Tentative 3 week Itinerary

[Drea Mills]

So far I am planning on arriving in Santiago de Compostela, Espana on July 11th to meet up with some friends. From there we are flying to Rome on the 14 (arriving really late) we hope to travel by train to Florence, Venice, and Milan before flying to Paris on the 22nd (arriving late again,) from Paris we are flying out to Girona, Espana on the 26th in the morning. there we plan on renting a car and taking a road trip, visiting southern France, Barcelona, and driving northern Spain back to Santiago to fly out on Aug. 3rd.

I can't change the dates to and from Santiago, but there is so much I want to see. I would love to make it to Portugal, if possible, and maybe take a boat to Greece, but I don't know what should be changed. How much time does it take to see the parts of Italy I'm looking at? Anyone have any ideas?

[beergal]

if havent said it already welcome to the boards

I just got back from Milan where i spent 3 nights, 2 days.
Personally i think you can see all the major attractions in Milan in about a day especially if you havent got tickets for the last supper (which i have been informed is sold out until end of July)
I also took a day trip to Lake Como on the second day i was there.

[space virgin]

Yes, there is DEFINITELY such a thing as doing too much!! Even leaving Portugal and Greece out of it your itinerary looks a tad unrealistic... I think maybe you're stretching yourself a bit especially with the road trip. For three weeks and bouncing from Spain to Italy back to Spain and then road trip through Spain and France, well, you really won't have time to hop a boat to Greece. Those ferry journeys can take up to 20 hours or something like that-- that's two *entire* days of transport just to get there and back!! Oy. Also, Spain is a HUGE country. Travel times are probably going to be a lot longer than maybe you're expecting. Renting a car and taking a road trip sounds like a great idea, but you may not cover all of the places you've listed in only seven days. Don't take my word as gospel, you may be able to do it... but it would be REALLY rushed.

Good luck though, and have an awesome time!!

[tumblezweedz]

I'd agree that you may be trying to cram too much in - even though flying will save you a lot of travel time, you still have to be at the airports a couple of hours in advance (don't be late or you don't fly), and if you're flying on a budget airline, you'll be landing out of town so will face a commute at each end, as well.

As far as travel times, in Italy you could technically do all the stuff you want to do, but you wouldn't have much time to relax and enjoy it. From whence are you flying to Paris? If Rome, consider that you'll have to backtrack to catch your flight. It's about a 6 hour drive from Milan to Rome, so count on that for the train, too. It's also about 4 hours by train from Venice to Milan. If you had to drop somewhere in Italy, I'd choose Milan, personally.

Ditto on driving in Spain. It's a huge country. We drove from the south coast (Jerez area) to Madrid, which took the better part of a day, with no stops for exploring en route, and ate at fast food places to boot. If you want to have the flexibility to spend an hour or so in some little place that catches your fancy, you'll have to bank on it taking a lot longer to get around.

Check out a couple of travel guides which often list the length of train journeys between specific cities - that'll give you a rough estimate of driving times, which should help you decide your optimal route.

Good luck with your planning, and have a great trip!

[Drea Mills]

Originally posted by tumblezweedz@Jun 25 2006, 04:49 PM
I'd agree that you may be trying to cram too much in - even though flying will save you a lot of travel time, you still have to be at the airports a couple of hours in advance (don't be late or you don't fly), and if you're flying on a budget airline, you'll be landing out of town so will face a commute at each end, as well.

As far as travel times, in Italy you could technically do all the stuff you want to do, but you wouldn't have much time to relax and enjoy it.* From whence are you flying to Paris?* If Rome, consider that you'll have to backtrack to catch your flight.* It's about a 6 hour drive from Milan to Rome, so count on that for the train, too.* It's also about 4 hours by train from Venice to Milan.* If you had to drop somewhere in Italy, I'd choose Milan, personally.

Ditto on driving in Spain.* It's a huge country.* We drove from the south coast (Jerez area) to Madrid, which took the better part of a day, with no stops for exploring en route, and ate at fast food places to boot.* If you want to have the flexibility to spend an hour or so in some little place that catches your fancy, you'll have to bank on it taking a lot longer to get around.

Check out a couple of travel guides which often list the length of train journeys between specific cities - that'll give you a rough estimate of driving times, which should help you decide your optimal route.

Good luck with your planning, and have a great trip!

[snapback]127965[/snapback]

I'm not too worried about the road trip, where I live it takes me 4 to 5 hours to get anywhere. I checked the routes from Girona to Santiago and that's only a 12 hour drive and we have a week to do it in.

We'll be taking trains from Rome to Florence then to Venice, and then Milan where we are flying out to Paris. I think we have a day in each city without any travel, some more than one day. What I am worried about now is flying into Rome (CIA) airport at 11:40pm and having a place to stay. I don't have a problem booking before, just need a place easy to get to from the airport, any advice?

[tumblezweedz]

Actually, if you're traveling with friends, you might be able to book into a cheap hotel for about the same cost as a hostel. Etap and Formule 1 hotels are dead cheap, but there aren't any in Italy. The one we looked at in Rome that was near CIA was an Ibis hotel (I think about 5km and they had a shuttle). I can't remember exactly the cost, but I think around 50-60 Euro/night for a three person room, so if you split that, it's not so bad...

The Etaps/Formule 1s have a double/single bunk bed, I'm not sure what the Ibis arrangements would be. www.accorhotels.com has all the listings.

We ended up staying somewhere else, because we decided to drive instead: the Hotel Santa Maura 2, closer in to the city, about 90 Euro/night for a three person room. I guess you could get there by train/bus, but it would be a pain that late at night - the hotel's about 2 km from the Cinecitta metro station.

Also, check out budget hotels in that area, they could work out cheaper than hostels if you share...