Big Trip to Europe. Is it too much?

by Therese
(Australia)

I've stumbled upon your website it looks great. We will be ending a 6 week holiday with a week in Paris then a week somewhere else in France. We are traveling with another couple.

My husband and I were thinking of traveling by train from Paris to Zurich to fly home, and stopping off along the way during the train journey.

I don't know much about the region and I thought perhaps two nights in the Champagne region, two nights in Alsace region, two nights in Lucerne and one night in Zurich.

But I am happy to change that as I look at each area more closely. Our friends want to see Nice and Provence.

My concern was that it was a lot of traveling from Paris and then back tracking.

Do you have any ideas?

Could we incorporate it all? I think it may be too much travel and too little sightseeing.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Therese

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Planning a Big Trip to Europe
by: Suzele

Your trip does sound a bit full...

You may be in a hurry and not have time to enjoy the trip...which hopefully is the point : )

You have a few choices...

1 Do your trip as it is...and find yourself on a schedule with no time to relax...or

2 Keep your trip the way it is and choose to only see one or two things in each area...or

3 Cut out some things and see more in the areas you do visit.

Whichever one sounds like a good idea will be the best for you.

I personally prefer to take my time when on vacation...I also don't like having a schedule...so you know which one I would pick, but that's me...

I can't help you much with Champagne, Burgundy, or Provence...not my specialty...

I can tell you those regions are much larger than Alsace...so possibly more travel time.

Alsace is one of the smallest regions in France and it's pretty easy to get from one end to the other (less than two hours top to bottom)

There's a lot of neat ideas on the site...
Try the Alsace Map for a quick summary of interesting places to go...

And an extensive list of the more interesting villages in Alsace with lots of useful information about what to do and where to stay here.

Wine won't be a problem...there are over a hundred villages that produce wine in Alsace.

If you want to make the most of your trip to Alsace, I also do custom Alsace travel intineraries as well as personalized private tours for a one of a kind Alsace vacation.

Have fun : )

Suzele

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Want to Stay in a Small Village But Not Sure Because We Don't Speak French
by: Therese

My thoughts on exploring Alsace were exactly what you were saying - not too rushed, not too much to do in a short time.

As it is the end of our trip I'm really looking for somewhere to begin to wind down, while still exploring and discovering new places and sights.

Our friends are thinking of the Provence trip so we're both researching and will decide if we want to do the same thing for our last week, or whether to go our separate ways when we have finished our week in Paris.

My original idea was to take the TGV to Strasbourg, then I wasn't sure if we'd be able to get around much to other villages without a car.

Also wondered if a smaller village would be a good base for us, but once again, not sure.

I have read the information on your website which is really informative, I'm probably a bit cautious of where to stay as we don't speak French so would want somewhere that we can at least make ourselves understood.

We will be there in June...

Thanks again for your reply.

Kind regards
Therese

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How to Enjoy France without Speaking French
by: Suzele

Hi Therese,

If you want to go to the little villages, you will need a car...unless you choose a village on the list of villages accessible by train.

A lot of the wine road villages are not accessible by train because they're in the foothills of the Vosges mountains and the trains just don't go through there.

Renting a car is a small matter. They have agencies at the train stations in major cities like Strasbourg, Obernai, Selestat, Colmar or Mulhouse.

You'll also find car rental agencies at all major airports.

Hotels, car rental agencies, airports, shop owners will be able to communicate with you...you may not be able to sit down and chat about life but you'll be able to get what you need...

Restaurant wise...you should be good with the info on the site here.

The key to enjoying France without speaking French very well is just to relax and enjoy every moment with miscommunication and without it...

Because you're in France right now and almost everyone you know will be super jealous of you ; )

It's also another reason for having a very open and light schedule...you can just walk around anywhere and have fun because it's all great.

Enjoy,
Suzele

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