Hello all! My fiance and I decided to elope in Lake Garda in May. We want to have a month-long honeymoon and need help with itinerary planning. So far, we want to see the following:
Italy: Milan, Lake Garda, Venice, Florence/Tuscany, Rome, The Cinque Terre
France: Paris, Provence, French Riviera
Spain: Barcelona, Madrid
Possibly Switzerland or other countries
Can we add other countries to this trip without making it too strenuous?
A month is a long time but I am not sure it is long enough for all you want to do. Everyone likes to travel at different paces but you basically proposing a week in four countries. Can I suggest that you start by putting the number of nights in each place taking into account that two nights give you one full day. I think doing this would start to give you a sense of what you can accomplish in a month.
Good advice from Beth. To figure out the number of nights you might want to spend in each place, list the sights you want to see and the things you want to do in each place. Let that help you determine length of stay.
Since you are getting married in Italy, I would suggest concentrating first on that country. Even with 4 weeks you will have trouble doing justice to all the Italian locations you list.
Also consider that the time required to travel between countries is not trivial. It can take an entire day to go from Italy to France depending on start and end points, Think also about mode of travel. A rental car between countries is very expensive, not like renting in one state and dropping off in another. There are high drop off charges when you go from say Italy to France and return a rental car. Trains are your friend in most of the locations you list,
MC,
I suggest you research the time it will take to go from one place to another. Be sure to include not just flight/train/drive time, but check-out time, going to train station or airport, and time to get to your next lodging, and check-in time on arrival in new location. Please don't underestimate the size of Europe and distances between places. (For example, the country of France is about the size of California.) I also suggest you choose just two countries, especially if you choose Italy with your six locations there. That alone would take about three weeks. You need time in each place to actually enjoy it and not just check a box.
All that aside, my husband and I had to postpone our honeymoon for three years, but were able to spend four months in Europe in 1974. We bought a VW so we drove everywhere for three months before shipping our car home (that took a month). We had the time to visit eight countries, some for three days, others for a month. But if we had just a month, we would definitely stick to just one or two countries so as to get the most out of our visits there. And we would not have been able to see all there is to see in each country. We would probably pick just four cities or areas to see. Thus, I would not try to add countries, I would subtract some. It is already very strenuous.
Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials! Have a wonderful honeymoon in Europe, and I hope it will only be the first of many trips there!
Bonne chance!
Don't even try to fit in anywhere else. Nowhere else. Every time you change cities, you will lose at least 1/2 day. With 9 cities, that's 4 1/2 days just for travel and checking in and out of hotels. I have not been there, but if you want mountains, maybe the Dolomites in Italy or somewhere in France. I would suggest flying from Florence or Venice to Paris.
Great News... you will have fun! But elopement or not, the first week there will be on top of a LOT of pressure. So pick a really cool place to chill out and ENJOY having carried it off. Lake Grada itself or Verona will be near and easy and very relaxing. After 4 nights or so, pick four places you really want to center your activities (What do you like?) around and then move among them. Florence/Tuscany = Wine, food and museums to me. Paris is Paris = Food and Art and having coffee in great cafes and should be given a week. Spain is so much that I would save it for a separate trip Madrid/Toledo/Sevilla/Granada etc. Rome will be very convenient to your starting point but even in May will be very crowded and may not have the more relaxed honeymoon vibe you might want. Great place, but again perhaps best on a more relaxed trip. Although it is a long time away making lists of your interests and possible daily activities is not bad to get started on. It will help you pick places to aim for rather than picking places and investigating what you can do there.
Elopement is a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, sometimes involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting married.
Is planning to get married in Italy next year really an 'elopement'?
12 ( or more) locations in 30 days really doesn't lend itself to adding additional locations, unless all you want to do is move from hotel to hotel.
Is the marriage going to occur in Italy, or just a re-enactment ceremony? If the 'real thing', have you explored what you need to do to get married there?
Congratulations and Best Wishes!
In case you don't know what you need to do to get married in Italy, here is what the US State Department has to say https://it.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/marriage/.
BTW, agree with all the comments to scale back on the itinerary. IMO you could get a little taste of lots of places or dive deep into a few. Choice is yours and part of the decision could be, "When will we be back?"
My cousin was married in Iseo (close to where you're planning to get married). A lovely civil ceremony conducted by the Mayor. We then visited Venice, Assisi and Rome. That was a three week trip and it still felt rushed, with a lot of time spent on trains.
Personally I'd cut back your trip to allow you more time km each place.
Congratulations.
If you are young and full of energy, then this works out to an average of about 3 nights a stop if you stretch your month to 36 days, and thats not a bad thing. I might trim two or three of the list, but still .... its doable.
Milan, Lake Garda, Venice, Florence, Rome, The Cinque Terre
Paris, Provence, French Riviera
Barcelona, Madrid
One thing of note is that you are hitting every high level tourist destination so even in May you are going to be in the thick of tourists the entire trip. Also, not necessarily bad, but to know.
Great advice here already, I echo the advice to write it out day by day. Just the Italy portion would be a bustling two weeks at the very least. You could easily stretch just Italy to a month and never be bored. The neighboring countries of France or Switzerland could work well as companions, but I would save Spain for an anniversary trip.
One thing of note is that you are hitting every high level tourist
destination so even in May you are going to be in the thick of
tourists the entire trip. Also, not necessarily bad, but to know.
We are seasoned travelers and have visited all the places you wish to see except Cinque Terre.
Italy is my favorite foreign country and I believe that you need from 15-18 days to visit those places. For example, you need at least five days to do Rome. I have been to Rome twice, spending 6 days the first time and 4 the second. I still haven't seen it all.
You need at least a week to see Barcelona and Madrid (also, don't miss nearby Toledo).
France, you need 10-12 days to do Paris, then train to the South of France.
Naaàa, it's a great sampler tour. I could spend years in Hungary but I wouldn't suggest that for a first visit. What if you don't like it? What if you, 10 years from now, wish you had discovered a place sooner and hadn't wasted so much time in places half s good? If you do 3 or 4 nights in each place you listed you may return home with a love for one that draws you back for weeks or months ... or not. Go, explore, experience as much as you can.
it's a great sampler tour.
This was my thought too! And that's sort of how the OP or others can look at it. If they want a sampler tour (which I feel most of us have done to some degree), when you're younger and packed with energy and excitement is the best time to do it.
My feeling is that many of the folks here have moved a bit beyond the many places in quick succession touring and gone more towards a pick a spot or two and focus intensely in those areas. Paris is a prime 1-2 week stop, and Barcelona, Rome, Madrid, or others easily are good for a week each.
But that's AFTER one has tried the more whirlwind approach to travel to get a sample of the diversity of Europe. It helps create that next "return and dig deeper" list that most of us have. Get a few regional sampler tours in, and the places that resonate with you will be where you eventually get to focus more.
And, congrats on the coming wedding & honeymoon!
Clearly some of the destination will be a pass-through--you don't have to see any of them exhaustively, even if it is your first visit. However, the math has got to math, that's why writing it all out based on your intentions is so helpful. The next step involves incorporating the transportation details, which in come cases is a mere hop on a train, and in other cases can be very time consuming.
It seems clear that Italy is your main interest, so flesh that part out well first, then see what else you can add.
MC,
I agree that you can spend just 2 or 3 nights in one place for a taste. My main concern is how much time/how many days you will spend traveling from place to place. In looking at the places you list I see you traveling at least half a day, sometimes a whole day, for 9 of your days: Milan and Garda to Venice, Venice to Tuscany/Florence, Florence to Rome, Rome to Cinque Terre, Cinque Terre to Paris, Paris to Provence, Provence to Riviera, Riviera to Barcelona, Barcelona to Madrid. Of course, the order of travel would change to avoid backtracking, but the number of travel days won't change. You don't want to spend almost a third of your honeymoon on a train or plane.
