I am traveling with my daughter-in-law and grandchildren age 6 and 8. Both kids have traveled internationally. I found we could take a train to Paris changing and take a sleeper to Rome via Milan. Any thoughts? Is it to ambitious? I think the experience would be great and see Paris (one day).
Ant other ideas?
Chris
I think if you want to go from London to Rome and nowhere in between, you should save yourself a lot of time and just fly. I've never taken a night train, and I never will based on what other on this helpline have experienced.
Your best bet would be to fly out of London by budget air carriers to virtually anywhere in Europe. They're downright cheap.
If you want to see Paris, fly into Paris from home and take the EuroStar up to London. Then you could be anywhere on the continent within 2 1/2 hours.
I am a train person so I'd go for the train experience. Unlike most of the posters here, I DO NOT consider train travel to be wasted vacation time, to me it's a very important part of the entire adventure.
Christine, I assume that you are arriving in London. Is this correct? If yes, you can take the Eurostar train from London to Paris. To do this, you will need to get to the St. Pancras train station which is on the next block from the Kings Cross station. Please note two things about the Eurostar. 1) booking early saves you lots of money. Book early at http://www.eurostar.com/ 2) You must be checked in by 30 minutes before departure time.
As a side note, the British Library is immediately on the other side (1 long block) of St. Pancras. It's free and a great experience.
If you then intend to go to Rome, I would suggest flying from Paris-Orly to Rome-FCO on http://www.easyjet.com/EN/. (Fares as low as 157Euro for all 4). Or, you can fly Air France from Paris-CDG to Rome-FCO (178Euro for all 4).
For the train, it's the Thello night train to Milano-Centrale. Fare is about 220E for all 4. Journey time is 8.0hrs. Then, you have to switch to the Trenitalia train to get to Rome. This is a 3.5hr train ride on the very nice fast train. Base fare for all 4 is 258Euro but you have two options here. 1) At the Thello ticket boutique in Paris, they will give you a 50% discount (advertised on their website). 2) If you can be sure of your precise travel date and time, you can get discounted non-refundable Super Economy tickets for the Milan/Rome journey on https://www.trenitalia.com for all 4 for 88Euro.
Finally, I hope that you will be flying home out of Rome-FCO.
I think it sounds dreadful.. but thats my opinion.. based on RVing for years with my children.. in a 30 ft motorhome, comfy beds and our own bathroom. The public bathroom on the train ( which is invariably reported to be quite filthy by arrival in Rome) and the much much smaller shared space would drive me insane.
I suggest you try a shorter train journey with the kids.. 4- 5 hours first, then see if 13 hrs would be fun. There is no scenery to enjoy in the dark, the journey may be noisey or bumpy for light sleepers, and the worst part would be the train change ( with possibly tired grumpy tots and luggage ) .
I think my almost 6 hr journey on a very comfortable train cured me of thinking a longer journey would be fun. We had a nice trip , but found we were ready to get off by hour 5 ourselves. We had eaten our picnic( do not kid yourself, food on the train sucks, there is no nice dining car to go to anymore) , read our books, looked out the window( our daytime travel at least allowed that )
About 25 yrs ago I took some night trains.. cheap backpacking trip,, but since we could not afford a first class sleeper we considered them only a means to an end,, not a delightful part of our trip. I had hoped the "newer" trains would have transformed the experience for us.. but it didn't.
I would only do an overnighter now if it was on the Orient Express,, in a private cabin, with a private toilet. Maybe i am tired of roughing it..and I know I would be even less inclined with small kids.
I still take trains.. but 6 hours is my limit .
The journey from London to Paris on Eurostar is nice. Comfortable. Fast. Convenient. If you are spending some time in London first, then want to go and spend time in Paris, this is a really great way to get from England to the continent. But if you are just passing through Paris as a connection point, I think those that say to fly from London to Rome have it right. Unless you really really like trains a lot and really enjoy sending a lot of time on them.
If you want to make a train journey for its owns sake, and have several days, you could go London to Paris, Paris to Lucerne, Lucerne to Milan, and Milan to Rome, spending a half-day and a night in each place. That breaks up the journey into segments of 4 hours or less each leg.
Thanks for all your input. I took my older grandchildren on the train from London to Paris it was a great experience that's why I was considering the trip from London to Rome. Honestly after reading all the comments I think we will fly. I also love train travel. I will save it for my husband and I.
