Go Back  Fodor's Travel Talk Forums > Destinations > Europe
Reload this Page >

Travel between italy, france, spain, and greece

Travel between italy, france, spain, and greece

Old Sep 7th, 2015, 10:19 AM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Travel between italy, france, spain, and greece

Hey,

My fiancé and I are getting married in February and are thinking about having our honeymoon in Europe. We would probably choose to fly into Madrid because we are flying from Bolivia and it is about 300$ cheaper per ticket to fly into madrid than any other european city I have seen.

Ultimately we would like to see Florence, Venice, Rome, Paris, and possibly one of the Greek islands over the course of 2 weeks. This may be the only time we are able to go to Europe and we would like to take advantage of it. We are looking into using airbnb to find housing but I'm wondering what the best way to travel would be?

I've looked at rail passes but have heard that when traveling in Italy and France that many additional charges can be incurred. Plane tickets seem cheap but additional baggage fees quickly make them more expensive as well. I've also looked into bus passes through eurolines. I was just wondering what would be the recommended way to travel relatively cheaply?

Thanks,
Caleb
Calebpinter is offline  
Old Sep 7th, 2015, 10:28 AM
  #2  
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 1,713
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hi Caleb
Congrats for your wedding.

2 weeks = 14 days, if you go to 5 places, it means
14 days - 2 days of travel in/out - 5*1/2 days of travel from one place to the other.
Makes 10 days on the ground = 2 days per place.
Short but doable.
But if you take buses then you'll simply spend your time travelling.

Look at trains and low cost planes (look at Kayak.com but book directly via airline). Vueling Ryanair or Easyjet would probably be your friends. Pay attention to luggage costs on these airlines.

2 days for Rome or Paris are too few days but will enable you to scratch the surface.
Florence 2 days is ok but you won't do any daytrip.

Have a great time.
pariswat is offline  
Old Sep 7th, 2015, 10:42 AM
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 24,834
Received 4 Likes on 3 Posts
Florence, Venice, Rome and Paris in two weeks would be a fast trip for me, but it's your trip/honeymoon. How much time did you think you'd spend in each city? Can you fly into Rome and out of Paris at the end (or the reverse order)?

I don't think adding a Greek island to a February trip makes sense, mostly based on the travel logistics and time involved, but also because of weather and availability of hotels, restaurants, etc. You need to investigate how you'd travel to/from the island you choose and then see what lodging options you find.

A rail pass in Italy won't save you money. You only need two tickets to travel between the three cities. If you purchase the tickets in advance, you will probably find very inexpensive fares.

There are overnight trains between Venice and Paris that take 14-15 hours. If you want to avoid changing trains during the night and want a compartment with beds, it will probably cost more air fare plus baggage fees. You just need to do some research.
Jean is offline  
Old Sep 7th, 2015, 10:59 AM
  #4  
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,728
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
You can buy cheap budget train tickets if you pre-book 2 or 3 months in advance, direct from the relevant train operators. This would be more relaxing than stressful flights, and far more interesting journeys, and far superior to slumming it in a bus.

For example:

1. Madrid-Barcelona in 2h40 from around €35 at www.renfe.com or www.loco2.com

2. Barcelona-Paris by 200mph double-deck TGV train in 6h15 from €59. It's a great train ride - see the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjuJm9FS0Lw . Flying seems quicker at first, but actually takes 5h of train, airport, flight, airport, train - so saves very little time.

3. Paris-Turin from €29 in 5h40 www.capitainetrain.com - see video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B09t_WJz_mM

4. Turin-Venice or Turin-Florence from €19 at www.trenitalia.com

In all cases you just print your own ticket.
Man_in_seat_61 is offline  
Old Sep 7th, 2015, 11:10 AM
  #5  
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 8,827
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
If you keep up with the news, you should also figure in the flow of refugees passing through the Greek Islands. They'll be coming for months to come.

Frankly, I would stick with Paris (5 nights) and Rome, Florence, and Vinice for the rest of your honeymoon, traveling by train within Italy. You can check the rates for the Italian trains at: www.italiarail.com

The Paris-Rome train will cost from 214€ to 270€/person in 1st class. The fastest train takes a little over 11 hours to make the trip.

Air France has direct flights from Paris to Rome for as little as $77/person in February. The flight takes 2 hours.
Robert2533 is offline  
Old Sep 7th, 2015, 11:15 AM
  #6  
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 72,628
Likes: 0
Received 50 Likes on 7 Posts
Barcelona, Florence, Venice, Rome, Paris, and possibly one of the Greek islands is not a 2 week trip, IF you mean 2 weeks/14 days total. If so you will have only about 11.5 days on the ground in Europe. Then you use another half day or even a FULL day every time you move from city to city. Plus as mentioned - Greek Islands in Feb really is a problem. So assuming 2 weeks and no Greece what you have left is five MAJOR cities and 9 or 10 days of free time to see them.

The more you dash around the less you see really. I'd pick 3 cities and leave it at that. Also I wouldn't fly into Barcelona simply to save money - unless your REALLY want to visit Barcelona. If Barcelona isn't a 'must', you will spend a whole lot more than $300 pp getting to places you'd rather visit and back to Barcelona plus it would be a huge time waster on a short trip.
janisj is offline  
Old Sep 7th, 2015, 11:22 AM
  #7  
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 1,713
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Yup Janis,
I agree with you, but would have disagreed some years ago.
I remember visiting 12 cities in US in one month.
It was a great trip. I was very young.
OP mentioned they know it is rushed but are not sure they can come back soon...
pariswat is offline  
Old Sep 7th, 2015, 11:34 AM
  #8  
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 72,628
Likes: 0
Received 50 Likes on 7 Posts
>>OP mentioned they know it is rushed but are not sure they can come back soon…always say that

Rushed and living on adrenaline is absolutely fine especially when young. BUT does one really want to spend 35% or 40 % of their entire (expensive) trip sitting on/in stations, airports, trains, buses, planes?
janisj is offline  
Old Sep 7th, 2015, 01:24 PM
  #9  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,358
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Venice, Florence, Rome might be 3 to pick for Italy. Fly open jaw into Venice and out of Rome. Or fly Rome/Rome, proceed directly to Florence, 1.5 hours on the train once you get to town [Termini station]. Tickets using one of the machines. Firenze-Venezia and Venezia-Roma you can purchase up to 120 days in advance on the Trenitalia web site. In this plan you have only 2 travel days, which is ideal, the longest journey 3:45. Siena [bus] and Lucca/Pisa [train] are a couple of popular day trips from Florence. Orvieto from Rome, again if you have the time. Verona from Venice.
RonZ is offline  
Old Sep 7th, 2015, 05:26 PM
  #10  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 57,890
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Have you looked at the weather in these places? The Greek Isles (aside from all the political issues) will be empty since it is winter - and not swimming season.

You do realize that you are going in midwinter and will have cold/cool weather - including chilly rain and a possibility of ice/snow in most places?

And agree that you are trying to do too many places in too little time, esp since your outdoor touring is likely to be limited by bad weather. In 2 weeks - and is that 15 nights on the ground or only 13? - you should limit yourself to 4 CITIES, not countries - if you want to have time to actually see anything. Although for a honeymoon at that time of year I would limit it to 3 cities - so as to allow for any delays due to bad weather.
nytraveler is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
anneshan
Europe
12
Oct 11th, 2017 12:06 PM
hcrank5
Europe
17
Oct 27th, 2014 10:20 AM
abcolls
Europe
10
Aug 18th, 2014 07:48 AM
swalia
Europe
25
Jan 23rd, 2012 04:50 AM
angnmatt
Europe
27
Mar 19th, 2004 09:02 AM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -