A girlfriend and me are planning a 2 week trip mid-May to Europe. We%26#39;d like to see the following cities but need help on how to go about planning an booking all transport and hostels.
England (London),France (Paris), Italy (Venice, Rome, Florence, Pisa), Switzerland (Geneva), France (Nice, Monaco) and Czech Repl. (Prague would be a plus!
I%26#39;ve got some great flights from Montreal to London with return from Nice but getting to include Prague is expensive. I%26#39;m not very familiar with the train systems out their and though the bus may be cheaper it takes longer.
How do we plan this in the most profitable manner???
Secondly, can we get around Italy by bus? I%26#39;mm not sure how far Rome is from Florance and Florance from Pisa etc...
Thirdly, how far is Nice from Monaco? Can we take public transport to and from?
Thanks to anyone who can help us out.
Tight budget Canadian gals!
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3. Monaco from Nice is only a short train ride. You should also consider the bus along the coast to see the wonderful towns such as Villefranche sur mer, Beauleau, etc. The coast road is very interesting and it%26#39;s worth spending some time in some of the samll towns.
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Bus from Nice to Monaco is easy and cheap from Nice Gare Routiere. On the return journey don%26#39;t try leaving Monaco in the %26#39;rush hour%26#39;, 430 til 630 is very crowded on the bus and train. On the other hand it is a good way to get to know lots of nationalities when you are squashed up together!
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That%26#39;s a lot of ground to cover in 2 weeks. Are you sure you want an itinerary as long as that? Yes I know Americans and Canadians like to tick off the capitals on their tour of Europe but especially as you are doing your own thing and on a budget you are going to be spending most of your 2 weeks in transit.And you don%26#39;t seem to know the distances involved.
Taking into account the pre-booked flights I would suggest after England and your flight to Nice you limit your travels to Nice,Monaco (easy by train from Nice)Geneva so you can take time to see these places. If you must go to Italy you can take a train from Nice to Ventimiglia or further to Milan. The other cities you mentioned are a long way from Nice.
Forget Prague it is so far away from your base in France.Flights within Europe are more expensive than flights within N America and you would need to fly to Prague from any of the cities you have mentioned.You have some detailed planning to do to get the most out of your 2 weeks in Europe. Are you up to it?
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What if we focused on Paris, Switzerland (friend who lives there), Nice %26amp; Italy (mainly Venice and Rome).
There has to be a way to do that in 13 days (excluding the 2 days to travel to Europe and back).
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That%26#39;s possible. If you like sitting on trains a lot. But you%26#39;re better off going to Italy direct from Geneva, and coming back to Nice from Pisa.
Check out your train times between all these places on here: reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en…
Having found out how much time you%26#39;re going to be spending travelling, you might want to drop Rome (and Venice?) from your schedule as well.
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What if we focused on Paris, Switzerland (friend who lives there), Nice %26amp; Italy (mainly Venice and Rome).
There has to be a way to do that in 13 days (excluding the 2 days to travel to Europe and back).
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I am not sure what you mean by the above--do you really have only 11 days? If so, here is what I would propose (plan on 1/2 day travel to each place after London). If you really have 13 days, I%26#39;d add a day to Paris %26amp; London.
London-2 days
Paris-3 days
Switzerland: 2 days
Venice: 2 days
Nice 2 days
I have to say,I agree with an earlier poster--even this is a lot to do in a very short time (although, I must add that I the reason we often %26quot;tick off capitals%26quot; is because we typically have only 2 weeks of vacation for the entire year--so we try to see all we can in this very brief period!)
I think you would be spending much of your vacation in transit and would have very little time experiencing these cities. Additionally, you%26#39;ll be spending a good bit of your tight budget on travel %26amp; your flight arrangements seem to suggest that a straight line England/France would be more economical.
Frankly, if it were me--I would focus on seeing London for several days then spend the remaining time in France (several days to see Paris, perhaps an excursion to Versailles or a wine region, then have several days to see the wonderful museums/sights along the Rivera). Just expect that you%26#39;ll return to see the other cities soon.
As far as booking hostels: I would suggest getting a good guidebook for the areas that you plan to visit. Depending on your age--I%26#39;d recommend: Let%26#39;s Go guides (for college age) or Rick Steve%26#39;s for older. I would book your hostels in advance if you can (you can also make better decisions about cost), as some can fill up during the summer %26amp; I don%26#39;t find it very fun to be spending my vacation hunting for accommodations.
As far as rail travel, depending on the cities/regions you select, you might consider a railpass--but I would first see what the point-to point tickets will cost to see if it is cost effective. Raileurope.com is a good place to view schedules (you can buy railpasses there); I have heard that point-to-point tix aren%26#39;t necessarily the best value there, but you can get an idea of the schedules/travel times you are looking at.
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I agree with pinky. you won%26#39;t even scratch the surface anywhere and part of travel is feeling what it is really like in a city. The Riveria is great but I would focus on London and surrounds- Bath , the cotswolds, windsor and Paris and surrounds- versailles, chartres, giverny or some time in the Loire or wine region. I thought I would never get to go back but I have been several times. Don%26#39;t rush - enjoy - soak it in
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Your advise is great thanks.
I%26#39;ve been researching like crazy and seem to have some good leads.
May 23-24 : We%26#39;d fly into Paris and stay 2 day
May 24-25: Paris site-seeing
May 26AM: Fly Ryanair Paris to Barcelona (only $20 Euros for 2ppl)
May 26-27: Site-see Barcelona
May 28AM: Fly Ryanair Barcelona to Pisa (only $30 Euros for 2ppl)
Buy single country rail saverpass for 3 or 4 days ( about $220 per person)
May 28-29-30-31-June 1-2: View Pisa, Rome %26amp; Venice
That%26#39;s all I have so far.
June 3-4-maybe 5: we%26#39;ll figure I how to meet up with our friend who lives in Geneva. Any suggestions are welcome.
June 6: Return to MTL from Mulhouse Switzerland.
Does this make sense?? Please let me know.
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Another suggestion is to research %26quot;professional%26quot; tours on the internet and see how much time they dedicate to each city. This could be a good guideline for early planning.
Remember that your first day is really just a quick walk, bite to eat and then to bed and your last day will be dedicated to travel.
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I apologise if you have already calculated this but have you taken your Ryanair bookings through to the payment stage and included all the additional costs, particularly the price of baggage? There are also other costs such as credit card fees. The prices are still relatively cheap but you need to consider this if you are on a tight budget.
Also check the distance from the airports to the cities i.e. Beauvais (Paris) to Girona (Barca). They are not local airports and it will cost you both time and money to get to the cities.
Hope you have a great trip and return to spend more time in Europe
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