Need Reactions - Itinerary - 16 Days, Italy & France

Hi Ali,

Here are some initial thoughts:

• Consider taking the bus to Florence from Siena for a day trip--that way you won't have to store luggage.

• For this trip, I'd skip Paris since you aren't even spending the night. I'd go directly to Colmar possibly making a stop in Switzerland on the way (Bern or Luzern?)

• I've not been to Chamonix so not sure if there is three days worth to do there--if not, you could add a day to Florence for your day trip to Siena.

Just some thoughts!

Ali~this is certainly workable but have you checked train connections and times on the DeutschBahn? There's a train from Florence to Colmar that changes in Milan and Basel then direct into Colmar rather than going all the way to Paris--sorry that's a 09:00 trip. There's a 21:33 with 2 changes, arriving Colmar 11:37...if you wanted to save Paris for more time.

Thank you for your thoughts Sharon!

We'd only store luggage in Florence because our night train would leave out of there that night so we thought easier to just store luggage and spend the day exploring rather than day tripping another day. Sounds like you think it's worth day tripping and not dealing with luggage storage though so will think about that.

Regarding the Paris connection - Colmar appears to be a difficult place to get to efficiently (but we love Alsatian wines!) so taking a night train Florence to Paris seemed okay since we can sleep than just take the 2.5 hr direct train to Colmar. Even worse with getting to Chamonix (another place we definitely want to go)...easier through Paris and a night train for us is a good use of sleeping time.

Ah yes, I see what you mean, Ali. We also prefer convenience at times, not to mention sleep!

Over-kill on Chamonix; two nights will do fine (including the cable car).

Ed - I would love to hear your thoughts on Chamonix and how come you feel it's too much time. Our initial thoughts were we would probably spend one full day doing the whole cable car thing and another full day doing some light hiking. Thoughts?

Assuming a mid-day arrival, you can walk the town and do the cable car also. (Cable car takes max of two hours up, down, looking around on top, and having coffee/beer etc while up there.)

Next day you can walk the town (very small) again and hike your heart out. Then walk the town again, have supper, and walk the town again. Shops are interesting but expensive.

Do your hiking at as low an altitude as possible or you will really get sick if it's at all strenuous.

Have fun.

Thanks for clarifying Ed. I was going off RS recommendation of getting on the lifts early in the morning. I figured we wouldn't get there until around 10:30am but with at least storing our bags at the hotel we wouldn't get to the lift until around lunch-time and that it would be too late in the day. You clearly have been there so what are your thoughts on the weather issue? Thanks so much for your thoughts on this!

Disregard everything I said. I was thinking of the cable car that goes up to the west so you can look across the valley at Mt Blanc. Have no knowledge of the duration, times, etc of the series heading toward Italy. Sorry.

Thanks for the additional details on the hike Steve!

This is very thoughtful, if unorthodox. (All those trips into Paris! But I think I understand why.) And all great destinations.

I'd just note that this is an itinerary for nimble, flexible people. But that's you, right?

Great trip, although Paris for a day sounds like torture, like eating just one chip from a bag of potato chips.

I'd add a day to Rome and find at least one more day for Paris.

I figured someone would pipe up about Paris eventually! :) We are on a very strict time schedule this time around (boo hoo)...he's starting a new job and will only have these 2 weeks. So, if we add, we need to remove from somewhere but I still have a pretty open mind.

We are going to go watch some RS videos I forgot we bought last year. We are thinking 6 nights of hilltowns might be too much for us and thinking of either going south to Sorrento (not feeling this yet) to start the trip OR simply just adding a night to Rome and a couple nights to Paris.

There area a lot of hill town days. I sugget another day in Rome.
I think 3 nights in Chamonix is a lot. The cable cars do sometimes have weather restrictions. We intended to drop into Italy in late June and found the top sections closed. Also, the views are definitely not reliable in spring as it's still very wintery there. It was interesting to experience the high altitude but that's about all we got.

We ended up scrambling for train reservations and hotel when the route we planned was unavailable.

Thanks for your reply Darby and everyone else! We watched some RS videos last night and weren't feeling the hill towns...probably b/c of lot of the RS videos show A LOT of tourists.

So, taking a completely different approach and looking at the possibility of Vilnius, Lithuania / Riga, Latvia / Tallinn, Estonia /St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia (with visa of course)...so, back to the drawing board!

We spent 4 nights in Chamonix last Sept and it was perfect. In fact if we had had another day there it would have been better. We did the Aguille Du Midi lift in the morn of our first full day there and then the Mer Du Glace train in the afternoon. The Second day we took the Brevent lift up to the top ( this is on the opposite side of the valley and the views face Mont Blanc -- a spectacular sight) then hiked down to the the midway station and had a glorious lunch over looking Mont Blanc. The third day we took a day trip thru the Mont Blanc tunnel to Aosta Italy and then over the Grand St Bernard pass to Switzerland and back to Chamonix. Wonderful day. You have to have a car for that tho. If we had had another day we would have gone up another train glacier trip and gone to an adventure zip line place.

It seems like going clear to Paris -- for a not Paris stop and then going on to Colmar is lots of traveling and a waste of some precious time. Why not train to Geneva, rent a car at the airport, drive to Colmar and back thru Switzerland to Chamonix then back to Geneva to fly home -- stopping in beautiful Annecy for a night. Or skip Colmar this trip. Train to Geneva, rent the car, do Annecy and Chamonix and the Mont Blanc tunnel day trip and even do some of Western Switzerland -- Montreaux, Zermatt etc. Then return the car to the Geneva Airport. Driving in the French alps and Switzerland is fabulous.

Thanks for your response Janet! It's good to hear how you used your time in Chamonix.

Going through Paris is really just to use the night trains (which we find a great use of time). The train from Colmar to Paris and back is only 2.5 hours and would be split by a 3 night stay. We would be totally fine with missing Paris on this trip.

We have read up on what we want to do and the wine we enjoy and really feel that exploring the Colmar region is for us on this particular trip if we go this route. Also, we have spent time in Switzerland on both of our last trips the last 2 years so we'd like to go somewhere new.

It looks like you are using Paris as a way to create the night trains -- and I don't blame you. We love night trains, too, and are guilty of creating the need for one ourselves. In this case you may be able to recoup some time by picking a different one, and do so in a way that keeps you in the best scenery possible for your day excursions.

We have taken the night train from Venice to Geneva, and it's a great route that is long enough for a good night. You could train Florence to Venice, have dinner in Venice, then on the night train to Geneva, picking up the Colmar part of your trip.

From there I'm not sure where you go. ;)

Sharon got my attention and she is right. My comment is not so much about luggage, but it makes so much more sense to take the bus from Siena to Florence. It's a faster, more direct trip. Also, the train station in Siena is inconveniently located outside the center of town.