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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask for your feedback on my holiday itinerary for next year?

109 replies

ThatCyanSheep · 20/09/2025 22:47

I'm bored, and fed up of the weather so I've fully planned my holiday next year.

Any opinions of what more I can fit in/what I should take out are welcome!

NICE, France

Hotel: Ibis Budget Californie Lenval

Saturday 29th August

  • Fly to Nice - land at 11:30am (ish)
  • Tram to Hotel - 20 minutes by bus/9 minutes by tram
  • Store bag at hotel/check in (I am an ALL member so I have free early check in) and sort daypack/change to explore
  • 12:00 - about 3pm
  • Explore Nice old town & get lunch
  • 3pm - 5:30pm
  • Head back to Promenade des Anglais, get gelato, explore beach, coffee
  • 5:30-6:45
  • Head back to hotel, shower, freshen up, change
  • Dinner - find restaurant along Promenade
  • After dinner - sunset stroll then head back to hotel

Sunday 29th August

  • Breakfast in Nice
  • Nice ➡️ Vilefranche-sur-Mer
  • Walk around - visit harbour & town centre
  • Coffee & walk
  • Villefranche-sur-Mer ➡️ Antibes
  • Lunch on train or Antibes
  • Explore Antibes
  • Picasso Museum
  • Visit the port
  • Antibes ➡️ Nice
  • Relaxed afternoon - read on beach, try to catch some of the F1
  • Stroll back to hotel
  • Freshen up
  • Dinner

Monday 30th August

  • Monaco day trip
  • Breakfast in Nice
  • Nice ➡️ Monaco
  • Coffee & explore old town
  • Lunch
  • Walk the track (or at least some of it)
  • Visit the harbour, stroll along and eat
  • Monaco ➡️ Nice
  • Dinner

Tuesday 1st September

  • Beach club day

MILAN, Italy

Hotel: Ibis Milano Centrale

Wednesday 2nd September

  • Nice ➡️ Milan (early train, aim to arrive in Milan by midday)
  • Head to hotel, store bag and sort daypack
  • Explore, head to Duomo for fan event (or wherever the fan event is, it has not been announced yet)
  • Find somewhere for dinner
  • Back to hotel

Thursday 3rd September

  • Breakfast around hotel, explore the area
  • Head to Monza for the fan stage and other events
  • Back to Milan around midafternoon
  • Find lunch and explore
  • Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and Brera
  • Dinner

Friday 4th September

  • Day trip to Lake Como
  • Train Milan ➡️ Como Lago
  • Breakfast in Como
  • Explore, visit the cathedral, funicular ride?
  • Como ➡️ Bellagio
  • Explore Bellagio
  • Bellagio ➡️ Varenna
  • Villa Monastero gardens
  • Varenna ➡️ Como
  • Como Lago ➡️ Milan
  • Dinner around the hotel

On Friday, visit grocery store to get water and snacks for the race weekend

Saturday 5th September

QUALI DAY - day in Monza

Dinner near hotel after qualifying

Sunday 6th September

RACE DAY

Dinner near hotel after qualifying
Pack bags
Full body shower to prepare for flight

Monday 7th September

  • Breakfast at hotel
  • Head to airport at 8am
  • Flight home around 11:30
OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Runssometimes · 22/09/2025 13:20

@ThatCyanSheep I’d recommend it. But will be even nicer on a solo holiday without having to wipe noses and carry kid snacks!

Runssometimes · 22/09/2025 13:19

@MaybeIf I was a couple of years after you. I was based in Cagnes sur Mer but regularly in Antibes as ex neighbours lived there.

MaybeIf · 22/09/2025 09:05

Runssometimes · 21/09/2025 21:01

I’d go to St Paul de Vence before heading to Italy and maybe Juan Les Pins/St Tropez as well. The Côte d’Azur is beautiful for just sitting in cafes as well. There’s a nice lighthouse walk in cap d’Antibes if I remember. I was an au pair there about a billion years ago. You don’t mention any markets or going to Grasse - at certain times of the year the lavender fields are amazing.

I was an au pair just outside Antibes in 1990, and I absolutely agree on St Paul de Vence. (The kids grandparents lived near Le Lavandou, and I spent a lot of time in the rural bit of the Var, too, but that’s too difficult for the OP to access.)

Ponoka7 · 22/09/2025 08:56

Thank you for this thread @ThatCyanSheep My DD's friend (25) is a big F1 fan and has been trying to work out how she could do Monaco, without impossibly trying to book accommodation there. We can fly to Nice in around two hours. My DD would go with her if other stuff was on offer and this thread has given lots of ideas. My DD is autistic and would also schedule everything.

Original poster
ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 22:16

Runssometimes · 21/09/2025 21:01

I’d go to St Paul de Vence before heading to Italy and maybe Juan Les Pins/St Tropez as well. The Côte d’Azur is beautiful for just sitting in cafes as well. There’s a nice lighthouse walk in cap d’Antibes if I remember. I was an au pair there about a billion years ago. You don’t mention any markets or going to Grasse - at certain times of the year the lavender fields are amazing.

I wish I’d had the guts to do this five years ago, I’d have loved to be an au pair.

OP posts:
Runssometimes · 21/09/2025 21:01

I’d go to St Paul de Vence before heading to Italy and maybe Juan Les Pins/St Tropez as well. The Côte d’Azur is beautiful for just sitting in cafes as well. There’s a nice lighthouse walk in cap d’Antibes if I remember. I was an au pair there about a billion years ago. You don’t mention any markets or going to Grasse - at certain times of the year the lavender fields are amazing.

Onelifeonly · 21/09/2025 15:47

I'd be too exhausted contemplating all that to even go! I prefer to have one or two ideas for each day and see how it feels when I get there.

MaybeIf · 21/09/2025 15:43

ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 11:12

This is obviously not that type of holiday? I don’t want to spend ten days by the pool because I want to explore?

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Sure, but I go away by myself on a fairly regular basis, often travelling between different places, always cramming in as much art as possible (when I was in Madrid last January, I was literally in the hotel to sleep and eat breakfast), and I have never scheduled my washing time a week before I left, far less nearly a year before.

Original poster
ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 15:33

NeverEnterFromTheBackDoor · 21/09/2025 13:38

But exploring doesn't mean you have to take it to the extreme and allocate your slot for a shower. Sounds exhausting!

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The shower thing comes off a bit odd, I can see why people think that - but it's just making sure I have enough time on the Sunday to do everything I need to, which includes washing and drying my hair (I have extensions so that can take an hour!). I genuinely love planning like this, it's really enjoyable for me!

OP posts:
NeverEnterFromTheBackDoor · 21/09/2025 13:38

ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 11:12

This is obviously not that type of holiday? I don’t want to spend ten days by the pool because I want to explore?

Show quote history

But exploring doesn't mean you have to take it to the extreme and allocate your slot for a shower. Sounds exhausting!

JoanOgden · 21/09/2025 13:23

I enjoy making a proper holiday plan too and there's absolutely nothing wrong with a reliable convenient cheap hotel.

I still think it will take you more than 30 mins from the plane landing to having dropped your stuff at the hotel (I flew back into Stansted the other day and it took me 20 mins from the plane getting to the stand to the train station, and I'm very fast) but hey. As others have said, the Sun 29 and Fri 4 itineraries are ridiculous and don't sound remotely enjoyable, but you can easily rework them when you're there.

Original poster
ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 11:12

mondaytosunday · 21/09/2025 11:09

Whoa. You are mad. Who plans their holidays like that? I guess you do. Mine is more like:
fly to Spain get hire car drive to villa, collecting some food along the way.
Chill out with the only decision for the next ten days, deciding the morning of or possibly the night before: what restaurant should we go to and is it a beach day or stay at home pool day and do we need to buy more food? Though on Fridays it’s always market day and nothing will stop us from buying some churros!
Fly back to UK.

This is obviously not that type of holiday? I don’t want to spend ten days by the pool because I want to explore?

OP posts:
mondaytosunday · 21/09/2025 11:09

Whoa. You are mad. Who plans their holidays like that? I guess you do. Mine is more like:
fly to Spain get hire car drive to villa, collecting some food along the way.
Chill out with the only decision for the next ten days, deciding the morning of or possibly the night before: what restaurant should we go to and is it a beach day or stay at home pool day and do we need to buy more food? Though on Fridays it’s always market day and nothing will stop us from buying some churros!
Fly back to UK.

Original poster
ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 11:01

AeriatedAnna · 21/09/2025 10:10

I love an Ibis OP, a clean bed, a good shower, & free tea & coffee’s all you need on a trip like that. Don’t let this lot bring you down, they probably never leave the hotel as they do AI where they only move from sunbed to buffet x3 daily. Enjoy!

Haha, I do think for some trips having a nice hotel is lovely, and I've done plenty of AI holidays. But for something like this all I want is a bed that'll be made each day and somewhere to shower! Hotels in Milan are extortionate at that time of year because of the F1, for anything above the IBIS you're genuinely looking at £4000+ which is just insanity

OP posts:
Original poster
ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 11:00

Woody18 · 21/09/2025 10:08

If you're hand luggage only, how are you taking razor, your spa like oil, shampoo and body scrub???!!!
This all sounds ridiculous to me.
As if you can get through Nice airport in 10 minutes in the height of holiday season, good luck with that!

The airport I am flying out of doesn't have the 10ml rule anymore and you can carry razors (just not the kind with loose blades), in your hand luggage - decant into smaller bottles and it all fits!

OP posts:
Original poster
ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 10:59

bellocchild · 21/09/2025 10:24

We've just come back from northern Spain, where we had a couple of days of total downpours. Could you accommodate that in your plans?

I'll just take a light packable rain jacket, it rained in Rome when I was there and I just wore shorts and a rain jacket and got on with it! The only thing the rain would really impact would be the beach day, which I'm happy to sack off if needs must!

OP posts:
Mulledjuice · 21/09/2025 10:48

ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 00:10

I’m happy to be on the go from 7am till 9pm! I’m going alone so don’t have anyone else to worry about!

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Add in travel and transfer times otherwise it's impossible to know if it's a good plan!

bellocchild · 21/09/2025 10:24

We've just come back from northern Spain, where we had a couple of days of total downpours. Could you accommodate that in your plans?

AeriatedAnna · 21/09/2025 10:10

I love an Ibis OP, a clean bed, a good shower, & free tea & coffee’s all you need on a trip like that. Don’t let this lot bring you down, they probably never leave the hotel as they do AI where they only move from sunbed to buffet x3 daily. Enjoy!

Woody18 · 21/09/2025 10:08

If you're hand luggage only, how are you taking razor, your spa like oil, shampoo and body scrub???!!!
This all sounds ridiculous to me.
As if you can get through Nice airport in 10 minutes in the height of holiday season, good luck with that!

Absentosaur · 21/09/2025 10:02

ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 09:52

I literally won’t be in the hotel besides sleeping and showering though, so I’d rather go cheap on those (and earn points for other trips!) and be out and about than paying a lot for a hotel and feeling like I need to be there because of how much it cost!

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Full body showering!

NeverEnterFromTheBackDoor · 21/09/2025 10:00

Why do you need to plan to have a shower? 😳

confusedlots · 21/09/2025 09:58

Oh wow I can’t get my head around this level of planning for a holiday, but if it makes you happy go for it! Having an itinerary planned out like that would not be a holiday for me!

Original poster
ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 09:52

Seoidin · 21/09/2025 09:27

Agree with pp - there isn’t much point in going abroad and staying in a boring IBIS identical to the same one in every city. At those price points could you find something locally owned that gave you a nice and more authentic experience? Broaden the horizon a bit.

Show quote history

I literally won’t be in the hotel besides sleeping and showering though, so I’d rather go cheap on those (and earn points for other trips!) and be out and about than paying a lot for a hotel and feeling like I need to be there because of how much it cost!

OP posts:
Original poster
ThatCyanSheep · 21/09/2025 09:51

JonathanGirl · 21/09/2025 09:33

I think it sounds great, but I don’t think you are allowing yourself enough time with your public transport connections.

But maybe that’s because you are travelling on your own so things are quicker.
Personally, if my flight landed at 11.30, I would be planning to get onto the bus/tram at the airport at 12 at the earliest, not be already checked in to my hotel, and ready to hit the town! I would be thinking “ok, ten minutes to get off the plane and into the airport, 10 minutes to get through passport control, five minutes to find the bus stop and buy my ticket, ten minutes wait for the next bus…

And then the same with all the other trains. Presumably you’ve checked how frequent they are. But I would want to arrive at each station a bit early so that I was sure to find the correct platform etc, which does eat into timings.

Our family have to take physical disability/mobility issues into account, so I do recognise we are much slower than most. But it still blows my mind a bit that you could fit so much in!

I’m travelling hand luggage only so it’ll be straight off the plane, into passport control and then onto the tram which runs frequently and takes 9 mins to get to my hotel on the promenade! I’m quite fast at train stations etc’

OP posts: