France to Italy to Vienna -- does this itinerary make any sense?

Hi, all of those locations are very nice! Personally, I wouldn't be willing to give up so much of my vacation time to be on a train or flight going to the next location since these are very spread out. For instance, approximately 11 hours on multiple trains to go from Tours, France to Venice. (I will only let myself do 1-2 longer train rides over a 3-4 week trip, and those are usually three hours. I did a 6-hr between Paris & Nice one year, and it was exhausting even though just riding on a train.)

If you're not really wanting to be in Paris, it's easy to take the train on arrival to be in Chartres, Tours or Rouen on an hour train from the city of Paris. Tours would have you in the Loire Valley immediately.

Look up your destinations on www.rome2rio.com It won't be an exact time, but it will give you an idea of the transportation time between locations. Is there a specific reason you want to include Vienna on this trip? If you can give us more details, we might be able to suggest a different city in either France or Italy with the characteristics you're wanting - possibly Torino? Torino has some beautiful, elegant palaces & museums, for instance, from the Savoy dynasty era.

Thank you so much! Great questions.

So Vienna is the only part of the trip that is non negotiable. It is part of a family celebration, and we have to end our trip there and fly out of there.

However, I wanted to include at least one other destination. I know that all European countries are beautiful in their own way, and I feel very fortunate to visit them, but Vienna is pretty low on my list, so I was trying to think of other places higher on my list that I'd be excited to visit since I'm making the journey over to Europe.

Also, thanks so much for the great info about getting to the Loire Valley and also about planning the travel between countries. That is extremely helpful and the exact type of info I am looking for!

Remember that the Olympics are in Paris next summer, and many support teams will be coming in a few weeks/ months earlier. Can you avoid Paris? Some folks are reporting very expensive hotel prices even in the spring.
Good luck!

@Pat, I didn't even think of the Olympics. Thank you so much for that helpful info!

The Olympics are 26 July to 11 August, sure there will be lots of advance people getting ready, but April and May do more than 2 million tourists each, so a few thousand people prepping for the Olympics might not be too noticeable. When they held the World Athletic Championships in Budapest a few months ago, the athletes and the support added to some of the interest of the stay.

Paris is one of my favorite places so, great idea. But then, as mentioned you are doing a lot of travel for a 2 week trip.

SALZBURG: Lufthansa flies Nonstop from Paris (7N Paris and elsewhere) to Salzburg (3N) for about $100 then you can train to Vienna (4N).
BUDAPEST: Wizz, Ryan and Air France fly Nonstop from Paris (5N Paris and elsewhere) to Budapest (5N) for about $100 then you can train to Vienna (4N).

Hi there, "Would the late April/early May temps be comfortable in these places?", Yes, though Austria will be cooler than France, but that's OK.

THIS is what struck me about your priorities - Enjoy a laid back-ish trip with lots of time to soak up the atmosphere and linger over long meals. I love Italy, but would skip it if you want to go to France. You could do either Lake Como / Venice OR Loire Valley, but both would involve too much time on airplanes or long distance trains. And have a look at 'open leg' tickets, into Paris, out of Vienna, or into Venice out of Vienna.

I liked @MrE's idea - SALZBURG: Lufthansa flies Nonstop from Paris (7N Paris and elsewhere) to Salzburg (3N) for about $100 then you can train to Vienna (4N).

And @Jean's idea about going directly to another destination when you arrive, Tours if you want to be in the Loire Valley, but check the train times, on Google it looks like a 2-hour train ride, Chartres 1.5 hours....

Laid back trip! Sorry, but with all that traveling such distances, NOT.

Instead, cut back on travel between places and pick places closer together. You can alway come back to Europe.

Vienna, great place, why not do Budapest or Prague or Salzburg?

You have to add Salzburg. It's one of our favorite places ever. The Alps are breathtaking.

Given the short amount of time you've got, and how spread out each place is from the other,you can forget the "scenic trains". You'll have to fly from place to place, and even then you will lose a good portion of one day each time you move, thus shortening your sightseeing time.

If Paris isn't a priority, then train straight to the Loire on arrival. Pick up a rental car at the St Pierre des Corps (Tours) train station to use to get around the Loire. 5 days in the Loire would give you a bit of time to relax and get over your jet lag. Although, since you haven't allotted travel time into your itinerary, this would actually only be 4 days. The 5th would be spent getting to your next place.

I'd pick Venice over Como for 2 reasons. It's easier to get to from Tours ( return to Paris and fly), and to me it is one of the world's most unique places.

Vienna, great place, why not do Budapest or Prague or Salzburg?

Actually, a dream trip for me would be Paris to Prague to Budapest (all by air), then the train to Vienna.

But do keep in mind that not all places that look close are close in time to reach. And sometimes the far places are not that much time away. You can fly Paris to Vienna (door to door) in about 1 hour more time as the train from Prague to Vienna (door to door).

I agree with Mister E usually. We've been to all these cities, and we adore Budapest.

If you're going to make it to Lake Como, it's just about 45 miles down to Milan and from there you can catch a train thru Bologna and on over to Venice.

From Venice to Vienna is very difficult on the ground. On the ground, you'd have to go by train to a bus to a train--9 to 11 hours. Only Austrian Airlines has a flight.

You can catch a cheap flight on Ryanair from Venice (Trevisio) to Budapest. And trains are the best way from Budapest to Vienna.