Trip Report - Travelnuts' Europe trip - We are back!
 

Hello Everyone,

The "Travelnuts" are back from our European trip! We are so grateful for the advice we received from All of you! With your help, we had an AMAZING time! Here's what we actually did:

- We flew to Geneva on July 18, arrived in the early morning of the 19th. Customs/luggage was extremely efficient and quick at the Geneva airport. The train station was only a few steps away, where we waited only an hour and got on the train to Milan, Italy. Upgraded our tickets to first class, a very nice ride (but we were mostly still asleep).
We stayed in a wonderful 2 bedroom, new apartment on Corso Como (Corso Como 11) in Milan for 3 nights. Spent the day and the next day in Milan (our son loved going to the top of the Duomo di Milano, got "skip the line" tickets, very smooth and easy entry to the church, too). On the next day we visited Lake Como. We took the train to Varenna (got 1st class tickets) and then took the ferry to Bellagio. We enjoyed walking around the restaurants and travelled the same day back to Milan in the evening (got back at 11pm).

After spending three enjoyable days in Milan and Lake Como (July 19-22), we took the Frecciarossa high speed train from Milan to Venice (got 1st class tickets), where we stayed for the next 3 days, (July 22-25). Our amazing one bedroom apartment (Residenza Ducato) was only a 5 minute walk from St. Mark's Square.They also helped us arrange a private water taxi for the three days, which really helped us maximize our time in Venice, as we didn't have to take public transportation. Attended a Sunday Mass at St. Mark's, which was an amazing experience, toured the Basilica and the museum, took an evening gondola ride and just walked around, enjoyed the beautiful parks and restaurants.

After spending three days in Venice, we rented a car and drove to Rovinj, Croatia (only a 3.5 hour drive). Amazing, scenic, easy drive, stopped in a couple of gorgeous beach towns in Slovenia (Lucija and Umag). We spent the next 4 days in Rovinj and took day trips to visit some other towns (like Pula, with its amazing Roman arena) on the Istrian peninsula (July 25-29).
If you visit Rovinj, you must stay at the Boutique Residence Arion. It's a small, family operated bed and breakfast, with an amazing restaurant (Il Farro) downstairs (free breakfast). We stayed in their new top floor 2 bedroom penthouse suite, which had a huge, amazing outdoor patio with a jacuzzi. The BEST VIEW we ever experienced during our travels! Just breathtaking! We loved walking around Rovinj! An amazing, unspoiled, real Croatian town with such friendly Croatian people!

After 4 amazing days, we drove back to Italy, stopped in Trieste and headed to the Lake Garda area. We stayed in Lazise for the next few days (July 29-August 1). The hotel, again, was amazing! We stayed at the Palazzo Della Scala in one of their new luxury, 2 bedroom suites. What a fantastic breakfast, a must try (free breakfast)! We spent the three days driving around Lake Garda and visiting several towns (loved Bardolino, Garda, Sirmione).

After three fantastic days "on the lake". We drove from Lazise to Verona (an amazing walk and short tour) and we also had time to stop by Brescia (went to the top of the castle) on our way to catch the evening train from Milan to Geneva on Aug 1. We stayed at the new Geneva Marriott in a 2 bedroom suite for the next two nights (Aug 1-Aug 2,) and took time to check out the Large Hadron Collider CERN. We didn't really care for Geneva, so we took an Uber and spent the rest of our last day in the lovely French town of Annecy.

A cherry on top, we upgraded our seats to United Polaris business class on the way home, which made our 8 hr trip back to the US extremely comfortable.

The car rental from Venice and return to Milan was through Enterprise. Very efficient pick up and drop off, Volvo SUV performed very well. We got lucky with the weather, which was lovely, not too hot, with some awesome storms...

When we came home, we all concluded that this was THE BEST vacation we ever had and our son was very pleased to add 5 new countries to his "portfolio"!

We are so grateful for you! Thank you All for your helpful advice and guidance!

Okay, this sounds like a fabulous idea! Can you share more details about the private water taxi?

Our hotel manager arranged the private water taxi for us at the hotel. Just ask your hotel if they can do that for you. They connected us with the gentleman, we were communicating through WhatsApp.

Nice report . . . (and thanks for the ¶ breaks ;) helps a lot)

Added Trip Report flag

Headed to Croatia on September 17th
Your TR was so interesting, especially Venice and your private water taxi, next on our list.

Any photos? They are very easy to do on this Fodors site.

In Venice a 'Private taxi' is a . . . . taxi :)

The Residenza Ducato looks lovely -- its about a 5 minute walk from where I stayed my last time in Venice.

The views from Boutique Residence Arion look absolutely amazing

Seems a super nice itinerary after your first plans

amazing, thanks for the feedback

Thank you for the nice trip report. It looks like a really fun and interesting trip. I'm glad you had an amazing vacation.

Excellent! Did you have the same gentleman all three days? I am really going to check into this. Thanks!

Wonderful trip report! You aced the plan! And I love how you managed to visit 5 countries in one trip! Very cool.

Sounds like an amazing and well planned trip. I love the idea of the private water taxi-sounds like a James Bond film in the making.