Please sign in to post.

Start and End Points: Which way should I go?

Posted by (Kelowna, BC, Canada) on

Hi everyone,

I've just started some preliminary planning for our 2016 trip and have some generic questions. My wife and I are planning on visiting France (Paris and the southern part), a bit of Switzerland, Milan, Italy and Spain. I generally like to travel in a straight line so my initial plan was to fly into Paris, travel to Switzerland, then to Milan, cut across the southern part of France, then into Barcelona, Madrid and parts south, like Granada and/or Cordoba, and finally home. We are planning on going in summer, July/August for a month. In your opinion, would it be better to travel North to South or South to North, taking into consideration which would be better to fly into from Western Canada and fly out of. I'm thinking we would have more flight options flying into Paris than into one of the southern Spain cities. We've been to Paris before, so familiarity would be advantage and we wouldn't have to hit the ground running since we've already seen all the big sites. We could ease into our vacation. I guess things would also get warmer as we travel south, but this may be a disadvantage at that time of year. Dates are not fixed, could go as early as mid May or as late as mid August. As always, looking to make this as practical as possible while maintaining a budget (read "as cheap as possible" ) What's your thoughts?

thanks

Posted by
3275 posts

I would start with Spain in mid-May. Fly into either Barcelona or Madrid and do your loop to Granada and cordoba! then take the fast train to Paris ( I can't remember if it goes from Barcelona or Madrid but it takes about 6 hours). Then from Paris to Switzerland in June. Fly home from Milan.

Do you know about Milan Expo?

http://www.expo2015.org/en/learn-more

The train across France from Milan to Spain is really slow. Plus I would prefer to visit Spain when it isn't hot summer.

Posted by
451 posts

We were hoping to spend some time in the southern part of France, so maybe tour this area before heading up to Paris?

Posted by
16895 posts

Your proposed route is logical, whether you start in Paris or reverse it and start in Madrid. Travel across the south of France is the slowest train-travel portion of the trip. That makes most sense if you break it up with stays in at least two spots, such as Nimes/Arles/Avignon, and on the coast around Nice. (If you were not making stops in the south of France, then budget flights would be an easy way to connect different countries.)

Rick’s Train Travel Time & cost Map gives you an overview of faster train travel times in hours, before you get down to detailed train schedules gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it.

Posted by
92 posts

Sasha,
Are you saying the the Milan Expo makes it a good time to go to Milan, or a its-very-crowded-stay-away time to go to Milan? The expo sounds fascinating, but busy.

Posted by
372 posts

also keep in mind that France is hosting the European Football (soccer) championships June 10 - July 10 in 2016. This is a HUGE event and it will be a very busy, albeit festive, time in France - especially the host cities of Lens/Lille, Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyon/St Etienne, Nice and Marseille. If you will be in France during this time frame book your hotels as soon as you have nailed down dates and book train travel as soon as the dates are available for purchase.

Posted by
451 posts

I'm also thinking of skipping Milan for another time and concentrating on zigzagging my way up France instead. From the reading I've been doing, south France is starting to loose my appeal.

Posted by
3275 posts

Iggy, I meant that I think it is a good time to visit Milan. It will be on for months so not the type of event that will make it super-crowded. Wish we could go!

Warren---is Switzerland still on the list? Then Spain, fast train to Paris ( I think it goes from Barcelona but I still haven't checked), and TGV to Switzerland is a good plan. From Paris you can get to Geneva, Lausanne, Basel, Lucerne, etc. easily. Maybe start with Geneva and work your way east, flying out of Zurich. to start with Lucerne and work your way west. You can fly out of Geneva without spending a night there is you have no interest; Montreux or Lausanne could be the last stop (as long as your flight is not early morning).

Posted by
451 posts

Switzerland is still on the list. Thank you for all the suggestions.

Posted by
15777 posts

If you can go in May, head straight to Spain (Madrid or Seville). Even then, consider whether you'll enjoy southern Spain. Temperatures are usually in the 90's and it's not at all unusual for them to go over 100 in the summer. In May it will already be pretty warm. Later than that, I'd skip it. From Madrid, take the train to Barcelona. Or skip Madrid/Andalusia. Barcelona is connected to Paris by the TGV (high speed train) which takes about 6.5 hours. Start in Paris and work your way down. There is quite a bit to see and do in Barcelona and the surrounding area.

Are you planning to rent a car at all? Or do you want to do it all by train/plane? If by car, you could fly to Paris, then train to, say, Salzburg and rent a car, spend some time in Alsace, Switzerland, then down through France to Toulouse. Drop the car and train to Barcelona. Fly home from there. You could probably do something similar without the car. The advantage to renting a car in France to see Switzerland is to avoid the hefty drop-off costs.

Whether you go to Southern Spain or not, I think mid-May is the best time to start. By mid-June you're in high season with the accompanying large numbers of tourists vying for the best rooms and going to the same sights. Remember, there are a lot of European tourists going to those places to, once school's out.

Lastly, Spain will be the cheapest place, Switzerland is very expensive - even for snack food and supermarket items. If you want to see the Alps, remember, France, Italy, Germany and Austria also have Alps.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.