Barcelona-Venice trip

Seven days isn't nearly enough to do all that. Even 2 weeks would be a big rush.

If you rent a car in one country and drop it off in another, you will pay a small fortune. Someone has to drive the car back. You're probably talking about at least 500 euros extra.

The roads are excellent in Spain, France, and Italy. www.viamichelin.com gives you distances, types of roads, toll and fuel costs, and more. But really, your idea for this trip is unrealistic at best.

As above 3 days in Barcelona is fine, but 4 days to drive to Venice and stop off on route in Monaco and Antibes you do not have enough time.

Also unless you have tickets forget getting anywhere near Monaco for the grand prix.

BCN to MC need about 8 hours to drive if using only the motorways and under normal traffic. No way in your short time to see, visite other places. The F1 race start usually at 2pm. To be there if you have already your tickets you need one hour if you find a parking place in time and forget the idea to find one in Monaco. If you will go after MC for a visite to San Remo it's about 45min on the motorway or the double if using the seafront road. San Remo to Venice need also 6/7 hours under normal traffic situation.

I suppose you know that there are direct flights from Barcelona to Nice. Fares for May 25th start at 30 EUR. http://www.vueling.com/en#

With the F1 race forget about average traffic, I went to one in Germany it was hell getting in the day before and on the race day when people left they closed the Autobahn, we had to drive in the opposite direction until we finally where able to turn around to go home.

That was a big place with several Autobahn and good 4 lane roads around, it was a zoo, normal travel time is 1 1/2 hours, after the race it took us at least 6 hours to get home, after I saw Monaco a few years back, not during the racing weekend, you might be able to make it to the Autoroute in that time.

Thank you all so much for the valuable info! We do have tickets for the F1, not assigned ,but at poolside grandstands, so now I worry about coming to MC around 11-12 on Sunday and find every space taken ! I think F1 site have purchase parking option...about 30 euro. Did someone ever used virtually purchased parking tickets ? Almost started to look into the airplane option !
I'm also wondering if 2 days are enough in Venice ? We are not looking to stop at every cathedral,but a few and mostly relax.

If you attempt to arrive at 11-12 you will struggle to make the race, I would suggest staying somewhere much closer than Barcelona the night before the race. Maybe somewhere you can take public transport into Monaco. 2 days for many is enough in Venice but it depends on the person.

You say you're planning a trip for about 7 days.
Does that mean nothing is official yet? Flights, car rental, etc?

I hope that's the case. Largely because you'll spend 2 of those 7 days mostly driving. Leaving 5 days for Barcelona, the race and Venice(?).

Have you looked into the actual logistics of this? The race is the 27th. Let's assume you'll spend most of the 26th driving to Monte Carlo. To get two full days--48 hours-- in Barcelona, you'll need to arrive on the 24th--which means departing Atlanta on the 23rd. Which I hope doesn't count as one of your 7 days. That's what I'll assume.

Jet lag is a potential issue here. If you arrive at 8;25am, your bodies will think it's actually 2:25am. And yet 48 hours later, you plan on driving in foreign countries on strange roads for 8 hours.

You'll spend most of the 28th driving to Venice--Day 5 (if departure day doesn't count). Are you departing Venice on Day 7 or Day 8? If you depart on day 7, you won't have 2 full days in Venice. If you depart early on Day 7, you'll have one day in Venice. Either way, it hardly seems worth the 8-hour drive to spend so little time. And that's assuming you don't make any stops along the way. Note what time you're departing from Venice, and if it's appropriate to consider it an actual "Venice day."

What can you do? Well, ditch the idea of renting a car for starters and fly. Maybe ditch Barcelona and fly directly to Nice. Maybe ditch Barcelona and Venice and spend a week in southern France.

2 days for many is enough in Venice

For people who don't like Venice, yes, it's enough. I happen to love it. I also happen to live 2 1/2 hours down the train tracks from it, in Milan. And as many times as I've been there, and as easy as it is to access, I still don't bother unless I can spend 3 nights there.

I'm really concerned that at the end of your trip you'll find yourself thinking, "Well, we saw an F1 race. But I wonder what Barcelona and Venice are really like." At this pace, you'll be lucky to catch a whiff, let alone an actual taste of these places.

I've had to make a lot of assumptions here. But you don't have to because you have the actual info. So plug that info into the same sort of detailed scheme and decide for yourselves if your very very limited time in these far-flung places--and so much time spent driving between them--will be worthwhile for you.

I have to agree with the above. I fail to understand why you're even flying into Barcelona, because your REAL destination is far, far away. The whole trip seems scatterbrained to me, with a truly bad ratio of being someplace versus getting someplace.

There is only one cathedral in Venice, BTW. Same as anywhere else. And for me, Venice needs a minimum of 3 nights, preferably more. But you have so little time...