Already booked a 3-week trip for late January/early February. Coming from Canada (if that matters) and flying into Paris. Then flying out from Rome. This was actually much cheaper than booking a round trip. Thus far I've only been to Mexico and some of the States, so this will be my first real vacation by myself.Want to see as much as I can (mostly history and architecture), so that's why I'm not stopping in one city for more than 4 nights. Winter weather won't be an issue for me, and I'll be travelling mostly by train (have a licence, but renting for that long is not feasible and I heard the transit in Europe will be completely fine for my intentions). >Paris: 4 Nights>Travel through Reims (spend about 4 hours there)>Continue to Metz: 2 Nights.>Strasbourg: 2 Nights>Travel through Dijon (spend about 4 hours there)>Continue to Lyon: 3 Nights.>Grenoble: 1 Night>Turin: 2 Nights>Genoa: 1 Night>Travel through Pisa (spend about 4 hours there)>Continue to Florence: 2 Nights>Travel through Siena & Orvieto (spend about 6 hours in both cities overall)>Continue to Rome: 5 Nights>have a 16 hour connection in Paris, so I can spend about half a day there before I fly back to Canada.>Wanted to avoid most of the Olympic stuff (been to 3 Olympics already), not sure if most of Italy will be a shit show during this time or not.I intend to make a few trips to the French Riviera and Northern Italy in the future, so that's why I skipped Nice, Milan, Venice, and Bologna.I was advised to go to Basel instead of Dijon, and take a day away from Lyon, but I don't know how sound of a decision that would be. Basel to Lyon seems like an odyssey. Any help from experienced travellers who know good/cool historic sites in France/Italy would be appreciated.>Most of my stuff is booked, but flexible. Ideally I would only make 1 or 2 revisions to my original itinerary.
if youre going to some of the big museums in paris (louvre) or florence (uffizi, accademia) you probably want to look asap and book a ticket online or you'll spend hours waiting to get in
>>2853340yeah, I grabbed some tickets for the 'fast' track already. Dealing with the websites were a massive hassle though.
Take a day trip from Lyon to go to Annecy or if you like hot springs, Aix les Bains.
road trips arnt my thing im just saying places interesting to me, u wont have time for it all. also difficult in this part of europe you have the big key hits pairs, florence, rome but any region if you look closely you can find dozens of places to stop for an afternoon.turin there are like half a dozen palaces in city or periphery.Palazzo reale looks interesting inside.I think La veneria reale seems the most impressive but not seen them all.sacra di san michele is a monestary outside turin i always thought would be cool to see but never beenAdding atleast an 1.5hour on your drive from grenoble but if you went north thru annecy(nice lake town) then past mont blanc into italy past aosta - that highway in italy has many forts and castles.Castle Fenis and Fort Bard are there - there are multiple fortifications but those the 2 most noteworthy. Aosta, has some roman ruins but you have other opportunites. - has a ski lift to ski resort right in the centre of town, can rent all the gear im sure. average resort Pila, there are much nicer ones but its fine. runs are groomed for skiing. Courmayeur may also have a ski lift in town from the ski shop.Turin they really proud of their egyptian museum if you like that stuff.Automobile museum if u like that stuff.Im sure both great but you might be peak museum bandwidth considering there half a dozen u already feel obligated to go to.Jan/Feb i guess italian Lakes are not that interesting - look into them on future trips, amazing.
>>2853339You're taking trains and buses, so I hope you have that planed out very well with connections or alternatives and don't have any fixed Hotel reservations.This is not a 24h network so you might get stuck, miss a connection or do a 2h highspeed leg on a 4h+ slow train/bus so prepare for that. Else it's okay I wouldn't do that as you hit a lot of spots in the worst season. It is what it is, enjoy your trip
>>2853383What would be an alternative? I booked all my transit in the mornings (insured) so that I can hopefully hop on a later train.I'm not fully against renting a car (although that would be about $1000 added to my stay) or taking 1 or 2 destinations away for fewer transfers. The 2-3 hour-long trains might be a good time to 'relax' after logging 20k steps, and just sit on my phone.>>2853371Annecy looks amazing, definitely somewhere I want to add. >>2853374Appreciate the suggestions. Not a huge road-tripper either, but had the 3 weeks paid for and needed to do something purposeful for myself; had a rough year.
Not OP, but how hard is it if you only speak English in France/Italy
>>2853398easy. Though learning pleasantries will go a long way. They're both easy as fuck languages.
>>2853339Good news you're largely avoiding the Olympics based on where you're going.>GrenobleNot a lot there for a tourist, maybe try to stay in Annecy if that can be done (I don't think that's along the line to Turin). Definitely go up to the fort and along the Isère. Don't bother with the south of the city it's a kip. Maybe a detour to Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse where the drink was originally made in the monastery (or Voiron where it's currently made).>LyonStick to the west of the city (Old Lyon). Definitely try the brioche at Pralus (don't leave it to later in the day). 3 nights might be overkill but maybe you could go out to Clermont and go up the Puy de Dôme if that's feasible. Good day trip.
>>2853385>What would be an alternative? Well I would go/stay more in/near the alps as euro cities in Jan/Feb can be a bit depressing and empty. The christmas lights and markets are gone a lot of places close for the time (vacations or renovations, with the olympics ahead it's the time to do it) or have limited hours as the euros flock to the mountains and the cities take a nap till march.Else those are great destinations and it would be a 10/10 trip comes mid March to early April.Well seems like you did your homework, good job. The only thing I would do for sure is rent a car in Lyon and hit up places like Chamonix, Annecy, Courchevel/Méribel maybe hit some places in Aosta and plan in a chill day in the alps.
Don’t forget to bring a rape whistle and anti-rape underwear. Also, it is super important you remember to memorize the “no-no square” song and dance before you go if you are to remain safe. It’s 100% effective
>>2853339I think the leg of the journey from Siena to Orvietto can be quite tight here. Siena is bigger than Orvieto and you can easily spend most of a day there. Even if you get there early in the morning, its still about 3-4 hours to Orvieto, so depending when you leave Siena and arrive in Orvieto it might be too close to the closing times of the things there. If you are flexible I would recommend spending a day in Siena, and going back to Florence for 1 night, then going to Rome via Orvieto the next day. Alternatively spend the day in Siena, go to Orvieto and sleep there, see Orvieto in the morning and take the train to Rome.Also very important - italian rails like to strike often so keep an eye out, just going italy train strikes is enough or this cgsse.it if it loads...Are you planning on using a rail pass like eurail?
>>2853339>Travel through Reims (spend about 4 hours there)Reims has an incredible cathedral, Ruskin has written a whole book about it. Hope you can make it! Otherwise, I'd shorten Metz to 1 night and spend some more time in Reims.>Travel through Siena & OrvietoThey are both really unique cities (I'm sure you've done your research). If you could, I'd give them one whole day together so you get some time to actually walk around and see things. Then again, I wouldn't cut any days from Rome so maybe this is the sacrifice you have to make.
>>2853339You're trying to do too much in too little time. What do you want to get out of the trip? Spending 1 night in different cities is grindy as fuck.
>>2853339> spend about 4 hours therewhat is this absolute autism for multiple cities ... I mean I did that once when passing through Lausanne but if your entire trip is just spending 4 hours in a city and moving on then you will never meet people or really have meaningful experiences
>>2856063part of the brainbroken social media generation which turns everybody into women
>>2856063It's pretty much the Murrican goes to europe experience, kinda like the usual eruo delusion.>I land in NY, got 7 days in the US I want to go to Chicago, Florida, Hawaii and fly out from Boston, is this a good trip to sight see and party? Oh GF also mentioned Las Vegas, can we squeeze that in?
