Summer of Fun 2010

not sure if you have been to Bern before but its amazing! I love Switzerland and it was my personal favorite of the major cities

No I have not been there before, now I am excited to go! Do you know of any good place to spend the night?

unfortunately we did not stay there but we did do two day trips to the city because we liked it so much. All of switzerland is amazingly beautiful and you can’t spend enough time there. Also maybe look into Interlaken which is fairly close to Bern. Just picture two huge tropical blue lakes with huge mountain peaks all around. If that sounds nice then you should make some time to visit there. In Paris we stayed in a hostel and in Rome we stayed in a convent. The hostel was a good deal and in a great spot. The convent was interesting but I doubt you would want to stay there due to the early hours. Any other wanted info on those cities or anything else just ask!

hello fellow chicagoan! it seems we have a somewhat similar itinerary. i’m planning for september right now. i’d love to know what all you’re planning to see & do..

I would suggest only spending a day or half day in Pisa and spend more time in Florence. There is not much to do in Pisa outside of the Leaning Tower area and you can easily make a half day trip from Florence to Pisa when making Florence your home base.
I would also second visiting Interlaken area when in Switzerland. I stayed in Gimmelwald while I was there and hiked up to Muren took a cable to the top of the Schlithorn and hiked down which was one of the most scenic and most worthwhile trips of my life and have extensive travel history throughout the world. I was w/ my gf who was not a very experienced hiker and she was loved the trip.
Also, be careful crossing the roads in Naples, def the worst drivers in the world. Unlike in the USA a red light does not mean stop in Naples (at least to most drivers), almost died a couple times trying to walk around the city, ha. But Pompeii and hiking to top of Mt. Vesivius are awesome trips. Have an awesome trip, sounds like a good one.

Do a search of Milan and Naples on this site )and elsewhere)…both are not too well reviewed. Big dirty polluted cities. I would take Sorrento (with day trip to Isle of Capri) over Naples any day. I’d cut milan completely and in either Siena or Pisa (using Florence as your base)

this looks like a solid plan, i may have to copy you

haha thanks! I am hope that it will go well with a few tweaks here and there!

Jeca,

This is a horrible itinerary. You’re bypassing some amazing places in France, you’re not doing Greece any justice, and you’re planning on seeing some places that could be dropped in favor of other destinations (like Milan).

Because you have limited time, here’s an itinerary I suggest for you, keeping the the same 5 countries you want to visit:

London 2-3 days, possible daytrip to Bath/Stonehenge or Canterbury
Paris 2-3 days, possible daytrip to Reims
Bern 1-2 days
Venice 1-2 days
Florence 1-3 days possible daytrip to Siena
Rome 1-2 days
Corfu 2-3 days
Athens 1-2 days

Pisa isn’t really an entire day…a few hours to see the leaning tower and the church next door should be plenty. After Pisa I would head to Siena for the rest of the day/evening and then continue the next day to Florence, etc.

To me the charm of Greece is found in its islands (each has its own characters),…too bad you don’t have time (any chance of adding 4 days and going to Hydra and Spetses…both have good beaches)

well truthfully, no plan has been set, so I have no idea what to expect. I’m ultimately looking for an amazing time of course. And i am mainly interested in the night life and the restaurants. Not excluding the museums and the tourist attractions. Whats on your planner friend??

Switzerland is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Look up and consider Interlaken or Lauterbrunnen. Both are amazing cities there.

Hi! I’m from Chicago but I’m currently living in Rome for a year – I have been here for a couple of months and would like to offer you some advice on Italy. Take it or leave it — it’s your trip! Above all else, have fun and get excited – Europe is amazing!!!

I agree with everyone that you should go to Interlaken, Switzerland. I haven’t been to Greece or France yet.

In Italy, you don’t need a full day in Pisa – you just don’t. I spent 3 days in Florence and took a day trip to Siena & Pisa. The day trip was very cheap and easy. If you don’t want to worry about figuring what trains go there, etc. – there are tour groups that go there for reasonable prices. I spent 75 euro for the day which included transportation from Florence to Siena, Pisa, & San Gimignano, with a stop at a Tuscan Farm for a wine tasting and lunch. It was all day but amazing. I wouldn’t spend more than two days in Florence, but if you want to party more than see the sights, three days isn’t too much – Spend one day getting to know Florence, 2nd day go to Siena, Pisa, Tuscany, that night you can go out in the city (ask your hostel desk where to go at night.. we stayed in Plus Florence – it was great, young people; helpful workers; comfortable beds; cheap) then recover the next day and go out in the afternoon before you leave.

Don’t spend 3 days in Venice – maybe two. It’s a beautiful city but we walked the whole thing in a day, by the 3rd day we were walking in circles – seeing the same things. If you want to go out in Venice – look for Appertivos in your guide books or online. Venice is known for it. They’re happy hours – you buy a drink and then an appetizer is 1-2 euro. It’s great! You bar hop around the city!

Definitely go to Cinque Terre! Only see Milan if you really want to – its overpriced and the other cities are far better – in my opinion.

ROMA!!! Going out – ANYWHERE! Italians eat late and stay out later. But for the younger crowd – Piazza Navona, Campo di Fiori, and Trastevre (The Lincoln Park of Roma). They are all walking distance and easy to get to by bus or train.
Food: Pizza – IL BAFFETTO or OLD BEAR by Piazza Navona. Pasta – L’Archetto by Trevi Fountain. Panini/Sandwich – Due Conto Grandi By Vatican. Gelato – OLD BRIDGE by Vatican (Piazza RisOrgimento). Don’t eat anywhere it says “FIXED PRICE MENU” it might seem like a great deal compared to the other places you are passing – it’s not. It’s overpriced and you can find a better, cheaper restaurant around the corner where there aren’t tourists. If you want cheap, look for places that have “Take Away.”
Sights: If I only had to pick the best – Trevi Fountain, Sistine Chapel/Vatican Museums, and Villa Borghese – great views of the city and its gorgeous (pack a lunch and roam around). Don’t waste money on Colosseo & Forum – go see it but you don’t need to go in/buy the ticket. The money is better spent at a bar, drinking wine. You can see everything you want to from street level. You can see the Spanish Steps via Villa Borghese – and on the way to Trevi. You can easily walk Rome in a day.

When taking the public transit in Roma – VALIDATE your ticket. When you buy it, it’s not good until you validate it. If you get caught without a validated ticket its +$100 fine — and they will follow you to an ATM.

Spend more than 3 days in London – there is too much to see to only be there one day at the start and 2 days in the end. At the start, you won’t want to leave and by the end you’ll be too tired from the trip that you won’t do as much as you need to.

My Suggestion for 24 days::: London(4) PLANE to Paris (3) TRAIN TO Saint Malo (1) TRAIN TO Saint Tropez (1) EITHER PLANE OR TRAIN to Monacco (1) TRAIN TO Cinque Terre (2) TRAIN TO Florence (2) (one day trip – one in Florence) TRAIN OR PLANE (if you get a good deal on Ryanair) to Roma (3) SAME to Venice (2) TRAIN TO Interlaken, Switzerland (1) PLANE TO Praque (1) PLANE TO Munich (1) PLANE TO Amsterdam (1) PLANE TO London (try and travel the day you leave to be able to travel to more cities along the way)

Since you want to travel to a couple different countries, I would recommend looking at RyanAir for flights instead of all train travel. While its cheap if you are traveling from city to city within one country (ex. going around France) – it gets more expensive with longer trains and flights are dirt cheap on RyanAir ($20 euro) plus you save that day of travel. Look at Momondo.com, Mobissimo.com, and vayama.com – International search engines.

Have Fun!!!!

Thank you so much for your advice about Italy and everything else. We are still in the planning process and not sure where we want to go, our ideas change daily, but Italy is a for sure thing we will definitely take your advice

I also am living in Italy, I live in Vicenza, Italy… about 45 minutes from Venice and I agree with everything Kmccar4 said. No way spend a whole day in Pisa, I just got back from visiting it today and I did so on the way out of Camp Darby from visiting Florence, word of advice, make sure that if you do want to go to art museums in Florence look it up before hand to see if you can make an appointment, like at the Uffizi, a minimum 2-hour wait for walkins, but if you make an appointment, you come at the time specified and walk in immediately. Venice is gorgeous but doesnt need 3 days. Also, if you decide to take a gondola ride, know that they are not allowed to charge more than 80 euro for 40 minutes for up to 6 people.

Also, Cinque Terre is an absolutely gorgeous place and you should absolutely go to it. I suggest staying in Monterosso just because thats where i stayed and its one of the end cities in the ring, its alot of fun to take the water bus (biggggg boat) from city to city through all five. Each city has its appeal and special places to see but it doesnt really take more than a full day or two to see it all. But it is gorgeous and the people are very friendly. hope you have fun.

Im just wondering what kind of activites your planning on doing, because if you want to go to the museums and see the sites you better plan on spending alot more than 111 dollars a day especially in france and england which are both very expensive. I did a more extensive trip than this but visited alot of the same places. One thing that i would reccommend to save money and time is to go to cinque terre italy before florence pisa and venice because it is pretty out of the way and difficult to get to [absolutely stunning tho] and if you plan on hiking between all 5 cities id spend more than only 2 days there. We spent 3, then went to florence and then did pisa in the morning and spent 8 hours in venice before taking an overnight train. You can see all there is to see in both venice and pisa in a day, anything more and youll be bored and venice is EXTREMELY expensive hostel wise. doing overnight trains is also a great way to get the most out of your eurail pass and it saves a ton of time. Just make sure you bring a good set of earplugs in case you get snorers… cotton balls and head bands dont do the trick

Looks like a fun trip, I’ll be heading to Europe with a crew of friends after we graduate this spring from University of Minnesota and it looks like we will be hitting up many of the same spots!

hey there – I too am from Chicago headed to Europe in September!

Will anyone be left in Chicago this summer? May be a good time to go there