Hi, My husband, mum and two children (boys aged 7 & 10) are heading abroad Nov/Dec 2013. We are flying from Tasmania, Australia and think maybe 2 nights in Dubai on the way over to break the flight up would be a good idea then:
London 6 nights
Underground train to Paris 4 nights
Not sure if we should go Florence or Venice first but looking at approx 4 nights in Florence and 3 nights in Venice and then further train to Rome for 5 nights. Are there any overnight trains, would this be a good idea?
We thought apartments (any suggestions) would be best so the kids (and parents) can chill a bit and easier for some evening meals.
Cheers
Jill
Europe Nov/Dec 2013
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As far as I know, there are no overnight trains from Paris to Florence that do not involve a change, but I think there is at least one O/N train from Paris to Venice departing every evening around 8:00 p.m. If any of you are light sleepers, however, you should know this train will make many (10?) stops during the night.
While I don't normally like overnight trains, in Nov/Dec I think they make some sense. It will be dark by 5:00 p.m.
Just a suggestion. Omit the days in Dubai, and fly Melbourne to Venice. Emirates is 14 hours Melbourne to Dubai, five hours on the ground, then seven hours Dubai to Venice. You’d arrive about 2:00 PM at Venice airport, enough time to get to your accommodation in daylight. Arrival in Venice is easy – we’ve done it several times - and once you are off the plane and through immigration, it’s an easy ten minute stroll to the ferry terminal, and a fifty minute ferry ride to Venice proper.
Much less stressful than arrival in the UK at Heathrow. Venice is a great place to unwind, walk everywhere, get over the jet lag. Then train to Florence, Rome, Paris, London etc. And Venice is fun for kids – no cars!
We are staying at this apartment http://www.vrbo.com/149494 on our next visit, so can’t advise whether it would work for you, and whether the owner would accept a three or four night booking. But it might work.
Some light reading about Venice is here:
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/venice-a-sort-of-trip-report.cfm