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Itinerary Suggestions 3 weeks - Spain - Alps - Italy

Posted by (Washington State) on

I am looking for some help / feedback with figuring out some budget friendly intercountry travel itinerary specifically going through Alps from Spain on the way to Italy.

Some background - this is my fourth trip to Europe and first with a travel partner (stepmom). We plan to travel for about 3 weeks beginning July 16 (the return date is flexible). Our only definite is walking the last 100 km of the Portugese route of the Camino de Santiago (I walked the Camino Ingles last summer). Other places she is interested in is the Alps/Switzerland and Italy. She has never been (I went to Italy last summer, mostly following RS suggested Itinerary), and she expressed an interest in art history. I thought Florence would be a good base for the both of us (to see museums, cultural sites, and day trip). We're trying to fit it all into 3 weeks and be smart about not trying to do too much. I have no experience in the Alps region / Switzerland and would like help with figuring how to link from Spain and heading toward Italy. The Berner Oberland region seems interesting. We would like to do some easy / moderate hiking, taking it a little easy recovering from our camino. Would Zurich be the best place to fly into? Or is there another city that would be better to reach this region? Do you recommend train routes that are equal to/better than flying from Spain to the Alps or from the Alps to Italy?

We plan to use public transportation for the whole journey.

I have always booked multi-city (into London/out Glasgow, into Madrid/out Paris, into London/out Rome) from Seattle. My stepmom is flying from Denver. I was shocked at the prices I was finding looking at my usual Kayak/Google Flights. The cheapest I could find for a multi-city was $1700 (last year on June 1st I booked $877 ticket for the in London/out Rome commencing travel on July 15). That's why I ended up checking what a roundtrip to/from London and found one for $1000. EDIT: thanks to comments, looked for a connection out of Milan or Venice and found a multi-city ticket for $1300.

I chose London as the start because it is cheaper to fly into than Madrid, and is easy to get a cheap domestic flight over to our Camino starting point (Tui - Vigo is the closest airport). So far I have:
Arrive London 7/17
London to Vigo 7/20
Santiago to Zurich 7/28
Zurich to Florence 8/1
Milan or Venice back to Denver 8/9ish

Posted by
1872 posts

The cities you list are likely not all exactly where you want to go. I'm sure you'll refine your list of cities as you know more about your trip.

Maybe handy: there are direct flights from Santiago de Compostela to Zurich on Vueling Airlines. Not a lot of fights, but there are direct flights and it's a budget airline. It would save you a lot of time if it worked out.

Maybe spend more time in the Alps. Like most mountains, people tend to go to them to hang out and do mountain stuff, not so much move through quickly.

Maybe go to the Italian Alps. It would be cheaper than Switzerland, and is still awesome. Plus it's Italy, so kind of a twofer.

Or cheaper still Austrian Alps.

You've chosen some killer areas to visit, and the walking should be wonderful have fun.

Posted by
5063 posts

Have you considered flying into London and out of Milan or Venice?
Have a great trip?

Posted by
971 posts

Have you priced MULTICITY tickets instead of circling back to London which wastes lots of time? Why not fly into London and out of Florence or Rome? What is your reason for Zurich? It's a nice city, but lots of other better options. Are you doing day trips out of Florence? I'd think flying out of Florence, or definitely Rome, would be easier than going back to London. MultiCity tickets are the way to go in Europe.

Posted by
16 posts

Hank,
I did plan on using the cheap airline like Vueling to get from Santiago de Compostela to Zurich and found a flight for about $100. Thank you for suggesting looking into the Italian alps. I'll have to look at Austria too. Also, I'll look into devoting more time to whichever alpine region we choose. Thank you!

Pat,
Thank you for suggesting Milan or Venice for the exit leg from Europe. I found a cheaper total for 1300 (much better than the 1700 from Florence or Rome)

ChinaLake67,
I was looking at multi-city flights and they seemed more expensive than I'm used to. I've edited my post to explain that I usually book MULTI-CITY tickets coming from/returning to North America, but what I was finding seemed way more expensive so I looked into roundtrip to/from London.

I chose Zurich because I thought it was the closest airport to the RS recommended Berner Oberland region. And I do imagine that we will base ourselves in Florence for most of our stay in Italy with opportunities for day trips.

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