Blueeyedcod

The motor home is a BAD idea. Yes gas/petrol may be similar costs to Australia (it's slightly higher in Australia) but the tolls are astronomical. I've driven Sydney to Melbourne and there are not tolls, except in the cities. In Europe there are tolls everywhere - probably because the roads are better but anyway - you would need to factor in that huge expense.

It is easy to do your trip on trains. Italy has high speed rail - something Australia lacks - and the trains are efficient and run on time.

dreamon

I also think that travelling independently in Italy would give you a lot more flexibility than a tour. I returned last night from a month in Europe and it reminded me that each time you transfer from one location to another, it can take the best part of the day by the time you pack up, checkout, travel, find your hotel, etc., even for a relatively short journey time of a couple of hours. For that reason (and many others) I suggest that you limit yourself to, say, 3 or 4 places in 13 days, choosing places that have good transport links to allow you to do day trips. For day trips you can easily leave at dawn and return at midnight should you really wish - not that I'm suggesting that but being luggage free and having a base means you can take all day.

Given your desires and 13 days, I suggest flying to Rome for a couple of nights, then Amalfi or Sorrento coast (4 nights), somewhere in Tuscany e.g. Siena or Umbria e.g. Spello (4 nights), Venice or Vicenza (4 nights). These are all places well on the tourist trail where language will not be a problem for you. And each offers a plethora of day trip possibilities. It can be a long journey from Amalfi coast to Tuscany but not difficult. Easily reversed if you want to fly into Venice.

For lots more information about travelling in Italy, decide your itinerary and come back for the practical stuff on catching trains, hotels, etc. Booking.com is a good start for accommodation and trenitalia.com for trains.

For London, I would stay near St Pancras or Euston station (if that's where Eurostar comes in??). We stayed in an apartment nearby in Bloomsbury last time in London and it was very convenient to most tourist sights.

One last point: my recent trip reminded me that I need to travel lighter. I do try but this time didn't do as well as previous trips and regretted it. I had about 15kg all up leaving home and a little more returning - too much. I definitely find that two small bags per person (preferably one being a day pack on my back) is infinitely better than a single larger bag.

hetismij2

Motorhomes use diesel as I said upthread, and diesel is generally cheaper than petrol.
Many villages, towns and cities actually have special parking areas for motorhomes, close to the centre, or near public transport into the centre.
Motorhomes are no bigger than the vans used to deliver stuff in towns and cities and villages. Vans get around just fine, and so do motorhomes.
There is a motorhome parking in Paris, with disabled facilities.
If you still want to go the motorhome route have a look at campercontact.com. It has a great many, but by no means all, campsites and campervan parks in Europe.
As I also said France Passion enables you to stay in some unexpected places for little or no money.
There is an equivalent in Italy but I can't recall the name at the moment.
In France you can also wildcamp with permission from the landowner.
Don't be put off the idea by people who have no experience of driving or staying in a motorhome in Europe.

Sassafrass

The Amalfi Coast is really enjoyable in warm weather. In fact, in all of Italy, being able to sit outside to relax and soak up the ambience adds considerably to your experience. Because of that, I might brave the chilly weather in Scotland to have the best weather I could get in Italy.

Sorrento is a great base for seeing Pompeii, Herculanium, and taking ferries to places on the AC, Positano, Amalfi, Etc. Lots more to see on the AC and nice place to relax some.

I would then put Sorrento after Tuscany and before Rome.

If you could get a good flight from Scotland to Venice, this would be a pretty perfect itinerary.

Arrive in Paris, (maybe a bit rainy, but beautiful in April)
Train to London
Fly or train to Scotland
Fly to Venice
Train to Tuscany
Train to Sorrento
Train to Rome
Home from Rome
That would give you a bit warmer weather in Scotland and still put Sorrento closer to the end of the trip.

If that did not work, then this itinerary would.
Arrive in Scotland
London. Train or fly from Scotland
Paris, train from London
Venice, fly from Paris
Tuscany, train from Venice
Sorrento, train from Tuscany
Rome, train from Sorrento
Rome, depart for home

That is four stops or bases in Italy in 13 days - a bit rushed, but not too bad.

dreamon

I agree with Sassafrass that warmer weather in Italy would be good, especially if travelling in April. And somehow being cold fits my image of Scotland anyway. I guess I think of outdoor terraces in Italy and warm cosy pubs in Scotland.

tom_mn

Sounds like a great trip and the special needs and language issues won't be dealbreakers. I watched a French family with a special needs child about the same ages as you guys in Boston once with no big issues.

There are three ways to take a big trip:

1. Go with a tour. This requires almost no planning (well, you have to pack and fuss about which restaurants to eat at for your on-your-own meals) and you are guaranteed that you will visit the sites advertised and with a guide for some commentary. Tradeoff: money for convenience

2. Go independently without extensive planning. You figure out where you are going to stay, the local transportation options, opening hours, general town layout, etc. after you arrive. Issue here is you will see fewer sights then on a tour because so much of your day is spent on logistics, and picking up train tickets and rental cars at the spur of the moment will cost a lot more (like up to three times as much) than if planned out months in advance. Tradeoff: See fewer things but pay less than a tour

3. Go independently with extensive planning. Be prepared for hundreds of hours trying to line up lodging in convenient locations and sussing out the transportation types and where to pick them up and creating an itinerary that matches the scope of a tour. You will have to match up opening times so that you avoid too much down time or that the site you want most to see is closed the day that you planned to go there. Tradeoff: Pre-trip planning time for seeing a lot of sights similar to a tour but at far less cost.

Based on previous trips you probably already know what kind of method is best for you.

bilboburgler

" I would love to stay in Sorento and spend some time around the Almalfe Coast, and a visit to Pompeii , I love old building and churches not reall arty type , would like to see the Vatican , colosseum, and all that type of things .. Pisa, Assis , Florence oh and Tuscany !!! ( hope it is like the movie "under the Tuscan sun) !! Venice that is a must to have a Gondola serenade ,"

So lets play with the 13 days.

Old buildings, churches, but not really arty type. Of the places you have mentioned Florence has a lot of art, but also some great old buildings. I'd think a fair bit before I dropped Florence, but, lets just say you do and you start in Rome, ending in Venice, then you could do

1) Rome 4 nights (assumes first day is getting out in the sunshine (to Naples is about 2 hours by train but there is a fair bit to do in Naples)
2) Naples/Pompeii 1 night (I don't like doing one day stops but it makes it more comfortable if fast (takes about 7 hours to get to Siena from Naples by train)
3) Pisa/Lucca/Siena (Tuscany) say one base 3 nights but use the train to get around. Florence could stand in for Siena but too arty. (Siena to Assisi is 4 hours by train)
4) Assisi 2 nights (this is the tricky one to get to) (long trip to Venice and it takes you via Florence)
5) Venice 3 nights (or two if that is what works out)

Certainly that would be a good distribution of time but Assisi is an outlier on the train system. Anyone with bus idea? For me I'd drop Assisi and add the times to Tuscany and Venice. You could do Naples as a day trip from Rome and it would work in April because the heat will be fine on the Volcano side. Depends on how you guys work as a family.

In terms of the Autohome in France, I still think it is not a silly idea, just a financial analysis.

Blueeyedcod

<<Motorhomes use diesel as I said upthread, and diesel is generally cheaper than petrol.
Many villages, towns and cities actually have special parking areas for motorhomes, close to the centre, or near public transport into the centre.>>


The issue of the tolls is still a big one - and they are huge.

As for the 'special parking areas for motor homes'...really? Can't for the life of me think of one of these special places on the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, Naples or Rome.

And sure...delivery vans drive around these areas but they have permits to enter ZTL zones - a motor home doesn't have that luxury.

It's not helpful to the OP to make statements like this unless you back it up with specific information. A motor home would be a massive mistake.

Dukey1

OK, then how about defining "huge" in terms of those tolls.

Blueeyedcod

Driving from Florence to Naples - around 70 euro in tolls. I call that huge - maybe you don't. Sigh. Really...the OP is Australian and they are used to driving on non-toll roads and long distances. Motor homes are popular there especially with tourists. She needs to understand the pitfalls of such an option in Europe.
In any case, the OP said they are no longer considering this so the discussion ends here.

Gretchen

I haven't read all this but I hope your 13 day tour of Italy is of your own making.
Ditch the motor home. why drive all that way and waste time you could be spending somewhere delicious--like Provence, before you hit Paris.

Debbiesydney

Thanks again , yeh I think I will ditch the motorhome idea, I am waiting one quote for the 3 of us to do the tour , depending on the cost the next step will be following the ideas that all you lovely people have given me , then I will start the research and start planning , I think we will do Glasgow first then London then Paris then head to Italy and fly out of Rome or Venice , that's today's idea !!! Lol I really appreciate your thoughts it has really helped ... Cheers Deb

bvlenci

Italians are big fans of traveling with campers, and almost any small town that hopes to attract tourists has at least one camper parking area (area sosta camper), often run by the town government and free to use. These will be more or less furnished with necessities. Some have only water and a deposit for the waste water. Others have also shade and electricity. There will not often be an attendant on site.

In areas where there's a large tourist presence, there are private campgrounds and private camper parking areas, which have fees for parking and using the facilities, which can be quite elaborate. These private facilities will have attendants. In larger cities also, the camper areas tend to be privately run, and may be on the periphery. In small towns they're usually within easy walking distance of the center.

My husband and I don't use a camper, but we have friends and relatives who do. I just did a search for "area sosta camper Sorrento" and found immediately two places that were highly recommended on the Italian camper forum http://forum.camperonline.it/

I'm sure the same would be true for almost any town in Italy.

You wouldn't want to drive a camper on the Amalfi Coast, though. It's difficult enough for a small car, and the parking would be a nightmare. You'd want to stay near a bus or ferry stop and get around by public transportation.

Most towns and cities have limited traffic zones (ZTL) in the center, so you couldn't drive a camper in the center of those towns anyway. It's true that delivery vans go into the centers of towns; they're exempt from the traffic limits. However, it's not always easy going. Often delivery vans arrive in the center of the town where I live (which has no daytime ZTL), get to a certain point where the road narrows, and can't go any further. Then the police arrive, make a detour, temporarily change the direction of the one-way streets, and supervise the backing out and turning around of the unfortunate van.

janisj

>>I am waiting one quote for the 3 of us to do the tour ,<<


Please please reconsider. You say your daughter has an intellectual disability. Is traveling w/ her similar to traveling w/ a child? If so -- tours are NOT a good idea. Whether her mental age is 5yo or 15 yo -- tours are geared to adults, and while not exclusively, predominately older adults. Children really don't fit in the regimentation required on most tours.

Sassafrass

Almost all tours, if you spend the same money, you can put together a better tour for yourself.

One thing is hotels. On a very high end tour, you will stay at some nice, large hotels. On regular tours, location may be fine (often it is not), but any hotels that accommodate tour groups is usually not as nice as what you can do on your own. Small hotels that do not take tour groups are, at least, more interesting, and often charming.

Consider also, that on a tour, some of your meals will be hotel dinners. You can always find more interesting restaurants.

In general, you can save money doing a tour yourself and have a better experience.

Gretchen

I'm not clear if you are doing a tour tour of Italy for 13 days or doing it yourself.
We would ALL say--do it yourself for many reasons, but you also have 3 people to pay for at tour rates. And your child is a consideration.
If you have chosen "13 days" because it is a tour, you might line it out and see if you can add days to Paris, for instance, with some day trips from there.
If you have chosen the 13 days because of greater interest in Italy, then that is fine--but still do it yourself.

tom_mn

If planning everything in advance is too much, an in-between choice would be to stay in one place for several days and then book day long tours, maybe every other day. You could also adjust to tours shorter than a full day if the full day tours aren't working out.

annhig

given you are travelling in April, so long as you can avoid Easter [the week before and the week after] you could start off in Rome, then go to Sorrento, then Florence [trains from Naples to Florence bypass Rome so you wouldn't be backtracking] Venice, train through the alps to Paris, then Glasgow.

or reverse it to put Glasgow first if you prefer.

We have friends who travel all over Europe in their camper van, but they are very experienced in driving in Europe and finding camp sites etc.

for a first trip, [and if you don't go on that very expensive tour, you'll be able to afford to come back!] I'd suggest not using a motorhome, rather the trains which will mean that you can all have a rest while you travel from one place to another. OTOH, if you did decide on the camper, it would be cheaper if you picked it up in Sorrento and dropped it in Venice. it's the one-way hire across borders which is usually the most expensive.