first time europe

Is your cruise returning to Rome? If so, I would suggest flying "open jaw", into London and home from Rome.
Your London-Paris leg can be done on the Eurostar train. If you can commit to a specific time and date, you will save a lot of money on the train ticket. You can fly Paris(Orly) to Rome for as low as 46 euro per person in June on EasyJet. There will be adders depending on how much luggage you are bringing, but it will be relatively painless. You can use your hotel rewards points by searching on the chain's website.

This is a "do it yourself" type of travel forum. Any travel agent can help you, but you will be paying for the help, maybe a lot. Eurostar and EasyJet tickets can be purchased easily from their own websites (surprisingly easy to use), and you will know what you are going to pay upfront. People on this forum also enjoy the planning and research phase of the trip. You can do this.

The biggest problem with driving that distance is the dropoff fee that you will incur for renting in one country and dropping in another. I, too, would suggest flying into London and out of Rome, with the Eurostar and a budget flight in between. You can see which budget carriers fly from which airports at www.whichbudget.com. There are dozens of them, so you should be able to find something that matches your schedule. I love EasyJet, but can also get along just fine with Ryanair. With a budget flight you just have to be aware of their limits for things like carryon baggage (I check a bag if that's a problem, and it's a short, one-leg flight, so little chance of it getting lost) and you will be fine.

In this case you hardly need a travel agent since there is nothing he/she can do better then you can do yourself!
As suggested open jaw flights make it the easiest.. into London,, spend 2-3 days, then Eurostar to Paris, 2-3 days, then fly to Rome. I have done this route myself.. I used Vueling to fly to Rome from Paris but I have also used Easyjet for other legs of my trip..

The cheapo airlines are fine, they do however have STRICT rules about luggage and lower limits.. and my experience with cruisers ( having taken more then a 1/2 dozen myself) is that cruisers over pack ( formal nights etc).. So do read the fine print on luggage and do keep it down as low as you can.

When a cheapo airline says "one carry on " they do NOT mean one carry on plus your purse or laptop,, they mean ONE period so read carefully.. I think Easyjet is a "one" carryon airline, but recall with Vueling being able to take one carry on plus purse.

Now the one place it may be worth paying a travel agent is when it comes to using miles for flying.. unless you are good at figuring this out( and it doesn't sound like your forte. which is fine) .. most travel agents around here would charge a fee for just booking airline tickets as there is no commission paid out to them by airlines usually.. but for 50-100 bucks it may be worth while to get a ta for that.
Do not use a TA for Eurostar tickets,, most of them are not aware of how to get best rates and often use the RailEurope website and those tickets cost more. I just booked my own Eurostar tickets for this summer. I looked on Eurostar website, offer was 39 GBP.. so went to look at RailEurope.. offer was 99 dollars.. same train same date same time. Thirty nine pounds is about 65 american dollars. So tickets on RailEurope would have been 34 dollars more each... I do book lowest class tickets as having been on the ES 4 times now I know its not worth paying double for first class for 2 hrs and 17 minute trip. Bring your own snacks,, everyone does!

What hotel point system are you on.. many have mulitple choices in each city , but some are definately more remote locations so best to find out via points which ones have availabilty for dates then come back on forum and ask folks to compare locations.

My one thought to add to this would be regarding the idea of driving from Paris to Rome. It's LONG way and unless there are specific things you want to stop and see along the way, I would think this would just be exhausting. Factoring in the price of gas in Europe, it'll cost you a small fortune plus you'll have steep drop-off fees for picking up your car in one country and leaving it in another. So much cheaper to fly or take the train. There is an overnight train from Paris to Rome and if you can score a private room you can leave Paris in the evening, sleep, and arrive in Rome in the morning. Flying is fast and can be a very cost-efficient option. If you are going on a cruise though you probably will have a bit of luggage which will cost you more. Personally I would just pay and fly...much more relaxing and less complicated.

Suggest you start with a basic Europe travel book which gives you ideas on changing money, transportation, etc. then get a book specific to the cities you are going to visit. I think Rick Steve's office offers travel advice over the phone for minimal amount of about fifty to one hundred dollars for maybe an hour if that would,help. Good luck.

If you are using frequent flyer miles, I would look very carefully now at what flights are available. That will determine where you go/when you will fly in. And warning, even though it LOOKS like a flight might be available, it might not actually be available. You won't know until you try to book it. To try to explain further, on American, when I was searching awards flights, several options came up. And I thought great, this is easy! But when I tried to book one, it would tell me that particular award was not available. So I had to spend more miles than I originally planned.

If you do not have much European travel experience, I would suggest cutting out one of the cities or planning to spend more time there. I think the transition time (moving from city to city/arriving in a new city/figuring out how you are getting to your hotel/etc) is the most stressful part of travel. And the more transitions you have in a relatively short period of time, the more stress. Plus, those are three huge cities. You can lose half a day to a full day when you travel between cities so that really only leaves you 2 1/2-3 days each city, tops.

I would just fly from Paris to Rome. You can probably get decent airfare on a European budget airline. If you have an extra travel day, you can take a train but it is a long ride. I think the hassle of driving would be expensive and not worth it.

I have never had a travel agent charge a consultation fee so no harm in asking. Although I don't have one I can recommend. There are companies out there that will plan your whole trip for you and help direct you when you are in the city (but not act as a true tour guide). I have come across them on the internet but again, no personal experience.

Remember there is no right or wrong way to do it. If you are getting over there 100% with frequent flyer miles, I would recommend booking your flights first and then making the trip fit within those parameters. And don't feel so stressed that you have to see everything this trip! Because you will have so much fun, you will be planning your next trip before you even get home!

Happy (early) Birthday and enjoy your trip!!

If you plan to fly to Europe in June using frequent flier miles, I suggest you book your flights ASAP. Depending on your airline & what city you are flying from, it may already be difficult to find seats on the dates you want. You might be fine, but check it out quickly just in case. You don't need a travel agent to book this ... Just call your airline where you have your frequent flyer miles. It usually costs about $25 to have the airline agent do the booking for you (as opposed to you doing it online) but it can be money well spent in avoiding frustration.

Travel agents don't charge a fee if they are able to book you in hotels that pay them a commisssion. IF only booking airfare they will charge you .. and they should .. they do go to work all day for free, they need to earn a living. Just a short chat with one may be free of course.. but its rude to "use" them to get all the details and then do it yourself.. as I said,, they are not getting paid unless you pay them or the hotel/cruise pays them.

When using a completely point system to pay I am not sure how that works for them... who pays them then. I would assume you would.. I still strongly believe one should book their own inter europeon travel and hotels on their own,, but really think a travel agent familar with point system may be helpful.

I agree with other's advice here. I'm big on making things 100% clear for novices, so forgive me if this is too basic. I just remember learning all this myself the hard way...

-Fly into London (heathrow or gatwick, doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things)

-take the Eurostar to Paris (less than 3 hours, leaves and arrives in city center) www.eurostar.com to book tickets, do it as far ahead as possible and it's cheaper.

-take a Easy Jet flight to Rome (a couple hours plus transit time between city to airport) easyjet.com for flights, I'm sure there are other airlines, use all sorts of travel sites if Easy Jet doesn't have one you like. The airline that you have miles on may do this flight, worth a look.

-Leave for your cruise (or fly home from Rome, if you decide against the cruise)

-If the cruise returns to Rome, fly home from there. If the cruise ends in, say, Athens or Barcelona, fly home from there (some cruises return to same port, some end at a different one)

to book your airline tickets, use whatever airline site you use for domestic travel and just use the multi-city feature to go from your home city to London and from Rome back to your home city. Shouldn't be much more than a regular round trip.

Driving Paris to Rome is doable, the expensive nightmare part comes about when you try to return the car in another country. Can be done, but fees are super high. Also, some credit cards that offer rental car insurance don't cover Italy (my capital one card is one of these). Also, a drive from P to R is about 900 miles, so would take 2 driving days.

There are trains between Paris and Rome, but you're looking at 12 hours travel time. Flight is easier. If you're interested in looking at trains, raileurope.com is good for an overview of what's available. It's often cheaper to book elsewhere, but rail europe is easy for research, and booking if you don't need the lowest possible price.

"to book your airline tickets, use whatever airline site you use for domestic travel and just use the multi-city feature to go from your home city to London and from Rome back to your home city. Shouldn't be much more than a regular round trip."

Using airline miles you will use the same number of miles whether you fly round trip or open jaw (multi city). The only variable is the taxes/fees, because every airport is different. I'm flying open jaw next fall. I decided to fly into London rather than out of it for that reason. I had to pay $5 to fly in. It was going to be $200-$300 (can't remember the exact amount) to fly out.

Stop tearing your hair out. DIY takes a lot of time and effort, sure. But once you begin your research, your mind will be going on vacation; in fact, it has already started. Relax a bit and feel the satisfaction of doing it yourself. And once you are actually on the way to the airport, you will be able to navigate these new experiences with more assurance having acquired the know-how the hard way.
In case you haven't found them yourself, here are some basic tools: www.seat61.com
www.bahn.com
www.skyscanner.com
www.whichbudget.com
www.google.com and www.viamichelin.com for maps
Every airport will have an informative site; every city will have official tourist information on-line.

Laurie.......relax, you can succesfully do this.
Some basics, regarding reward points. CALL each of the airline/hotel company's whom you intend to use reward points for this trip. Start w the airlines and provide travel dates to determine availability for your travel dates. Then repeat the process for the hotels. As a novice i encourage you to start w calls instead of navigating websites. The results of these calls most likely establish the parameters of your travel.
Use a three ring binder to collect all your data and create your own reference site. Organization of information should help reduce travel stress.
SIMPLE reduces STRESS.
Strive to spend time making memories. Usually this means SLOW DOWN! Talk w your partner about what is the most important things you both want to do. Repeat the word DO, not just SEE. Seeing so often becomes too quickly viewing something. Doing involves interaction.
Please recognize you could spend your entire trip at just one of these locations (london, paris, rome) and have an amazing experience. My counsel is to select london, rent an apartment, use the tube and t ake trains for daytrips. This will alow you to do a deep dive in preparation and greatly reduce stress over planning a three destination trip.
A cruise can be a relaxing method to see multiple destinations (we have cruised the Med). Should you stay in one city you can use the cruise to visit more locales to create a greater trip experience.
Have fun and congrats on the anniversary.

Laurie,

Congrats on your trip.

I found that my experience planning my first trip a couple years ago is about what youre going through. Its like riding a horse for the first time. Its intimidating, but once you get into the swing of things,its not that bad.

there are alot of good idea here. what it comes down to is IF it fits your style. Some people are not Do It Your Selfers (DIYS) and if this is the case, you may want to seek out a planner to travel person to do most of your planning.

Google is your friend. So is the yellow pages and word of mouth. I know that there arent that may planners around anymore due to the www, but there should be some around.

If you want to LEARN how to do it, that is something you will need to do and try. Its not to say you wont get it right on the first time around, but its in iterative process. I dont know or care about bonus points or frequent flyer miles since i think they are there to make you spend more $$ and they always have gotchas.

Just an for your info (fyi) i do like Steve suggest with a 3 ring binder. Print stuff off the web and put them in for my to do/see and everything else.

but to plan your trip (w/o the bonus stuff) break it down to small things like.

1-1 Transportation to Europe and back
1-2. Transportation London <> Paris <>Rome or some combonation. Think about not chris crossing your path. Circular can be good if your fight is cheaper that way. But you wont know until you run some numbers. what you have suggested is a good start.

2-1. Lodging. you say you have bonus points for this. the only drawback i can think of (not that ive used any thing like this is) that you have certain open dates to use or that the place is in the back 40 or they dont have a place where you want to go.
2-2. If the bonus points dont work, then i look for a central place for where and what im doing. It cuts down on travel time to/from each thing. thats how i work and you may not like it. again, its something you have to decide on when youre making reservations or planning.

3-1. things to do and see. i think this is were most people stop their planning. Yes, you can wing it. but do you have the $$$ and time to do so? can you go back every year to get the thing you didnt do or forgot? the flip side is that they try to plan too much to do in the time there. this is how i see it. if you know whats there you can plan on seeing/doing it.

3-2. I make a list to "to do/see" and estimate how long it may take. i dont add in transportation time since that will depend on where you decide to plant roots. also, i make a conscience decision to NOT fill my day, but to do things from 08/0900 to about 1400. that give me time to chill, people watch and if i need to spend more time somewhere else. by planning my time, i can avoid the "darn, the museum closed on monday - standing there in front of it" and " now what do i do". this can be too much for some people, but i choose to do it to maximize my time seeing things.

also, i know you would like an easy answer or "push the button" and everything will happen for you, but some of it is really up to you all.

just one comment. since this is a joint venture, why not put the other party to work and help do some planning. I know if i was left out of the planning, i would not be a happy camper unless i didnt want to go in the first place.

Good luck and happy trails.