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A month (plus a couple days) European honeymoon itinerary: Munich-Italy-France-London-Istanbul

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Hello everyone!

I know you get a lot of these sorts of topics, but I appreciate any help/input you could give me on our honeymoon itinerary. This is our first trip overseas and we're very excited! We are mainly focused on Italy and France, but are beginning the trip in Munich to visit friends. We're doing a very quick stop in London just to get a "taste" for a return visit, and then ending with three nights in Istanbul because it's the fiance's dream city to visit. Since we booked our tickets through Turkish Airlines, we had layovers in Istanbul no matter what so decided to do an open-jaw ticket and fly back from there!

Without further ado, here is the tentative itinerary:
May 13th Chicago-->Munich, arrive 7pm
May 14-18 Munich, with day trips to Neuwachstein castle and Salzburg
May 18th, Evening train to Venice
May 19th-21st Venice
May 21st, Morning train to Rome
May 21st-25th Rome+Vatican
May 25th, Afternoon train to Cinque Terre
May 25th-28th, Cinque Terre
May 28th, Morning train to...where? Want to end in Avignon but thought it would be nice/fun to stop in Nice or somewhere for a day along the way. We noticed the Grand Prix was in Monte Carlo that weekend but thought that going there might be madness...
May 30th-June 2nd, Avignon (wine tour, Roman monuments)
June 2nd, Morning train to Paris
June 2nd-5th, Paris
June 5th-6th, Normandy/Mont St. Michel. Thought about doing this at the end/beginning of the Paris stretch but thought it might be interesting (to say the least) to be in Normandy for D-Day
June 7th-9th, Paris again, day trip to Versailles. 4 full days in Paris plus a day in Versailles is the plan
June 9th, morning Eurostar to London
June 10th-12th London...I know this is a quick trip to London but we're hoping to do a 2-week or so trip soon that is just UK+Ireland
June 12th-morning flight to Istanbul
June 12th-15th Istanbul-Another quick trip
June 15th Flight Istanbul-->Chicago

Whew, I know that's a lot! But we've tried to not pack too much in and have at least two nights everywhere we stop. We'll be using trains for the most part although we're planning to rent a car for the Normandy/Mont St. Michel leg. There are a couple of messy spots in the itinerary that I would love advice on, and really of course the whole trip is up for critique! We are hoping to start booking lodging ASAP so I'm trying to get this nailed down.
Thanks!

Posted by
5697 posts

Congratulations! One suggestion -- put this into a day-by-day spreadsheet or calendar noting where you will be spending each night and what you will be doing (including travel time) during each day. Make sure you aren't double-counting days.

Paris to Normandy and back could take up a lot of the two days you have allotted. It's a long drive.

Posted by
6113 posts

Congratulations. When I saw your itinerary, I hoped that it was for 2017 in order to get the best choice of availability and travel deals, but it doesn't look like it is!

As it is your honeymoon, why not slow the pace down a little and give yourselves some relaxation time at the beginning and end of your trip? A month away is a long time for such a quick paced schedule. Scrap the side trip to London, as you say you will be back.

You need another day in Venice and Rome. You are right to avoid the Grand Prix. Accommodation in Normandy may be difficult to find on D day unless already booked. You need another full day there.

Istanbul doesn't sit well with the rest of your schedule, as it is several hours flight away. Personally, with the heightened terrorist risk and migrant situation, this is not somewhere where I would travel to at present. It is a fascinating city, frenetic with some interesting history. If you do have to go here, start here and work your way back west. It will be more relaxing.

Posted by
5398 posts

I think you will really get tired of so much time on trains. I also think you should cut something out and fly certain legs. For example, I think I would go Venice, Cinque Terre, Rome and then fly to Paris, skipping Provence (or maybe skip Rome instead). I guess it is just a lot of time on trains and they do get tedious.

I also wanted to point out that May 16 is a public holiday in Bavaria. Will affect shopping and transport schedules. Things might also be a bit more crowded than usual that weekend as kids are also off school on the 17th, so lots of people traveling.

Posted by
11613 posts

I would check rome2rio.com to see distances, times, and modes of travel from place to place. Your 2-night stops are really one day and a few hours, but if that's okay, have a great time! If your fiancé eants Istanbul, do it. It's an amazing city.

Posted by
2 posts

Hi everyone, thanks for your responses!
Laura B: Thanks! :) I thought the drive to the Mt. St. Michel/Normandy area was around 4 hours, is that an idealistic estimate? I thought we could leave early in the morning, do Mt. St. Michel that afternoon/evening, stay there, then drive to Normandy and do a day there, then drive back to Paris late that night OR early the next morning. Is that unrealistic?

Jennifer: Luckily we already bought our plane tickets and got a pretty good deal on those, and are looking to stay in Air BnB's as much as possible, so I'm hoping we'll not miss out on too many deals that way. We bought our plane tickets on Turkish Airlines so the flight to Istanbul is unavoidable no matter what. I am nervous about the current situation in Istanbul, but at this point with what has happened in Paris I feel that something like this could happen anywhere, anytime so we decided to not let it stop us. We will be extra vigilant though, everywhere we travel. London is definitely the best place to cut, I think, and you are right about Rome. I'll see what we can re-arrange there!

Emily: Thanks for the heads up on the holiday in Bavaria. My friends are born and raised in Munich so hopefully they can help us out with navigating everything. We were thinking about doing a flight and skipping Provence, so that's something that we'll discuss some more.

Zoe (and everyone): I am worried about too much time on trains, right now we have 6 train trips scheduled. The longest was Cinque Terre to Provence, and that's why I was thinking of breaking it up with the day in Nice or something similar. I maybe didn't draw up the itinerary as well as I could have, but we have at least 2 nights in each destination. We were trying to do cities on the ends of the trip with the more low-key portion in the middle (consisting of Cinque Terre and Provence). We've lived in NYC and DC so are used to, and enjoy, fast paced city life!

I really appreciate everyone's input!

Posted by
7175 posts

I would make your Istanbul stopover at the beginning. Not only will the weather be milder, it means you can avoid splitting your time in Paris.
13/5 Istanbul – 3 nts
16/5 Munich – 5 nts
21/5 Venice – 3 nts
24/5 Rome – 4 nts
28/5 CT – 3 nts
31/5 Nice – 2 nts
2/6 Avignon – 3 nts
5/6 Normandy – 2 nts
7/6 Paris – 5 nts
12/6 London – 3 nts
15/6 Fly London > Istanbul > Chicago

My only other idea would be to steal a night each from Munich and Rome so you can include a 2 night stay in Florence.

Sounds wonderful for a busy month (which you obviously want) Congrats. Have fun.

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