Transportation

The first advice you're going to get is to be to slow down, which is good advice. 2-3 nights with that long of transit time isn't really worth it in my opinion. I'd skip Monte Carlo or Germany and focus on London and Paris if those are the places you really want to see. That would mean you could stay 3 nights in London and 4 nights in Paris, which is far more advisable than your current plan. Your best and really only option is flying from Italy, preferably on a discount airline carrier if you can keep your luggage light and small enough (you will pay steep fees if you have more than a small and light carry on bag). Then you can take the Eurostar from London to Paris but it will be expensive now. So flying might be a cheaper option although it will take longer in terms of actual time from airport, through security, etc. Honestly a smarter trip would probably skip London and Paris, heading straight to Monte Carlo and then maybe Nice. You could do that all by train and not spend all your time in transit.

Kelly, since this is rather "last minute" you are going to find your budget stretched alot more then those who were able to plan ahead and book the cheapest tickets on the trains ( point to point tickets booked in advance are cheap usually) , and same with discount airlines and Eurostar,, booking well in advance nets cheapest tickets. That said, book your Eurostar the minute you settle your plans,, prices go up and up. I also think your plan is a bit too much. Remember when you plan two nights in one city, you actually are only gettting one full day in that city . And, everytime you move from place to place you are costing yourself more money . BTW what is a "euro train" ? There is no such thing. Each country has their own railcompany. Do you mean you have some sort of rail pass? So you have six destinations. I would have that many destinations if my trip was minimally 3 weeks. If your trip is shorter you are really pushing it. Remember you do not want the trip to be a tour of train stations . Ps. Have you got any accomadations booked yet? And I agree with Sarah, I would skip Monte Carlo unless you rearrange trip differently , perhaps adding Nice as a base to explore riveria( trains connect you to Monte Carlo, Eze, Antibes, Cannes etc, all dirt cheap( 1-3 euros0 and in about an hour or so.) I think its hard when we are at home and have long wish lists of places we want to go to narrow it down, and remember you can go back and do other places next time

Sarah point out that you have a lot of travel distance between the places you want to visit. You're fine getting to Florence and Venice. But then, you are some distance away from London, Paris and Germany. Depending on your itinerary, your 10 hours away by train from some of your cities. Your shortest journey out of Italy would either be to Monte Carlo or some place in southern Germany. Venice to Monte Carlo takes 8+ hours on the train. Venice to Munich also takes 8+ hours. From Monte Carlo, you are 7hrs away from Paris. Lots of train travel.

The Monaco Grand Prix, the granddaddy of them all and oh so wonderful, is over the 27-29th of May. If you are trying to be there around that time, and for at least the 10 days before, you will find virtually all the hotel rooms gone at very high prices for at least 50 miles all around.

Thank you to all who have replied to my first message. After rethinking our plans, we have decided to leave Venice and go to Paris, by air (EasyJet). It came to round trip total of about 200 for both, which is much cheaper than taking the train and much less time with travel. On my first post I stated staying in each place for 2 days, when in reality, we are staying 3 nights. We will probable just go from Paris to London and than back to Rome where we depart from. This will give us at least 4 nights at each destination. I do have many more questions concerning the Eurostar and this all works and about transportation to/from the train stations and airport. We are both very concerned about not speaking any other language than English. Any advice as far as the best options or for that matter anything that would be helpful with our traveling plans would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Kelly

Kelly- here is a completly different outlook. Since there is a lot of travel involved from Venice and with the old addage "Count that you will always be back to Europe" together with the fact that you are already booked to fly out of Rome - why not stay in Italy or close by Austria - Switzerland. Vienna is absolutely a beautiful area, Salzburg also and easy to get to by train. Other areas to see in Italy would be Umbria, Tuscany - many of the towns accessible by train. Even Lake Como area. Since you fly out of Rome you could easily take a train to 2 0r 3 areas in Tuscany and then head down to the Amalfi coast then back to Rome. Whatever you decide time is ticking in order to make advance bookings. Happy travels.

IF I follow this correctly. You are flying into Rome, then ending in London so that you can return to Rome to go home? That is nuts. Go home from London save the expensive and time of returning to Rome. Buy an open jaw ticket into Rome and home from London. It will be a lot cheaper than returning to Rome. Are you using a rail pass? No such thing as a Euro train. And the Eurostar is the train between Paris and London.

Let me explain a little further. We did search pricing way in advance as far a hotels and airfare. Sometimes there might be a wasted day of travel to get the prices that are needed. Me and my husband travel frequently but not to Europe. We are flying into Rome, and going to Florence (Rail Euro) that same day and staying there for three days, then going to Venice (Rail Europe) for only Two days (this is only because this probable is not one of our most favorite places we wanted to visit as is for the others), then flying out of Venice to Paris for 4 nights, then to London for 4 nights, then flying back to Rome for 5 nights. We can't change what is already booked, but any suggestions from Paris on, we will take! I know some of this sounds crazy but a lot had to do with reservation in resorts we really wanted to stay at without paying extremely high prices. Believe me we have been working on this trip for a long time, but what was most important to us was Rome and this is already booked at the end of our trip and has been for a long time. Thanks for all the help

Not sure how it wpuld fit into your itinerary, I would take someplace in germany over monte carlo hands down. So many interesting spots you could for a couple of days. Monmte carlo is convenient for a half day if you are in theviciniy. Not really that much to see there. And what there is can be experienced elsewhere

What is the cheapest and quickest traveling method going from Paris to Germany and/or Paris to London.

This is a strange request. You ask for advice and suggestions for your trip and you received a number of suggestions and comments. Then you come back and say that you have been working on this a long time and everything is set, so what are you really asking for? At one pointyou appear to be concerned about costs but indicated that you are most likely using a rail pass via Rail Europe which may not be very cost effective since the only trains you may be taking are in Italy. Would like to help but not sure what you want. Are you just looking for confirmation of your decisions?

Kelly if you purchase WELL in advance Eurostar is cheapest and fastest way between London and Paris,, running about 50-60 euros each,, BUT,, this is too late for those type of prices,, so you should look at cheap air. Avoid flying out of Beavais in Paris,,as its actually 100 kms away and not the easiest or cheapest to get to,plus if its an early morning flight you are hooped. Plus with eurostar is city center to city center so no time or expense getting to and from airports.

" We are both very concerned about not speaking any other language than English" Don't be worried. The vast majority of folks involved with tourism in Europe speak enough English to establish service. Many are trilingual!

well, where are you considering in Germany? It's a big country by European standards. You can get from Paris to Western Germany (Frankfurt, Stuttgart) in about 4 hours, but prices will be pretty high for May by now I imagine. I booked tickets to Paris from Stuttgart weeks ago to get the cheapest prices for a trip in mid May. I think your Venice-Paris-London-Rome plan was working pretty well, honestly. I'd stick with that and consider air travel at this point for all your trips to save money and time, except maybe between Paris and London but even that is hard to say, Eurostar prices will be high right now.