First Europe Trip! Your Itinerary Feedback is Appreciated

Lia, Your proposed Itinerary looks well organized, and not too rushed. A few thoughts and questions..... > Are you flying from Reims to Venice? Which airline? > Siena is an excellent choice! For the trip from Florence to Siena, I'd suggest travel by Bus. There are numerous departures every day on both the Corse Rapide and Corse Ordinarie Buses, and the trip is about the same time as by train (don't forget to validate your ticket). With the Bus, passengers are dropped right in the main part of town, rather than at the bottom of the hill. > Siena is a great choice! Is there any way you could add a day? > Orvieto would be a great choice in Umbria. It's only about an hour by train from Rome, so very convenient to continue your journey from there. Be sure to have a look at the Signorelli Frescoes on the ceiling - incredible! Happy travels!

I count 13 full days on the ground in Europe, of which at least 3 will be devoted to traveling from city to city. Keep in mind that packing, getting from hotel to train station or airport, then getting from the station to your new hotel, checking in and unpacking will take an average of 1/2 day each time. It also takes time to orient yourselves to each new place. Much as I understand your desire to see as much as possible in the short time you have, I really feel you will be short-changing yourselves by rushing from place to place and not taking the time to enjoy the places you are in. So, I'd skip Reims and stay in Paris. If Paris itself doesn't captivate you, take a day-trip to Reims. Then fly to Venice for at least 2.5 days of sightseeing, then Florence and finally Rome. From Florence, visit Siena as a day trip.

For your Umbria stop, check out Orvieto. I picked it because it made sense as a jumping off point into Rome. The place is great. It's different than other hill towns in several ways. It's history goes back to the Etruscans; it has underground tunnels, cisterns, and a great well; it has a major Cathedral; and it's surrounded by cliffs but is fairly flat on top so it's not as much uphill/downhill walking.

Hi Lia, We did a power trip a couple of summers ago, spent 4 days in Paris (one day was to Versailles), took an overnight train to Venice and arrived real early, spent the night and left the next day late afternoon to Florence for 3 nights, with one day taking a bus tour to the Tuscany region. Off by train to Rome for 4 days. In both Paris and Rome, we were looking for things to do on day 4. We had hit all the big tourist stuff in all areas. Never felt we didn't have enough time, but we didn't spend a lot of time in restaurants. Eating was more of a "to go" mentality. Best food I had was a panini on the streets of Paris and a chocolate covered crepe on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower. I also made sure that most of our hotels were close to train stations, RER's etc to save time on transit. I think your itinerary is very doable.

it's looks good, my only wish would be for more time in Paris especially if planning a day trip to Versailles (which is great by the way) if adding time to Paris isn't an option than plan a return trip because you will need it otherwise sounds like a great time
Enjoy!

I agree with Chani. The first thing I noticed is that you're only allowing one real day in Paris. I would skip Versailles if you can't squeeze in any more time into Paris, because even 2 days is too short in my opinion. There are so many things to do and see and taste. Have fun!

Hello! Again, thank you so much to all of you for taking the time to respond to my plea for feedback. Chani - Thank you for your honest feedback. Our reasoning behind Reims is because we love to go wine-tasting and champagne happens to be my favorite varietal. You sound quite experienced - please feel free to let me know any specific sites you really enjoyed in Paris or any of our Italy destinations. Brad - I was thinking Orvieto but I wasn't sure, so thank you for the confirmation! I love a good underground tunnel - I plan on seeing them in Paris and Rome. Warren - What a great trip! Great minds think alike, eh? :) Do you feel that you would not have been able to see all you wanted if you had sit down to eat? That is something my husband and I are really looking forward to - authentic eating experiences in both France and Italy. How was your bus tour through Tuscany? Would you recommend it? Thank you for the validation that this is doable! My husband has already had to remind me a few times to edit. (This is my first International trip, he has traveled internationally before). Ken - Thank you for your thoughts and questions! We are going to travel back to Paris from Reims, then travel to Venice. Thoughts on this? GREAT suggestion on taking the bus to Siena! I just did a bit more digging on this and it's a fantastic option and thank you for bringing it to my attention.
Umbria/Orvieto has been a bit of a floater day, so we could eliminate that altogether and add a day to Siena. What's your opinion? Toni - Thank you! What are some of your favorites in Paris? My husband and I are finding that there isn't as much we are interested in doing here, other than to just be there and soak it all in.

Your schedule is do-able. You're cutting yourself a little short in Paris by including Reims. I would do all my time in Paris. You can blow a couple of days in museums in Paris, and a 1/2 day at Versailles. I consider the palace "a must," and it's only 10 miles out there (by train.) You're also short of time in Venice, which I suggest for 3 nights. You might look into cutting out the day in Umbria. I'm going to Tuscany in 3 weeks, and am driving down to Orvieto where we'll drop off the Hertz rental car at the train station. Like they said, it's just a little over an hour into Rome from there. You should have a great time.

I'd suggest Reims as a day trip from Paris, if at all. It's just easier in an already-fast-paced itinerary to avoid one-night stands when possible.

Lia I'm with Chani on your current itinerary; it is too rushed and you are spending all of your time in transit. Obviously the other posters have a different perspective. Perhaps you should just see Italy this trip.You can go there on your next vacation! To see how your itineray will really feel like, get a blank calendar (wincalendar.com is good). Put in your current itinerary. As Chani has said, include packing, checking out, travel time to train station/airport, wait time at station/airport (2 hours), time to new hotel, get oriented. At least 1/2 day. Really. Now you have at least 3 days travel time. Your Arrival Day is a Recovery Day, and you have correctly noted as a Travel Day. So you are down to 11 days. Notes: Siena is a great stop and you can take day trips by car to the gorgeous ountryside if you spend all of your time in Italy. Orvieto gets rave reviews and is only 1 hour from Rome by train. Do you already have your flights? Keep us posted on your itinerary. Bobbie

Lia, "We are going to travel back to Paris from Reims, then travel to Venice. Thoughts on this?" The visit to Reims is a bit "problematic" in terms of the overall Itinerary, but is certainly possible. I've never travelled that route, but my preference would be to use Paris / ORY rather than CDG, as the rail trip from Reims is only about 1H:51M. At Paris Est, you'll transfer to RER C for the trip to Pont de Rungis. I believe there's a Shuttle from there to ORY. My preference would be a flight with EasyJet from ORY to VCE. The last flight departs at 18:30, so you'll have to decide whether you can get there from Reims in time. Looking at the rail schedules, I suspect that's going to be "challenging". "Umbria/Orvieto has been a bit of a floater day, so we could eliminate that altogether and add a day to Siena. What's your opinion?" Given that you only have one day for Umbria, I'd suggest adding a day to Siena and leave Orvieto for another visit when you have time for a more "relaxed" visit. It's not worth the time and location change for just one night. You can easily travel from Siena to Rome in about 3.5 hours (often one change in Florence). Cheers!

Its so busy,, and you are moving constantly ,, you will see alot of trian stations or airports,, but how much of each destination will you get to see. I know you want to see alot of places,, but you can't assume you will never get back... Paris deserves more then one full day( the Versailles day is a whole day really) , you've allowed almost three days in Florence and you have to know that there is more to see in Paris just by volume alone, sorry, I would scrap your two floater days( Siena and somewhere in Umbria) and add two full days to Paris , or one to Paris and one to Rome. This eliminates having to rent a car. I actually think you could rethink the whole thing and make it either Italy or France, but I do understand wanting to see so much. Is there anyway you could make trip a few days longer,, I always figure once you pay for the airfare it best to spend as much time there as you can. I have a trip this summer that i am in the middle of planning, and its 22 days long, and it is painful having to cut down on my own lists,, but its also painful to think about having only one to two days in one place. I am trying to figure out if i can sqeeze a few more days in myself.. ugh, I know its hard,, but edit..
Just wait till you start packing, now thats harder,, edit edit edit, lol

I'd also suggest making Reims a day trip unless you have a really compelling reason to spend the night there. Your actual travel distance will be the same but you won't have to bother with changing hotels if you spend the night in Paris. That will save you time and energy. Reims has 2 spectacular churches ... and champagne. If those are not your interests, I'd say save it for another trip. Your time would be better spent in Paris.

Yes, I would stay in Paris longer. No way you can rush paris. My friend and I was there six nights and that wasn't enough. Don't be like me and forget to change the timezone on your camera. lol! I took over 600 pictures and my friend who's a professional photographer took 2 to 3 times as many. Make sure you have backup batteries for your camera. I had 2 batteries and that wasn't enough. I would take pictures of street signs to mark where we were walking. I also took pictures of art work (no flash of course) and then a closeup of the name of the piece for my photo albums. Remember to turn up the ISO of your camera for museum and interior shots. My friend told me that. I took great interior shots with the ISO turned up to 800.

I had planned a day trip to Reims from Paris on my last visit there, but too much rainy weather made me decide to stay in Paris (love the museums). It is certainly doable. You can probably fit in 3 champagne houses and a visit to the cathedral without rushing. You do have to book the winery visits in advance. I got a lot of info from the Reims forum on Trip Advisor. One of the fun things I really enjoyed in Paris was the Paris Walks chocolate tour. You have to book a few days in advance, since the tour is really popular and always fills up. Yummy tastings are included. All their tours focus on the history of this wonderful city - yes, even the chocolate one. The Fat Tire bike or segway tour is a good way to get an overview of Paris at the beginning and the guides are interesting. The Rick Steves (free) audio tours for Paris, Florence and Rome are quite good. I recommend downloading them and using them. bon voyage

Lia, 0) Skip Versailles 2) Skip Reims to limit hotel changes 3) I recommend you hit San Gimignano hill town after or even before Sienna... it's wonderful! 4) IMHO Florence needs two nights/one full day to see (see David) and we didn't feel rushed. NOTE: we did not see the other museums and didn't miss them, either. Pete