This itin for 1 mo. in UK, France, Switz. and Italy look okay?

1. You've asked a series of questions involving complicated relationship of weather at specific locations at specific times. You should view with caution in generalizations attempted. I suggest you make your own weather-related decisions based on the weather data available

available at this website

the best weather website I've found, you input your location and time span (up to 14 days) and it neatly summarizes the last 10 to 15 years of weather at the location and span of dates.

As a very general statement only, October is a transition month, weather-wise, in much of Europe. That's why the link to the website is the best advice I can give.

1. You saw Swiss mountain weather but then list Zurich and Interlakken. Even from Interlakken you're not in the mountains, you can only (if you're lucky weather-wise) see them. To be in the mountains will require going from Interlakken to the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

You've got 14 destinations in 28 days. To see what that is like, flesh out your list of stops with your travel times (including your flights to and from San Francisco) and activities you know you want to do (like your 4-5-day bike tour).

Good for you for wanting to see the countryside. To minimize the risk that bad weather will mar one or more of your scenic destinations, hedge your bets by spending more than one night at each one.

A month may not be a marathon, but it is also not a sprint. You need to pace yourself.

And, fewer destinations are cheaper, since you avoid the travel costs, and get more bang for your euro by spending more time sightseeing and less time in trains and airports. For budget-sensitive travelers, a fast pace is not always the best value. The second and third day someplace new, once you know the lay of the land a little, can be more rewarding than the first.

In the end it is your trip and your sensibilities and I am not trying to talk you into or out of anything. But if you and yours have not wrestled with these issues you should.

Have a great trip!

The really awkward part of this trip seems to be the trip to Provence. That will require doubling back however you do it. Which city will you depart from to return home? If it's Rome, then your plan sounds basically ok. You might want to spend a few nights in a few of these places and take daytrips. I wouldn't expect a lot of bad weather; in fact, this is the time of year that I prefer to travel and have seldom run into much rain or cold. If you are returning from Paris, you might stop in Arles or Avignon on your way there from Italy.

Yolanda,

Trying to visit 12 cities, one large area with multiple towns (Lake Como) and two regions (Provence, Umbria) in a one month time frame is going to be VERY DIFFICULT (if not impossible) to achieve, unless you only spend one or two days in each place and travel in a "blitz" fashion. Some of the locations you've listed are somewhat "geographically distant" and it's extremely important to allow adequate travel times.

It's a good idea to allocate more time to the larger cities (London/Paris/Rome) as there's so MUCH to see and do. My suggestion would be at least 3-4 days for each, but of course you'll have to balance that against your interests and your budget.

Some of your trips will be fairly short by rail (~2 hours) while some will be ~5-6 hours (basically a full travel day, including time to & from Hotels, check-in, getting settled, etc.).

Were you planning to use open-jaw flights (inbound London, outbound Rome)? Have you booked any accommodations yet?

Given that you've only got a month to work out the details, you'll need to get this sorted very quickly.

Good luck!

Thanks so much for these thoughtful responses. I realized myself after I wrote that there are too many cities in there, and that it probably makes more sense to drop some of the cities/regions in Italy, and also to go directly to Provence from Paris, bike ride for 2-3 days, then can go to Switzerland and Italy without switchbacks. I will check the weather site, thanks! (I was using Interlakken as shorthand for the mountains in that area. Now that I think about it, I don't think 3-4 days in Provence should make that big a differnce for weather, but will check the site. Thanks again!
.yo

Oh, I forgot to say we are flying in to London and at the end, flying from Rome back to London on EasyJet.

Since I will need to cut some cities in Italy, does anyone have thoughts on what to leave out?

Lake Como/ Verona/Venice/Cinque Terra/Lucca/Florence/Siena/Umbria/

Must go to Rome as are flying from there to London for the return journey.

From that list I would omit Verona and Lucca.