Recommendations on place(s) to visit in Switzerland

You have not taken travel times into account. The bahn.de website says it's a 6-7 hour train ride from Paris to Lauterbrennen, even longer from Lauterbrenen to Venice. And that's just station to station, not door to door. That's two days in a row you'll spend mostly on trains, not at your destinations. You'll spend an awful a lot of time and money to have only a few hours where you really want to be.

Consider also that if you're flying from overseas, at least one of you may be suffering from jet lag when you arrive in Paris.

I strongly doubt that checking off this many destinations in 8 nights will be as rewarding as spending more time in fewer places. Most seasoned travelers would probably suggest that 8 nights gives you enough time to enjoy two major destinations, preferably in close proximity to each other or connected by overnight train. They'd probably also suggest that an optimal trip has a far,far lower ratio of travel time to time spent at your proposed destinations.

What you're suggesting is physically possible, but that's the most positive thing I can think to say about it.

I totally agree with cgbleak: this itinerary is far too ambitious (even if you had taken travel times into account, that is).

Unless you're happy with a quick hop on hop off bus tour around the city, allowing you to take a few pictures of all the famous buildings listed in your guidebook but not much else, 2 nights in Paris or Rome would be enough. However, if you want to get a bit of a feel for the place rather than stand in line all day at yet another overcrowded tourist attraction, or if you want to spend some time on an outdoor terrace enjoying a coffee, a cake or an ice cream while watching the world go by, then by all means allow at least 4 nights (= 3 full days) each for Paris and Rome. Which would make it not very feasible to visit both cities into one trip, by the way.

8 nights is very little time, and although I understand that you're eager to "see as much as you can", this plan simply isn't realistic; or at least, it doesn't make for an enjoyable trip, nor will it allow you to see much apart from train stations. Looking out of a train window for 6-7 hours gets boring very easily, even when the views are nice.

Have a look at [www.bahn.de], and write down a detailed schedule for each day including the time spent on the train. As #1 already mentioned, these times don't take into account that you have to travel between your hotel and the train station, that you'll probably end up waiting some time before your train departs, that your train may be delayed and/or you miss a connection somewhere enroute etc.

I agree with everything cgbleak has said. If you count your stay in nights and plan one night in Switzerland, with a long journey to get there and another for your onward travel, there will be no time to see anything in your one night. It's really then just to break the journey. You can arrive earlier in Lauterbrunnen than 4pm if you leave Paris early (e.g. before 8:30am) but still not worth it except perhaps to see the valley itself.

I suggest that you either fly from Paris to Venice (try Vueling) or take the overnight train, and add the extra day to either of those destinations.

If you really want to stop in Switzerland, I suggest Bern, somewhere on Lake Geneva such as Vevey, Schaffhausen or Lucerne, as possible alternatives to Lauterbrunnen. But still not sure it's worth it as you won't have any time there. Lauterbrunnen is gorgeous but you're right to think it will be cold in March and you won't have time to do any hiking even if the paths are clear.

ps. Paris to Rome is a long and expensive journey. Perhaps consider dropping one or the other. For example, you could fly into Zurich and visit somewhere in the east of Switzerland, Venice and fly home from Rome. Still a lot of travel in 8 days but you'd see heaps. Or just stick to one region/country. There are a million choices aren't there!?

I would suggest using http://www.bahn.co.uk for the train timetables (same website as Aribo cited but it's in English, not German). I also agree with the others that it's not a realistic itinerary. Geneva is scenic but not in a mountainous way.

8 days x 24 hours = 192 hours. Travel duration for the route you suggested is 15.5 hours in total. Add 8 hours of sleep per day and 2 hours of faffing about (shower, getting dressed, orientating yourself, getting to/from stations) + 2 hours a day for eating and drinking. That's 12 hrs, x 8 days = 96 hours.

192 hours total - 15.5 hours travel duration - 96 hours leaves 80 hours (or 10 hours a day only for actual sight seeing).

All of the destinations you suggest are absolutely wonderful (well I've heard Florence is wonderful but not seen it, I've seen all of the rest), but personally I'd give Paris 4 days, Lauterbrunnen 4 days (lots of attractions in the nearby area), Venice 3 days, Florence 3 days and Rome 3 days and adding in a bit of downtime and travel you effectively have a 3 week holiday.

What's wrong with you #5? Don't be jealous just because posters 1-7 (excluding you) know more than you!

Op- I agree with everything said above. For me 2 nights in Paris or Rome is too less but may not be for you. It depends on what you want to do and see though. If you want to try to less rushing, my suggestion is to cut the number of places and spend more time in each place. The regulars of this board agree with the philosophy of "more is less"--that is if I know corrwctly, seeing less places with more time per place is to them a more rewarding experience than just rushing with less time per place in more places.

But if you want 1 night in Venice and Switzerland each remember that 1 night won't give you any full days--you will arrive on day 1 in that place, and leave that place the next day--that is for me rushing.

Just for the record, depending on your interests you can actually spend a full week in Paris without getting bored! But as I said, it depends on your interests and what exactly you want to do.

Good luck!

Thanks for your honest advice! After reading everyone's response, and considering Fwoggie's & ansh_jain_97's suggestions, we have decided to change our plans of staying 8 to 10 nights. We have also decided not to include Switzerland as that journey to/and from Lauterbrunnen would be tiring as we don't have enough nights to spare. We are now planning to stay 3 nights in Paris, 2 nights in Venice, 2 nights in Florence, 3 nights in Rome. Do you guys think that is good change for visiting and enjoying the cities? What route you would suggest - flying into Paris and flying out from Rome or vice versa? Additionally,what train route should we follow? We had initially planned Paris-> Venice-> Florence -> Rome. Any other recommendations are welcome!

Thanks again for all your advice!
Shubhi

PS: I am really excited to visit all the beautiful cities!

Edited by: shubhim

Well...yes I think that's better, but...sorry to nitpick...but at least for me it's less.

Do you guys think that is good change for visiting and enjoying the cities?
I would say that deepnds on what you mean as visiting and enjoying cities. What do you want to do in those cities? Since I don't know that I can't say whether that would be sufficient for you. For me, I don't think it would be sufficient.

OP - I would suggest you book an open jaw plane ticket. This is where you fly into City A and back home from city B. There is no need to return to your original point of origin unless you can't fly directly home from city B.

I would also suggest flying from Paris to Venice to save time.

Easyjet fly Orly to Venice Marco Polo
Air France, Easyjet and XL Airways fly Paris CDG to Venice Marco Polo
Ryanair fly Paris Beauvais to Venice Marco Polo
Ryanair fly Paris Beauvais to Venice Treviso.

Note that Beauvais and Treviso are located some distance from Paris and Venice respectively; transit times could potentially be a right pain in the whatsits, but the flights are often cheaper. It's a question of trade off.

In addition, pay attention to the small print very carefully indeed. Rules surrounding check in time cut offs, baggage weight/dimension allowances and printing your own boarding passes are all rigidly enforced on a zero tolerance basis.

Alternatively you could take the overnight sleeper train. It departs 20:33, arriving 09:34 with no changes required. The curently (very crap) sleeper train operator will be liquidated in Dec 2011, and a new one will replace it run by different people. Keep an eye on http://www.seat61.com/Italy.htm for more info as to whether this is a good idea or not. Alternatively go via the reliable, nice, tried and tested sleeper to Munich and change for a eurocity on arrival for a spot of morning sight seeing as you complete your journey to Venice.