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Paris to Venice Itinerary

Posted by (Kenmore, WA) on

Family of four (kids are 18 and 21) all did Europe 3 years ago and really enjoyed it (London, Paris, Interlaken and Barcelona). Coming back for about 17 days. Fly into Paris July 11, out of Venice July 28. Would love any advice, specifically on northern Italy, as we haven't been there yet. Tentative itinerary:

  1. Paris, France - 5 nights (see city, just "be" in city, and a day trip to Giverny), then train or drive to:
  2. Freiburg, Germany - 3 nights (son visiting HS buddy while other three visit relative in Heidelberg), then train to:
  3. Brig, Switzerland - 1 night (logical halfway stop between DE and IT, zip up to Zermatt and see Matterhorn, leave next day) train to:
  4. Cinque Terre - 3 nights (chill and hike), then drive or train to:
  5. Some little town halfway between CT and Venice for 1 night to get a feel for "off-the-beaten-path" Italy, then drive or train to:
  6. Venice - 3 nights, then fly out.

Big questions are: Trying to do too much? Am I missing anything along that route? Paris timing is non-negotiable, but would you adjust length of stay in other stops or skip altogether? Is renting a car vs taking the train advisable in any of those legs (specifically Italy), or conversely, are there specifics legs where I definitely shouldn't rent a car?

Posted by
8889 posts

Doesn't look too bad, you aren't breaking the rule "at least 2 nights in all places" too much.

  • Paris - Freiburg. I would pick train. There is one (at least) through TGV per day, plus some connecting options. A car would involve €€€ surcharges for international one-way hire. I assume you are talking about "Freiburg-im-Breisgau" and not one of the other Freiburgs in Germany. Nice city.
  • Brig. No, stay in Zermatt instead, and make it 2 nights, otherwise you will be rushed.
  • "Some little town halfway between CT and Venice" I would leave it to better experts on Italy to suggest a location. If it is a really good place to chill make it 2 nights.

Apart from that - enjoy. You are all old enough to look after yourselves and do your own things when you want to. I hope I haven't blown your budget and time limits too much, just have fun.

Posted by
194 posts

Thanks Chris!

It's the city of Freiburg at the south end of the Black Forest that we're heading to. The only reason I was thinking of driving that leg from Paris was to maybe get a better feel for Champagne and Lorraine that you can't get from zooming through on a train. I was thinking I could get us close to the border, then drop off the car while still in France and then train it into Germany. Maybe from Colmar or Strasbourg? I love the idea of stumbling across unexpected cool stuff on the way to a destination, so a car for some of these segments feels like a license to do just that. But we've also done that TGV route from Paris to Mulhouse before, so that's always a safe bet.

Love the idea of staying in Zermatt. When I was 25, I went there for a day trip but ended up staying in Brig, because it was cheaper and I was broke : ). We'll look into our options in that area and see if we can make it 2 days.

We'll also look at all those days in Italy and see if it makes sense to chop them up in a different way to get 2 days "off-the-beaten-track". Thanks for the ideas!

Posted by
1008 posts

We stayed 2 nights in Lucca last summer to break up Rome and Venice. It was really cute and we loved it. We rented bikes both afternoons and just rode around the walls, and just wandered around the cute little city. We also took a day trip to Pisa.

Loved it there!

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