【Touring Europe】Deciding length of stay in each city and booking routes
Istanbul → Goreme → Istanbul → London → Paris → Mont Saint-Michel → Paris → Venice → Florence → Rome → Granada → Barcelona → Milan
Since I decided to travel this route,
I will decide the length of stay and book flight and train tickets.
Round-trip flights from Japan
For the outbound flight to Istanbul and the return flight from Milan,
I booked Premium Economy seats using ANA mileage award tickets.
When I booked,
only aisle seats were available in the front row of Premium Economy,
so I booked 15C, an aisle seat, but
when I checked about a month before departure, a window seat had been cancelled, so I changed my seat to 15A.
Since it was the front row, there was plenty of legroom,
and I didn't have to bother the person next to me when getting up,
so it was certainly comfortable.
Guidelines for length of stay in each country
Since I am touring 5 countries in 31 days, simply dividing it means a 6-day stay in each country.
However, since I want to visit the three cities of Venice, Florence, and Rome in Italy, I allocated 10 days for Italy, and distributed the remaining 20 days among the 4 countries, setting a guideline of 5 days for each.
Turkey
Length of stay is 4 nights
I wanted to stay in Istanbul for 3 nights.
With a 2-night, 3-day trip, the first and last days are travel days,
leaving only one full day to relax.
In Goreme,
riding a hot air balloon was the top priority,
and visiting underground cities and rock formations was a lower priority,
something to do if possible.
Transportation from Istanbul to Goreme
includes buses and airplanes,
and while buses are cheaper,
most buses depart at night and arrive around 8:00 the next morning.
Since hot air balloon tours depart around 4:00 AM,
if I took a bus, the balloon ride would be the day after arrival,
meaning I would spend 2 nights in Goreme, including the night on the bus.
I started to think, 'If I can ride the balloon, is there anything else to do in Goreme?'
so I decided to fly to Goreme for a 1-night stay,
making the total stay in Turkey 4 nights and 5 days.
Istanbul → Goreme
I thought it would be fine to arrive in Goreme in the evening, just in time for dinner,
so I booked an AJet flight departing Istanbul around 15:00.
Goreme → Istanbul → London
From Goreme, I will head to London via Istanbul,
and there was a flight that departed in the evening, connected through Istanbul International Airport,
and arrived in London in the morning.
It will be an overnight flight, but
arriving in London in the morning might be efficient,
so,
Göreme → Istanbul: Turkish Airlines
Istanbul → London: WizzAir
I booked these flights.
The arrival in Istanbul is around midnight,
and the departure from London is around 4 AM,
so I have to wait at the airport, which is a bit tough.
London
Length of stay is 4 nights
In London,
the main purpose is watching musicals,
and the maximum number of shows I can see depends on the length of my stay.
I arrive in London on Friday morning,
so I will be there over Sunday and Monday,
and there are often no evening performances on Sundays and no matinees on Mondays.
If I stay for 5 days and 4 nights,
I can see a maximum of 8 performances.
I also have a budget,
so I thought 8 performances would be enough,
and decided on 5 days and 4 nights for London.
London → Paris
I will use the Eurostar to travel from London to Paris.
According to my preliminary research, train prices in the UK and France
fluctuate depending on the time and season,
and they skyrocket as the departure date approaches,
so I booked in advance.
Early morning and evening are cheaper,
but I wasn't confident I could make an early morning train,
and I'm afraid of arriving in Paris too late,
so I booked a train around 5 PM, which was cheaper.
France
Length of stay is 5 nights
For Paris, I would have been happy just visiting the Louvre Museum,
but that would be too rushed,
so I decided to do some sightseeing in the surrounding area and stayed for 3 nights.
Then, I will stay 1 night at Mont Saint-Michel,
and return to Paris, but moving directly to Venice from there
carries risks like train delays,
so I decided to stay 1 night in Paris.
Therefore, I ended up staying a total of 5 nights in France.
Paris ↔ Mont Saint-Michel
I will travel from Paris to Mont Saint-Michel by train.
When I looked it up,
the standard method seems to be going to Rennes station and taking a bus from there.
When I searched for routes further,
I found a train that departs Paris around 8 AM
and arrives around 12 PM at Pontorson station, which is closer to Mont Saint-Michel than Rennes station, so I booked this train.
For the train returning from Mont Saint-Michel to Paris,
I wanted to leave when the tourists started to increase,
so,
aiming to leave the site just after noon,
I booked a train departing from Rennes station around 3 PM.
Paris → Venice
For the trip from Paris to Venice,
there are direct LCC flights,
but the arrival time was late,
and since I wanted to arrive as early as possible,
I decided to go via Milan, which is between Paris and Venice,
and take a train from Milan to Venice.
I took WizzAir from Paris to Milan,
and booked a train from Milan to Venice.
Looking back at this trip, I think a direct LCC flight would have been better in terms of both cost and time efficiency.
Italy
The stay duration is 10 nights.
For Italy, I decided to visit Venice, Florence, and Rome. Since Venice is not a very large area and accommodation costs are high, I set it to 1 night.
Accordingly, I allocated 4 nights each to Florence and Rome, ensuring a more relaxed schedule for the latter half of the trip.
Venice to Florence
I had planned to travel within Italy primarily by train. When looking into the trip to Florence, I found both bus and train options. The price of the train varies significantly depending on the time of day and whether it is an express service. The train priced similarly to the bus takes 4 hours, while the bus takes just under 3 hours, so the bus was both cheaper and faster.
Incidentally, the express train takes about 2 hours but costs around 10,000 yen, whereas the bus takes about 3 hours and costs around 4,000 yen.
Weighing the budget against travel time, I decided to travel by bus and made the booking.
Florence to Rome
There are also train and bus options for the trip to Rome, and the train price varies depending on the time of day and whether it is an express service. The bus takes about 5 hours and costs around 5,000 yen, while the express train takes about 2 hours and costs around 9,000 yen.
It is a difficult choice.
Since I had already chosen the bus for the travel from Venice, I decided to go with the train for this leg.
Rome to Granada
Since Malaga Airport is close to Granada, I decided to travel by air (Vueling Airlines) from Rome's Fiumicino Airport to Malaga Airport, and then take a bus from Malaga Airport to Granada.
I had heard beforehand that fares in Italy and Spain fluctuate less than in the UK and France and are easier to book, so for the travel from Malaga to Granada, I decided to just arrange it locally, figuring it would be fine as long as I arrived on the same day.
Spain
The stay duration is 6 nights.
For Spain, I decided to stay in Granada, where the Alhambra is located, and in Barcelona. I wasn't sure about the scale of Granada, and honestly, seeing the Alhambra was enough for me, so I set Granada to 1 night.
Accordingly, I set Barcelona to a relaxed 5 nights.
Granada to Barcelona
There are bus, train, and flight options from Granada to Barcelona.
The bus costs about 10,000 yen and takes about 9 hours.
The train costs about 16,000 yen and takes about 6 hours.
The flight costs about 14,000 yen and takes about an hour and a half.
That is the breakdown.
The flight is with an LCC,
and since my luggage will likely have increased by the latter half of the trip,
it will cost extra to add a checked baggage allowance.
In that regard, the train has looser luggage restrictions, so there is no need to worry about that.
Six hours is a long time, but
as it will be my final train journey,
I decided to take the train.
Barcelona → Milan
When I looked it up, there are train and bus options, but
they apparently take 13 hours.
Despite that, the train costs over 30,000 yen...
I decided to go with a flight (Ryanair) for this leg.
Milan
Length of stay is 2 nights.
Although Milan is the final stop before returning to Japan,
I decided to stay for 2 nights so I could do a little sightseeing.
Even though it is 2 nights, my return flight departs around 11:00,
so it will effectively be only one day of stay.
Route search and booking methods
It seems you can search for overseas routes
using Google Maps,
but I found a service that also allows you to make bookings,
so I used that,
and I will write about it separately ^_^