making much use of Switzerland’s scenic places!
3.Instead of Zermatt why not take the trip to Central Switzerland area like Grindelwald, Luceren, etc – if U can spare a week?

You have a lot of short stays and a lot of moving around. In addition to the train travel time you need to factor in time to get to and from the stations on each end of the trip which could be an additional hour travel time. There is additional time to pack and unpack and to acclimate yourselves to a new place.

You're devoting the same amount of time to Dubrovnik as to Rome. While the old town of Dubrovnik is great, it's also tiny. You can walk from one end to the other in 10 minutes. Rome is a huge city offering so much history and culture.

Unless there's something specific you want to see in Naples I would forgo the day trip to spend more time in Rome.

Concentrate on a smaller area and probably leave Croatia and Slovenia for another trip.

I won't make suggestions as to which part to skip, but I completely agree that you should postpone part of this itinerary to another year so that you really see what you visit. You didn't say whether you've already been to Rome; if you already know it like the back of your hand, and just want to see two sights that you missed so far, you'll be fine with two days - otherwise, I agree with adrienne that's a pathetic timeframe for this planet's richest city as far as art and architecture.
What strikes me further is that with just two (maximum 2.5) days in Bologna, which is not that much, you want to make a day trip to - San Marino? San Marino is funny because it's such a tiny and old republic; but as a sight, it's kind of a middle ages disneyland. I could hardly believe that the medieval buildings there are original - they were so hopelessly overrestored that I could have bet they were 19th or early 20th century fakes. If you really want to daytrip from Bologna, and really want to see a medieval town, I suggest you go to S. Leo instead, that's a great sight.
The third and fourth problem that I noticed is that you use both Ancona and Split as ferry harbours only. That's a pity even for Ancona, but totally incomprehensible for Split. While Dubrovnik is definitely great, Split is even greater, and Croatia's very best sight IMO.

I agree with all of the above advice. A couple of suggestions: Skip the day trip to Naples and save Naples for a trip to the Amalfi Coast at another time. Skip San Marino. Add the two days to Rome. Focus your last few days in either Croatia or Slovenia so you can get a real taste of whichever you choose. Your trip is presently just a little unfocussed and a little rushed. Have a great time.

@ yildy - We are just going to tose cities o be able to ride the Glacier Express. We have no interest in St. Moritz other than the GE departs from there. Have you taken the GE before? Is it nice?

Do you think the rest of the trip looks okay?

@ Adrienne

Thanks for the thoughts on Dub. We are debating about the length of time there. Thanks

@ Franco
We have a short list of things to see/do in Rome. Thanks for the thoughts.

Also, we are looking into some time in Split. Thanks for the ideas.

I have to agree that this is really two 18-day trips. You are barely going to see half the destinations you have on your list. And you won't really have any sense of what those places are like.

I also think you will get very tired of packing up every other day and wasting 4 to 6 hours moving to someplace else.

Agree with "too much in too little time." You might want to consider slowing down some.

@europe2011... Everyone on these forums crows about how you should only visit 2-3 places on a 18 day trip. Uh, not necessarily. If you and whoever you have the stamina for visiting 6-7 places in 18 days. Go for it. This is your trip to Europe, and sometimes you want to maximize the sightseeing and exposure as opportunities to travel in Europe don't always present themselves. Croatia and Slovenia are beautiful places and will provide a nice foil to Italy and Switzerland. My only suggestion would be perhaps forgoing Naples and staying in Rome or doing a day trip to Ostia Antica (spelling?) the ancient port of Rome on the Mediterranean. As I said earlier, I would spend more time in Split (to relax--it's a resort town!!) and maybe a little less in Dubrovnik. As one of the other comments said, the historic, walled old town of Dubrovnik is pretty tiny! Have fun!