Getting Over Jet Lag Before Venice, Florence, Rome Tour

I'd prefer to go straight to Venice rather than subjecting myself to a significant travel day two days later. I especially wouldn't want to be in London, where a flight issue could cause last-minute problems. If you look at the tour plan in Venice and decide you don't need two extra days there, you have many attractive nearby options for side-trips, starting with Padua and Vicenza. If you don't like the cost of two extra nights in the tour hotel in Venice, you could spend those nights in Padua, which is quite an interesting city.

I'd do London since you know you like it there and you won't have to stress about navigating while jet lagged somewhere you've never been.

Absolutely go to Venice. The first day will be a haze. The next day you can see some of the charm of Venice if you wander, get off the tourist track. The next day visit the Academia or the Guggenheim in the morning and meet up with your group.

I vote for the Varenna plan.

Getting there is straightforward and is a wonderful place to 'recover'

We always pick a low key location to start our vacations as well. It’s so much easier to ease into the time change and catch up on sleep if needed before you hit the ground running on the tour. We decompressed twice at Lake Como and I would highly recommend it.

I would also recommend arriving in Venice a couple days before your tour begins. We are also from the West Coast. When we arrived we took a walk, had an early dinner and stayed up as long as possible. We were up early the next morning after a good nights sleep. Venice is a wonderful place to relax, get settled in and visit an area or site that isn’t covered on your tour. We spent a week there prior to our Adriatic Tour.

Hi Mel, I agree with Joe and April and highly recommend Varenna on Lake Como to begin your journey. Furthermore, air fare may be cheaper if flying into Malpensa. To get from the airport to the Varenna-Esino station, you’ll need to connect at the Milano Centrale station (2h 15m). Make sure you hop on the 15-minute ferry to Bellagio from Varenna.

My original thoughts for pre tour ideas were similar to yours. As it worked out I went direct to Venice believing I’d do a side trip as I visited Italy and Venice before.

I Landed with a cold. I spent the first day going to the local pharmacy and help for it. I prebooked myself into the tour hotel, concierge pointed me to closet pharmacy.
I forced myself out for a light evening meal then a brief stroll. Bed early.

Second day I walked quite a bit and saw some sights and spent time getting the sun and hydrating a lot. Another light meal day, orientation to hotel neighborhood,

So my idea of a side trip went out the window. I was happy to have 2 nights just to rest up and be well for the tour. Flexibility and the attitude to adapt to your situation is essential.

Going to Lake Como for one day is not very relaxing to get over jet lag. 2-3 nights there would be a more practical Pretour idea.

I think Venice is a great option because it’s so relaxing not to have to contend with cars. If you avoid the main tourist routes, it’s very quiet and peaceful.

We find Venice itself is a perfect place to get over jet lag

I spent several days in Venice before the tour, there was a lot more to see there than the tour had time for. One day was a trip to Padua and back. I agree with the poster who found the absence of cars relaxing. I wouldn't recommend stopping somewhere else, like Como or London, because you'll still have to travel on to Venice. Might as well just get there and recuperate there. Sights not on the tour that I enjoyed included San Giorgio Maggiore, Frari Church, Ca' Rezzonico, Correr Museum, Ghetto, and just wandering around getting lost. I got a three-day vaporetto pass and took lots of rides (sometimes in the wrong direction by mistake, but what the hell).

Wherever you stop, make it somewhere in Italy in case there are still travel restrictions between countries.

My two cents - Fly straight to Venice and recuperate there from jet lag. Get some shuteye and then wander around that beautiful city. Adding more flights and travel before getting to Venice will be exhausting and not rejuvenating.

We did what you are proposing: three nights in Varenna (+ one in Milan) before taking the train to Venice for the start of the tour. We saw it as likely our only opportunity to see Lake Como, so why not? We were both severely jet lagged that trip, so would not have enjoyed a bigger, busier place for those first few days. Seems like London would take away a good part of your energy. But extra nights in Venice is not a bad idea either.

Any of the options that take you directly to Italy. I love London and all, but getting into and out of the UK is a crap shoot during the best (ie, pre Brexit, non-pandemic). I can't even begin to imagine what might go wrong this summer.

So get ye to Italy and enjoy!

Wow! What wonderful and thoughtful series of replies. Thanks everyone. First of all feeling even better about traveling with other Rick Steves travelers and secondly better that my two main choices will be fine.

Either recoup and enjoy a bit of Lake Como or just arrive early in Venice. I'm partial to visiting Lake Como anyway, but we are also planning to do a ten day trip into Germany after our Italy tour, so it may make more sense to do Lake Como as our chill out between the two tours. Also, I really want to see the Academe in Venice.

One goal of my Italy trip is to see as many Galileo related sites as I can and he was associated with the Academe. He showed his first telescopa to the Doge and his court from the Capilina and eventually took a patronage in Florence before being tried in Rome for heresy, (it still moves!) so, making his story the must see bit of my trip is something I'm looking forward too.

When I fly from the West Coast to Europe I never have jet lag going (but I do have it when I get home). I try to fly overnight (I can sleep on a plane), getting into my destination around the afternoon, by the time I reach my lodging go find dinner and walk around a little it is time for bed and I just go to bed like normal making sure to get my 8 hours of sleep and wake up the next day feeling like a normal day and I Hydrate once I land and keep it up till bedtime.

I love it that you’re planning a Galileo-focused trip! Maybe you could spend a day or more before the tour starts exploring Padova, since he taught at the University.

Stop in Iceland for the two days. Something different. It breaks up the flight nicely

How about just staying in Milan? Lots of things to enjoy there including The Last Supper!

I'm sketching out the same variations on pre VFR as you! I've nearly decided to spend two nights in Varenna. That could change as I also sketch out my post VFR in Sorrento and try to decide how long I can reasonably stay in Europe once I've crossed the Atlantic!

The relaxation of the lakes area is really what I'm jonesing for. And then I'm thinking of spending one or two nights in Padua before getting into Venice for the group tour. I do have a "credit" from a pre VFR hotel from my cancelled March 2020 tour but this tour isn't staying at that location. I could stay there anyway as a pre tour night except it shows being fully booked.

I'm not sure. We are heading onto Germany after the trip to eventually end up in Berlin. I'm debating whether to just fly into Venice early and maybe do the lakes on the way into Germany via Switzerland or take the night train from Rome to Munich and spend time in the Bavarian Alps doing day trips from there. I know I want to see a bit of Alpine Europe at least along the edges. I don't think our budget could stand a significant visit to Switzerland! My partner want's to just settle in two more cities for four or five days each at the end of the trip, I'm a see as much as we can sort of traveller, which is why I booked the RS tour.

As I sketch out flight options (hypothetical as the schedules aren't posted yet for June 2022) it looks like flying into Venice (I originate from Nashville) is $600 more AND I'd have a 6 hour layover at JFK. I'd much rather spend that time and money by dittling along from Milan to Venice!