Hi!! Coming from Hawaii. 3 woman. 28 travel days in September. Arriving and departing in Paris. Want to go to Versailles and Giverny. In Spain; Madrid, Sevilla and Barcelona and Italy; Milan, Como, Cinque Terre, Firenze, Venezia and Roma. What country and town sequence do you recommend? By train, air or combo?
Thanks :)
Combo. And you might consider paring down this list unless you want to be constantly on the move. Four or five days in Paris with day trips by train to V and G. Fly to Spain, either Barcelona or Madrid and take trains within that country. Fly to Milan, train to Lake Como, CT, F, V, and Rome. Fly to Paris from Rome or Pisa or Milan. If you spend three days in each location you could hit them all. Very busy, but it could be done!
It is often easier to keep track if you count nights rather than days. To drop any of these cities I would start with eliminating Milan as I don't consider it as worthy of a visit as most of the other places. Outliers are Sevilla, Cinque Terre, Rome and Venice. You might leave one or more of these for a later visit. It's possible to visit Venice as a day trip from Florence. CT can be a nice place to relax some, but it is a little out of the way. It's easy to reach Varenna on Lake Como by train from Milan and well worth the time and effort in my opinion.
You will probably need to pare down your list of desired places to see. If you don't already have your plane tickets I would start with open-jaw (multi-city) flights into Paris and home from Rome or Barcelona, depending on which route is more efficient. If you are locked into the round-trip to Paris you need to allow yourself a day to get back to Paris from either Spain or Italy. Your other option would be to land in Paris and immediately take a flight to either Rome or one of your Spain destinations and then work your way back to Paris and visit there before flying home.
Allow yourselves at least 4-5 full days in Paris, if you want to see Paris and take day trips to Giverny and Versailles, and 3-4 full days in Rome. Go through the rest of your list of places and decide how long you would need to spend there to satisfy you, then consider how many days you have remaining from your 28 and start eliminating if need be.
I've not been to Spain so I can't speak to that but the places you want to see in Italy would normally be a 2-3 week itinerary just for Italy. You might want to just do Paris with day trips (5 days); Venice, Florence & Rome in Italy (10-12 days); Barcelona, Seville & Madrid in Spain (8-9 days). Don't forget that travel distances and times between some of your destinations can be long so that will take up a bit of your time also.
A lot of your decisions will depend on each of the three woman's desires (must-sees) so it may be difficult to pick what to keep and what to drop. Also your sightseeing styles (museums, cafes, outdoor activities, etc) need to be taken into account.
EDITED accounting for Milan &Madrid accomm
Day 1 Arrive Paris
Day 6 Fly to Venice
Day 8 Milan (with day to Lake Como)
Day 11 Cinque Terre
Day 13 Florence
Day 15 Rome
Day 18 Fly to Madrid
Day 20 Cordoba (by early train)
Day 21 Sevilla (by early train)
Day 22 Madrid (by late train)
Day 24 Barcelona
Day 27 Fly/train to Paris
Day 28 Depart Paris
Is this your first trip to Europe? I am ok with whirlwind trips as long as you realize it will be an overview of these locations. A few of my favorite trips were like that and I would not trade those for anything. Do you anticipate returning??/ Or is this a once in a lifetime? Everything always takes longer than you think and there is always more to see... so given that if you decide to see all those locations then look at the option of open jaws... probably flight into Paris and out of Rome. I agree about Milan not being as amazing as the rest of your locations, but are you going to see the Last Supper?
Give us a little more info and you will get more ideas.
Unfortunately I have already bought RT tickets to and from Paris so I have to start and finish there. This is my first trip to Europe and coming from so far I don't know when I will return. The reason I want to visit Milan is because my cousin lives there so I have free lodging and it would be a good base to go CT and lake Como and Venezia. I also chose Madrid because I have free lodging there.
I'm just wondering if I should buy a rail pass or buy point to point tickets on each countries rail website? Also when should I book this if I do? I hear is nice to have the flexibility of not being locked into specific trains and times of travel.
Thanks for all your help guys :)
I want to visit Milan is because my cousin lives there so I have free lodging and it would be a good base to go CT and lake Como and Venezia.
Free lodging in Milan is fine if you want to see Milan and day-trip to Como. How long will it take you to get from your cousin's place to the train station? It's a 2.5 hour train ride to Venice and unless you buy no-change/no-refund tickets a couple months in advance, it will cost you €80 each for the round-trip ticket. It's a 3 hour train ride to Monterosso and €55 round-trip (unless you buy in advance).
