DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Spain to Rome?

Lightweight planning a vacation this April, thinking about flying into Barcelona Spain and traversing to Rome, with a stop in the pyrenees mountains. Anyone have suggestions on the best way to get there? Rental car, train, boat?

I've never been to Europe but I'd love to knock out European beaches, mountains, and architecture in one fell swoop.

No help for you, but it sounds fun.

It really depends on if you want to do/see things in between. There's lots of great things to see along the way, so a car may make the most sense if you want to do that. Trains are also good options. Ryanair.com is a great way to fly... you can get round trips for 12 euro sometimes...

My family and I are going to Italy for a week+ this summer. I plan on spending 3-4 days in Rome.

looking for some air fares, it looks like it would cost you around 30 euro a person for barcelona to rome.... certainly the cheapest way to get there for you...

I just took a vacation to Italy for 10 days earlier this year (actually it was also in April).

My suggestion...take a train. Stop at Cinque Terre. Five small towns right along the Italian coast, with hiking trails in between, and absolutely beautiful. Beaches won't be too busy thopugh since it is April. Then, take the train down the coast to Rome. The train ride might be pretty long from Spain to Italy though. You might be able to take a boat from Spain to Cinque Terre, but I'm not sure.

I hope you enjoy the vacation when you go. Rome is amazing!

I've only flown between the two. There are tons of trains, probably some tour busses, and you could always rent a car. It'd be a gorgeous drive. I think mode of transportation would depend on how much time you have - for example, 1 week would make what you want to do pretty aggressive if by car.

'd plan on spending at least 2-3 days in both Barcelona and Rome, and you'd still not get to see everything. For Rome, plan in advance if you want to do things like the Vatican, Colosseum, see the Pope, or you'll spend all your tine in line. PM me if you have questions on either city.

When u are in Barcelona go to the end of Las Romblas there is a replica of the Santa Maria. It is awesome. Also check out ome of the old churches, they are amazing.

Traveling by train in Europe is awesome. You can get off and visit any towns along the way, and you'll have great views of the country side. Its also very relaxing, and some of the trains have food/beer service.

If you fly, you loose out on so much of the experience. If youre in Europe, its better to see Europe than the inside of an airport/plane cabin.

When in Rome, to avoid standing in lines look for the on-the-spot tours. There are guys walking around most of the major sites offering tours. Think we did the Colliseum for 20 euro/person, bypassed the line (Waited maybe 15 mins for them to fill up the tour, maybe 10-15 people). Just ran into the guy outside the entrance and he was offering the tour.

Asked him if they did others and he said yes. So he gave us a time and place to meet for the Vatican the next day. Managed to avoid a 2-3hr line by jumping on that tour too, which I think was like 40 euro, but lasted like 4 hours and the guide was so good with so much information.

Wife and I will be doing London and Paris this September. Starting to work on learning some basic French now.

If you can, learn some basic Spanish and Italian. Most of them speak some to good english, but we found attempting to speak in their language gained us much more favor and provided several laughs as they corrected my poor pronunciation. it also helped me in finding our way around as the language made more sense when reading signs that were in all Italian/Spanish.

Train is what I'd do because it is so easy and for me it was part of the experience . IMO Rome is the most over hyped city in Europe . Florence was my favorite large Italian city but the real gems were the small no name towns where you could just feel the vibe of everyday life .

Barcelona is one of my favorite cites in the world with some of the most beautiful women anywhere. Only Stockholm beats it for "talent" IMO. It's mind boggling.

Consider flying into Madrid. I have to imagine the flight is cheaper as its a larger city than Barcelona. With the money you save you can easily catch a train to Barcelona. Madrid is beautiful and well worth any time spent.
Take trains where you can. The efficiency of them is incredible. They show up on the platform on time and leave at the exact scheduled time. It's so not American where it seems nothing runs on schedule. That said, don't ever be late to the station. You will be left behind.
The trains are comfortable and relatively inexpensive. You'll see far more countryside and the Spanish countryside is worth seeing. Beautiful mountainous terrane. I'm not sure on the rail schedules but I have to imagine you can get a 'red eye' train from Barcelona into Italy. A sleeper car is worth the extra cash. Sleeping on a train is a cool thing. Waking up refreshed and ready to roll is priceless.

Forgot to add, that Pompei is just south of Napoli. It's the site of an ancient city preserved under the ash of Mt Vesuvious. Definitly worth the time to see, it has been excavated and is the best preserved ruins in the world. Whole building and artifacts in excellent condition.

Unlike many ancient ruins that are nothing but a 3' high stone wall, Pompei is full streets, homes, bars, brothels all preserved very well. Definitly the hidden gem of our trip to Italy 5 years ago.

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Sleeping on a train is a cool thing.

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Agreed . Sleeping it off on a train however is not recommended because you can wake up not so close to your intended destination end up missing formation and get restricted to base for 45 days .

IIRC rail schedules and prices are online. The rail system there is so much more advanced than the usa. Trains literally go everywhere, and is a very common form of transportation. I think riding the train was one of my favorite parts of visiting Europe.