Visits to europe
 

Hi, my girlfriend and i will be travelling from seoul to amsterdam for stopover before starting our europe tours. this is my chance to make a marriage proposal to her and make her really happy during this trip.

we have 1 month to complete our tour starting from 1st april - 31 april 2012.
this is our itinerary to accomplish, plse advice us of our best routes possible. we prefer to be free n easy, and comfortable and open to suggestion to travel whether by car, train or cruise and flight jus to get from one place to the next destination. as long as can get the best scenery, food n wine, new discoveries, memorable experiences etc..

upon arrival to europe, we wish to accomplish as follow:
1. classics/vintage car tours - tuscany, rome, florence, siena etc...between 10-14days (plse suggest which operator will be best for this tour, to include car rental- preferred cars: cobra, MG, aston martin, alfa spider and or modern sports car. farm stay or family operation hotel with good food and warmness. shall we start car ride from milan or from florence. this is crucial as i have to decide before departing from seoul.
2. visit venice - we are prepared to stay 5days 4 nights. any suggestions on how and where to further explore to some interesting island?
3. after venice, we have plans to visit france-paris, switzerland and barcelona. plse advice our routes on right options on how to get from one place to another.
lastly, we have to return to amsterdam transit in order to return to seoul, korea by end of april.

Hope to hear from yr feedback and suggestion as we are set to travel and require to book all the necessary hotels inadvance. can u also include the romantic hotels/cottages for our trip throughout all the abv destination.
cheers & thank You... wait for yr reply..
Illya

hope to get yr advice as soon as possible ..yr comments will be essential for my early booking of my air ticket.. thanks again!!

r routes on right options on how to get from one place to another.>

Well IMO take the fabulous train system - much like the TGVs you have in Korea - at least South Korea - and with that much travel consider some kind of railpass - anyway here are some fantastic IMO sites to help plan a European rail extravaganza and understand the system, etc. - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com - download the latter's free online (and superb IMO) European Planning & Rail Guide for suggested itineraries in each country. Bon Voyage and good luck on your nuptials!

It is now nearly the middle of March so is quite late to be planning such a complicated trip.

You want to spend 2 to 2.5 weeks in Italy. That leaves you about 2 weeks for Switzerland, Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam. That is a LOT of travel.

What all have you already booked - if anything?

"30 days hath September,
April, June and November" . . . .

So you will have from April 1 -
30

Have you looked at the cost of renting such special vehicles? Most agencies don;t rent them and the ones that do charge very high premiums. You also need to look at yuor insurance options - since that is al typcially very expensive - and they are not covere4d by credit card or personal car isnurance.


After that , how to get from one place to another - train or flights depedns on your specific itineraries - including our limited time and budget. And you really need to organize yuor entire itinerary - including hotel reservations - before leaving home - unless you have unlimited funds - and can spend 500 euros per night and up for places that may be available?

Cruises make no sense for your trip - since they are slow as molasses and cover very limited itineraries - which don;t seem to match yuor materials.

1. sorry can't help with car tours
2. Venice is small and easy to see by just wandering around on foot. I like www.lacalcina.com hotel Pick up a Venice-specific guidebook and a street/canal map of the city.
3. IMO you have too many places in this short amount of time at the end

I honestly think you should be making all of these arrangements with a travel agency given the close proximity of your trip. Best of luck.

To organise your trip in Venice maybe contact this person who write this blog:
http://livingveniceblog.com/
She helps to arrange those special things. Obviously there will be a charge for her to organise that something for you..

If you can afford the 10,000 euro security deposit on the luxury car, this may be the tour company you are looking for:

http://www.red-travel.com/uk/italia-...tion/index.htm

Otherwise, skip the expense of a fancy car rental. Most the time, it's just not worth it.

I don't think 2 weeks is too short for Switzerland, Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam. April is really not an optimal month for Switzerland, so you might consider a scenic train ride en route to Paris.

Rather than start in Italy, consider starting in Barcelona and flying to Rome. That way you can leave Italy from the north, head up to Paris via Switzerland by train, and then go from Paris to Amsterdam.

Use low cost Ryan Air to visit all these countries in Europe, it might prove quicker and cheaper. In April you should get good prices. It would be too stressful to use trains if you want to visit all places, otherwise maybe you can hire a car to visit some countries you mentioned.