Visiting daughter studying abroad in Italy

ESL, it would really help to read an organized guidebook, rather than randomly finding information that doesn't link together. Rick Steves Europe through the Back Door is as good general overview with some details, then go from there. Its not like visiting another State in the US, and things are not as close together as they appear on a map. Paris, London and Tuscany would be like visiting New York, Washington DC and Florida in one short trip. Most people would tell you that 12 days is not a long time to visit three major destinations. It takes a lot of time to get from one place to another and get situated and oriented. Then there's jet lag and city transportation logistics that eat up your time.

Renting a car, money, language, and hotel guidance are a whole topic in themselves. You have to know what your budget is, and level of comfort. There are lot of details to driving that you won't know what to ask if you haven't read up on it first.

There is a ton of info here on this website. If you go up to the menu on the left, go through all the Travel Tips section, and the Watch. Read Listen, and you'll get a good start.

Just wanted to echo #1's helpful response. Start with a good guidebook. Then look at flights on a website like kayak, where you can search open-jaw flights. But I urge you to consider whether you want to fly around that much on a vacation. Twelve days is Italy is bliss, but the thought of three days in London, Paris, and "Tuscany" sounds a blur to me. Once you get your bearings in one it will be time to go to the train station or airport. Is the daughter accompanying you for the Tuscany bit? What does she say?

Stan has given you excellent advice. I woudl reiterate that 12 days is not sufficient for three diverse locations such as London, Paris, and Tuscany. You can easily have a great trip just in Italy and will barely scratch the surface at that. Where is your daughter studying and is she going to travel with you? "Tuscany" is large and varied from hill towns and agriturismos to Florence and all its Renaissance glory.

Where is your daughter studying? Florence?

For "Tuscany" you could fly into either Florence or Pisa, but those would not be direct non-stop flights from the US, AFAIK. One-stop is doable. Or fly into Rome on a direct flight and have your daughter meet you there.

As everyone says above, adding both Paris and London is too much for a 12-day trip. Choose one or the other(London OR Paris). Book an open-jaw flight into Italy and back from your other city. Use EasyJet or other budget airline for the one-way flight from Italy to London or Paris.

Thanks so much already. This is the kind of information that I needed (had no idea that those three places were so spread out and not pleasantly doable).

I suppose I figured that a guide book would just give me generalized information about the cities/countries, but not specific advice on a travel "plan".

My daughter is studying at the Accademia dell'Artie in Arezzo and will only travel with us to London (which is a must on the travel agenda, so I guess Paris is out for this trip).

Thanks ever so much for the quick replies. You have given me enough information to start my research, but I'll take anymore that you have as well!

ESL - I echo the others in that, as a first trip to Europe, you're probably biting off a little much by wanting to visit Tuscany AND Paris AND London in 12 days.

I've spent a total of ~18 days in London and could still spend endless amounts of time there... I've spent ~40 days in Italy (Venice, Padua, Florence, & Rome), and feel like I have barely scratched the surface. That being said, please slow down and enjoy yourself.

About Europe in general and Italy in particular. I've driven in NYC and Philly and it's a WHOLE lot easier and simpler than in Italy. Urban Europeans don't drive much because the cost of owning, operating and parking a car is extremely expensive. Before deciding to rent a car in Italy, google "driving in Italy" and "Italian ZTLs". You might also want to search this forum for both subjects as well.

Tuscany is a region in Italy. Do you have something specifically you are trying to see/visit? As this is your first visit to Italy, I would recommend you make a major Tuscany city, like Florence, your base of operations and then use public transportation or escorted tours to see the Tuscan countryside. Fore instance, I easily visited Pisa and Lucca in one day using Italian rail from Florence. Plus, there are a ton of reasonably-priced hotels, B&Bs and holiday apartments in Florence. The old city is easily walkable (but un-drivable to non-residents and cab drivers) from the train/bus stations to any of the major tourist sites is only about a 15-20 minute walk.

The good news, most of Italy is saturated with very good public transportation. You can get from Florence to Rome or Venice in less than 2 1/2 hours by train. You can also get from Florence to most Tuscan hill towns fairly easily via public buses.

Flying into Italy from the USA will probably mean you will arrive in Rome (FCO), Milan (MXP) or Venice (VCE) if you want to fly non-stop. (The Venice non-stops by American are seasonal I think and may not be available in the winter...) However, most itineraries have you connecting in one of the other major European hubs (London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, etc.) and involve transferring to a USA-flagged carrier's code-share partner. This is normally pretty painless and routine and after 9 or 10 hours on a plane, you may enjoy the chance to walk more than 50 feet at a stretch.

If you want to fly into one of the smaller Italian airports like Florence, Pisa or Bologna (to arrive close to where your daughter is studying), you will definitely need to 'two (or three) hop' the flight.

Since London is a must I just did a quick price comparison of open jaw flights and was pretty surprised.

For random dates in December, using 12/19 to 12/31, I found:

JFK to Rome ( change planes in London), then Florence ( or Rome) to London, followed by London to New York 4-5 days later, the price came in around $1650 using only BA planes ( Not Iberia or American).

But JFK to London then London back to New York on the last day is only $1050, or $600 less.

A budget airline like Easy Jet will cost much less than that for the flight from Italy to London, especially if you book sooner rather than later.

Of course you will want to compare with other airlines, but I would use one that gets you to London and back on a direct flight. That would be Virgin Atlantic, and American, but there may be others. You could also use a budget airline to get TO Italy on your outbound trip, but that may involve changing airports and I would not do that unless it saves a lot.

I'll throw my two cents in...

Thinking purely about logistics and you visiting (wherever in) Italy and London, you might want to figure out a plan to fly to Rome first, then take the train from Roma Termini station to Arezzo, about 2.5 hours, relatively painless. From Florence it's only an hour to Arezzo, but you may have a better shot at decent airfare PHL or JFK to Rome rather than to Florence. I haven't looked but nonstop that time of year might be an issue. I found that Chicago O'Hare/Rome nonstop is only available with Alitalia from April to October.

So assume you'll have a one-stop. Since London is in your sights, check out British Airways for example, a JFK/LHR/FCO (New York/London/Rome) both ways, staying in London for 3 nights on the way back. For the one stop layover, we usually want no less than 90 minutes--hate to run for planes or be screwed up by a late one--but no more than 4 hours. I suspect you'll be able to find something that works for you in that regard on the way out. Then you could in theory have your daughter book a roundtrip FCO/LHR/FCO.

You'd be able to visit with your daughter in Arezzo, visit Florence/Tuscany via train on a day trip or even stay a couple of nights. Then maybe stop for a night in the hilltown of Orvieto on the train ride down to Rome. Does your daughter have time off school to travel with you in Italy? It would be great to have her accompany you to Orvieto, Rome, you all fly to London, then after 3 days or so you return to the States and she would fly back to Rome, and take the train back to Arezzo.

December weather ain't the best in any of the places you're visiting, but dress for it and besides you'll have the pleasure of traveling in Europe off-season with few crowds (except around Christmas). That's our modus operandi! Oh, one more thing. Especially that time of year, unless you're familiar with the areas you don't need to be driving in Europe. The trains are efficient, cheaper and more comfortable by a long shot.

Enjoy your planning!

In terms of flights, how far are you from the three airports you listed? Which one(s) would you prefer to use?

All have lots of nonstop service to London Heathrow (LHR) with multiple airline choices, and all have year-round daily nonstop service to Rome Fiumicino (FCO) as well. EWR and JFK have year-round daily nonstop service to Milan Malpensa (MXP). PHL does not serve Milan (there's a seasonal flight to Venice, but not in December). All three also have year-round daily service to Paris, but it looks like that's going to be part of the next trip (and that's the way to think about it, rather than trying to shoehorn in too much this time).

A great tip I learned on this forum: to see who flies where from a particular airport, look at that airport's Wikipedia page. In general, American has a hub at PHL, United has a hub at EWR, and Delta has a hub at JFK. These airlines will serve a lot of European destinations nonstop from these airports, particularly in peak season (and for EWR and JFK, many are year-round). In addition, many European airlines serve JFK, and a good number serve EWR (at this time, only British Air and Lufthansa serve PHL). In summary, you're very lucky; you have a lot of nonstop options, particularly compared to people in other parts of the US.

If you are not wedded to one of the airports (or airlines), check prices from all three; sometimes there can be big differences, sometimes not (there are no longer any "rules" about things like this). But do look at the big picture. For instance, if it's $50 cheaper to fly out of JFK, but it requires driving for 2 more hours, you haven't really saved anything (particularly since you have to drive home after the long flight back from Europe).

You probably want an "open jaw" flight, also called "multi city," meaning into one city and out of another but all on one ticket. This is usually cheaper than two one-ways. So, start by going to Kayak: https://www.kayak.com/flights?mc=y. Keep checking various options of airport combos to see if one gives you better prices and routes. On the left, you can choose nonstop if you want (I always uncheck "2 or more stops").

Be careful about winding up in London right at Christmas as the place shuts down.