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Eastern France or Best of Ireland to pair with Village Italy?

Posted by on

Hello, all of you insightful forum members. My husband and I intend to do our first back-to-back tours in 2025. Last year was a bit of a wake-up call in terms of health challenges for him, and it made us more aware than ever that we shouldn't continue to procrastinate on taking tours we've wanted to take for years. He is doing much better now, thankfully. We know for sure that we want to pair Village Italy with another tour, and we've narrowed the second tour down to either Eastern France or Best of Ireland. We keep going back and forth trying to decide which would be the better tour to pair with Village Italy. I'm looking for feedback from those who have taken any of these tours on a few things:

  1. We are open on the time of year to do this with no restrictions except that, due to the nature of my work, I cannot travel in September.

  2. Is there a preferred order you feel we should take the two tours?

  3. We plan to arrive one or two days early before the first tour and take 2-3 days in between tours to decompress. I've always wanted to see the Lake Como area, so I've been thinking that could be an option for our in-between tour time. We also have never been to Milan either. Not sure if folks have strong feelings that one is better than the other?

  4. Is there anything we should be considering in terms of back-to-back tours since we have never done this before? We anticipate being gone between 30-35 days total.

I would appreciate any and all feedback to help us make our decision. We want to have our plan in place before the 2025 tours go on sale here in a few months.

Thank you!
Chad in Columbus, Ohio

Posted by
5210 posts

Unless I'm mistaken, the dates for the 2025 tours have yet to be announced. That being the case, you might have to wait an see what dovetails together with the RS schedules that will work with your time frame. There might be two or three days between tours, or that might be a week or so in some cases. But if you want to make a rough draft so to speak, consider Italy and Ireland as that will provide an experience in two completely different cultures. While Italy and France are different, they are a lot more similar than Italy and Ireland.

Posted by
3080 posts

If I was taking those two tours back-to-back, I do Village Italy in late May and then Ireland in early to mid June. In this case, warmer climate first for cooler temps, then cooler climate in hopes it will be warmer. As you said, plan several days or more between tours to decompress and not rush to your next destination. I haven't been to Lake Como and only an overnight in Milan so have no opinion of your ideas.

I haven't taken back-to-back tours. Instead, I travel independently for several days to a week prior to my RS tour and more days (weeks) afterward. I've done this on three tours so far. In September I'm taking the Village Italy tour. First going to Venice and afterwards going to Florence and Rome.

Posted by
93 posts

It all sounds wonderful, what a feast of choices. But since you ask:, I'd go with Eastern France. Easier to get to; just next door, a simple train ride. Save the Ireland trip for a pairing with another part of the UK or simply more Ireland! Or some time in Iceland if you go with IcelandAir.

Posted by
32 posts

You've gotten some great advice. I agree logistically Eastern France makes more sense. I've had three back-to-back tours one of which was Loire to the south of France then a train to Lake Como for the Best of Italy tour with no days in between for rest. While they are different countries, the tours share a focus on the culture via cathedrals & duomos and art galleries which made them too similar and harder to differentiate in my memory.

I like the Village Italy and Eastern France combo. I enjoyed the EF tour the best of the seven tours I've taken so far and hope to take the VI soon. You're wise to take a break in between tours for a breather and try to forget 28 names you just learned to make room for 28 new ones.

Posted by
14767 posts

Timing-wise, since you can't do September, I'd pick late April for Village Italy and then do either Eastern France or Ireland following it. To me it depends on your heat tolerance - mine is low and while I've traveled to Italy in May I think it would be too hot for me now! YMMV, lol!

Now, if you do VI first you'll end at Orta San Giulio and the guide will set everyone up with transportation to Milan - either the airport or Central Milan. I'd probably choose Eastern France over Ireland so then you can catch the fast train from Milan to Paris, spend a night or 2, then up to Reims for the start of Eastern France.

If you decided to go with Ireland, there are surely direct flights from Milan to Dublin that would be easy.

If you have enough time, I'd tack on 2 nights in Milan to see the Duomo and The Last Supper before moving on.

And to me, France and Italy are nothing alike. I do prefer to have separate cultures when I do back to back tours and any of your picks would work together. I did Southern England and Scotland back to back one time and I was bored with castle ruins by the time I got to Scotland, lol. I really enjoyed Best of England and Paris and Heart of France back to back as well as 21 day Best of Europe/Best of Paris/Village Italy.

Fun choices!

Posted by
1052 posts

If you want to decompress and just relax which I highly recommend, I would go to Varenna on Lake Como versus crowded Milan. It’s only a short train ride from Lake Como to Milan where you could either take the train to Paris then Reims (Trier was BOGAS, opps) or fly to Dublin. Having done both tours, you really can’t go wrong on which one you pick.

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