This is going to be a little long winded so bear with me. I am flying to Europe on July 19th and returning the 29th, using a SWISS Award. I will be meeting my friend who will already be there, she will be spending 40 days in Europe and I am going to meet up for part of this. The plan as it is right now is me flying into France (Toulouse or Nice) and returning from Barcelona.

Generally I am looking for advice on what to do in the south of france/italy/etc during the summer. I am trying to plan the best straight girl/gay guy itinerary that will allow for some nice nights in castle country, but might also bring me to a clubbing/going out type of destination, PLUS really good beaches gay/straight or whatever.

I've never flown into any of the secondary french airports so its hard for me to decide where to base myself out of. However I do it I will be flying into Zurich and then connecting to another smaller plane. I also wouldn't mind doing a night train type of trip either to save some travel time when we are sleeping. Also do we need to book hotels way in advance?

I have cross posted a similar question in Travelbuzz, but I'd like to pick peoples brain here too.


Chris

Sitges!

catwood, the swiss rail system is one of the most dense and timely systems in the world. However, I think you would find it cheaper to fly from ZRH to your onward destination. Does your Swiss award include European travel beyond ZRH? If you have the time I'd highly recommend a few days in Zurich, a beautiful little city with decent gay life. My experience with booking European hotels in advance has been a mixed bag. If you don't mind smaller B&B's you shouldn't have too much of a problem. Each airport/railstation usually has a hotel booking desk.

Hi, The SWISS award includes travel beyond Zurich which is great, they fly into a lot of places in Europe.

I can do a layover for a night in Zurich too, not sure exactly where to stay or just make a day trip in, ie arriving about 8am from Boston and leaving on a night flight.

One other thought is to fly into Florence , then spend 4 or 5 days in Italy, travel to Naples and Sorrento, stay in the Hilton there with points, which has rave reviews, and take a night train and do 4 or 5 days in France. Then fly home from Barcelona to Zurich, back to USA. Maybe stop in Sitges?

Any gay life in Naples? Florence? etc.

Anyone else have any thoughts, its definitely a work in Progress trip.

[This message has been edited by catwood (edited 05-16-2002).]

Dear Catwood,

Try flying into Nice (a great city), visit Monaco which is just around the corner, take the train along the coast to the west, see the scenery along the Cote d'Azur, visit Carcassonne which has one of the best preserved medieval old towns in Europe, and then continue to the south to Barcelona.

Alternatively if you have less time fly into Toulouse, visit Cathares country (with many medieval castles and remains), continue to Carcassonne, take the train from there to Barcelona (one of the best cities in Europe to visit) and to Sitges (nice gay resort on the Catalan coast). As the Cathares country is mountainous, and hardly populated with limited public transport it is best to rent a car to drive from Toulouse through Cathares country to Carcassonne.

Enjoy your trip!