Honeymoon - Paris & Rome

maxamcm

My fiancé and I are going to honeymoon in Europe. We plan on landing in paris on 8/25/15 in the AM and flying out of Rome on 9/4/15 in the AM. We have never been to Europe so we are not sure the best places to see and things to do. We are thinking of taking the train from Paris to Venice and spending a night in the Swiss Alps along the way? 

Any suggestions? Anyone who has done this? 

WinstonsGirl

I think with Paris and Rome, you'll be able to hit the major tourist things and that will cover you for the cities.  Are you looking to spend time outside of those cities??  Ie. day tripping to Versailles from Paris for example??  That will give you a bit of the country side.  

As for trains, depending on your connections, you should be able to catch an overnighter from Paris to Venice.  If you're wanting an extra night somewhere, you'd have to plan to stop and would probably need to travel during the day to do so, losing that touristy time to travel.  It's about 10 hours by train, depending on your stops.  

Within your time line, you've really only got 1-2 days for anything else, otherwise you might miss some of the sights in Paris/Rome.  I'd suggest stopping in the Monaco area, Venice or Florence/Pisa for that short of a time.  Monaco can easily be done in 1-2 days, Venice you might prefer 2-3 days.  I love both areas.  I haven't been to Florence, but Pisa is very cool, and I'd estimate 2-3 days for both.  There is a ton to see in both Paris and Rome, so I'd say 3-4 days each.  

delujm0

With only 10 days on the gound, i would consider flying from Paris to Rome to avoid a log train ride.  There are several budget carriers in Europe that could get you from one of Paris's two international airports to Rome.  I'm assuming you already intended to do your international flights into Paris and then out of Rome rather than round trip.  I'd do 5 nightsin Paris and 5 nights in Rome with at least one full day trip from each.  If you really want to see Venice, you can do it in a (very long) day trip from Rome.  My SIL an BIL did that when they went to Italy a few years ago.  Hotels are very expensive in Venice, so they didn't want to spend the night there.  They also rented apartments so that they would have the option to eat at home rather than in a restaurant (though i have no idea why you'd want to do that in Paris or Rome where the food is so good!)  With 5 days/nights, you could easily daytrip from Paris to Versailles and also possibly another location - Brussels is a quick hop on a high speed train for example.

 

Go to the library and take out a couple of travel guides to narrow down the sights that you want to see and the activities that you want to do.  have fun!

amelisha

I wouldn't spend that large a chunk of my vacation on a train if I only had ten days, personally. I've taken an overnight from Switzerland to Barcelona but that was when I had a month to travel. Sure, the countryside is pretty, but even train travel gets very, very monotonous. In such a compressed time frame I'd just stick to Paris and Rome - there is plenty there to keep you occupied for ten days. Or, as another poster suggested, do a day or two somewhere else in Italy that won't make you lose full days to travel. Tuscany, Amalfi, something like that (although I personally wouldn't do Venice from Rome in one day.)

SBmini

Great suggestions so far. By biggest advice to you will be to watch your stuff. Unfortunately, Rome and Paris are the pick pocket capitals of the world. Read up on the common scams and be smart about your stuff. An over the body purse that is always tightly on your body, wallets in the front pocket, etc will go a long way to keep you safe.