KellyEve

(Long post, sorry!)
So, I've read a few posts and seen what amazing responses all these other travelers have received so I figured I would give this a shot. What can I lose?

Basically I've been attempting to plan my summer for the past month and I've been running myself in circles because I cannot figure out where exactly to go, in what order and how long to stay for. If anyone could give me a bit of guidance, I would appreciate it more than words could say.

So, the deal is we want to come into Paris and leave from Paris (because round trip is cheaper then individual flights). Our trip is going to run between June 1st and June 29th.

Here are the places we insist on seeing: Paris, Juan Les Pins, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam.
In 4 weeks, I'm sure we'll have time for more places but picking that last place or two is a tough one. (Help!)

Please help us figure out the order of our trip and how long to plant our butts in each place.

I think the order of the vacation has been my hardest endeavour and hopefully you all can let me in on how this should work. Honestly, I'm pretty bad with maps and what makes sense in the end.

Hope to hear all your great suggestions! Thanks!

kybourbon

If you haven't booked tickets yet, don't discount flying into one city and out of another(called open jaw) even if it's a few dollars more. That will probably cost less than transportation to get back to Paris. Look at www.whichbudget.com or www.skyscanner.net for cheap flights between your cities in Europe.

Dukey

"Bad" with maps or not you need to look at one and also decide:

how you plan to travel between each place

between Rome and Venice the train is probably the best option

which city seems (right now) to be the most exciting and do you want to look forward to that and save it for last?

Open jaw tickets often do not cost any more than a R/T to/from the same airport.

Lexma90

I second (or third or fourth) the suggestion that you get open-jaws tickets. It could save you money and will save you time to not have to return to your starting point.

Also, get some sort of Europe map. If you're bad at maps, this trip will give you a chance to improve your map skills - really, it's a skill you'll need your entire life (think about how lame it sounds to say, at the tender age of 18, "I'm pretty bad at maps&quot. You can also check out a Europe guidebook from your public library; it will have a map in it (and it's free). It will also give you ideas for destinations and timeframes.

Because the weather, generally, will become warmer the later in June it gets, I would suggest starting at your southern-most destination (that would be Rome) and working your way toward your northernmost destination (Amsterdam). So with the destinations you have so far, you would visit Rome, Venice, Juan les Pins, Paris, then Amsterdam.

In terms of amount of time to spend in each place, think about what you like to do. If you're big-city people, and love the hustle, bustle and noise of big cities, then plan more time in those locations (which is most of what you've said are "must-sees&quot. Do you like history, culture, art, or some of both? (I.e., if you're into ancient history, definitely spend more time in Rome.) If you like beautiful scenary and country life, then include time outside the cities.

Also consider transportation. Will you be taking the train everywhere, or are low-cost carriers another option? I don't know if 18-year-olds can rent cars (and being able to drive a stick shift is another variable).

One way to plan such a nice, long chunk of time is to break it into blocks; mentally, it's more manageable that way. For example, you could say "week 1 will be in Italy, week 2 will be in France, week 3 in the Netherlands." Another thing I do to help plan my days is to create a one-page calendar of the days I'll be on my trip. Then start pencilling in possibilities.

Have fun planning and on your trip!

Hans

Open Jaw might be better but if Paris as arrival and departure is fixed, you could so something as this:

Paris, spend a limited time there, fast train down to Nice (possible stop Aix-en-Provence), then a short train ride to Juan Les Pins. From there train to Rome, a stop in Tuscany in between (for example Florence and Sienna) and then again north to Venice. The fastest train ride from Venice to Amsterdam is via Munich and then up Germany with possible stops as Heidelberg, Strasbourg or Cologne. Train ride from Amsterdam to Paris.

An alternative is going from Paris to Amsterdam and then taking a flight to Rome. If you book early, you might get a cheap flight ( I made a very short search and found one for 200 Euro at that time). From Rome you could go up north to Venice, spend some time in between in Northern Italy and then cross over to France to Juan Les Pins, then back north to Paris.

You can look up rail connections for example on www.bahn.de, the German railway website. But it doesn’t provide prices for train rides out of Germany. If you think about flying, book early. There exist some amazing deals if you do it early enough. Since it takes away flexibility, I’d put them at the beginning or the end of you schedule. Since you’re flying in and out of Paris, I’d spend little time there at the beginning and then you can still decide during travel how many days more you want to be there before flying home.

Anyway, don’t plan to do too much. I always ended up with wanting to spend a few more days at some location or deciding to go for something I just heard about during travel. So if you think that you might have a day or two left in your planning, just leaver it like that, something will certainly come up.

bktport

OK, decide what type of things you want to do. Your young, have a good time. Keep in mind that travel between places takes time. Check out Ryan Air (www.ryanair.com), EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) and German Wings (www.germanwings.com) as alternatives to the train and car. However with these airlines plan on spending at least an overnight at each stop. Changing planes is not easy or encouraged; in fact, it is discouraged.

WTnow

First I think it is great you are going and planning!! The more you plan and the less you try to jam in the easier it will be. I would not add any more and would stay a week at least in each city.

( You can take day trips from city bases like Giverny by train easily but will not have to pack and unpack so much).

You will have to get better at maps or you will never get around in Paris or Rome etc as they are HUGE cities that are not that easy unless you get your bearings.

I would get a subway map of Paris before you go and study it well so you are ready to go when you get there.

I missed so much on my first trip to Paris alone around your age, so I hope this helps. Also learn some phrases in French and Italian as you will need them already set along with a phrase book.

Everyone speaks English in Holland ,so that is easier ( altho it is nice to know a few words out of respect...like hello ,thank you ,please in Dutch).

Have fun! Good luck!

Nikki

To see whether you can find an open jaw flight that works for you, compare all sorts of options on www.kayak.com. You can check the prices to fly into one city and out of the city that is farthest from it, or into and out of any combination of cities on your list.

For flights between cities in Europe, as mentioned previously, check www.whichbudget.com. It is frequently less expensive to fly than to take the train.

If you add London, then you have many options for low cost flights to cities all over Europe, or you could take the Eurostar train through the channel tunnel from London to Paris.

For other suggestions of the places to add, have you could considered Swtizerland? Prague? Vienna? Barcelona? The French countryside between Paris and Juan les Pins? All sorts of possibilities.

gard

Hi

Well, I have not traveled around in Europe much in one go but I would imagine that using the train would be a good option. But I have been to some of the places that you are going to visit and maybe by trip reports can help. My wife and I went to Paris in April last year and you can find the trip report on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com/Paris_France.htm . I have also made an interactive Google map of the city and I have pointed out some of the places of interest http://gardkarlsen.com/paris_france_map.htm . Click on the markers for more information. We also went to Rome in the summer of 2005 and you can read more about the trip here: http://gardkarlsen.com/rome_italy.htm . And I have also made a map of that city: http://gardkarlsen.com/rome_italy_map.htm .

What about visiting Norway? Well, I guess it depends what you are looking for but the western fjord are beautiful in June. You can still have snow on the mountain tops while the trees in the valleys are in full blossom

Get in touch if you have any questions.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Sue_xx_yy

Take a look at tour company brochures - no, not because you need to go the tour route but because the itineraries can help get you started.

As others have stressed, Open-jaw airfare is the way to go. Example: fly into Amsterdam, train to Paris, thence Juan-les-Pins, work your way over to Venice, and then down to Rome, from which you fly out.

ira

Hi K,

Paris, Venice, Rome and Amsterdam are good ideas, as are Florence, London and a few others.

What is it that draws you to Juan Les Pins that you would want to travel for 10 hr by train from Rome or 5:30 from Paris to see it?

From Rome to Venice take the train: www.trenitalia.com

I suggest a few nights in Florence as well.

From Venice to Paris fly www.myair.com from VCE to ORY.

From Paris to Amsterdam take the train: www.voyages-sncf.com. The hi speed THALYS runs between Paris and Brussels. From B, take the cheaper, regular train to Amsterdam, as the THALYS is not high-speed on that part of the route.

You might want to do 2 nights in Brugge on the way.

If you spend 5 nights in Rome, 4 in Florence (daytrip to Siena, maybe 1 to Bologna), 3 in Venice, 6 in Paris, and 5 in Amsterdam you will have 4 nights for Brugge and Brussels.

I don't think that you will need a railpass, but you can enter your itinerary at www.railsaver.com and click "only if it saves money" to check.

Also see: Helpful Information: Italy 2
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34568596

Paris Superthread
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34519236

100 Great Things to Do in Paris
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...mp;tid=1277898

Degas’s Paris Walks
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34712768

Enjoy your visit.

ripit

On a fairly long trip like this, it is a good idea to mix in some smaller towns that are low on "sights" but high on atmosphere in between the big "must-see" cities. I would also strongly recommend flying open jaws and liberal use of over night trains to maximize efficiency. Given your plan, I'd fly into Amsterdam and out of Rome. If for any reason you can't fly open jaws, don't worry too much, just try to end up in a city that you can connect to your departure city by cheap flight (e.g. Easyjet) or overnight train.

Here is a possible itinerary:

1-Jun Fly to Amsterdam
2-Jun Amsterdam
3-Jun Amsterdam
4-Jun Amsterdam
5-Jun Brugges
6-Jun Brugges
7-Jun Paris
8-Jun Paris
9-Jun Paris
10-Jun Paris - Overnight train to Nice
11-Jun Nice
12-Jun Juan-les-Pins
13-Jun Juan-les-Pins
14-Jun Juan-les-Pins
15-Jun Cinque Terre
16-Jun Cinque Terre
17-Jun Florence or Siena
18-Jun Florence or Siena
19-Jun Florence or Siena
20-Jun Venice
21-Jun Venice
22-Jun Venice
23-Jun Venice - Overnight train to Rome
24-Jun Rome
25-Jun Rome
26-Jun Rome
27-Jun Rome
28-Jun Rome
29-Jun Fly home from Rome

chris_artisans

Come to Malta, 2 or three days and you will discover a new place not often tought about.

nytraveler

It is NOT more expensive to fly ina nd out of different cities - it is 1/2 the price of each city. Now - 1/2 of Rome is more than 1/2 of Paris - but then you don;t have to pay to get back to Paris.

Besides the standard issue of trying to cover too much territory - assuming you want the places listed I would fly into Amsterdam and out of Rome. (You are listing only major cities, no counryside and missing the bulk of natural beauty - all of the Alpine countries).

You can then easily train between the various cities - since if you do them all in a logical order none is more than aoubt a 6 hour trip from any other.

By the way - why Juan les Pins - rather than one of the larger cities - from which travle is easier?

So:

Land Amsterdam (3 days)
Train to Paris (a few hours) (6 days including travel to)
Train to Riviera (longer train ride) (5 days including travel to)
train to Venice (4 days including travel to)
Train to Rome (6 days including travel to)

And you've used 24 days - so can make another stop (Florence?) and still not be too hectic.

Very simple - all you need to figure out is what day trips to take from each place.

suze

You need to rethink the plane ticket. I don't think you understand - it is not "individual flights" you need. As everyone is saying, it's an "open jaw" ticket. They are not usually any more than a same city RT. It means into one city and out of a different one.

Fly into Amsterdam, train to Paris, overnight train (or fly) to Venice, train to Rome. Fly home from Rome. Fit Juan Les Pins in there somewhere (sorry I don't know anything about it or even the location). That's about right for a 1 month trip imo. You don't need to add any more places.

I'm not sure what you mean "bad with maps"... just look at one and see where the cities you want to visit are. Put a dot on each & connect the dots! Seriously.

Happy planning!!