StCirq

Well, sassafrass, no one ever accused me of not being direct

It's just a badly planned trip, no doubt about it.

Sassafrass

True. You are direct and that is a compliment. Also, a good lesson!
Don't beat around the bush so much that my advice is taken only as a suggestion.

Mimar

< If the international departure flight is delayed, that is one thing, but if it goes and you have been delayed somewhere before then, you are stuck. >

In fact you will have to buy new tickets, exorbitantly priced last minute ones. For the next flight that has seats. Meanwhile you'll have to pay for a hotel room for extra nights.

Another thing to consider when moving to each new destination is the time to find your way to your hotel and around town. It's harder to get oriented when it's dark 15 or 16 hours out of every day.

angel1

Thank you all! Just consider, we 4 are, me, my husband, my son and my daughter-in-law. All adults. We enjoy doing rush travels and being in any city more than 3 days is boring for us. I have done such a trip earlier with easyjet flights and it went all well. I speak good German. We got dirt cheap return flight Mumbai-Brussels, with above itinerary. Actually I tried to get return flight from Rome or even Athens, but was expensive. Even return flights from Paris were costlier than the one which I got. My challenge here is to have best connections with lowest travel costs. In terms of Rupee, Euro is too expensive for us, and considering Christmas time, the prices would go up. Hence I would like to take advantage of advance time, so that we enjoy being in Europe on two big occasions i.e. Christmas and New Year. Once Itinerary is finalised, I would do hotels bookings in advance and then all set to travel the great part of the world. Do give your suggestions on where to be on New Year, Rome or Venice. It will definitely help.

Sassafrass

So your flights are actually arriving and departing from Brussels?
They are Mumbai to Brussels and Brussels to Mumbai? Is that correct?

Before, it looked like your flights arrived in Paris and departed from Amsterdam. That is not correct then?

Sorry that it is still not absolutely clear to me. I must be missing something. Exact date, time and airport would be helpful.

bilboburgler

Rome

angel1

Ticket is Mumbai to Brussels and back.
Deep Mumbai to cdg Paris and then train to Brussels.
Return is again train from Brussels to Amsterdam and then onward flight to Mumbai.
The train travel we can skip.

angel1

Ticket is Mumbai to Brussels and back.
Deep Mumbai to cdg Paris and then train to Brussels.
Return is again train from Brussels to Amsterdam and then onward flight to Mumbai.
The train travel we can skip. It was complimentary.

Sassafrass

Well then, definitely skip the trains beginning and end. Waste of time and makes absolutely no sense unless you were visiting Brussels or other towns nearby.

It is very strange they would add on a train to Brussels if you had no intention of spending time there.

Now, for certainty, the itinerary I gave you is good and is what I, personally, would do to see a bit of Italy.

Forget night trains. Forget another place like Munich.

The fact is Paris and Amsterdam are both set. If you want to do something else in between, fine, but no more than two cities or towns. You could also do one bigger town/city with perhaps a day trip.

Possibilities
Stick with Venice and Rome, or Rome first followed by Venice, depending on flights.
Fly from Paris to Barcelona (Barcelona and a day trip) and on to Amsterdam.
Train to London and on to Amsterdam.
Munich and a few days in Germany. Spend the whole time there.
Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, etc.) You would use your train tickets then.
Tour of the Netherlands - many beautiful and charming towns very near Amsterdam.

angel1

How about:
23,24,25 Paris
26 Paris Barcelona Evening flight
26,27,28 Barcelona
28 Barcelona - Naples Evening flight - Train from Naples to Rome.
28 night reach Rome.
29, 30 in Rome
30 Night train to Venice
31, 1 Stay at Venice
2 Eve. flight to Amsterdam
3 in Amsterdam
4 Departure to Mumbai

Sassafrass

No. You are adding another place again. Barcelona was instead of Rome and Venice, not in addition to them, or with Rome, but cutting out Venice.

If you left Paris on the evening of the 26th, you can't then count it as Barcelona.

A flight from Barcelona to Naples, then a train to Rome? That would be several hours travel time. Hotel in Barcelona to airport, time through security, flight, taxi or bus to train station in Naples, train to Rome, taxi to hotel in Rome - crazy. If you were doing Barcelona and Rome, you would want to fly directly to Rome and skip Venice.

Venice is not far enough from Rome to justify a night train, just no point. Take the fast train instead.

OK, end of my advice.

suze

There's a "night train" between Rome and Venice? I thought it was only about a 5 hour train ride?

PalenQ

Yes there is a night train Rome to Venice - lv Rome about 10:30pm, arrive Venice 5:30 am or so - so not very convenient because of early arrival time.

Those night trains stop everywhere so are slower than day trains - but in this case I'd suggest the day train - no great scenery but you do see typical Italian countryside.

Kathie

You just can't resist adding another destination, even though we have all told you it's a bad idea.

Working from the most recent itinerary you have posted I have made some changes to make it more realistic:

arrive Brussels, train to Paris same day (I'm not sure if this is the 22 or 23)
24,25,26 Paris
27 Paris Rome Evening flight
28,29,30 Rome/Naples
30 Night train to Venice
31,1,2 Stay at Venice
3 flight to Brussels
4 Departure to Mumbai

Sassafrass

Kathie, I think it has been so crazy with the extra train travel that it wasn't clear.
The OP finally clarified it.
The OP is not arriving or departing from Brussels.

His flights from/to Mumbai are actually arriving into Paris and departing from Amsterdam. He has to start in Paris and he has to go to Amsterdam at the end.

Brussels came into the picture because somehow his agent included "free?" train tickets "from" Paris "to" Brussels at the beginning of the trip, and "from" Brussels "to" Amsterdam at the end. Unless the OP is visiting Belgium, those tickets are useless. Since they are part of the package, however, I hope if the first one is not used, it doesn't negate the rest of the tickets.

A night train arriving in the early morning darkness in winter, way to early to check into a hotel, is not a good plan. Rather than arrive in Venice so early on a night train, catch an early morning, super fast train that takes 3 hours and 7 minutes to Venice, or the next fastest, 3 hours and 45 minutes.

PalenQ

Yup getting into Venice on a night train at 5:30 am - what do you do - sleep on a station bench? I suppose the station caffe opens early so you could have breakfast but I guess you could throw your bags in the left luggage there and start exploring - NOT.

Kathie

Sassafrass, thanks for the correction. I was responding to
"Ticket is Mumbai to Brussels and back.
Deep Mumbai to cdg Paris and then train to Brussels.
Return is again train from Brussels to Amsterdam and then onward flight to Mumbai."

Only by re-reading the whole thread again did I finally "get" the "free" rail tickets.

One piece of advice - I wouldn't use that travel agent again!

StCirq

Glad you guys figured it out. I lost the trail at "Deep Mumbai..." I did understand the "complimentary" train tickets, but I do have to wonder if that's even real. Never heard of a travel agent being able to manage that (without jacking up the overall price of the trip of course).

Maybe all the recent internet exposure will get back to these Indian travel agents who make a total hash out of traveling in Europe. There seem to be so many.

Michael

<i>Only by re-reading the whole thread again did I finally "get" the "free" rail tickets.</i>

That was included in the original posting. That's why, according to the OP's wish list, the trip to Brussels at the beginning did not make sense.

annhig

just joining in to see how this one pans out.