You already have some information, but you may still need to search for more, or you may need to modify your plans.

Here's an example. Let's suppose...

You live in Chicago, in the United States.  You'd like to spend two weeks on the Riviera and in Italy.  You've heard about Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Florence, Venice, Rome and you would like to visit all of these places. There are two people planning to go on this trip.  You can take your holidays when you want, but you decide to go near the end of July/beginning of August.

Establish a framework for your itinerary.  Write down the number of days, the date, the itinerary, the means of transport, the type of lodging.

Upon examining your chart, it looks like you'll be getting to Italy fairly quickly, seeing nothing but stations and taxis.  Moreover, a little more searching reveals that the route from Monaco to Venice is very long and requires you to change trains.  Since the circuit needs to be shortened, you'll have to remove Venice for the time being (maybe another trip?).  With this itinerary you'd only have to reserve 8 hotels, yet you know that some hotels require a stay of several nights.

Ever more important, you learn that the period from the end of July to the beginning of August is to be avoided. Everyone in France finishes their holidays or begins them at this time of the year. Trains are therefore crammed and it's very difficult to find to place to say on the Riviera at this time.

After studying the seasons, lodging options and prices, you note that May is an excellent choice.  You decide to leave on May 12 and to reduce your circuit a little.  Your itinerary would be the following:

But, this itinerary still seems heavy to you.  With so many stops on the trip, plus taking the train, you start to wonder if a lot of time will be wasted by taking taxis, transport, arrivals, departures, plus bags to pack and unpack. And there are still 7 hotels to be reserved!  Why not select a plan where you rent an apartment (a studio for 2 people), and also a car.  In cities like Nice, Florence, Rome, you'd undoubtedly find it better to leave your car and walk around, but the car will enable you to get around and you'll be more independent.  Your itinerary could be the following:

With this itinerary, you can see a lot more places, just as you wanted at the beginning.  The car lets you more freedom and waste less time.  You have only 4 reservations to make.  In Florence and Rome, instead of a studio, you could reserve a hotel or a convent.  To learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of hotels and apartments, see Best Housing.

Now that your itinerary is set, you can decide what type of transport to use:  Choose a Travel method