General travel tips!?

[gifro]

Hey y'all,

Well I figure it'd be a good time to ask T-punkers advice before my upcoming trip. I have about a month to do Italy, Greece and Spain. We're visiting my family in Italy to start the trip (near Treviso) cause my brother hasn't met them yet - I visited Italy for the first time this past Xmas... after that whatever we do is up for grabs...

All I know is that I want to see Venice, Rome, my bro wants to see Pisa, then I want to do the island hopping thing in Greece, and we want to head to Barcelona after and then do Ibiza.

Any input as to what 'not to miss' in these 3 great nations, best hostels to stay etc at please lemme know. Also my brother wanted to rent a car and drive through parts of Italy but I think it's too expensive, stressful, etc. Is the train the better option for sure?

Thanx

[urOZm8]

I would advise not to drive in Italy for a couple of reasons. Firstly the cost of train tickets is inexpensive relative to other EU nations and secondly Italian people drive like crazy! We drove into Milan and it was highly stressful.

ev

[gifro]

Ya... I'm trying to talk my brother out of the car rental thing. We might just do it for one day to visit my family.... but other than that I think it's too expensive. At Xmas I remember stopping alot to pay tolls on their highways.... plus gas of course

I agree about the crazy driver thing... only 5 days in Italy and we got in an accident... it was 50/50 to my cousins defense

[space virgin]

Welcome to the boards!!!

My personal opinion is that you *may* be a little squeezed for time if you want to do all 3 countries AND Ibiza. You could easily do those things on your list in Italy and then chill around the Greek Islands in one month, but I think you'd be setting yourself up for a very brutal pace if you tried to throw in Barcelona and Ibiza on top of it. If you had 6 weeks, probably. But you'll find when you get over there that it's no fun to push push push on to the next place.

Not that I don't recommend Barcelona-- I do! Love that place. Haven't been to Ibiza yet but from all accounts its main attractions are the hideously expensive nightclubs and a few beaches. <-- Which you're going to see a lot of in the Greek Islands. *shrug*

[kingcrazylegs]

I agree with SV. You might want to slow it down a bit. All of the places you mentioned are great, but Italy and Greece both have SO much to see and do. Spain is one of my favorite countries though...

Oh, and welcome