Europe Trip using Miles & points Paris, Switzerland and Italy for 15 days with Family, Suggestions on itinerary and guidance - May 2024

[vishalm]

Dear TF Community,

Me with My wife and two kids along with my friend's family 3 Adults (one elder women) + 2 Kids are planning to travel Europe for 14 nights and 15 days in mid of May of 2024. Both of us have points and booking the flights and booked flights via Vistara (Delhi to Paris) and return from Rome to Delhi using united. Vistara took 30k points for each and United took 33k Points for each. For Hotels we have been accumulating the Accor Points planning to redeem them in the Hotels. Our itinerary planning is as below.

3 Nights in Paris (4 days)
Day 1- arrival
Day 2- City tour & Eiffel tower
Days 3- Disney land
For this need help in planning location of hotel that would be feasible to reach from Airport and to pick train to Switzerland. I'm planning to book hop on hop off bus for day trip of Paris and Private transfer from airport to hotel and also to Disneyland.

5 Nights in Switzerland (6 days)

Planning to take Swisspass for all of us for these 5 days for ease of travel.

Day 4- Leave from Paris reach Lucerne (Via Basel) check in hotel. Visit Lake Lucerne, Chaple Bridge, Lion Monument
Day 5- Excursion to Mt.Titlis with Ice Flyer
Day 6- Lucerne to Zurich, check in hotel, Visit Lake Zurich, Old Town, Landquart Shopping Village
Day 7- Excursion to Mt. Jungfraujoch with Ice Flyer
Day8- Visit to Rhine Falls and Lindt chocolate factory visit

6 Nights in Italy

Day 9- Leave Zurich travel to Venice, Hotel checkin at hotel
Day 10- Venice city tour & gondola ride
Day 11- Travel from Venice to Florance, checkin at hotel
Day 12- Day trip to Pisa Leaning Tower
Day 13- Travel from Florance to Rome, check in at hotel
Day 14- Visit to Hop on & Hop off City Tour ,Colloseum, Roman Forum & Sistine Chapel
Day 15- Checkout and leaving from Rome

Please suggest if this itinerary good enough for family with kids. Food suggestions as we all are vegetarians. In Switzerland we can roam around with swiss pass but in other places I would need to book day excursions and private transfers to and from Train stations and airport any suggestions on this

Would appreciate if any experts can suggest on the Visa process as per this itinerary which country visa is suitable and is it good time to apply in January for May trip. please suggest

As we have miles and points from used Credit cards we are trying to plan on own, I could see lot of travels like Thomas cook, Kesari etc., are offering Europe packages where they are offering more countries and touch and go trips via buses where they are covering more countries via bus tours but they all look like fast forward but no need to worry of trains, schedules food etc. Is it good to book such packages considering family with an elderly women?

Please help with your previous experience if any. Thanks in Advance

 

[Harry1]

I am planning as well around May-June.
4 nights in Paris, 6-7 in Switzerland and 4 in Germany (2 in Munich, 2 in Frankfurt).

I took Germany as third country, as Air India flight was available with low taxes in Turkish. And Italy seemed a bit farther in map. However, I don't see many people going to Germany these days. Any specific reason?

 

[Walter White]

I am planning as well around May-June.
4 nights in Paris, 6-7 in Switzerland and 4 in Germany (2 in Munich, 2 in Frankfurt).

I took Germany as third country, as Air India flight was available with low taxes in Turkish. And Italy seemed a bit farther in map. However, I don't see many people going to Germany these days. Any specific reason?

If Germany is in your travel plans and you haven't finalised yet, would recommend you to spend time in Hamburg or Berlin instead of Frankfurt.

 

[vishalm]

I am planning as well around May-June.
4 nights in Paris, 6-7 in Switzerland and 4 in Germany (2 in Munich, 2 in Frankfurt).

I took Germany as third country, as Air India flight was available with low taxes in Turkish. And Italy seemed a bit farther in map. However, I don't see many people going to Germany these days. Any specific reason?

I would recommend you travel Italy over Germany if you have not visited Italy sofar. You can take a train or flight from Rome to Germany from where your flight is booked.

 

[Harry1]

I would recommend you travel Italy over Germany if you have not visited Italy sofar. You can take a train or flight from Rome to Germany from where your flight is booked.

No, that would be too much of hassle, when Europe trip planning is already so much complicated 😅. Will cover Italy in next trip (if that happens).

 

[Harry1]

If Germany is in your travel plans and you haven't finalised yet, would recommend you to spend time in Hamburg or Berlin instead of Frankfurt.

I did saw a few videos of Berlin. But again it will require extra travel (1 extra day), as Berlin is on far side of Germany and my flight is from Frankfurt only. I am trying to minimise the travel time and avoid any zigzag in routes.

 

[Random123]

Hi, firstly a nice plan to use miles and points for flights and hotels.

I will try to see if I can provide my thoughts on some points

1. Paris -> Zurich -> Lucerne -> Interlaken -> Venice -> Florence -> Rome seems a good option
2. You can look at panaromic trains like glacier , bernina, golden pass in Switzerland if it might be interesting
3. Did you consider eurail or country rail passes ?
4. Mt. Titlis and Jungfrauch are both quite similar and expensive too. Just mentioning in case you could try on different experience instead of one
5. Any plan to visit museum - louvre , ufuzzi ?
6. Book in advance for academia gallery in florence and collosseum / roman forum in rome
7. Read hop on hop off tours are not always best option in europe particularly but please do check more on this since I didn't take any
8. Free walking tours in the morning is generally a nice way to know the important places and information from local guide ( can tip 10-20 EUR at end). Then you can decide where to explore further
9. Can consider Cinque terre instead of day trip from Florence instead of Pica !
10. Boat ride in lake lucerne / lake brienz (covered in eurail pass)

Sorry don't have info on hotels or local transport since it was hostel and public transport for me as solo traveler

Regarding visa I think you can consider Switzerland or France since Italy is notorious for giving visa last minute.
Just mention the longest duration of stay is in the country where you are applying for. Day wise itinerary is good enough.
Need to and fro international tickets and hotel reservations.
Not sure whether fully refundable tickets are possible for purchases by points and miles
Again sorry not sure of how supporting docs work for families.

Hope this helps a bit and have a great time !

 

[Random123]

I am planning as well around May-June.
4 nights in Paris, 6-7 in Switzerland and 4 in Germany (2 in Munich, 2 in Frankfurt).

I took Germany as third country, as Air India flight was available with low taxes in Turkish. And Italy seemed a bit farther in map. However, I don't see many people going to Germany these days. Any specific reason?

Munich and Bavaria in general was great. There is bavarian day pass
Alpine lakes are beautiful. Went to Lake eibsee was good trekking place.
Castles are also wonderful. Went to Neuschwanstein Castle

Berlin is quite historical too and lot to explore. But yes it is farther from Frankfurt. Haven't been to frankfurt

 

[CARDBITRAGE]

Looks like a lot of TF members have their plans set on visiting Europe next year around the same time.
Anyway, I think your itinerary should work fine for you. Considering you will travel by train, I think you will have a few early departures, so I suggest staying close to the train stations which most likely will be in the city centre.
And as @Random123 mentioned, there's no point travelling to two mountains. Out of the two, I would suggest a visit to Jungfraujoch(Europe's highest train station). If that's okay with you, you can take a train from Paris to Zurich and do the excursion to the mountains the following day. By doing this, you can free up 2 days and do some other activities or explore some of the villages(Grindelwald, Interlaken, Andermatt, Lauterbrunnen, etc.) in Switzerland.
As per your itinerary, since you will be spending the most time in Italy, it is recommended you apply for your visa with them.

 

[Avatar Aang]

I am also planning for march end/April start around 20-21D trip. Roughly I was thinking of Amsterdam (2N) Brussels (1N) Paris(4N) Italy(5N) Switzerland (5N) Vienna (2N).

Have around 1.2L Accor points and hopefully can cover the entire tour with budget stays.
For Flight I am thinking of Mumbai to Amsterdam and Vienna to Mumbai.

Following the thread for any fruitful insights.

 

[Harry1]

I am also planning for march end/April start around 20-21D trip. Roughly I was thinking of Amsterdam (2N) Brussels (1N) Paris(4N) Italy(5N) Switzerland (5N) Vienna (2N).

Have around 1.2L Accor points and hopefully can cover the entire tour with budget stays.
For Flight I am thinking of Mumbai to Amsterdam and Vienna to Mumbai.

Following the thread for any fruitful insights.

Switzerland is damn expensive. Hard to find any reasonable hotel in good location under 10K points per night. Specially in Interlaken, there is only one hotel with 20K points per night 😅.

I planned a shorter trip than urs, but now finding myself short of points. Getting another Samsung Infinite from Axis hoping it will convert in 5:4😉.

 

[anirban.choudhury]

I am also planning for march end/April start around 20-21D trip. Roughly I was thinking of Amsterdam (2N) Brussels (1N) Paris(4N) Italy(5N) Switzerland (5N) Vienna (2N).

Have around 1.2L Accor points and hopefully can cover the entire tour with budget stays.
For Flight I am thinking of Mumbai to Amsterdam and Vienna to Mumbai.

Following the thread for any fruitful insights.

1.2L accor should be more than enough for your itinerary
Just stick to ibis or Novotel properties and you would be good to go.

Try to optimize the miles requirement by opting for promo fares particularly with Turkish which is currently running like 11.9k miles to Budapest , 13.3k miles to Frankfurt/Rome ex Delhi/BOM.
It's offering a 30% off on redemptions for flights till 31/05/2024 booking period should be by 27/12.

TBH , I would never pick United for economy Europe , as it gives a value even less than 80 paise sometimes , 33k economy to Europe is a rip off when Turkish , Lifemiles we can get it around 19-25k under promo.

 

[Avatar Aang]

1.2L accor should be more than enough for your itinerary
Just stick to ibis or Novotel properties and you would be good to go.

Try to optimize the miles requirement by opting for promo fares particularly with Turkish which is currently running like 11.9k miles to Budapest , 13.3k miles to Frankfurt/Rome ex Delhi/BOM.
It's offering a 30% off on redemptions for flights till 31/05/2024 booking period should be by 27/12.

TBH , I would never pick United for economy Europe , as it gives a value even less than 80 paise sometimes , 33k economy to Europe is a rip off when Turkish , Lifemiles we can get it around 19-25k under promo.

Thanks for the input. I was looking for ER to Turkish/lifemiles/United. But with the sudden devaluation of magnus I couldn't decide the FF program and ended up in transferring all points to accor.

 

[anirban.choudhury]

Thanks for the input. I was looking for ER to Turkish/lifemiles/United. But with the sudden devaluation of magnus I couldn't decide the FF program and ended up in transferring all points to accor.

You can transfer accor points to Flying Blue at 1:1 and Accor was even giving 15% bonus on tranfer few days ago.
Flying blue also had some very good promo fares to Europe

Also accor points can be transferred to Qatar or BA avios 1:1 through iberia.

So yeah accor was a safe bet for speculative transfers.