2 Week Trip — Italy, Switzerland, France

Plan for a 2 week trip for first time travellers to these countries

Source: http://photo.elsoar.com/in-the-streets-of-italy.html

Air Fares

Find air fares at Google Flights. I’ve found it to be very accurate and is my go to place for finding flight information. It features a handy flexible calendar that can help you optimize your flight costs. If you’re planning the trip well in advance and your flight dates aren’t a concern, it can save you a ton of money. If you don’t know where you’d like to go, it has an explore option, that gives you all the destinations you could fly to from any city. You can discover some really cheap destinations which you wouldn’t even think off, normally!

Weather Information

Since this was our first time visiting Europe, we wanted to visit it in a season when the weather was not too cold. I usually get my weather information from accuweather.com. It provides you with a forecast of the weather of the full year. You can also look at the weather from last year to get an idea of how close the forecast is to reality. Here’s what the weather looks like in Rome:

Sept — Oct: Cool

Nov — Mar: Cold

Apr — May: Warm

Jun — Aug: Hot

Rain is consistent throughout the year, but is nearly double in the months from Sept to March as compared to the rest of the year. You should expect a few rainy days in your trip no matter what time of the year you travel.

Depending on the region, the rain, and temperatures will vary a little. Below are the snapshots of temperatures pulled from wikipedia of popular cities of Italy. They are a little outdated in some cases, but give a fair representation.

Naples

Florence

Milan

Rome

Venice

Deciding on places to visit

There are of course the more famously known locations of Italy, but we usually prefer to go on a trip which exposes us to lot more of the culture of a country. In order to find these places, I look for inspiration from:

1. Other blogs on the internet
2. Travel videos on YouTube (including documentaries, vlogs, short snips)
3. Travel itineraries of friends
4. Packaged tour itineraries
5. Popular travel facebook pages
6. Google Image Search

We also wanted to avoid the crowd. Peak season in Italy varies by destination. For example, except for beach resorts, Italy’s peak season is May, June, September, and October.

Places we chose

1. Paris — Culture & History
2. Lucerne — Alps
3. Florence — History
4. Tuscany (San Gimignano or Val d’Orcia) — Culture, Village
5. Rome — History

Other considerations were Loire Valley, Amalfi Coast, Cinque Terre, Sicily and Venice. Amalfi Coast & Cinque Terre are Italian are sea side villages, but both have their differences. There are a bunch of historic places to visit from Amalfi Coast, while Cinque Terre offers some of the best hiking destinations in the world. Amalfi Coast doesn’t disappoint either when it comes to hiking. Overall, we felt that Amalfi Coast seemed like a better deal.

We plan to cover Venice as part of another trip. Primary reason is to not overload ourselves with too much history. Including Venice in a different trip will help strike a balance for the later trip.

We dropped Loire Valley for Lucerne. It breaks the long journey from Paris to Florence and has more options for things to do. Sicily was way out of the way. Maybe another time.

Things to do in Paris

Since we’ll be spending around 4 days in Paris, it gives us an opportunity to get to know the city better. We’ll be spending most of our time on our feet walking through the city streets exploring the touristy spots and also enjoying the local atmosphere and energy. Often in our past travel, I’ve often found that this helps me build a much better relationship with the city.

Day 1:

1. Notre Dame Cathedral — 10 EUR
2. Free Walking Tour — https://www.freetour.com/paris/notre-dame-and-the-heart-of-paris-tour
3. Pont des Arts — Picturesque bridge over the Seine connecting the Louvre & the Institut de France.
4. Sainte Chapelle — Museum of stained glass paintings — 10 EUR
5. Pantheon — 10 EUR
6. Champs-Élysées or Galeries Lafayette — Shopping

Day 2:

1. Palace of Versailles — 18 EUR
2. Tuileries Garden — Expansive, 17th-century formal garden dotted with statues, including 18 bronzes by Maillol.
3. Champs de Mars & Eiffel Tower — 29 EUR (Behind the scenes tour)

Day 3:

1. The Louvre — 18 EUR
2. Free Walking Tour — https://www.freetour.com/paris/montmartre-tour
3. Lido/Moulin Rouge — 85 EUR

Day 4:

1. Centre Pompidou — 13 EUR
2. Luxembourg Gardens
3. Marche d’Aligre — Local food market or Rue Mouffetard — Food market on Saturdays
4. The City

There is also Universal studios in Paris, but since we’d already been to the one in Florida, we didn’t want to go there. If you haven’t visited one before, you should. Its great fun and it’s a full day activity.

Since we’re doing a lot of museums, the Paris Museum Pass is a good buy. Costs 62 EUR for 4 days. Saves us money, allows us unlimited entry into these museums and give us fast track entrance into them.

For commute we took the 5 day metro pass that also gives you access to the bus. For the itinerary above, the zone 1–3 was sufficient. The only time we went outside these zones when we traveling to and from the airport and Palace of Versailles. You can buy the pass at one of the metro stations. We never required any other form of transportation.

Bonus Tip: Go to Palace of Versailles within 30 mins of opening time else you’ll be standing in line for over 90 mins. If you can’t do that, visit the gardens first and then come back to the Palace. The waiting times are shorter in the afternoon, but that may not give you enough time to finish the Palace completely.

Things to do in Lucerne/Engelberg

Lucerne will be a more relaxing destination. We’d like to slow down for these days so that it actually feels like a holiday! We plan to stay at Engelberg instead of Lucerne. This is because it’s much closer 2 the main tourist spots Mt. Titlis and Jungfrau. Engelberg also has some beautiful hiking spots.

Day 1: Arrive from Paris to Engelberg via train. Relax on day 1

Day 2: Hike in Engelberg

Day 3: Mt Titlis and Jungfrau. Back to Lucerene by evening and catch a bus to Florence. We chose a bus to Florence since it saves us 6–8 hrs the next morning and the timing is very convenient (11 PM departure, 7 AM arrival) and is super cheap compared to the trains.

Things to do in Florence

Day 1:

1. Free Walking Tour Or TOUR OF FLORENTINE GENIUS
2. Florentine Markets
3. Visit the Duomo
4. The Oblate Cafeteria — Almost every evening there will be a ‘theme wise’ musical event with free admission and optional drink (unless you sit at the table)

Day 2:

1. Uffizi Gallery
2. Hike up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a full view of the city
3. Free Walking Tour — RENAISSANCE TOUR

Things to do in Tuscany

1. Cycling in Tuscany — For those looking for something a bit easier, head to the bike paths along the Adige river in Veneto.
2. Thermal Bath — Hot Water Springs
3. Wine Tasting in Chianti & Italian Cooking

Val d’Orcia [Photo Credits: Giulio Bernardi]

Things to do in Rome

Day 1: Colosseum, Food Tour (?), Piazza Navona (Cultural destination with eateries, shopping), Evening Free Walking Tour

Day 2: Vatican and it’s museums, Trastevere (Cobblestoned streets with stores, bars, excellent at night)

Day 3: Free Walking Tour — Secrets of Rome, Cycling Tour, Gianicolo (Panoramic view of the city, best at dusk, you can see all the important monuments of the city), Centro Storico (Cobblestoned streets with stores, eateries)

Things to do in Amalfi Coast

At Amalfi Coast, there are bunch of day trips that you can take. These include trips to Pompeii & Vesuvius, Paestum, Capri, and take the jaw dropping Path of Gods hike.

A shot of the Path of the Gods

Things to do in Venice

At most a 2 day stop over. We’d probably only do a day or so. Arrive by evening, have a nice dinner at some Jazz Bar, visit the sites the next day and leave early morning the following day towards our next destination. We might skip if think there’s much history in the trip.

Piazza San Marco, St. Mark’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace, Torre dell’Orologio (A clock tower that shows the inner workings of a clock), Gondola Ride ($80 for 30 mins!), Trip of the Grand Canal ($8 for 60 mins, multi boats, $20 for 24 hrs), Campanile (Get a bird’s eye view of Venice)

Travel between cities

We chose to take a mix of train and bus. Trains are as expensive as flights and the prices between major cities also increase closer to the day of travel. Prices to smaller destinations don’t fluctuate too much. If you’re flexible on time, sometimes the fair of a 1st class ticket is almost the same of a second class ticket at an earlier time. E.g. the 1st class seat for 11:20 AM train from Paris to Lucerne was only 6 EUR more expensive than the 9:25 AM train.

We found that train tickets were the cheapest at loco2.com and Flexibus prices were reasonable. If you’re traveling extensively within the same country, and Flexibux serves your routes (they have a very good network), then they also have a bus pass which is quite a good deal.

Self drive throughout would’ve been great as well, but it gets really expensive if your car pickup and drop-off cities aren’t the same. If they are the same city, then self drive is much more reasonable. Just for an estimate, I went to www.easycar.com and a week’s rental from Rome costs around $230. I’m sure, a little digging around can get you a better deal. If you would like to experience the roads, then carpooling is also available between major cities. Fares can be as cheap as 15 EUR per seat!

Hope this helps you plan your trip. Leave a comment below if you plan to visit any of these places. Happy travels!

References:

The Best of Italy by Train: A Two Week Itinerary

Travel to Italy on a Budget

Italy Essentials: 10-Day Itinerary — The Curated Travel

Italy Rail Passes and Train Tips

Italy Travel Guide by Rick Steves

25 Ultimate Things to Do in Rome