Where to go after Venice Italy?
 

Hello,

My husband and I are planning our first trip to Europe. We've got our tickets and land in Rome on 2nd April 2016 and depart for home (Sydney, Australia) from Paris 23rd April 2016. We have 3 full weeks to spend in Europe and am undecided on our itinerary. We decided we would travel anticlockwise from Italy and wind up in Paris for our departure back home.

This is our current plan
3.5 days in Rome (0.5 day lost to travelling to Florence)
2.5 days in Florence (0.5 day lost to travelling to Venice)
1.5 days in Venice ((0.5 day lost to travelling to London)
3.5 days in London (0.5 day lost to travelling to Barcelona)
3.5 days in Barcelona (0.5 day lost to travelling to Paris)
3.5 days in Paris (travel back home).

Does this sound like a logical itinerary?

Does anyone have any suggestions on improvements I could make?
Unfortunately I can't make changes to flying into Rome and flying out of Paris, but I can change any destinations in between.

Any feedback is most appreciated! Thank you in advance.

Semi logical -- but not a good plan IMO.

You are traveling all over hell and gone w/ very little time in some really MAJOR cities.

You have 21 days and want to spend more than 4 days in transit leaving just 17 days for 6 destinations. (some of those moves will eat up nearly a full day)

I'd drop at least Barcelona and divide those 4 'extra' days between Venice, London and Paris. One to Venice, 2 to London, 1 to Paris and take the Eurostar from London to Paris.

Congrats on getting the tickets and your first trip to Europe, I'm sure you'll have a great time.

I agree with Janis, I'd think about dropping Barcelona and spend a little more time in the other destinations. Can you tell us about what you want to get from the trip? Some people like a fast pace and the possibility of seeing as much as possible. What has drawn you to these destinations, what excites you about Europe? Are you someone who loves cities and crowds because this is all cities?

In a way it's difficult to give any authoritative advice because place hit everyone differently, for example I love Rome but there's was a long thread here recently from someone who didn't get out of the tourist chaos and hated it. on the other hand I'm not crazy about Florence but my husband can see through the crowds and likes it.

I think you're going at a good time of year, before the full season gets going but hopefully you'll still get some decent weather.But do bear in mind it can still be quite cold in London and Paris in April, though you could of course run in to decent weather too. The only thing that's guaranteed is that it's not predictable, as I'm sure you know!

Here are some suggestions from my blog

Travel resources/suggestions for Rome -
http://www.somuchmoretosee.com/2014/...-for-rome.html

I've also written a Top Ten Recommendations for Paris post but right now Fodor's isn't letting my post another link ;( you can find it on the blog if you use the search function there.

Hope this helps.

Your plan seems logical on the surface, but timing may not be as precise as you think.

The days you have flights, Venice to London, London to Barcelona, etc. depending on which airports and airlines used, may take more than a half day. Even an extra hour of so makes a difference on what you can do on arrival in the new city.

You are coming a long way. Your arrival day in Rome will probably be lost to jet-lag. At least, do not count on doing any heavy duty sightseeing that day.

Three weeks is a long time. You can have your hotels do laundry or you will probably need a couple of hours at some point to do it yourself.

Consider dropping Barcelona and looking at adding time to other cities and doing day trips to nearby sights if you find you are finished with seeing a city. There are great possibilities everywhere you go.

Hello,

Thank you for such quick replies.
After discussing with my husband we have decided that we will take out london (husband was keen on seeing the british museum only) and barcelona (we were initially planning on seeing a football game).

We plan on keeping the itinerary(rome, florence, venice and paris) above but adding an extra day in venice and paris and choosing just 1 destination with the 5 days we will have in between.

we do want to see the alps so we might go to the dolomites or fly to munich to see the bavarian alps.

Thank you for your replies and putting things in perspective for us.

Hi

if you would like to see alps, you should take at least 1 entire week for skying there! I strongly suggest not to add this extra location to your trip...
consider that you probably need also to rent a car to go to Dolomites or Bavarian alps...

Congrats on your first trip to Europe - prepare to be mesmerised and awed, and be prepared to overlook small little glitches that happen to everybody. After all, it is not a perfect world.

My instinctive reaction after reading your post was:

1. Cut out Barcelona and London - save it for future trips.

2. Focus on 4 destinations from within 1, or maximum 2 countries. This way, you come back fully satisfied that you did not rush through the cities and have clearer memories of the beautiful vacation time rather than airports and train stations. You don't want to be that person who needs a vacation after a vacation!

I spent a week in Rome and found it to be inadequate. I can easily go back and spend another week and then I could probably say I am done barely touching the major attractions. Similarly, Paris for 4-5 days and barely scratched the surface. Another 2 weeks and I can say I have done some justice as a Paris beginner. I was in Florence for 5 full days and felt reasonably pleased with myself for giving it 5 days. Could have done with 2-3 days more though. I spent 3-4 days in Venice and wish I could have spent 2 days more atleast. But then again, everybody's travel style, pace of adapting to new place, rate of absorption of new data, navigating new geographies is different. I prefer to have faith that I will get to travel again in Europe and will keep seeing a new country every time I visit.

I think a visit to the Alps or Dolomites in mid-April would be disappointing. There will likely be dirty snow and mud in the towns, and many things like high-altitude resorts and lifts could be closed. Weather could be iffy.

But I would try to fit some time in the Italian or French countryside into this trip. All big cities for three solid weeks would be too much traffic and crowds for me.

A good plan now. Wasting precious time traveling within a trip, not good.

I agree w/ Jean -- April isn't really 'Alps season'.

Tuscany or Provence would maybe fit better.

Hello everyone,

After discussing with my husband we decided to go with janisj's suggestion (the only exception being that we've chosen to go to Barcelona instead of London).

Updated Itinerary
3.5 days in Rome (0.5 day lost to travelling to Florence)
2.5 days in Florence (0.5 day lost to travelling to Venice)
2.5 days in Venice ((0.5 day lost to travelling to London)
4.5 days in Barcelona (0.5 day lost to travelling to Paris)
4.5 days in Paris (travel back home).

Thank you very much for informing us about things we haven't considered (such as doing laundry and not the best time to go to the Alps etc).

Most appreciated and have a great day everyone!