Honeymoon Itinerary Help

In someways with ten days it should be either Paris and surrounding area (London, Amsterdam, Brussels) or Italy as planned. If Paris is absolute, then it has to be into Milan and home from Paris otherwise you spend too much time traveling. Maybe it should be Florence, CT, and on to Paris.

t_,

Although you only have 10 days for sightseeing, it would be possible to have a combined Paris / Italy honeymoon (provided you don't try to fit too many stops in). You didn't say where you were travelling from but in many cases you'll arrive in Europe the day after you depart and the last day will be the flight home, so that reduces your touring time.

One possibility you could consider is three days in Paris (keep in mind you'll be jet-lagged), take the train to Milan and spend the remainder of your time in that area (Florence, Cinque Terre, Lake Como or wherever), flying home from MXP. If you decide on that approach, you won't be able to see everything you wanted in Italy, so compromises will be necessary.

If you plan on staying in the Cinque Terre, I'd suggest booking rooms ASAP!

Congratulations!

t_,

To add in Paris will definitely tighten up your trip a bit and add more cost but it is certainly doable. If you would choose to take the train it looks like it would take, at minimum 13 to 14 hours and up to 20 or more depending on the time you choose to leave. On your time frame, I think that is far to long for me. I would look into flights. We had friends fly from Paris to Pisa on a smaller airline. I don't know the cost but I think it was one of the budget airlines. Maybe you could look into Ryan air or some other of the budget airlines. We did something similar by making it a long layover on our way home. So you may be able to check into flying from Milan to Paris, stay a couple of nights and then fly home. It is a short stop and you will still want to go back but you would be able to say you were there and saw some of the sites.

If you stay in Italy you will have a more leisurely trip. If you aren't the museum-type (I am not either), just consider that Florence is all about museums. I am glad that we went there but it was certainly not my favorite city. We went to the Uffizi and Accademia and I'm glad we did but for me that was a lot of "Madonna and Child" paintings. Wandering around the streets, climbing to the top of the Duomo bell tower, going into the churches for me was a high light. There is also Michelangelo Park which gives you a great view of the town at sunset is nice. I really like Siena and we have been twice. I know a lot of posters here like to just day trip there but I like to overnight there so you can experience it after everyone else goes back to Florence or wherever. It is quiet and you can have a romantic dinner at an outside cafe.

We are heading back to Venice next month. I'm looking forward to just roaming around the back streets and seeing some of the other churches. But read Rick's book for tricks of bypassing the waiting lines at San Marco etc. Worth the price of the book right there. We are also planning on doing a food tour in the Parma area with Italiandays.com. Heard it was great and it is in the area of your trip, so that might be of interest to you if you are more into that kind of thing rather than museums.

CT is of course very scenic. I would say a couple of days would be fine for there. Definitely have some pesto. Visiting there got us hooked. Had the BEST pesto lasagna in Vernazza and a piece of Pesto pizza in a little shop in Manarola. Awesome!

Have fun!

Fly into Venice (VCE). You can do so via some European hub or directly from the US with Delta (from JFK). US Air flies to VCE from PHL but only in summer.
After Venice take a train to Florence (2 hours). Visit Florence. From Florence take a train to the Cinque Terre. Visit the Cinque Terre. From the Cinque Terre go back to Pisa (90 min train ride) and catch a low cost flight to Paris (Easyjet). Visit Paris. Return home from Paris.
Recommended absolute minimum number of nights in each location is 2 nights. Paris at least 3. My ideal number of nights would be 2 or, even better, 3 in Venice, 3 in Florence, 2 at Cinque Terre, 4 in Paris. Not sure you have so many nights on the ground.

Congratulations on getting married! Italy is the perfect place to spend your honeymoon! We are doing the same for three weeks in September.

With only ten days and this being your first trip, I would recommend saving Paris for the next trip. All of that traveling would be so unromantic to me. If you must fly into Milan, I would suggest going up to Lake Como ( I prefer Bellagio and Borgo Le Terazze) for three or four nights then to Venice for three nights, then to Florence for three or four nights. You could day trip from Florence to hill towns.

Congrats again! :-)

Thanks for all of the replies, they are much appreciated. We will actually have 10 days on the ground, but the first will probably be spent getting over jet lag. After reading some replies, it seems as if it might be best to just stick to Italy for this trip? I haven't booked any flights yet, I had just noticed I could get non-stop roundtrip from JFK to Milan for $665, which seemed like a good deal, but perhaps it would be better to book a flight landing in VCE and out of a different airport?

Come into Milan as early in the day on the 16th as you can and head straight for the CT for 3 nights, then to Florence for 3, then to Paris for the remaining 4 or 5 nights. Stay a minimum of 3 days each place, and don't try to see too much, relax. Congratulations; have a great trip.

Hi,

Since you haven't been to Europe and will be on your honeymoon, I'll throw out some ideas that would be less traveling between locations and more time to enjoy. You could fly into Venice & head to Verona (1 hr by train), go north 1-2 hrs. by train into the Dolomites (Google image "Dolomites" for ideas of the views), and fly back out of Venice. The Dolomite area gives you the feel of both Italy & Germany/Austria with architecture & signage in dual languages. This itinerary would give you a lot more time to be doing something rather than travel time across Italy. But, whatever you decide, Italy is wonderful!

Verona (Romeo & Juliet!) - 3 days (nice town to get over jetlag)
Dolomites - 3 days
Venice - 3 days

Or, if you'd rather go to Paris, consider 5 days in Paris and possibly taking the convenient fast-train south to the Avignon or SE France area for a change of scenery & pace for the remaining 4 days. Paris is fantastic, and we really enjoyed the Roman ruins in Nimes, etc.

It sounds like my best bet might be some combination of Venice, Tuscany area, and CT. Any thoughts on if that would be too much or too little for 10 nights? Thought about adding Lake Como in some fashion, but don't want to put too much in. As far as flights, I had initially thought about flying round trip to Milan because the price was around $670, but it seems like the general suggestion might be to fly into Venice and out...? Milan? Thanks again for all the help!

Into Venice and out from Milan ( or vice versa) would work very well for an all-Italy trip. Take the timing of the flights into account to minimize stress and avoid super early morning flights out . If you can find a return flight from Milan to New York in the afternoon, you could spend your last two nights in Varenna on Lake Como. Then you would a mix of two and three-night stays in Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, and Varenna.

Book your train travel well in advance (like 3 months) on Trenitalia to get the super economy prices. Then consider using what you save for a car service from Varenna back to your Milan airport ( Malpensa or Linate). Or you can take the train, it is only an hour to Milan and another 45 minutes or so to Malpensa, and much cheaper.

If it is a lot cheaper to fly into and out of Milan don't worry. You can still get to Venice that day. The train takes 2.75 hours from Milano Centrale and again you can get cheap tickets in advance. Get your flight tickets first then work your itinerary around them.

Save Paris for your 5th anniversary.