My husband and I are planning to travel to Geneva Switzerland June 30th through July 14th 2017.
Our plan is to fly into Geneva arriving in the a.m. enjoy the sites of the city enjoy dinner and spend 1 night.
The next day we plan to drive to Chomonix see the sites and stay 1 night. We then plan to head towards Milan if time allows will stop and see some sites and then head towards Florence spend 2 nights in Florence and then drive to Venice for 2 nights. After Venice we hope to stay a night in the Lake Como area and have an afternoon of site seeing around the lake. After Lake Como we will drive to Nedez Switzerland and plan on staying at the Residence Mont-Calme which we reserved through our time share. We will be in this area for a week of site seeing and hiking and relaxing before we head back to Geneva.
My first question is should we make reservations for the first week of our trip. We are hoping to be able to wing it and stop when we see a place where we would like to stay for a night or two. We don't care if we stay in the middle of Florence or Venice the out skirts will be fine with us. Can we wing it or should we make reservations? It's been 30 years since our last trip to Europe, back then we could wing it and found some wonderful inns and villas to stay in. I hope that this is still possible....I would love to hear your suggestions.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
"Winging it" is a lot more difficult than it was 30 years ago. Then, it was difficult to find out what the hotels were and book from another country, so most hotels relied on people turning up at the door. The Internet has changed this. I can now list all the hotels in "little-village-in-the-middle-of-nowhere" and book on the Internet, so you are less likely to find rooms on the day.
Yes, with a car you may be able to "wing it", but it is risky, you may have to try a number of hotels. I would book at least my city hotels (Geneva, Florence, Venice).
I hope you are picking up your car after your 1 night in Geneva. I hope you realise you can now longer drive into the centre of Florence; and you never could drive on Venice Island.
Look up routes (and distances, times and tolls) on https://www.viamichelin.com/ The times assume NO stops, add at least 25%.
I cannot find a "Nedez* in Switzerland. Chomonix is presumably "Chamonix".
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16276 posts
Milan and Florence will not be easy with a car, and Venice is downright impossible---you have to park your car in the large structure near Piazzale Roma and continue by boat or on foot from there.
The train will get you to these places, from Chamonix to Milan to Florence to Venice to Lago di Como comfortably and without the stress of parking, avoiding ZTL's and other hazards of driving in Italy. Rent your car once you are back in Switzerland for your timeshare week.
As far as "winging it", I would not do that these days, especially in July.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks for the suggestion of renting our car when we start out of Geneva instead of when we arrive.
I will start my research for hotels near Chamonix, Milan, Florence and Venice. Can you suggest what areas would be best to stay in near those cities and which areas would have train service into the city centers.
Also the area in Switzerland that we have booked our timeshare unit is Nendaz NOT Nedez. I think it is about a 2 hour drive east of Geneva. I'm sure there are many sites to visit can you suggest any of the most popular areas?