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Itinerary Help - Southern France, Italy, Switzerland

We are traveling to South of France, Italy (Cinque Terre and Tuscany), and Switzerland mid June. My husband has a bad back so direct flights are important. We are flying out of San Francisco and I am only finding direct flights into Paris and Zurich. Here is my tentative itinerary and I am wondering if we are trying to do too much or if this sounds reasonable. There are four of us and two of us have already seen Paris, but since we are possibly flying into Paris, we figured we may as well spend some time. Any input is greatly appreciated.

Day 1 - Arrive Paris - Spend 2 nights
Day 3 - Train or drive to Southern France - Spend 3 nights probably in Avignon
Day 6 - Travel to Cinque Terre - Spend 1 night
Day 7 - Travel to Tuscany - Spend 3 nights
Day 10 - Travel to Switzerland - Spend 3 nights
Day 13 - Travel home.

Posted by
20661 posts

It will take at least 9 hours to get from Avignon to Monterosso on the train. Spending 1 night there will not really give you any time to see anything.

Posted by
15723 posts

1 day in Paris, 2 in Avignon, 2 in Tuscany, 2 in Switzerland. 13 days total, 15 when you count the 2 transatlantic days, only 7 days of relaxation, sightseeing, enjoying. Zurich is not a big tourist stop. If Switzerland means Alps, consider that you have 2 nights there because you will want your last night near the departure airport. That means another 1/2 day or more of traveling to Zurich. Weather is iffy. You may be fortunate and have sunshine and gorgeous vistas or you may be unfortunate and never see a mountaintop.

just sayin' . . . .

Posted by
7175 posts

Your choice of destinations are disparate with long travel days required. I'm not sure how you make this work efficiently so you enjoy your short 12 days in Europe.

Posted by
32 posts

Thank you for the replies. And I got the message... trying to do too much in too little time. So here is my revision...Cut out Switzerland. Fly into Florence or Milan. Spend 5 days in Tuscany and Cinque Terre. Fly to Nice? Rent a car and travel through South of France for 5 days. Train to Paris and spend 1-2 days. Fly home from Paris. Does this make more sense? I haven't worked out the details so any input would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by
7175 posts

This would work I think.

Day 1 - Arrive Milan
Train to Cinque Terre - Spend 2 nights
Day 3 - Train to Tuscany - Spend 3 nights
Day 6 - Fly Florence to Nice.
Côte d'Azur - Spend 2 nights
Day 8- Train to Provence - Spend 3 nights
Day 11 - Train to Paris - Spend 2 nights
Day 13 - Travel home

Posted by
451 posts

Dropping Switzerland makes a lot of sense and flying to Nice is your best way to get there.