I came up with the itinerary below for train travel that would begin in Paris and then end in Sicily. Question for you train travel experts. Am I crazy to think I could ENJOYABLY do this in two weeks with my 17-year-old daughter? We don't mind sleeping on trains :)
Paris to Digne-les-Bains;
Digne-les-Bains to Nice;
Nice to Chur, Switzerland;
Chur to St Moritz;
Saint Moritz to Lake Como;
Lake Como to Rome;
Rome to Naples;
Ferry to Sorrento;
Naples to Palermo
Yes, it is crazy to do 9 train trips (some of them taking the whole day or the better part of it) in 15 days.
Way too much train travel for two weeks. If you go to a website like Omio or The Trainline and enter all your departure and arrival cities, you’ll be able to see that the hours spent on trains ( and the cost) for this itinerary is staggering.
However, starting in Chur, Switzerland and working your way south to St.Moritz and Lake Como, Milan. Rome, Naples and finally Sorrento is doable and would make a great two-week trip.
can it be done? you bet.
Comfortably or ENJOYABLY - probably not
I suggest reducing places, you have way too much.
Rome deserves 4/5 days alone.
The way to ticket this would surely be a Eurail pass then pay the fast train supplements where needed. Also to pay for the Nice to Digne les Bains Railway. That is a private railway (not SNCF) so is probably not covered by Eurail.
I suspect the way to configure this is to fly into Nice (probably connecting at CDG) then do Digne. Then the over night train couchette train to Paris from Nice followed by a 2 train journey to Chur at 1022 or 1222.
Although a long way round that seems to work better from a quick look than routing through Ventimiglia and Milan- although on paper Milan is the more obvious route.
Naples to Palermo is on the overnight train.
Whether you will actually enjoy it, and get meaningful time at each destination is your own calculation. We don't know your travel style.
If you don't mind moving on every day or two and having whistlestop visits to each location it is undoubtedly possible.
Digne-les-Baines feels like the odd man out here, a long dead end diversion.
Cutting that out and starting in Paris thence Chur would make it a bit less taxing, IMO.
Hi there, Welcome to the Forum. Well you couldn't drag me on this trip, but then again, we don't know your travel style, so more info about what you'd like to see & do (besides watching the scenery go by from the train) would be helpful.
Often people count their arrival and departure days, which really are wasted getting to and from, so is this just 12 days on the ground? Consider how you like to spend your time, have you been to Paris? I would probably spend 5 nights in Paris & 5 nights in Rome, (=10 days), if you haven't been to either, then work backwards with what time you have left and see how you could take a train trip between one or 2 others.
Have you booked flights yet and when is this trip? When are you traveling? Heat of summer would make this really painful! Why specifically Palermo, I think it would be amazing to go there, but by then you're likely to be exhausted, how about ending trip in Rome or Naples? IF you go to Switzerland, St Moritz isn't that attractive, stay in one of the villages on either side Sameden or Pontresina. Good luck!
We don't mind sleeping on trains :)
You are able to fall asleep and not be disturbed by 'outside forces'/activity?
Am I crazy to think I could ENJOYABLY do this in two weeks with my 17-year-old daughter?
I have no relevant educational/professional training on the subject, but my lay opinion is that condition, if not currently present, may be more likely to exist by the end of the outlined journey. :-)
If the 'sense of accomplishment' is what gives you 'joy', then the trip could be 'enjoyable'. If 'enjoyable' is something else, than I suppose I belong in the 'skeptical' category.
