1997 - The Grand Tour
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| 1997 - The Grand Tour
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Areas visited 
Timeframe and Weather Transportation Planning Itinerary Hotels
Alsace and Paris (France), Rome, Cinque Terre, and South Tyrol/Alto Adige (Italy), and Budapest (Hungary).
June 15 - July 3 1997, 20 days total away from home. Every place on this trip had different weather. France was warm but somewhat rainy. Rome and Budapest were extremely hot and sunny. The Cinque Terre was warm and partly cloudy, but the sea was too rough for swimming, and the South Tyrol was gorgeous.
We flew nonstop from San Francisco to London on United Airlines, and returned also nonstop on United from Paris to San Francisco. If you're coming from the west coast of the US and you can fly nonstop, do it. You get to take the polar route and it cuts down a lot on the time it takes to get there.
On the ground we rented a car in two separate locations and took the train, mostly at night, between major destinations. If you plan to travel by car in the UK and on the continent in the same trip, be sure to ask the people at Hertz about their "Le Swap" program. You get a right-hand-drive car in the UK, then you drive to Folkestone and drive onto "Le Shuttle". This is a train that goes through the Chunnel and comes out on the other side of the English Channel in Calais. Here you trade your car in for a left-hand-drive car and you're on your way. Very easy, convenient, and economical. It probably works in the reverse direction as well, although we've never actually done it that way.
We enjoyed the day trains we took as they allowed us to cover long distances without being cramped up in a car, but we highly recommend bringing your own lunch (the food in the dining car was expensive and not appetizing) and reserving seats in a compartment if you're carrying luggage, to avoid traipsing from car to car looking for free seats together. This especially hold true if you're traveling in a large party as we were with the two girls.
We were disappointed in the night trains. The sleeper cars, although infinitely nicer than the couchettes, were more expensive than a hotel room, and the constant starting and stopping made the quantity and quality of sleep minimal at best. We arrived at our destination tired, hot, and wanting a shower. The beds were barely long enough for a person 5 feet, 9 inches tall, and in most cases we arrived so early that we had to rush to get everything together in order to get off the train in time. We did learn one very important, and expensive, lesson. VALIDATE YOUR FLEXIPASS!!! Always write in the date before you get on the train or you could be subject to stiff fines or illegal penalties, as we found out the hard way on the Night Train From Budapest.
With the exception of two short train rides, all reservations - air, car, train, and hotel - were made in advance. We booked and paid in advance for the rental cars directly from Hertz. Each was a three-day rate that was quite good. For the train tickets we chose Europass saver passes; 5 days in 15, plus the Austria/Hungary additional country add-on. We also purchased sleeper car reservations ahead of time. All rail tickets and reservations were made through the California State Automobile Association (CSAA) travel agency. We made the hotel reservations ourselves, some over the Internet and some via fax. Our plane tickets and reservations were made through Air-Supply, a consolidator out of New York that we found on the Internet. We had no trouble with any of the reservations.
Day 1 Sunday, through Day 3 Tuesday - Alsace: Wine route, flowered villages, churches and cathedrals, castles, great food and a wonderful hotel.
Day 4 Wednesday and Day 5 Thursday - Rome: Ancient ruins, Renaissance wonders, art everywhere, more great food and another good hotel.
Day 6 Friday through Day 8 Sunday - Cinque Terre: Great hiking, mediocre beaches, charming ancient fishing villages and really great food.
Day 9 Monday through Day 12 Thursday - South Tyrol: More great hiking and beautiful scenery, castles, and another wonderful hotel.
Day 13 Friday through Day 15 Sunday - Budapest: Family reunions, sightseeing, great people and too much food. We don't have a page for Budapest, because we saw mostly family on this leg of our journey. The food was wonderful, especially the desserts, although we were not impressed with Gerbeaud (the bakery/cafe). We found it way overpriced and overrated.
Day 16 Monday through Day 19 Thursday - Paris: Beautiful sights, gothic cathedrals, lots of art, and yet another wonderful hotel.
Hotels
Alsace: Les Vosges in Ribeauvillé
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