First Europe Trip ever need help!

Too many places for 13 nights

All your one night stands will accomplish is your being able to say, "I was there"

If MSM is a high priority add one more night in France

Add a night to Florence and a 3rd night in Rome. Skip Milan Lake Como and CT ( Include them in your next trip with Venice)

Fly from Paris to Florence

Your proposed trip looks more like a POW death march, than a family vacation.

That my 2 cents--- use it as you see fit

Thanks for your advice, I will try to fine tune my itinerary..
it is like a trip of the life time being from south east asia :)

I would drop Colmar, and fly to Milan from Paris.

•Start in Paris for 4 nights
•Fly to Milan
•Train to Lake Como for 2 nights
•Train via Milan to Cinque Terre for 2 nights
•Train via Pisa to Florence for 2 nights
•Train to Rome for 3 nights
•Fly home from Rome

To be clear, arranging your transcontinental air fare will require using a multi-city or multi-destination search function, available through many on-line travel agencies and some airlines. It will help you fly into Paris and home from Rome at close to the same fare as a simple round trip. You save the cost of returning to the airport where you arrived, and more important with a short vacation you save lots of time. But it is not a pair of one-way tickets, hence the need for the multi-city search. Basic tools for travelling inside Europe: www.seat61.com and www.skyscanner.com
I agree with the others that those overnight stops are wishful thinking, especially with a six-year-old in tow.

All I can say is that I feel sorry for your son! That itinerary is just far too much, it's just another one of those tick lists I see far too often on this site. I'm afraid your son isn't going to enjoy being hauled across all those places and I doubt you'll be enjoying it much either.

Take Florence for example. What do you intend to do there with your son? My wife and I were there recently and I can't imagine what would have interested our 9 year old, our 12 year old is interested in history so he would have found it interesting but at 6 years old I can imagine that there would have been lots of moaning.

Pisa in my opinion is not worth a visit, certainly not one that takes so much out of an incredibly tight itinerary. I probably spent about 20 minutes there and we only went because it was so close to the airport on our return from Florence.

It takes two nights to get one full day in a place; I cannot imagine bothering with for example Lake Como with all the hassle of getting there without having even a day to enjoy it. What can you do in Milan in one afternoon that is worth the cost and trouble.

Place like Rome, Florence and Paris need a minimum of 4 nights and 3 days to just visit a few of the highlights. There is no time for a day trip. This schedule has you bouncing all over Europe and spending lots of money to get to places you will not have time to experience in any meaningful way. You are better off renting the video tapes. The entire trip is about 'getting there' and not 'being there'. An occasional one day stop in transit in a pretty place makes sense; a whole trip of drive by photo ops is miserable. I am especially struck by two nights/one full day for Rome. There is not even enough time to see the Vatican and historic Rome in the most superficial way in that.

To drag a six year old child through this should guarantee he never wants to see Europe again. A six year old kid. Imagine that exhausted and being dragged at break neck pace across Europe he has an upset stomach one night. What do you do with the fast paced itinerary then? With only 13 days, I would cut this to 3 major destinations and then perhaps hang a day trip off a couple of them or if going by train put a one day stop between destination 2 and 3.

1. I haven't bought a eurail pass since at least 2000 (probably a decade before that). Once upon a time they were a good deal. Unless you are eligible for a student or senior discount (in which case, you will have to price it out), point to point tickets will be a better deal on all but the longest trips.

2. When I'm traveling, I try to keep my travel times below four hours in a day. If I were traveling from Milan to Colmar, I would break it up into several shorter travel days, with intermediate stops, by train or take a plane. If you can't get a flight to Colmar, you can probably find something to Strasbourg, then take a relatively short train ride from there.

3. Cinque Terra is not worth going well out of your way to see for one night. It's nice for a breather, but there are no sights or nice beaches. I'd probably drop it from your itinerary and seriously question anywhere you have a one night stay planned. A one night stay, especially if it took awhile to get there, won't even give you time to see a place.

This is hard advice to take when you dream of seeing so many places but you will enjoy your trip more if you reduce it and slow it down, then come back and do other parts on your next trip. In your case, drop Paris, fly into Milan and home from Rome. See Milan, Lake Como, Florence and Rome. Make each stop a minimum of two nights, three or more for Florence, and plan as many nights as you can in Rome - believe me you won't run out of things to see and do.

I hope you have a great trip!

Thanks everyone for the feedback and suggestions. For my son's sake.. i will do a big change on the itinerary. To be honest, i cant remember what i like about florence seriously and i am sure nothing interest my son too. The reason i picked florence because it like the gateway to Rome.. so i think i will drop florence and CT.. Pisa is a must because that is what my son really want to see.. 😅..

As for the rail pass, read alot in this site said not to biy it but since child will get free does it make it worth it to get one for us? Just worry about the limited seats for passholdet

Fwiw, I have read accounts of Pisa as very crowded and worth a visit for the tower but not for a stay. Apparently you can get from the train station to the tower walking. So its possible to plan an afternoon there to see the tower but not use Pisa as a staying place. For example, you could stop there en route for a few hours (from CT to Florence, or CT to Rome). NOT trying to add anything back in ;), just saying, if this is a special opportunity trip, you may not want to spend two nights in Pisa ...