Help planning 3 day Florence/Venice Trip

[howietl]

Hi,
I am doing a study abroad program in Geneva, Switzerland and I am organizing a weekend trip for myself and around 10 other students to Florence and Venice in Italy. Can anyone help me out with planning this trip? It looks like this:

I plan on leaving Thursday(July 6) night or Friday morning(july 7th) to Venice and staying in Venice for Friday night(July 7th). Then on Saturday(July we will take a day train over to Florence and then spend the night in Florence. Sunday we stay in Florence for a little and then return back to Geneva. So to recap:
Friday- Venice
Friday Night-Venice
Saturday- Venice, Florence
Saturday Night-Florence
Sunday- Florence, Back to Geneva

I need help with finding the travel times(are they 8 hours long or 12 hours etc) between the major cities(Geneva to Venice, Venice to Florence, Florence to Geneva). Also I have looked at some of the hostel booking sites posted on discussion topics here but I need help choosing a hostel(and then finding it once we get there). Any pointers on that?

Finally is there anything I should do ahead of time other than buy rail passes and book hostels?

Thanks a bunch

[wilson49332]

Hey check with this site on times:
[link]

I think your good on booking your train ahead of time and that is it. You dont even really need to book hostels ahead of time, but to be safe book a few days before hand.

Geneva to Venice is 7-9 hours depending on the train you take and they do have nonstops and overnight trains,
Venice to Florence is 3 hours and can be nonstop,
Florence to Geneva is 7 hours unless taking an overnighter then its around 10 hours all by train.

As t the hostels- check with hostelz.com of course first. If they have good reviews, take it. Most of Italy is decent to be honest except Rome- theres are touch and go. Make sure the hostel is big enough to have there own website. The better ones do. Those websites will have directions posted. There usually real close to the main train line (within a few blocks). Sorry- ive only been to Rome so I cant help on specific hostels like I could in Rome. Maybe others can.

[howietl]

So you don't think the hostels will fill up even in the July season(I thought that was the busiest time of year with college students coming in)? I thought it would be a lot better to have a hostel booked while I'm still in the U.S. but if I can get a decent price over there at the last minute then I'm up for that.

Also how to I go about getting the train reserved a few days ahead of time? We're probably gonna get Eurail selectpass so do we still need to book the particular trip(e.g. Geneva to Florence) ahead of time or do we just show the pass to the people at the bus station and go?

I read somewhere on this forum that it costs around $40 to reserve an overnight couchette... how do I go about doing this?

Thanks

[wilson49332]

Well the hostels- yes it is the busiest, but ive never had any trouble getting the hostel I want. I would the week before your going reserve them. But its up to you- they can obviously be booked here for like an extra 2 dollar fee too. Dont forget there hostels- so there dorm settings with many beds.

As to the train, yeah its about that. You can reserve a train here in the states, but that costs a lot. What I always do is like a week before you go drop by the train station and book it. That can be done at any train station, even the regular commuter stations which you most likely will use every day anyways.

Once again that train is rather frequent (all of those three) so you could walk right to the station around the time you want to go for your day trains (night I would book the week before).

Hope that helps!