Hello fellow travelers!
My new wife and I are doing a 10 day Europe trip, and I'm doing the planning (yikes!). It's all somewhat last minute, but it is what it is. Question: What order would everyone recommend for us to see these destinations?
My latest idea has us going from Paris to Rome via a sleeper, then to Venice, then up to Lucerne, across to Arles, and back out of Paris. Ideas? Recommendations?
Thanks--and maybe we'll see you over there!
Ben
First, fly open jaw (home-Paris and either Venice-home or Rome-home) to avoid the time and expense of backtracking to Paris.
Second, you need to seriously cut and slash this itinerary. As it stands you will have nearly as many travel days as you will sightseeing days. That's a poor use of both your time and money. Save Lucerne and Arles for another trip.
If you take the night train from Paris to either Rome or Venice, book your tickets at www.tgv-europe.com.To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site, choose Great Britain as your country of residence. Pick up your tickets in Paris.
Take the train between Venice and Rome. Buy your tickets when you get to Italy.
Great info, Tim--thanks (I wish I'd posted here before purchasing our tickets though). Sadly, we're booked into and out of Paris.
Also, I figured we'd have to cut down the itinerary--way too much in way too little time. Having been to Lauterbrunnen, I was hoping to get my wife into Switzerland to see the Alps. I'm thinking of cutting Venice, adding Lucerne, and keeping Rome. So it'll be Paris, Lucerne, and Rome...
I certainly wish I'd purchased the flight open jaw to allow more freedom in that way, but such is life.
So, I'm thinking, Paris to Lucerne, then Lucerne to Rome, then back to Paris.
That is much more reasonable.
Paris to Luzern is 5.5 hours by train, using the fast TGV Paris to Basel, and then on to Luzern from there. Luzern to Rome is longer--7 hours or more, I think. (check the schedules at www.rail.ch) You might consider breaking that up midway with a stop at a lakeside town like Stresa or Lugano, depending on your chosen route.
Then fly from Rome back to Paris for you rreturn flight.
I like your new itinerary.
Book Paris-Lucerne at tgv-europe.com. Book Lucerne-Rome at www.sbb.ch/en. If you book ASAP, you still may be able to get discount fares.
Fly Rome-Paris the day before your flight home. Your budget airline choices are Ciampino-Beauvais on Ryanair, Ciampino-Orly on easyJet, and Fiumicino-Orly on Vueling. While Ryanair is likely to be the cheapest, Beauvais is a long way from Paris and Ciampino is also an outlying airport. I recommend either Vueling or easyJet. Book ASAP to get the best fare.
