Hi there,
I%26#39;m a Singaporean and planning for my honeymoon in February 2007. : ) Here is my tentative itinerary:
23th February - London Heathrow @ 1730
24th February - London
25th Feb - London to Paris flight @ 1055 - 1310
26th Feb - Paris
27th Feb - Paris
28th Feb - Paris to Nice flight @ 1055 - 1220
1st March - Nice
2nd March - Nice
3rd March - Nice to Milan by train @ 1005 - 1450
4th March - Milan to Venice by train @ 1155 - 1453
5th March - Venice
6th March - Venice to Florence by train @ 1032 - 1323
7th March - Florence
8th March - Florence to Rome by train @ 1053 - 1230
9th March - Rome
10th March - Rome (to Naples)
11th March - Rome back to Singapore @ 1200
Both in our late 20s, this will be our first trip to Europe. My husband and I are concerned about the language barrier (although we are picking up some basic French and Italian before we go : )) and the security.
We are into sightseeing, not really into musuems and arts but a few eye openers are fine and I like some shopping as well afterall things like branded goods are cheaper than Singapore. No? : )
We have heard so much about Europe and wonder if we are being realistic given the number of time/days we have planned for each city. I%26#39;m still contemplating whether I should do Milan. As you can see, we are making a point to go visit both the cities and suburbs of France and Italy.
Thanks in advance!
Cheers,
Jola Lee
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IMO you are trying to do too much, especially as this is your honeymoon.
My feeling is that a bare minimum visit to the cities and areas you are thinking of would be thus - and for each of these I mean FULL Days, i.e. not days that are more than half taken up with travel:
London - 4 days
Paris - 4 days
Nice and the Côte d%26#39;Azur - 3 days
Venice - 2 days
Florence - 2 days
Rome - 4 days.
Add 5 travel days to get from each city to the next, plus your arrival and departure days and you come up with a total of 26 days. You have 17 days. And I%26#39;ve already eliminated Milan.
Frankly I think you%26#39;d be better off with more time in any of these locations than even I have allowed. After all a honeymoon is supposed to be for you and your new husband to enjoy each other, not spend time rushing from city to city and sight to sight.
Also remember that you will be using up valuable time packing and unpacking every time you move, and because you are not familiar with the airports and stations you will need extra time before your flight and after to find the check-in area, the baggage claim, the surface transportation and all the rest. If you arrive in Paris at 1310, especially since it will be CDG which is a difficult airport even for people who know it well, it will probably be at least 4 p.m. by the time you have retrieved your luggage, found the train or taxi, travelled to your hotel, checked in and got yourselves settled in and somewhat unpacked and so on. And then you will be dying for something to eat, so there goes that day.
Remember that the days are still short in February, and the weather questionable which will make sightseeeing amore problematic. If it%26#39;s cold and raining wouldn%26#39;t you rather be enjoying being with each other in a warm café than feeling compelled to stand in a line at some sight because you only have two days to see everything? Incidentally, I think shopping is one of the most time-consuming things you can do on a trip, especially in a strange city, and I just don%26#39;t see where you will have time for much shopping.
My suggestion would be that you eliminate London to begin with.
It%26#39;s not worth the hasle of spending just one day there, particularly since you will be dealing with jetlag.
Next eliminate Nice. As a city it%26#39;s not really worth visiting as you are not %26quot;into museums and the arts%26quot; which is most of what Nice has to offer. February is not a good time to visit the Riviera as it is too cold to stroll the beaches and MUCH too cold to swim. And if the weather is not at least sunny, it would be even more of a waste.
Eliminate Milan. You%26#39;ve already realized that it is probably not worth the hassle of getting there.
Eliminate Naples. It%26#39;s not worth a day trip for itself, and getting to the places nearby that are worth seeing would take more than a day.
So...
Fly into Paris on 23/2. Stay 4 full days.
Fly to Venice on 28/2. Stay 2 full days.
Train to Florence on 3/3. Stay 2 full days.
Train to Rome on 3/6. Stay 4 full days.
Fly home on 11/3.
That%26#39;s what I would suggest.
I don%26#39;t quite understand your remark that you are %26quot;making a point to go visit both the cities and suburbs of France and Italy.%26quot; All the places you list are cities, though Venice is quite small and Florence not very big, especially from a tourist%26#39;s point of view.
If you do include London and are travelling to Paris, by far the easiest and quickest — and probably least expensive — way to make the trip is by the Eurostar train through the Channel tunnel. if there are two airports anywhere you want to avoid more than LHR and CDG I don%26#39;t know where they are. (Well, actually I can think of a couple of horrors, but LHR is bad and CDG is not great.)
If you still want to include Nice, you can fly from Nice to Venice, but as I said I would eliminate it.
Honestly I think you%26#39;d be better off spending a week each in Paris and Rome and a couple of days in either Venice or Florence. That way you could have a truly relaxed trip, and have plenty of time to enjoy each other, stroll together along the Seine if it%26#39;s sunny, enjoy a long, leisurely session in a warm café if it%26#39;s cold or rainy, take a boat ride along the Seine if it%26#39;s nice and another in the evening to see the buildings lit up, even just blow a few hours going to a movie or a show or whatever, take in a nightclub or two, find a café in Rome and make it your own, so that by the third time you go there you will be greeted like old friends, take long walks through the fascinating neighborhoods of old Rome, spend a few hours in one of the lovely parks or gardens — even make a picnic if it%26#39;s warm enough, and it just might be in Rome...
But these are all just my thoughts. IMO you can dash from city to city and %26quot;see%26quot; a lot, or you can slow down and *experience* a lot — and enjoy each other...
Whatever you decide, have a great honeymoon!
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That was really really insightful..
I appreciate it.. Perhaps I%26#39;m trying too hard to make the most out of this trip while underestimating the efficiencies of CDG and LHR? %26quot;)
So now it%26#39;s whether a %26quot;touch and go%26quot; or an %26quot;experience%26quot;?
I%26#39;m still trying to strike a good balance..
I plan to fly by easyjet from London to Paris, it%26#39;s cheaper than train by around 70 euros but after hearing your comments of CDG then probably it%26#39;s going to take longer with the checking out and all?
Same goes for Paris to Nice. Cheaper and faster (maybe not?) than train. (I don%26#39;t intend to buy those rail passes since I can%26#39;t used them for metros and buses and they are costly.) Anyway, I understand it would be cold to do the beach stroll and all but I thought of visiting those small towns and villages along the French Riveria. And that%26#39;s what I meant by %26quot;making a point to go visit both the cities and suburbs of France and Italy.%26quot; : )
And where would you recommend for non-city destinations in Florence and Rome?
Many thanks!
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ooops, i meant overestimating CDG and LHR%26#39;s efficiencies.. : )
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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt; I plan to fly by easyjet from London to Paris %26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
EasyJet flies from Luton to CDG. I assumed you were travelling by BMI Baby from LHR. (And BTW you may have been spoiled by Changi, perhaps the best major airport in the world. The only European airport that comes close IMO is Schiphol, and not very close at that!)
You can get to Paris by Eurostar for £59 each. Go to eurostar.com and book a ROUND-TRIP ticket with a bogus return date then simply discard the return ticket. It takes about 2.75 hours from the center of London to the center of Paris. By the time you add the cost of getting to Luton (a bit awkward to get to in any case) and from CDG I doubt that EasyJet would be much cheaper, and certainly not 70€ cheaper. if you took a taxi from CDG (much the easiest and quickest for someone unfamiliar with the other options and ~50€-60€) it would actually be more expensive. Recommended check-in times for short haul flights in the UK are currently 2 hours before flight time because of increased security so my guess would be that flying would take at least 5-6 hours between city centers.
%26gt;%26gt;%26gt; Same goes for Paris to Nice. Cheaper and faster (maybe not?) than train. %26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
Faster yes, but not by much more than an hour, maybe 1.5 hours at the outside. Cheaper, probably not with airport transfers factored in. If you use advance purchase non-refundable %26quot;PREMs%26quot; tickets booked at www.voyages-sncf.com fares *can* be as low as 19€ on the iDTGV, I think 35€ on other trains. You can only book up to 90 days ahead for regular TGVs, but iDTGV fares can be booked farther ahead, I think up to 120 days. If you took the iDTGV you would probably not have to leave your hotel much eariler than you would if you used the flight you suggest and you%26#39;d be in the center of Nice at about the same time.
%26gt;%26gt;%26gt; I thought of visiting those small towns and villages along the French Riveria. %26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
Most of the real %26quot;villages%26quot; are inland a bit. The Riviera coast is one of the most over-developed coastlines anywhere. But you could fairly easily visit Cannes (a good-sized city) and Antibes (a smaller town) by train in one day. You could get to Èze Village by bus and combine it with a visit to Monte Carlo (another city) and perhaps see Villefranche-sur-Mer (another smaller place) on the way back to Nice by train. That with a few hours for Nice itself — strolling the Promenade des Anglais and the old town — would be about all you would have time for, if that, given the short days.
The real %26quot;villages%26quot; are inland and you really need a car and a good bit more time to see them.
%26gt;%26gt;%26gt; And where would you recommend for non-city destinations in Florence and Rome? %26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
With your limited time I wouldn%26#39;t. There is WAY more than enough to keep you busy in both placs given how little time you have.
If you had two or three days with nothing else to do you could rent a car in Florence and visit a couple of places in Tuscany and between there and Rome, dropping your car near Rome. (Warning: You do NOT want to drive in Rome!)
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Thks again for your advice! : )
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