2 weeks in Italy & Switzerland

www.seat61.com is your friend for rail travel across Europe. Avoid Eurail which doesn't list all the fares and is always much higher than rail companies in each country. A rail pass is often a bad idea since you will still need reservations on many high speed trains. Tickets often go on sale 90 - 120 days prior to your travel date. Advance tickets are quite inexpensive on high speed trains, Trenitalia is one company for Italy. For local trains, there is no need to purchase in advance. You will be able to travel by rail quite cheaply. Make sure you arrange your travel using the most logical routes between countries.

Transportation between countries will take up a lot of time and will eat into your budget BIG TIME.....changing locations less will be more economical.....there will definitely be plenty to keep you entertained in whatever base city you choose, since you are flying in/out of Rome, if you still are hoping to do more countries, just stick with Rome and explore there and maybe visit a little outside of the city if you want?

Thanks for so much for your responses. I get the point that 3 is too much in 2 weeks but we really want to maximise our sight seeing in this period. If I just narrow it down to 2 counties including Italy (Rome,Florence, Venice and cinque Terre) and one of Austria,France,Germany or Switzerland..can you please suggest a must-go and easily reachable country? We will cover our share of architecture and history in Italy. Rest we want to feast our eyes on some breathtaking views.

"Breathtaking views" says "Switzerland," although there are plenty of same in the Italian and Austrian Alps and the Dolomites (which have an Austrian cultural influence.) One problem is that returning to Rome will eat up an entire day (and cost you). A day is a lot in a short, eat-all-you-can itinerary.

A different kind of breathtaking views are available on the Italian Riviera. That locale would probably work best with your plan to fly home from Rome.

For logistics and cost savings, I'm going to suggest you investigate (1) buying second-class tickets rather than a rail pass and (2) flying open jaw. Often what looks like the best arrangement has hidden costs, such as the trip back to Rome.

You also could do kind of a Rome/Venice/Dolomites/Austria type of trip or a Rome/Florence/Italian Riviera/Swiss Alps type of trip, and not NEED to go to the other extra country.....though there are many differences between Switzerland & Austria, seeing double of the same, yet different type of places might be too much for 2 weeks....

I would suggest Italy and either southern Switzerland or the Tirol region of Austria. If you want the scenic experience of Switzerland or Austria, the Dolomites in Italy might do the trick. Any of the northern Italian lakes will be great, look at options for what you want to do.

A common fallacy for travelers is that going to more locations increases sightseeing value, it actually does the opposite. Unless you consider train stations and carriages sightseeing.

Check Rome2rio.com to plot your route and get approximate travel costs. Leave Raileurope behind you.

You are trying to fit too much in a short time and a tight budget.
Also you need to indicate how many nights you are on the ground. Two weeks is vague. Do they include the travel days from/to India?
If you return from Rome you should leave it for last, so you are closer to the airport before returning.
Not sure when your plane arrives, but you could do:
Arrive Rome, go immediately to Cinque Terre (or maybe the next day) by train.
Cinque Terre 2 nights
Florence 2 or 3 nights
Venice 2 or 3 nights
The above transfers all by train.
Fly to Paris from Venice (EasyJet)
Paris 4 nights
Fly back to Rome from Paris
Rome 3 or 4 nights
That's already at least 2 weeks. You can't fit much more.
An alternative could be to visit Switzerland after Venice (instead of Paris). In that case it's probably more efficient to go by train. Then from Switzerland back to Rome you could take a train. You could fly also, but you'd need to go all the way up to Zurich, which is not my favorite town in Switzerland (I suggest Lucerne or Berne).
However I would stick to Italy the whole time. You can add the Dolomites if you want an Austrian looking mountain landscape. Besides Italy is considerably cheaper than Switzerland or France or Austria.

Hi,
Your insights are very useful..I am worried about the costs in the open jaw travel..All the one-way fares to Mumbai are much costlier than rt from Rome. Please improvise the below itinerary that I am considering-
4th June- fly from Mumbai by Qatar airways and reach rome at 13:25. Do nothing
5th June- local sight seeing including pantheon and colosseum

6th June- Vatican City
7th June- take a fast train to Florence early morning
8th June- day trip to siena. Take a train to cinqueTerre in the night
9th and 10th June- stay in CT

11th June- take a train to Nice
Stay for 2 nights
13th June- fly to Paris from nice
stay for 4 nights
17th June- fly to Rome from Paris
18th June- back to Bombay from rome

Alternate itinerary from 11th:
11th June- CT to Venice train.
stay for 2 nights and 3 days in Venice
13th June- take a morning train to Dolomites
14th June- stay near dolomites
14th June night- take overnight train from dolomites to Innsbruk

15th June- stay in Innsbruk

16th June- take a train to salzburg

stay for 2 nights
18th June- where to fly from? Salzburg flight to Mumbai too expensive

what say ? ?

Congratulations on planning a trip for your celebration! Check out the comparison of the entire cost of the trip if you:
1. Need to buy train tickets to return to Rome.
2. Could fly back home from Munich, for instance. Here's an itinerary, including the transportation times. You can see that most of these are quick, so you can maximize your actual vacation time vs. being on a train/plane. Most of these would give you at least 1.75 days per location. You can purchase train tickets two months ahead for Italy and save money, too.

Fly into Rome
(1.5 hrs by train to) Florence
(2 hrs by train to) Venice
(1 hr by train to) Verona (you could skip this location)
(3 hrs by train to Ortisei) Italian Dolomites. The Dolomites are one of our personal favorites.
(4.5 hrs by train to) Salzburg, Austria (Innsbruck area or Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany are alternatives)
(1.5 hrs by train to) Munich. Fly back home from Munich

Switzerland is very expensive - train cost & meals. The larger, more popular cities in each country will also more expensive than smaller towns.

Perhaps I misread your last post. An open jaw ticket is not two one-way tickets, check the airlines' multi-city tab to compare prices. This multi-city or open jaw ticket is usual not much more than a round trip in and out of the same city.

I see you just posted while I was creating my response above. My suggestion is to look at all of the travel time between locations (including waiting at the airport, etc.) to see how much time you're actually seeing something. We try to limit our transportation time between locations to a maximum of 2.5-3 hours, so that we don't feel like we spent our vacation on a train, etc. We'll grab a sandwich, etc. and be ready to go when we reach the next destination.

To summarize, it's your vacation. Prioritize your locations in rank order, check out hotel prices in those locations, calculate the transportation times between adding/subtracting locations, and enjoy your trip!

MY TRAVEL RULES

The best way to plan a trip is to plan nights in each place, not days.

The best way to enjoy a trip is to spend at least two nights in the same hotel because otherwise too much time is wasted changing hotels (pack, unpack, check in, check out). If some destinations are close to one another (less than 1.5 hours apart) sometimes it's better to choose one as a hotel base and visit the other as a day trip from there, that way you don't waste time transferring hotels.

An open jaw multi city flight is often cheaper than a return ticket from the same airport, because tracking back to the arrival airport to return home costs money and time. Trains aren't free.

Based on the above rules I would strike out several of your destinations in your plans. You left one night only for the Dolomites with no time to actually see them. Same with Innsbruck, one night only and no time to visit anything. Also there are no trains going to the Dolomites. At most you can reach Bolzano or Chiusa, but then you need a bus from there. Not sure about night trains from Bolzano to Innsbruck either. Have you checked? Night trains are very few nowadays, since people prefer the fast high speed trains or even flying low cost, both of which operate during the day.

Thanks..That's a great idea..to go to Munich and fly back. I can also take a flight ($125 for 2) to Rome and then take a return flight to Bombay.
After dolomite i can take an overnight train to salzburg, and then to Munich. Overall dolomite to salzburg will be the only longish train travel. Rest all are within 300 km.

Except that there are no (night) trains from the Dolomites to Salzburg. You'll have to take several modes of transportation to get there. Bus first, then at least a couple of trains (not night trains). Plan for a 6 hr trip.

Hi Roberto..I checked your reply after I posted..it's true that I am giving 1 night and 2 days to dolomites which is unfair..rest all the locations are being given 2 nights.
Since I am visiting salzburg and Munich now..Can dolomites be skipped? After Venice I can directly go to salzburg and then to Munich. Please advise. Does salzburg offer simliar picturesque views like the Dolomites ? What is the best way to reach Salzburg from Venice?

If you don't have 2 nights for the Dolomites, skip them. Getting there from Venice by train and bus will take several hours. Then from the Dolomites to Salzburg (by bus plus train), it's another 6 hours. So with one night only you would have no time to actually see or do anything because the next morning after you arrive you need to get back on the road to head to Austria. So going to the Dolomites just to see the mountains from the hotel room at breakfast before checking out is not worth it.

Salzburg is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe (and the world). There are beautiful mountains nearby, but you'd need to take a day trip by bus to actually enjoy them, because Salzburg sits down in a valley. If you stay at least 3 nights, you could do that, otherwise you might have time just for the city itself and the nearby castles (already a lot to see in a day).

From Venice to Salzburg train is the only viable option, since there are no direct flights between the two. Either way it's an all day trip. Do so during the day, because the views of the mountains from the train will be stunning.

Hi
Your itinerary is too ambitious if you're planning to travel to above cities in Europe. As a first time traveler, its important to truly enjoy your trip rather than spending more time traveling just to be traveling and you may end up listless and end up spending more time in planes, trains, and long queues:)
As a frequent traveler I would recommend you to maximize your limited vacations by taking a half day trip upon arrival in Rome.
Pantheon and Coliseum can be done same day with the walking tour, in less than 3 hours. (viator.com), and Vatican tour do it next day in the morning with same tour company and you will be done by noon. You can spend rest of the day walking visiting Trevi fountain and Spanish Steps.
Spend 2 days in Rome.
Train to Florence
select the hotel close to Duomo, so you can walk to your hotel from the train station.
Day trip to Siena, san gimignano, Tuscany, and Pisa. approximately 12 hours, viator.com.
Spend 3 days in Florence.

Train to Venice
2 days local sight seeing, and half day trip to the 3 islands,
fly from Venice to Nice.
Local Sight seeing, Cannes, can be done same day by train.
Villafranche, Eze, and Monaco next day by local bus, or tour operator.
2 days in Nice.
loco2.com to book from nice to Paris.
Either take a night train to Paris reaching early in the morning or next day early morning train reaching Paris later in the afternoon. I highly recommend train to flight because you will be in the center of the Paris upon arrival by train. Air travel will be same time as train since its an hour drive to Paris (Note Dame) from the airport.
4 days in Paris. choose your hotel close to Notre Dame. and buy the 4 days River seine pass, it will be helpful. Take a day trip to Versailles too.
Fly out from Paris to Rome to Mumbai.
CT is an Italian village, I am sure we have seen plenty of them in India too:), Salzburg, Innsbruck, Munich, and others leave it for future trips.
Itinerary I recommend is doable and you will cherish your travel. If I missed out something, I am sure others will help you out to make your trip close to perfect:)
enjoy, later.

Thanks for all the insights..However Paris is not something that I want to visit badly. I can couple it with Netherlands in my future trips. For now dividing my time between Italy (8 nights) and Austria (6 nights) seems exciting.
Rome - 3 nights
Florence- 2 nights
CT - 1 night
Venice- 2 nights
Salzburg- 3 nights
Vienna- 3 nights
fly back to Bombay from Vienna
any thoughts?

I agree with the others in terms of your itinerary being too ambitious.

• If you have not traveled to Italy before, I would recommend doing the big 3, Venice, Florence & Rome.
• Consider getting an open jaw multi city flight (arrive in Venice & fly out of Rome).
• Since you have 12-13 nights, you could also add Cinque Terre &/ or the Amalfi Coast.

Sample itinerary would look like this:

1. arrive in Venice- 3 nights
2. train to Florence-3 nights
3. train to C.T. or A.C.- 3 nights
4. train to Rome- 3 nights
5. If time allows, add one night to Rome or Florence & take day trip to nearby cities.
6. Fly home from Rome

12 days go very quickly when you're on vacation & even faster if you're moving from place to place.

Keep in mind that less is more when it comes to traveling.

Happy planning!
P.S. I was writing this post not knowing you had posted a new itinerary.

Your revised itinerary looks better, however I would spend 3 nights in Florence & skip C.T.

Re-read Roberto's post regarding the travel time from Venice to Salzburg.

In my opinion, I would leave Austria for another trip & I'd enjoy Italy for the entire 14 days.

So... keep in mind that this is my opinion, however, this is your trip, so make the best of it!

Okay, agreed that Italy is heavy on places of interest..but I am not too keen on visiting just 1 country for 2 weeks..at least 5 cities across 2 countries sounds good to me. I don't mind stretching my limits..it's not often that I travel to Europe so I wanna make the most of it!
Given by all of your responses, if I am still ambitious would u suggest some other 2 countries that are doable in 2 weeks that are not so heavy on sights and itinerary? Maybe France and Netherlands for example..
Since I have plenty of time till June, i can afford to evaluate all options.

" 2 countries that are doable in 2 weeks that are not so heavy on sights and itinerary? Maybe France and Netherlands "

Maybe we are missing something here- what is the purpose of the trip if not to see the sights?

I mean to say..2 countries that are not so cluttered with touristy places..where I can take a vacation from my vacation!! Italy has so much to offer.

This is the Italy page- you might want to try the pages devoted to those other countries to get a clearer idea. Have a great trip!

Hi! Sure..But evaluating Italy won't hurt.
How about doing Italian riviera and skipping Austria ?

Okay, agreed that Italy is heavy on places of interest..but I am not
too keen on visiting just 1 country for 2 weeks..at least 5 cities
across 2 countries sounds good to me. I don't mind stretching my
limits..it's not often that I travel to Europe so I wanna make the
most of it!

• It's understandable to want to visit as many countries as possible &
  it's definitely do-able.

• You have received many suggestions by the other posters.

• I would recommend reading some guidebooks & see what itineraries they
  suggest & decide what you want to do & see.

• You may visit as many countries as you wish, but just keep in mind that the more you travel, the more it will cost you( money wise).

• Re-read some of the previous posts as they have given you several good ideas.

• Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France, etc... are all beautiful countries full of interesting sights.

As I read your posts, I am reminded of my 2nd trip to Europe.
I also had 14 days & decided to travel to Spain, France, & Italy.
During the trip, I kept wishing we had planned for 3 or 4 weeks instead of 2.
Much of our time was taken up by traveling from one place to another & we didn't enjoy each destination enough.
By the end of our trip, we were exhausted & I told myself I would never do this again.

Enjoy your trip!

Just a note on getting from Venice to Paris by air. I checked both Easy Jet and Air France and because of all the extra charges on Easy Jet, Air France was actually about $20 USD cheaper for my husband & myself to fly from Venice to Paris (May 2015). And I concur that 2 weeks is not enough time to see 3 countries. We are doing Rome (5 nights), Venice (3 nights) and Paris (7 nights) next May and I know I will wish for longer in Rome for sure and maybe Venice. Since this will be my 3rd trip to Paris, I think a week is good. Enjoy your trip!

Hi
I don't want to sound rude, but please take a break and read travel books for Europe and make up your mind if you want to be in Amsterdam, CT, or Salzburg in 2 weeks. You seem to contradict yourself and confuse about your travel plans. Forums helps to fill in the gaps of your planned itinerary but definitely not to built one. You got enough replies for your unplanned trip. later.

Hey karan, thanks for the honest feedback. I will definitely read more and come back with more specific questions..btw which guide book for Austria and Italy should I refer? Rick Steves/lonely planet? I know this question is blasphemous in a RS forum :)

Get several guidebooks - you may be able to get them at a library of you don't want to buy them. But considering the cost of the whole trip, investing in a few books to guide you to the things that truly interest you and find out how best to do those specific things is the sensible way to go.

Hey!
Need suggestions for dolomites and Swiss alps. I am getting a cheap open jaw flight from Mumbai-Rome and Zurich-Mumbai. In Italy I can spend 8 nights in Rome (3 nights), Florence (2 nights), Venice (3 nights). Rest 7 nights I wanna spend in the dolomites or the Swiss alps

but which one to choose..Dolomites are definitely cheaper than Swiss but I will anyways travel to Zurich for flying back home.
Plus really wanna visit Zermatt, saas fee, Interlaken and nearby villages. Plus getting to Dolomites from Venice is really a task
Any suggestions?

If you choose the Dolomites you shouldn't fly out of Zurich. Venice or also Milan are much closer. Actually even Munich or Rome are closer to the Dolomites than Zurich.

I really have a hard time keeping up with your plans. You are all over the place. I think it's best that first YOU decide what you want to see, then WE help you get there efficiently and organize your travel plan.

My only recommendation is to avoid changing hotels every night. Try to stay at least two nights in each place, and maybe use that location as a base for day trips to places within 1 -2 hour radius. Changing hotels often, with the packing, unpacking and checking in and out process, takes a lot of time away from the actual sightseeing.

Hi A"diti
Great ! finally, your itinerary for Italy looks great. If you are flying out of Zurich, I would recommend split your week between Interlaken and Lucerne in Switzerland. Don't make it too complicate, I have been in your shoes before, keep your travel simple and enjoy your stay since you have limited travel time. enjoy ! Later:)
PS***guide books, Frommer's travel guide, Fodor's travel guide, check out Globus & Cosmos itineraries for your travel plans.

Hi Karan..Thanks for the inputs..did a bit of reading from the Internet and lonely planet.
Below is the itinerary that I see doable..pardon for confusing everyone with vague questions and too many itineraries..it's not often that I travel to Europe..but I appreciate all the responses I received on this forum :)
3 nights- Rome

2 nights- Florence ( day trip to pisa included)
3 nights- Venice
Dropped cinque Terre..will plan it for later covering entire Italian riviera
Switzerland: fly to Zurich from Venice
2 nights- Zurich
2 nights- Lucerne

2 nights- lauterbrunnen

1 night- zermatt

take a train from zermatt to Zurich
Next day eve fly back to Mumbai from Zurich
Please share your feedback..your responses are appreciated!