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Barcelona and Venice Itinerary

THE PLAN, our first trip to Europe. Can someone make suggestions or comments on our trip? We plan to purchase our tickets soon. We are traveling in June 2016

SUGGESTION: Do not buy rail passes?

Sunday June 19th SFO to TRAVEL TO to Barcelona

Monday, June 20th Arrive Barcelona
TODO: Get airbnb
TODO -= Take day trips to , Girona and Figures? Any other day trips?

Tuesday, June 21

Wednesday, June 22

Thursday, June 23

Friday, June 24

Saturday, June 25 –TAKE A PLANE TO VENICE $40 each way
Todo: Do day trips, Trips to Padua Verona or Vincenza, any other day trips?

Sunday, June 26

Monday, June 27

Tuesday, June 28

Wednesday, June 29

Thursday, June 30

Friday, July 1, - TAKE PLANE FROM VENICE or ROME _ TO HOME

Posted by
7843 posts

Long ago, on some early trips to Europe, we had Railpasses or Flexipasses, but for recent trips we haven't had a railpass in years. On our 2013 Spain trip, we took trains several times, but not long enough or enough days to justify a railpass for us. We also rented a car for part of the trip. Cheap air fares - like your $40 Venice flights - could limit the usefulness of a railpass, depending on where you're going and for how long.

We've never used airbnb, but for 2 separate trips to Venice, we reserved places thru Vacanze in Famiglia (http://www.vacanzeinfamiglia.it/?lang=en). The first time was a separate apartment in the owners' home in the Ghetto neighborhood and they served us breakfast, the second time was a ground-floor apartment with full kitchen, and we shopped for our groceries in the Arsenale neighborhood.

In 2013, we flew in to Barcelona, then jumped on the train to Girona (1 hour), and stayed 1 night. We rented a car the next day and drove to the Dali museum in Figueres, then on to the Dali house in Port Lligat. That made for a long day, and we'd reserved a room for the night in nearby Roses. The next day, we drove back to Girona, turned in the rental car, and took the train to Barcelona to finish the trip. That might not be in your plans, but the Dali House was worth the trip!

Haven't personally been to Montserrat, but Rick Steves mentions it in his guidebook and lots of folks on this forum have raved about it as a day trip from Barcelona.

June 21 is a big deal in Europe, with music to celebrate the Summer Solstice - you'll find musicians on almost every corner in cities, giving free concerts.

Posted by
7175 posts

Honeymoon = Romance = Venice = Rome = Paris = (perhaps) Barcelona

With ten nights why don't you include a 3rd city and concentrate on the destination rather than day tripping ...
Barcelona (4) >> fly to Venice (3) >> train to Rome (3)

Posted by
15773 posts

I like the idea of only 2 places. You can day trip, but you may find that there's enough in those two great cities to keep you in them for most of your stay. Look at the options to fly into Venice and home from Barcelona. Often the flights out of Venice are early morning (hard and/or costly to get to the airport then). If you have to use Rome, and you land early in the day, you can easily take the train to Venice on arrival. If you have to fly home from Rome, best to stay there the night before the flight.

Barcelona other day trips: Roman Tarragona, scenic Montserrat (can be 1/2 day if you don't go hiking there). The train prices are not high. There are lots of places to visit in the city too. You'll need tickets in advance for the Gaudi sites.