Italy & Paris

You need to get some guide books and start reading up on different places. You cannot figure out your transportation until you know where you're going. You have a year to figure this out and fine tune your plans. You need to start at the beginning and that means reading some guide books and picking out destinations.

Donna

Hi Charlene,

It is great that you are starting to plan now. Are your friends equally invested in planing this trip? I ask because i have been the designated "planner" on trips in the past and inevitably there is always someone that hasn't contributed whatsoever to the planning and then complains about the hotel choices, or prices, or locations , or there isn't a/c, etc. Some people assume that since I like planning that I like planning their vacations. Nope, I just do my research.

That said, what are your interests? What are your friends interests? Budget? Must sees? Etc.

charlene,

As you've never been to Europe before, I'd suggest reading Europe Through The Back Door as that provides a lot of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe. Once you've decided where you'll be going, use the country or city-specific Guidebooks to plan things like hotels, transportation, sightseeing, etc.

It would help to have some idea on other places you're interested in visiting, besides the Cinque Terre and Paris. You might find it helpful to make a list of cities (listed in order of priority) for both the first half of your trip with one friend, as well as the second half with the other friend.

One of the first things to take care of will be ensuring that everyone has a Passport.

These are some great resources that I learned about here on the forum when I planned my first trip:

dbahn.de: this is the German rail site that shows train times and schedules for all European travel.

seat61.com: this site is a great overview on train travel and gives all kinds of useful information.

parisbytrain.com: Paris specific information on getting around by train and metro

Rick Steves guidebooks: his books are fantastic for giving you details on the towns you'll be visiting. You can buy them or check them out of your local library

Have fun planning!

You've gotten the very best general advice possible, and that will inform your transportation choices. For instance, if you just want to go from Italy to Paris, you might fly, but if you want to spend time in any of the great places along the way (Provence? Swiss alps?) you might take the train. If you want to delve deep into the countryside, a car is very helpful. You can combine all these modes as well.

In my experience, on a long trip it is important to vary pace and tempo. Travel is exhausting! and places like the CT can do double duty, both as interesting destinations and as places to relax and recharge.

For that reasons I would not start there, but you'll have a better sense of what you want to do as you firm up your itinerary.

Do plan your destinations first and worry about transportation later. It makes sense to fly a multi-city or "open jaws" flight plan, such as into Italy and out from Paris (or wherever you will end the trip); there's no need to backtrack. For instance, you could fly into Venice, work your way south through Italy, then fly from Rome to Paris (www.skyscanner.com). Train tickets from Italy (e.g., Milan) to Paris go on sale 3 - 4 months in advance of the travel date but may still be more expensive than flying.

Thanks for all the info. After reading all of your posts I contacted my friend and suggested that we both read Europe Through the Backdoor and decide what is important to us. I know that we do not want to rush, we want to spend time "just being" places. We have much to do and learn. I know I'll have more questions as we go along.

Thanks again.
C