Need Help Planning a Honeymoon

Start reading everything available here & from Rick's outfit. Booking at this late date will prove to be much more costly then advance planning for a fall trip. Best wishes!

First of all, where do you want to go? Had any life-long dreams? Ancestry may be a factor.....grandparents, great grandparents born somewhere in Europe you've always wanted to visit? You've posted on the "Italy" section of this thread, so I'm guessing Italy is on your list! Secondly, two weeks sounds like a long time when you're planning your trip, but when you eliminate two days of ground time because of International flights, you're down to 12 days. Third, pick at the most two countries. I'd prefer to spend the entire time in one country, because of the time it takes to transfer locations with hotel check out, taxi to train, train time, taxi to next hotel, check in, etc. Always a half day. Three cities is about right, allowing four nights and about 3 - 3 1/2 days in each place. You could easily spend all of it in Italy! Rome, Florence, Venice, for example. I've been many times, and I just never get tired of Italy. You could spend all 12 days in Rome, but understand on your first trip you probably won't want to do that! If you must, you could do Rome, Florence, Paris. (just a thought). Check flights, and make sure to schedule an "open jaw" to fly into one city and depart from another to save travel time. In Italy, I usually fly into Rome and depart either Venice or Milan (working my way North). Time is precious on a vacation, and I'd rather slow down and enjoy a city, rather than rushing around for two days, getting on a train/bus, rushing to the next, etc. Wasted a lot of time on trains! I did that my first time and vowed never again~!

Start by reading and watching as much as you can. You can see Rick's videos on Hulu and YouTube. You should also get Rick Steves Europe Through The Back Door, which has lots of information about the "nuts and bolts" of European travel, including how to plan. Yes, two weeks means you will have to brutally selec-tive. Remember the following: 1. Two nights in a location is one full day, not two full days. 2. The day of departure from the US and the day of return to the US do not count as days to see Europe. 3. The day of arrival is often a jet-lagged haze; you can do light sightseeing, but should not plan on anything too taxing, or that takes you indoors for too long. 4. When you change locations, even close together ones like Rome and Florence, you lose a half day - pack up, check out, get to train station, wait for train, take train, get from new train station to hotel, check in... And if you're connecting farther-flung places, or taking a flight instead of a train/bus, you use most of a day.
5. Some places combine well and others don't, due to transit links. Examples of places that seem close to each other but can be difficult to combine in one trip are Spain/Portugal and Croatia/Italy. But high speed trains make other combinations easy (Frankfurt to Paris is less than 4 hours). In general (very general) the further south and east in Europe that you go, the longer travel between places takes. And, while budget flights can work well, they don't connect every pair of places; even when they exist, they don't necessarily fly every day. continued..

Continued.. See what places call to you. Then, get guidebooks (Rick's and/or others) for your destinations. This board (and others, like TripAdvisor and Fodors) are not good for general questions ("where should I go in Italy"), but are great for specifics ("I'm interested in WWII sights in France. Which are the most worthwhile?")

At this late date with wedding in early March, I think you have enough going on to plan your first European vacation. Suggest you wait until maybe the fall after heights of tourist season. That gives you and new wife time to plan. Am sure she has enough going on now too with only about six weeks to go. Why not just go away for a few days after wedding and then go away at later date. My sons both went away day after their wedding and said after that they wished they had waited a few months, it was just too much added stress.

Follow Harold's advice. It's perfect, I have nothing to add.

First, CONGRATULATIONS. As others have already said, I encourage you, especially on your honeymoon, to limit yourself to two or three base cities. Resist the urge to see as much as possible. Don't fret that you might never return. Four or five days in one city is not that long, if you use a day for a road trip, such as from Florence to Pisa, or from Paris to Versailles. Also, part of the charm of Euroope is Slow Travel - spend an afternoon sitting in a cafe in a plaza, sipping a glass of champagne/prosecco and soaking it all in. Along those lines, I'd even go further and suggest that you consider spending two or three days off the beaten path in a small village/town with nothing but a romantic B&B, beautiful scenery, and a few bistros or trattorias. Spiez, Switzerland? Bellagio, Italy? Resist the urge to see as much as possible and slow down.

Ali, First of all, congratulations! The others have provided lots of great advice. As Harold mentioned, the first step is to read Europe Through The Back Door as that provides a lot of great information on "how" to travel in Europe. After that, use the country-specific Guidebooks to plan sightseeing, hotels, restaurants and transportation in the places you'll be visiting. As some of the others have mentioned, since March is not far away, it would probably be better to plan your trip for the fall shoulder season (Sept./Oct.), especially as you don't have a clear idea at this point on exactly where you want to go in Europe. That will also provide more time for planning and putting the arrangements in place. A bit more information would be helpful. For example, what prompted the desire to travel to Europe now? That might provide a few clues on which countries to visit. As the others have mentioned, it's important not to try and fit too many places into such a short time frame. Each change of location will require both time and money. It would also help to have some idea on: > what kind of budget you're working with? > how you're planning to get around (ie: train, bus, car)? > what type of sights you're interested in (ie: Churches, Museums, historic sites, etc.)? The more time spent in planning and education will help to ensure a wonderful and (hopefully) trouble free once-in-a-lifetime trip. Good luck with your planning!

Congratulations on the upcoming nuptials! We just went on our honeymoon in November and spent all of it in Italy. I would recommend flying into either Rome or Venice. If you have never been to Italy before, I suggest starting in Venice. It is more laid back than Rome or Florence. We spent 12 days traveling and did something similar to this: Day 1 depart US Day 2 Arrive in Venice and wander the city Day 3-4 Sights in Venice - San Marco, Rialto Bridge, Accademia museum, Doge's Palace Day 5 Train to Florence, wander around the Duomo area Day 6-8 Florence museums, churches, maybe side trip to Sienna Day 9-13 Train to Rome, sights in Rome, maybe side trip to Orvietto, Ostia Antica
Day 14 Fly home This gets you to the major sights and plenty of time to enjoy each other without being rushed. You could also take a day or two to travel tuscany and do a winery tour or two. You can probably do day trips from Florence or Rome for this, but you might want to consider spending a night in a hill town. Enjoy!