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| Here's the travel group in Venice, along with our Walking Tour guide, Alessandro, on the far left. |
We're just about ready to head out on another European adventure. Once again, planning started almost a year ago. This time, there will be 10 co-conspirators, so finding rentals with enough space was tricky. The itinerary takes in some of the biggies - Venice, Nice and Paris, and also includes some smaller towns - Monterosso, in the Cinque Terre in Italy, and towns in the Loire, the Dordogne, Carcassonne and Provence.
Here's our itinerary:
Fly into Venice
4 nights in Venice
Train to the Cinque Terre
3 nights in Monterosso
Train to Nice
4 nights in Nice
Train to Paris
5 nights in Paris
One couple flies home from Paris
Pick up cars outside Paris
1 night in Bourges
2 nights in Ligre, in the Loire
4 travelers return to Paris and fly home
3 nights in Sarlat, in the Dordogne
1 night in Carcassonne
4 nights in Sablet, in Provence
1 night in Aix-en-Provence
Fly home from Marseilles
Here's what the planning encompassed:
Flights into Venice, and flights home from either Paris or Marseilles. Everyone was on their own to figure this part out. Some were booking with Frequent Flier Miles, necessitating early planning.
Apartments for 10 in Venice, Nice and Paris. My goal was to find places with 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, in the interest of expedient morning prep.
Trains from Venice to the Cinque Terre, from the C.T. to Nice, and from Nice to Paris. Those were the longest distances for the whole group. We'll have a few short trips too, but those can be booked on the day of travel.
Car rentals for 8 of us after Paris.
Hotels or B&Bs for different size groups over the month-long trip.
A few tours in Venice - Doge's Palace and a walking tour/pub crawl. A walking tour in Aix-en-Provence. The rest of the tours or excursions we'll book along the way.
A catered dinner at our rental house in Nice.
Telephones and Wi-Fi - Everywhere we're staying has Wi-Fi available, and we each investigated our phone capabilities overseas. We all elected to use our U.S. cellphones, and our companies' overseas plans, rather than buying phone chips in Europe.
Because we were committed to some apartment and house rentals, train tickets and car rentals, some of us bought trip insurance. We all understood that we were expected to pay our share of those things, even if there was an emergency which required cancellation of our trip, or an early departure. The cost of the insurance was minimal, and worth it for the peace of mind. I used Travel Guard and felt that the coverage we got was a good value at around $200 each. The cost is based on your non-refundable expenses, so it would be more for a cruise or package tour, where you're essentially paying for the whole thing at once, and ahead of departure.
As far as budget, I've successfully estimated the cost of our trips several times over the years, and determined that for this trip on-the-ground expenses would be about $200 per day, per person. That includes everything, and I mean everything - accommodations, transportation, food, tours, entry to museums and attractions. Really everything but souvenirs. With that budget in mind, people could determine how long they'd like to stay.
Along the way, we'll take turns paying for meals or groceries, and then average the expenses at the end of the trip. This worked well on our last group trip, and keeping an eye on total expenditures every few days helped determine whose turn it was to pay.
In our dreams we picture this a Disneyland-type experience - everything clean, pretty, tasty and easy to understand, but with cheaper wine! Follow along and see how it turns out!
