Hello ... first post here so pardon me if I do this incorrectly!
On a trip my husband and I are planning, we leave Barcelona and will head to Milan, but going back & forth on taking a train and spending a couple of nights in France (Grenoble and/or Chambéry) or just flying directly to Milan, where we would then have two extra nights somewhere in Italy. Does anyone out there have strong opinions about this? I'd love to hear from you if you do.
Thanks in advance for any and all replies!
A bit of info on what the rest of your trip entails/includes would be helpful, to make it easier offer useful suggestions on the train vs. fly choice.
Flip a coin.
To fill you in: Portugal: San Sebastián, Porto, Lisbon, then Spain, where we start in Seville, Córdoba, Madrid, Barcelona. Italy includes Milan, Florence, Orvieto, Siena, Bologna, Verona, Venice. (And yes, we are on a long trip!). After that it's to Germany to connect with my brother and we drive together to Croatia for a family reunion. Prior to driving with him we are completely using trains or planes.
Since Grenoble is on the easiest way to Milan, why not? Unless there is somewhere in Italy you want to spend more time.
Thanks for the replies ... and of course to add a question: one night in Grenoble and one in Chambéry, or is it better to have two nights in one of those spots? I do think we are leaning toward the train. Environmentally better, I'm sure, and I do love trains.
Still, if someone else says "oh, but two more nights in Italy are a great idea, do tell!" We are currently at 19 nights in Italy.
Between Grenoble and Chambéry, I would lean towards two nights in Chambéry. Spending a night in each does not "feel" optimized to me, since you will not arrive early on the first day (long train ride from Barcelona).
My gut says "fly to Turin", though... 10x more interesting than either Grenoble or Chambéry, at least to me!
I agree with balso: fly to Turin. That's a long slog across France and north to the Alps.
Thanks for the new replies ... and interesting!
I'll investigate the flying to Turin now.
... but having done so I don't see many direct flights. Hm. Maybe we WILL simply fly straight to Milan. It does make things much simpler.
I am seeing direct flights from Barcelona to Turin 6 days per week (none on Saturdays), through Vueling or Ryanair.
If those flights do not work for you and if Turin interests you, you can take the hourly-or-so bus from Milan Malpensa Airport T1 to Turin taking less than two hours.
Yes, we were looking for an airline we normally use, but I saw that we could easily get to Turin from Milan so we might do that. We DID decide to fly from Barcelona to Milan rather than take the very lengthy train ride, even while I do love trains.
