I am flying to Paris in early April with my husband and two teenager sons.
Would like to take trains to go to Venice, Florence, Rome and back to Paris. We only have 9 days for the whole trip.
I need a suggestion on the itinerary and tips on the train.
Thanks,
Debbie
The night train from Paris to Venice is an excellent option. It is not as comfortable as a hotel room, but you get the long travel (in this case a twelve-hour train ride) out of the way while you sleep instead of losing time on your vacation. You can likewise take a night train back afterwards. Of course, I would strongly recommend that you also take a look at flights, but remember that you will need to get to and from each airport and should therefore factor that into the costs.
IMHO, you really don't have the time to do all of these cities in 9 days. Oh, you can get there but you won't see much. You'll see most from the train window. But if this is your plan, the train trip from Paris to Venice will take 11.0-13.0hrs depending on the run. Cost is 105Euro ($135) for each adult and that's one-way. There is a night train that takes almost 15.0hrs overnight. From Rome to Paris, it's 12.0-14.0hrs depending on the run and the cost is 147.5Euros ($186) per adult one-way. There is also a night train.
You are easily losing 1+ days of your 9 day trip. You might look into the inexpensive airlines that fly throughout Europe. For example EasyJet flies from CDG to Venice Marco Polo in 90 minutes for as low as 31.40Euro. That's better than 1/3 of your train fare. Try www.whichbudget.com Note on these less expensive airlines, the sooner you book, the cheaper the fare. Also, read their rules carefully. They ding big time on oversized or overweight luggage. But, they are all over Europe and they seem to do OK.
Missus and I did Paris to Venice night train last May, glad we did it once for the experience, won't do it again. Nothing drastically wrong with it except time, $'s, little sleep.
If you do decide train, book early as we (read I) procrastinated and had to do Paris/Nice/Venice in order to get a double sleeper compartment. Also had a 5 hour layover in Nice before catching the night train. Nothing wrong with that, we saw a bit of Nice and the views from the train at night along the shore of the Med as it headed to Italy were lovely with all the lights. That said, once was enough.
You might want to consider flying one way (Paris to Rome??) and do trains for Florence/Venice/Paris going home. As others have said and I agree, too much for 9 days even flying both ways. We visited only Paris, Venice, Rome in 11 days and felt a bit frazzled at the end of it.
As others have suggested that is not the best schedule. But I assume you are locked into your Paris ticket at this time. An open jaws into Paris home from Rome would have made more sense. I would suggest staying with northern Europe if that is an option you are willing to consider. If not, you need to consider flying to Venice and Rome to Paris. You can use the train from Venice, Florence, and Rome.
Debbie, I definitely agree with Frank that open jaw flights would really be the best option in this case. For a trip of only nine days, you're going to be spending a lot of your precious vacation time either seeing Europe through the windows of a train, or waiting in airports and transiting back and forth into each city. NOT really the best travel method.
My suggestion would be to travel from Paris CDG to Venice via EasyJet or other budget carrier, and then travel Venice-Florence and Florence-Rome via EuroStar Italia or other fast trains. That will minimize your travel times to a great extent. Note that when travelling on budget airlines, you'll need to pack light as they usually have very restrictive baggage limits! Be sure to read their terms of service very carefully, so that you understand the pros & cons of booking with them. While the prices are usually very good, they tend to operate on a "sliding scale" with the tickets increasing in price as the flight fills up; tickets are usually non-refundable and non-changeable.
Good luck and happy travels!
Thank you all for the tips. Unfortunately we have purchased our roundtrips Paris tickets. As some of you suggested, we will consider flying with budget airlines from Paris to Rome. We also might have to forget Florence on this trip. Any suggestion on decent hotel in Paris, Rome and Venice? Thanks.
I would skip Venice before Florence. It would easy your travel schedule.
