Stymiemc

I would appreciate suggestions: The wife and I are spending a week in
Paris in June and would then like to go to Venice (with a possible
overnight in France on the way), then Sienna, then to Berlin with an
overnight stop on the way somewhere quaint in S. Germany. I'm thinking
we will take the train by night so as not to miss too much. We are not
backpacking but funds are not unlimited either. We plan to stay in
budget lodging.

How and where can I find info to plan the rail passage?

Do you have a better idea?

Any tips or must see's?

Look forward to your input, thanks.


-
Posted via http://www.travel-forums.com

Go Fig

In article ,
StymieMc wrote:

    > I would appreciate suggestions: The wife and I are spending a week in
    > Paris in June and would then like to go to Venice (with a possible
    > overnight in France on the way), then Sienna, then to Berlin with an
    > overnight stop on the way somewhere quaint in S. Germany. I'm thinking
    > we will take the train by night so as not to miss too much. We are not
    > backpacking but funds are not unlimited either. We plan to stay in
    > budget lodging.
    >
    > How and where can I find info to plan the rail passage?

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

    >
    > Do you have a better idea?

It might be more practical to go to Sienna before Venice, but it is a
lot of miles to cover.

Sleeping cars on trains open up for reservations at 60 days, many nights
on these routes they will be sold out or close to it. There is both
first class private berths and 2nd class shared.

jay
Sat, Apr 19, 2003
mailto:[email protected]


    >
    > Any tips or must see's?
    >
    > Look forward to your input, thanks.
    >
    >
    > -
    > Posted via http://www.travel-forums.com

--

Legend insists that as he finished his abject...
Galileo muttered under his breath: "Nevertheless, it does move."

Bernard T. Higonnet

StymieMc wrote:
    > I would appreciate suggestions: The wife and I are spending a week in
    > Paris in June and would then like to go to Venice (with a possible
    > overnight in France on the way)

The only interesting city in France with decent train service on that
line is Dijon which is perhaps closer to Paris than you want, about 1 /2
hours I think.

Otherwise, it goes through Geneva, Milan, and all points to Venice.

    > We plan to stay in budget lodging.

Manx train stations in Europe have public showers (I know Venice had a
terrific one 30 years ago...) which are nice after a night spent in a train.

I should mind my own business, but even though the cities you mention
are really excellent destinations, it seems to me you can find lots of
excellent destinations with a whole lot less rail traffic. On the other
hand, Venice is worth all the trouble one could possibly have going there.

Good luck

Forrest

"Bernard T. Higonnet" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > StymieMc wrote:
    > Manx train stations in Europe have public showers (I know Venice had a
    > terrific one 30 years ago...) which are nice after a night spent in a
train.

But no tails.

Michael Forrest
[email protected] - change to Friday to reply

Lennart Petersen

"Forrest" skrev i meddelandet
news:[email protected]...
    > "Bernard T. Higonnet" wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    > > StymieMc wrote:
    > >
    > > Manx train stations in Europe have public showers (I know Venice had a
    > > terrific one 30 years ago...) which are nice after a night spent in a
    > train.
    > But no tails.
    > Michael Forrest
Hm.. took a minute or so :-)
Some Manx stations
http://www.gov.im/tourism/activities.../snaefell.html
AFAIK they've no showers and definitely no night trains.
L.P

Stymiemc

OK. Thanks for the info. That's what I was hoping for, but I can see I
should give more details and hopefully you can provide even more useful
information:

I have purchased tickets to fly US to Paris, departing Berlin. We are
in Paris for 10 days, eight of which I will spend working. We then have
12 days left in Europe. Day One will be traveling from Paris. Day 12
will be getting to the Airport and flying home. I intend to spend the
evening of Day 9 and all of days 10 and 11 in Berlin with relatives.
That leaves Days 2-8 to see great things and travel between them.

The sticky details: The wife believes that she must visit Italy. I --
who am admittedly not an authority on the subject -- think she does not
realize the distances, and that will see more and travel less by
spending more time in France as we make our way east towards Germany
and then spend more time at a leisurely pace going through Germany to
Berlin. But one thing is certain: we start in Paris and end in Berlin!

More lurid details: We are late 30's, no kids, and up for anything
except tour buses. Wife backpacked France/Switzerland/Germany for two
weeks in early 90's. I spent summers in Germany as a child, speak
passable German, and have been there on business twice in the last 12
months.

We like hiking, nature, eating, people watching, etc. Other than Paris
and Berlin we have no compulsion to see a big city

I am open to suggestions -- either fitting our stated itinerary or for
a new one.

Also, I want to see the Louvre on Saturday, June 14 (I'll be the man in
the yellow hat), is there a way to advance book tickets to avoid
lines?

Thanks in advance for your advice.


-
Posted via http://www.travel-forums.com

Laura Schaefer

StymieMc wrote:

    > I would appreciate suggestions: The wife and I are spending a week in
    > Paris in June and would then like to go to Venice (with a possible
    >
    > How and where can I find info to plan the rail passage?

Normally I think the Rail Europe web site is a rip-off, but they're
currently having a sale, including night trains between Paris and Venice
(or Florence or Rome) that might bring their prices more in line with what
you can get in a station in Europe. The info is at:

http://www.frommers.com/book_a_trip/...stid=CARRENTAL

As for your second post, going from Paris to Berlin via Italy over the
course of 8 days does seem to be a bit out of the way! I agree with your
wife that one should visit Italy, but could you convince her that it
warrants an entirely separate trip instead? It would be nice to take in
more of France and Germany, and if you really want more variety, Belgium &
the Netherlands are a lot more convenient.

In response to some of your other queries:

    > We like hiking, nature, eating, people watching, etc. Other than Paris
    > and Berlin we have no compulsion to see a big city

Have you been to the Bois de Boulogne in Paris? That's a nice 1/2-to-full
day trip (emphasis on _day_ rather than night, though) for hiking, biking,
and people watching. Likewise, outside Berlin, Potsdam has some nice
palaces, but also lovely woods and gardens. If you do take the northern
route to Berlin, there's also a wonderful national park about an hour from
Amsterdam (De Hoge Valuwe? It's been a while...), though you have to take
a train and then a bus to get there.

    > Also, I want to see the Louvre on Saturday, June 14 (I'll be the man in
    > the yellow hat), is there a way to advance book tickets to avoid
    > lines?

You can buy your ticket in advance from the U.S., but it will cost you a
premium. You can also buy them from some department stores in France (Fnac
and Le Printemps at least, and probably some others), but that also costs
a little bit more. If you're staying too far away to walk to the Louvre,
some Metro stations sell a package roundtrip rail and museum ticket.
Finally, there are also automatic ticket dispensers inside the Louvre,
where we've never seen a wait of more than a few people. Of course, YMMV.

Have a lovely trip!

Douglas W. Hoyt

    >> then to Berlin with an overnight stop on the way somewhere quaint in S.
Germany...

If you want to get to Berlin REALLY fast Deutsche BA is starting a new
flight from Venice to Berlin July 1st. It costs 56 Euro one way including
taxes. One caution is that they only allow 20kg (44 pounds) of checked
baggage per person.

Joseph Feng

StymieMc wrote in message news:...
    >
    > Also, I want to see the Louvre on Saturday, June 14 (I'll be the man in
    > the yellow hat), is there a way to advance book tickets to avoid
    > lines?
    >
There may be other ways to do it, but an effective way to avoid the
lines at the Louvre and Musee d'Orsay is to get a Carte Musee.

Also, having done three overnight sleeper trains on my last trip, I
would recommend that you do not do consecutive nights on the train,
even if you can find public showers in some of the train stations.

Lennart Petersen

"Douglas W. Hoyt" skrev i meddelandet
news:[email protected]...
    > >> then to Berlin with an overnight stop on the way somewhere quaint in S.
    > Germany...
    > If you want to get to Berlin REALLY fast Deutsche BA is starting a new
    > flight from Venice to Berlin July 1st. It costs 56 Euro one way including
    > taxes. One caution is that they only allow 20kg (44 pounds) of checked
    > baggage per person.
Where else in Europe do you have more allowance than 20kg in economy?
And Ryanair have a limit of 15kg.
Anyway 20kg is four times my usual 5kg checked baggage.
L.P

Jesper Lauridsen

StymieMc wrote in message news:...
    > I would appreciate suggestions: The wife and I are spending a week in
    > Paris in June and would then like to go to Venice (with a possible
    > overnight in France on the way), then Sienna, then to Berlin with an
    > overnight stop on the way somewhere quaint in S. Germany. I'm thinking
    > we will take the train by night so as not to miss too much.

According to applefares.com, there's an Italian discount carrier that flies
Beauvais (aka discount-Paris) to Venice. For a random date in June I get a
one-way fare of 44 euro. They also fly to Bari and Milan, which would make
more sense if you insist on Sienna.

When going north from Venice, don't take a night train.

Douglas W. Hoyt

    > Where else in Europe do you have more allowance than 20kg in economy?

It's true. But if you are flying internationally the allowance is far
greater--and if you then take the same bags on an intra-European flight you
can be in for an expensive surprise.

Douglas W. Hoyt

    > Where else in Europe do you have more allowance than 20kg in economy?

It's true. But if you are flying trans-continental the allowance is much
more liberal--both for checked bags and for carry-on--very often people take
more on multi-week trips. And if you then want take the same bags on an
intra-European flight you can be in for an expensive surprise.

I flew from Rome to London last weekend, with a connection the next day to
the U.S., and had 33kg of luggage to check in Rome (I like to travel heavy).
The agent gave me a hard time, but Alitalia in the U.S. had told me clearly
that since I was connecting the next day to a U.S. flight I could check in
more than 20kg, and the agent finally gave up remonstrating without charging
me.

And five bottles of single malt scotch plus a laptop in the carry-on bag
WILL weigh more than the official carry-on allowance on intra-european
flights I assure you--though over the ocean nobody checks or cares. Often
the European airlines will not check carry-on weight, but even when
travelling far lighter than this in the past I've had Air France in Paris
and British Airways in Verona make me repack and check carry-on that weighed
too much--though it really would have been no problem in the overhead bin.

Douglas W. Hoyt

    > Where else in Europe do you have more allowance than 20kg in economy?

It's true. But if you are flying trans-continental the allowance is much
more liberal--both for checked bags and for carry-on--very often people take
more on multi-week trips. And if you then want take the same bags on an
intra-European flight you can be in for an expensive surprise.

I flew from Rome to London last weekend, with a connection the next day to
the U.S., and had 33kg of luggage to check in Rome (I like to travel heavy).
The agent gave me a hard time, but Alitalia in the U.S. had told me clearly
that since I was connecting the next day to a U.S. flight I could check in
more than 20kg, and the agent finally gave up remonstrating without charging
me.

And five bottles of single malt scotch plus a laptop in the carry-on bag
WILL weigh more than the official carry-on allowance on intra-european
flights I assure you--though over the ocean nobody checks or cares. Often
the European airlines will not check carry-on weight, but even when
travelling far lighter than this in the past I've had Air France in Paris
and British Airways in Verona make me repack and check carry-on that weighed
too much--though it really would have been no problem in the overhead bin.

Ralph

Hi,

    > June I get a one-way fare of 44 euro. They also fly to Bari and Milan,
    > which would make more sense if you insist on Sienna.

Milan is still a great distance from Siena. And Bari is completely out of
the question for Siena - almost 1000 km, I guess.

R