2 Months- your thoughts? =)

[Langers]

Hi all,

I've been lurking on these boards for the past year and dreaming of Europe through everyone else's posts.. but now it's time to start planning a trip for myself (and hubby, of course).. ;D

We were thinking of going in mid April next year, starting out in Rome, to make the most of the warmer weather first...

Please let me know whether or not this is too ambitious or not.. and what I should change.. I know that there's probably a better route in the middle somewhere.. Thanks in advance!!

Lang


6 Rome
3 Florence
3 Cinque Terre (day trip to Pisa)
3 Interlaken
2 Lucern
4 Paris
4 London (including one night in Bath)
2 Brugges
3 Amsterdam
4 Berlin
3 Prague
3 Vienna (day trip to Bratislava?)
2 Salzburg
3 Bled/Ljubljana
3 Munich
2 Innsbruck
3 Venice

[me]

looks good, at 1st glance. only question i can think of: are you sure a day trip to Pisa from CT is the way to go? as i recall, Florence is much closer.

oh, one other, Venice is so compact, while Tyrol is more spread out. so, Innsbruck prolly needs more time than Venice.

- d

[pointofnoreturn]

Looks great - I'd actually take one day from Berlin and add it to London because London is fricking huge and spread out over a large distance.

Use the daytrip to Pisa from Florence. It's much closer therefore more convenient.

I assume you're flying open jaw into Rome and out of Florence, right?

[me]

btw, Lang,

how are you planing to get about? i'd suggest a mix: trains, planes, maybe even coaches/buses in places.

the areas on your list are densely populated and offer great public transport connections. a car would not be a good idea, imho.

if you'd planned rail passes, take a look at www.railsaver.com for advice.

- d

[herrbert]

Like PONR already suggest, it would be wise to add a day to London, especialy if you want to spend one day on a daytrip to Bath, But I would try to find some extra days. I would not spend a day less in Berlin, as everything in Berlin is spread out, you need your time there. Also I would suggest adding another day to Vienna, (and even two if you want a daytrip to Bratislava).

Also I would juggle a little bit with the order of the the trip. Is it necessary to go to Italy twice? You also want to make a stop in Bled, which is really out of the way (at least in this initerary). Also by going to Munich after that it would mean going back to where you came from.

I would go like this:
Rome
Florence
Venice
Cinque Terre
Interlaken
Lucern
Innsbruck
Munich
Salzburg
Bled/Ljubljana
Vienna
Prague
Berlin
Amsterdam
Brugges
Paris
London

If you want to have the advantage of warmer weather then I would opt for a start date a few weeks later (early May), so you have the advantage to be able to do some hiking in the mountains.

[Langers]

Hi all,

Thank you for all your comments and suggestions.. I have taken some of them on board and added a day here and there.. I'm a little bit flexible at this stage as I haven't booked my tickets and have accrued about 10 weeks leave, also means that I haven't been on a proper holiday for over 2 years, So am definitely looking forward to this one..

As for transportation, I was thinking of getting a 10 day, 2 month rail pass, and then adding a flight or two in for the longer legs..

Oh, and I definitely don't want to miss Bled, I've heard really great things about it.. ;D

So using Herrbert's suggested itinerary, how does this look?

6 Rome
3 Florence (day trip to Pisa)
3 Venice
3 Cinque Terre
3 Interlaken/Gimmelwald
2 Lucern
3 Innsbruck
3 Munich
2 Salzburg
3 Bled/Ljubljana
3 Vienna
3 Prague
4 Berlin
3 Amsterdam
2 Brugges
4 Paris
5 London (including one night in Bath)

Lang

[me]

the plan, as suggested by René (Herrbert), to visit Venice between Florence and Cinque Terre baffles me.

is there some logic here that just eludes me?

- d

[Langers]

Actually, I was thinking of that too.. would it be better off starting in Venice and then going to Rome, Florence, CT etc??

[me]

i thought you were planning to fly from Australia to Rome for the start of your trip. do you have other options?

- d

langers said:

Actually, I was thinking of that too.. would it be better off starting in Venice and then going to Rome, Florence, CT etc??

[Langers]

I just checked the flights online, and whether I stop in Rome or Venice, it doesn't really matter too much, the cost (ex. tax) is the same.. the flights go via Zurich.. I guess I just need to confirm it when I actually go and book..

[me]

if you have the option to do so, it might be best to start your trip in an inexpensive location. why pay big bucks for the time needed to recover from jetlag?

- d

[herrbert]

me said:

the plan, as suggested by René (Herrbert), to visit Venice between Florence and Cinque Terre baffles me.

is there some logic here that just eludes me?

- d

The only logical thing is ... that I made a small mistake. ;D

I originaly came up with a Vienna - Bled - Venice route. (with a possible stop in Triest) But I couldn't get it to work, so I think Venice got stuck somewhere it didn't belong.

[Langers]

Just another thought, is it worth flying into Rome, spending a week there, then flying to Venice before starting on the rest of the journey.. eg, Venice to Florence to CT to Interlaken etc?

[me]

a train takes just 4½ hours, and much of it's beautiful scenery.

with security in Ciampino and transport from Treviso to Venice, you probably won't save much time. as cheap as trains in Italy are, you most likely won't save that much cash, either.

will the limited time/money saved make it worth it to go through what's described as really bad Ryanair customer service? [i've never flown Ryanair, mostly due to those horror stories]

langers said:

Just another thought, is it worth flying into Rome, spending a week there, then flying to Venice before starting on the rest of the journey.. eg, Venice to Florence to CT to Interlaken etc?

[Langers]

Thank you once again for all your suggestions.. it has been great help!

The revised plan would be something like:

Fly into Rome and spend 6 nights there..
3 Venice (via train)
3 Florence (via train - is it best to use a regional train for this?)
3 Cinque Terre (via train - regional train?)
3 Interlaken/Gimmewald (via train)
2 Lucerne (bus or train?)
3 Innsbruck (via train)
3 Munich (via train)
2 Salzburg (via train)
3 Bled/Ljubljana (via train)
3 Vienna (overnight train?)
3 Prague (via train)
4 Berlin (train)
3 Amsterdam (overnight train or fly)
2 Brugges (train)
4 Paris (train or bus?)
5 London (chunnel or fly)

I've also been looking at railsaver.com and bahn.de for travel times, looks like hubby may want to invest in a ds lite or ipod..

Is it also best to buy the passes that railsaver has suggested (eg. 10 day/5 country + p-2-p tix), rather than getting something like a 15 day/2 month pass? How does it work for non-eurorail countries, do you have to get off at a certain stop, and then take another train to that destination?

Many Thanks Again,

Lang