Hi there, I would like some guidance from the travel gurus.
I am from South East Asia and thus, my knowledge on Europe travel is kinda limited.

I am planning for my honeymoon to Europe estimating to be 3 weeks trip. Its our 1st trip to Europe and we would like to make it a romantic & memorable one.

Places that i am reviewing are:-
Rome - Venice - Amsterdam - London - Paris.

Kindly advise if these are the best routes and how much would travelling cost be. Train or flight is acceptable.

Pls feel free to suggest, i am open to any new ideas.

when? What time of year?

Either Sept09 or Jan10

Try not to go in January - you will freeze to death because a lot of hotels and most restaurants in Rome and Venice don't have central heating - I've been there, suffered through it!

For your flights to and from Europe, you should try to get an open jaw ticket, which means you would fly into one city, for example, Rome, and back home from your last city, for example Paris or London. That way you do not have to waste time getting back to your starting point. The fare for an open jaw ticket should be similar to the fare for a round trip ticket to one city.

Between Rome and Venice, the train is best. Between London and Paris, the eurostar train is best because it goes from the center of one city to the center of the other, without having the time and expense of getting to the airports. Best to buy tickets early for the least expensive fares.

For budget flights within Europe, to see which budget airlines fly between particular cities, check www.whichbudget.com.

> you will freeze to death because a lot of hotels and most restaurants in Rome and Venice don't have central heating ..

Really??? Very curious about that. That's not my experience. I would even say you are either joking or in the minority. In case you are serious, how many such cases in those cities?

I have to say that if this was me, I'd be very tempted to do Amsterdam-Paris-Venice-Rome, and I'd go in September. I would fly to Amsterdam, fly to Paris, take the overnight train to Venice, and take the train to Rome.

I'd spend 4 days Amsterdam, 7 days Paris, 4 days Venice and 6 days Rome. Some of those days you will simply lose to travel, but I don't think that's an exhausting pace.

Usually I wouldn't recommend covering that much ground, but since you are flying such a long distance, it might be worth it.

I think zeppole's itinerary above is an excellent suggestion. You would see plenty but not rush around. I like the combination of flights, overnight and day trains. And I think skipping London is a good idea to allow more time in the other four cities.

I agree that that itinerary would be lovely and relaxing, BUT, if London is a "must-do" city for you, I could see reversing it -- fly into Rome and out of London, and do:
4 days Rome (train to Venice), 3 days Venice (overnight train to Paris), 5 days Paris (fly to Amsterdam), 3 days Amsterdam (fly to London), 6 days London.

hi sylvia,

first of all, forget January - unless you want to spend the whole of your time under the duvet - just keeping warm, you understand.

september wouold be a great time to visit all the places you mention, but as it's a honeymoon, I would start with Venice - there are few more romantic places. you could then work your way [roughly] west, ending in either amsterdam or London.

also, you should consider some down-time at a resort-type place, so that you have a chance for your culture-soaked brains to recover.

putting it all together, my trip for you looks like this:

4 nights in Venice
5 nights in Rome
3 nights in Nice
5 nights in Paris
4 nights in London.

with the exception of Rome to Nice, you should definitely get the train - so much more romantic than flying, and you get to see where you are going, so it's still part of the trip.

alternatively fly to amsterdam from Rome and thence to Paris. but the beaches in Nice would be very nice and very different to everything else you would be seeing and doing.

congrats and good luck,

regards, ann

Thanks a lot for those suggestions..... it helps a lot in my plannin.....cheers

Lots of sense above. Trains as suggested. I would also look at flying into Amsterdam from Rome or Venice (may good price). I guess you know there are various airports in most cities so for example London has Stansted as well as Heathrow (plus at least 3 others) which may give you access toother cities at good prices. Loads of low cost airlines to help but also some going bust at the moment. Ryanair, easyjet, jet2com unlikely to go in IMO plus whatever KLM and the big german company is passing off as a low cost contender.

Books, well I always recommend Rough Guide as they fit my style. You need to get the city ones rather than the country ones. So the Europe Rough guide will be a waste of time this trip but one each of the cities planned are a must. A good alternative is the timeout brand which tends towards the club scene a bit more and less on the museums.

Keeping the price down is always interesting, smaller private hotels are often the best way and can be in some of the most interesting (and safe places) so I might surf the logis (non)-chain in Paris for example though others would go all out for the George V (friends of mine just id the honeymoon of Paris and Venice and did the GV and said it was amazing (saw the bill, it was)

Is Nice strongly recommended? i would definitely love some romantic time? Other than Sept, what is the best time to travel?

sylvia,

All the places you are reviewing -- except maybe London -- are romantic destinations. Unless you very much want to go to the beach, I think including Nice will mean too much moving around from hotel to hotel.

I would like to suggest that when planning this trip, that you consider spending a week in an apartment in the middle of the trip so that you will have a washing machine. That way, you don't have to carry many, many clothes for such a long trip.

If you plan to come to London, I would not try to use the cheap airlines or airports. It is easy to get to Heathrow and Gatwick, and it is better to pay a little more for a standard airline, especially since you will have to carry a lot of luggage.

Where will you be coming from? Do you know what is the easiest flight for you to take to Europe?

hi again, sylvia,

only you know if you would like the beach and if you want to lose another destination in order to achieve that.

being an advocate of "less is more" I would be inclined to lose London from the itinerary you have, if you wanted to give yourselves longer in each place.

so you could have

4 nights Venice
6 nights Rome [apartment here?]
5 nights Nice
7 nights Paris.

the easiest way to get from Paris to London is on the train - you can even do a day trip if you wanted a taste of London, but would like to base youselves in Paris.

as Zeppole says, the "best" entry airport into europe that you can find may influence your decisions.

decisions, decisions,

regards, ann

No Amsterdam? I think it's such a lovely destination, and gives such a real feel for Europe. Paired with Venice, it makes a wonderful contrast.

Five days in Nice sounds like a long time to me. If getting away from cities or having the beach is important, it might make sense go to the Amalfi, since it doesn't require a plane flight.

Start with the destination furtherest from your home. Your trip back will be the shortest.

I have no idea what it is like to fly from where sylvia is flying from, but I generally look for the shortest flight on my trip over, because I don't like jet lag and I don't want to exhaust myself.

I'd much sooner have a long flight home, where I know I can just collapse if need be.

<<because a lot of hotels and most restaurants in Rome and Venice don't have central heating>>

That's just nuts. It's true you probably don't want to honeymoon in Europe in January if you have another option, but please do ignore this ridiculous statement.

I guess it depends on the individual establishment, but in our travels to Italy in the cooler months we have also encountered some uncomfortably chilly hotel rooms and restaurants. Others have been fine.