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Another stab at family itinerary - please add your wisdom

My thanks for earlier input. I have an updated approach. I understand there are a couple of long train trips here but think it's a better route for our family given our desire to see a range of places. Train travel is the plan with the exception of the flight from Venice back to London. Any critical flaws here given we are willing to spend some time getting to and from various places and seeking some city time balanced with more bucolic? Thanks!

  1. fly overnight
  2. Arrive afternoon - London
  3. London
  4. London
  5. London
  6. Paris
  7. Paris
  8. Paris
  9. Paris 9 Colmar 10 Colmar 11 Lucerne 12 Lucerne 13 Lugano 14 Lugano 15 Venice 16 Venice 17 London (fly from Venice) 18 Fly home
Posted by
7175 posts

Nice little trip. You'll have a great time. Shame you can't make a same day connection in London when heading home from Venice.

Posted by
32173 posts

Oly,

This still seems somewhat of a "busy" Itinerary. Keep in mind that with two night stops, you'll only have a bit more than a full day for actual sightseeing. Each change of location will have a "cost" in both time and money. My preference would be to "slow it down" and visit slightly fewer places but spend more time in some of them.

It's your holiday, but I suppose this will work.

Posted by
7011 posts

If you don't already have your flights it would be better to get open jaw flights into London and home from Venice. Even if open jaw flights are a bit more expensive they eliminate the time and expense of returning to London. Just a thought.

Posted by
1157 posts

The suggestion to fly open jaw out of Venice is a good one, unless your airflights are booked and cannot be changed. That extra night and day in Venice would be nice to relax after the previous six days.

At first glance, i also did not like the itinerary after day 9 because it was seemed rushed and i am not a fan of short stays. But your route is pretty well straight from Paris to Venice with well spaced stops along the way as opposed to zigzaggiing all over the place. And you do have 2 nights stay in each. So you basically have a travel day and settle in, and then you have a full day in the city before repeating for the next city, This is certainly doable and no worse a pace than any organized tour (e.g. Rick Steves). I have never been to Colmar, Lucerne or Lugano, but I am sure they are great and worth visiting. So if you want one vote to rationalize your choices, count me in. Enjoy.

Posted by
32173 posts

On further reflection, It occurred to me that if you have to return to London, that you might drop one night from London at the beginning and do the Day 5 touring when you return from Venice.

I definitely agree with the others regarding open-jaw flights, but I wasn't sure if you had already purchased those.

One other thing that stands out is that you might consider skipping Lugano this time and add one day to Lucerne and one day to Venice. Use those extra days for day trips. From Lucerne you could make a short trip to the Lauterbrunnen Valley and from Venice you could go to Padova. Just a thought.....

Posted by
1912 posts

Two night stops are way better than one night, but I think you'd be happier if you dropped one place (probably Lugano) and added those days to the other two nights in Lucerne and Venice. You'll be getting a bit tired by then and it really doesn't give you much time to enjoy and feel settled with a two night stay. Once in awhile we do it, but I wouldn't do them back to back.