Hi, we want to go to Northern Italy, specifically Cinque Terre and Venice ( I know they are far apart), and also to Frankfurt Germany. There are very cheap airline tickets into Geneva. We would certainly not mind spending a day or two there. The airfare is about $745 per person cheaper to fly in and out of Geneva. Do you think it's to far out of the way to do that? If its viable which direction would make more sense. We have about two weeks.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Need more information. What is the total length of your trip? How much time in Italy? I would very much discourage country hopping. So much to see and enjoy in Italy by itself.
It does take at least 8 hours to get from Geneva airport to Venice by train. If you do want to spend a day or to in the Geneva area, you can also look at Easyjet flights to Venice or Pisa (for the Cinque Terre). You can take trains between those two. Then look at flights from one of these to Frankfurt (on Lufthansa?), then take a train to Geneva. Depends on how much extra travel time is worth the money you save.
I guess if was me, I'd cut Frankfurt as it is a big outlier, but maybe it is a family/friends situation.
We have about two weeks.
Is that 10 days or 16 days?
To hit all the places you list, it looks like Geneva-CT-Venice-Frankfurt-Geneva, would be the order I would choose.
I would not try to do it all in "about 2 weeks". After you arrive in Geneva you have 4 days that are pretty much just travel days from one place to the next. That leaves little time to really 'visit' your destinations, rather than just 'pass through'
If Venice ,CT and Frankfurt are where you really want to go, I suggest you look at flying into Venice, train to CT, fly Genoa to Frankfurt and home from Frankfurt. Or at least compare those travel costs to what the 'good deal' to Geneva costs plus all the other moves and see how it all adds up.
Look at the totality of your travel costs, not just one part.
