Need advice for my first solo trip

I'd say a fairly easy trip would be open jaw to Venice from PHL and return from Rome, or reverse. Stays in Venice, Florence, Amalfi coast. Fast rail connections between them (at least to Salerno for Amalfi). You have nonstops on US Air from Philly. Use connections to find cheaper air if you find these too pricey. Two weeks would be quite comfortable.

Hi Susan, Is your flight to Spain or Italy? Or open jaws? It's hard to recommend an itinerary without knowing for sure where you land. Best, Wray

Honestly it doesn't matter to me if I go to Spain first or Italy.

Hello mybellasu. If you want an airline flight to Italy in June, I recommend : book the airline flights today. From all that I read here, I think a good travel plan for you is : fly from Philadelphia to Venice (if it is a non stop flight).

MyBellaSue, (Sorry, don't know where I got Susan). For a 14 day trip, I would base in no more than 3 places. Personally, I'd do one of two choices with your beach interest.

1. Fly into Barcelona, Barcelona, train to Nice area, then train to Venice.
2. Fly into Milan and train to Florence and Venice, then take the train down to Naples or Sorrento to see the Amalfi Coast. Fly out of Rome.
But there are so many choices. Have fun deciding! Wray

Fly into Naples, http://www.curreriviaggi.it/eng/shuttle.php. bus to Sorrento.
Or this to the AC town of your choice, http://www.amalfishuttle.com/about-us/

Fly from Naples to Barcelona using Vueling airlines, a budget carrier, 1 hr. 50m
Many nice beach towns near Barcelona.

Susan,

Is the beach a primary consideration, or just a "nice to have" feature? If you have 14 days, that will allow 12 days of touring once the two flight days are accounted for.

Based on your preferences to see Italy (esp. Venice) and Spain, perhaps something similar to this would fit the bill.....

• Book open jaw flights, inbound Venice, outbound Barcelona
• Spend 3 days in Venice
• Train to Florence and spend three days there (while there you could take a day trip to Siena or Lucca, as those are both easy trips).
• Take a flight from FLR to BCN via Vueling. They currently have flights listed on that route in mid-June as low as 49.99€ PP (there will be a few extra fees of course).
• Spend the remainder of the time touring Barcelona, with a few day trips. Another option would be to spend 3 days in Barcelona and then take the AVE to Madrid and finish your trip there (that would of course change your outbound flight location).

Another option would be to fly inbound to Naples, spend the first week on the Amalfi Coast (Sorrento makes a good home base) and then take a flight from NAP to BCN via Vueling.

There are all kinds of possibilities, so you'll have to decide which one appeals to you more.

If you want to see both Spain and Italy but France is not a priority, then flying Vueling or other budget airline should be both faster and cheaper. Train travel time is minimum 8.5 hours Barcelona-Nice and 7-8 hours from Nice to Venice or Florence, with no overnight train options on either route. Rick’s Train Travel Time & cost Map gives you an overview of faster train travel times in hours, as well as regular (full-price) 2nd-class fares.

You guys are great thank you so much

I'm from Barcelona and I've been to Italy few times. These are my advices.

You should definitely go to Venice. Some people say it's quite smelly at summer, but it's one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Florence is nice, too, Siena is pretty and traditional (But not worth more than one day there because it's really small). I'd recommend to go to few places and stay more days in every one, so you don't waste too much time traveling, and you can explore every city better.
You may try wimdu to rent a flat-in Italy and in Spain-, if you need to control your budged. In Italy, don't be afraid of trying street food, it's amazing, and you NEED to try San Marcos ice-cream. I've never tried one better.

Venice-Barcelona is cheap, and Barcelona is a really good option. The airport is not in the center of the city -that happens in Venice, too- and I wouldn't recommend to take a taxi, because it's a tourist trap. There is no subway, so that can be quite scaring, but we have a pretty confy Bus. You can take the airport bus, that costs about 6-7$ or the number 46, that it's the same bus, but costs 3$. In Barcelona you should buy a T10 to take the bus-metro, I don't know if you can buy that in the Airport, but if you can, it would be really convenient. There is a Tourism Office there, side by side with the Arrival platform, you can go there, and ask about T10, a map... Whatever you need.

I wouldn't recommend Madrid. Why? If you're coming in June-July... It's going to be deadly hot. Trust me. Barcelona is hot too, but you can always go to the beach, and since it's really close to the sea, the weather is a bit more tempered.
Don't eat paella in las ramblas. That's just for tourist -this means really expensive and not really delicious-, but you can go to a place called "Les 15 nits" that it's quite centric, pretty good, and not extremely expensive (Maybe about 20$). Take your swimsuit or bikini, and -if you have time- go to Sitges, to see the beaches.

If you're pale, PLEASE bring sunscreen. Usually we can identify English and USA travellers because they're always in a red-burned color, that I'm sure will lead them to Skin cancer in the future. Use it all the time, even if you're just walking around.

Try to bring confy shoes, too. Barcelona and Venice -and Florence, too- are cities where you need to talk a lot.

Now I can't think of anything else, but feel free to ask me anything you need to know!

No matter where, as long as you like the heat, you will have a great time! I love the Amalfi coast - if you go, take a boat to Capri.

To me the best combination of a city and a beach is Cádiz in the very South of Spain. The old town is amazing, there is great atmosphere and you can just wander around if maybe it's too hot at the beach (although most places are closed during Siesta) - and there are two nice and cool beaches just in walking distance to the old town.

Also you can just take a short ferry boat ride to Jerez de la Frontera, a probably even more exciting town (although they don't have a beach). And Seville or Gibraltar are just a day-trip away...