My wife and I originally planned to fly into London, tour Buckingham Palace (obviously making sure we can do so), then fly or "Chunnel" next day to Paris. But we came to the realization that Paris wasn't really getting us as excited as it did at first. It will one day, but for now we've done an about face and want to still land in London, then fly next day to Venice Italy and spend the remainder of our yet to be determined number of days there. So ...
Step 1. Land in London LHR (wife MUST tour Buckingham palace. Lifelong bucket list item. PLUS we're almost at the point where we'll literally forever forego international travel UNLESS we can get a daytime flight TO our destination. And a quick AI chat tells me that only about 2% of flights from the East Coast USA to Europe are daytime (i.e. 5 a.m. to noon, let's say) AND most of those are to LHR. So starting our "anniversary trip" in London accomplishes 2 important things, theoretically.
Step 2. After spending arrival day and most of 2nd day in London, take PM flight from LHR or ??? to Venice Italy. We have a lot of points and status with Hilton but the only Hilton seems to be on Island Giudecca. Most searches tell me that "first timers" would be well served to stay in the San Marco (neighborhood) due to its proximity to all the most popular attractions. Some questions if you have time:
How many days for a decent amount of sightseeing? Pretty open ended question I know. We'd like to take a gondola ride of course, there's a Murano glass blowing factory that might be interesting. Then of course, St Mark’s Square (Piazza San Marco), the Doges Palace. Perhaps 5-ish days is too much, outside of just wandering and relaxing?
There isn’t a HUGE payback for staying at a Hilton, we tend toward it because we’re Gold members, and get free breakfast, $18 pp daily food credit, etc. but it’s not a slam dunk. We’re very open to suggestions.
We’re also open to outside the box suggestions: For example, we’re giving our whole trip a week to 8 days. Given the first 2 days of travel and London, are we giving Venice too much time? Is there something else accessible and worthwhile to “sneak in” while we’re there?
Thanks in advance! We’re getting there.