Paris-Amboise-Guédelon-Paris by car in two days?

"Is this reasonable". No. Far, far too much for only 6 days. You'll spend most of your time in transit with not nearly enough time to enjoy your surroundings. For that short amount of time, I would probably limit yourself to two destinations. But you are correct, the Loire is best explored by automobile.

To have the kind of trip you want, you must know and take into account travel times between your destinations. For that reason, I'm giving exactly the same advice as Tom.

I honestly don't know how you could see all of that in the time you say you have. In particular, mountains, being steep, take extra time to get to and from, which you do not seem to have taken into account.

I think you could visit Amsterdam and the Alps, or Paris and another part of France, or even Amsterdam and Paris, in six days, and have perhaps a satisfying visit. But you need to set priorities.

For Amsterdam & Alps, you might fly into Amsterdam and take a night train to Basel and continue to the Berner Oberland; fly home from Zurich.

There's plenty to do in Paris for six days, but you could take a day trip or even one or two nights in the Loire or Burgundy (including Guedelon)--I would not try to squeeze both in. For quick visits to Amsterdam and Paris, fly into the former, and take a a train to, and fly home from, the latter.

A good trip is based on good planning, which includes making choices. Good luck!

Thank you all for your input. I'll be scheduling a consult at ETBD next week and will take all of our schedule with us!

Kathy

My 15 year old son and I drove all over France in 3 weeks last summer. Driving was so easy with a TomTom ( thanks for the tips on this board and the many posts which encouraged us to get the Tom- made the driving and parking easy).
There really is not much to see in Chamonix IF you can't go up on the mountain as Rick describes. Mt. Blanc was fogged in both days we were there, and so we drove to Switzerland for lunch and a sunny day one day. Weather in the mountains is unpredictable, as it is in Colorado, so it would be sad to go that far and be disappointed. Whereas, the Loire is always beautiful and an easy drive.
Amsterdam is a good 2 day trip if you don't try to do too many museums and sounds like a nice end to your vacation. Follow the suggestions above and enjoy the time there instead of rushing.

Kathy,, have you ever flown to Europe before,, do you have any idea how long it is ,, and how beat you will be the first day or two,, jet lag, and travel fatique.

Frankly, I do understand people from the east coast of States flying in for a week, ( and most of them do single destinations) , but as a west coaster myself, I have no idea why you would choose to fly that far for Bataan Death March trip. If by hook or crook you could squeeze in even two or three more days,, well, it would really help..

Do Americans only get one or two weeks vacation a year,, I mean, even middle aged ones?? It seems most often I see Americans trying to really pack alot into such short visits.. I do not get it,, it costs me so much to fly to Europe that I try and stay as long as I can,, shortest trip ever was 9 days,, but then, that was only one destination too.

Well, here's the final itinerary (total 17 1/2 days)
Rome and Naples 5 1/2 days, fly to Venice.
Venice 36 hours (12 was too long for me last time)
Fly to England: York and London 5 days
Fly to Paris: Paris city 2 days, (No Versailles or Louvre this time),then rent a car for 4 days.
Drive To Loire region, then toward Berner Oberland.
Fly out of Geneva to Amsterdam just for dinner and sleep in Amsterdam. Fly home in the morning.
I know this sounds like a lot, but last time we did this, we followed Rick's "22 days in Europe" and really did do too much. We won't be seeing everything, but will be able to see more than if we stay home. As our consultant at ETBD told us yesterday, "You can see a European city in 2 days, you just can't see everything." I've lived near Seattle all my life and am still finding things I haven't seen, so that's okay. The flights were cheap ($30 per person in most cases) and cost us far less time than long train trips. Last time we did 5 night trains in 3 weeks and were exhausted for lack of sleep. So... now to fill in the gaps, pack the bags (lightly) and count down days! Thanks to all for your input.

I misunderstood, I assumed whole trip was 6.5 days long..

I am wondering, 5 days in Naples, and only 2 in Paris?

5 days in Rome and Naples together- probably an evening, a full day and a half day in Rome, then 3 nights at an Agritourismo outside of Sorrento. We're trying to break up the big city days with some more scenic out-of-town trips.

I think if we could collect the classic posts that begin without essential information, this would be one of them..

Doug, did you want my WHOLE itinerary when my question was only about this leg??? :-)