If you could go to Europe next April for two weeks, what would your travel plan look like?

[JadeOrchidSong]

We are excited to daydream about this possibility for next year. We are studying ancient history and will do medieval times next school year. A trip to Europe came to mind today. If you have done this or plan to do this, would you mind sharing your ideas?
London, Paris, and Rome will probably on our list of places to visit.

[Melinda in VT]

The one thing I would *not* do is try to visit England, France, and Italy in one two-week trip.

 

I would highly recommend you take the southern France trip we took in April 2007: one week in Provence and one in the Carcassonne area.

 

Provence has some fantastic Roman ruins. Our two favorites were the theater in Orange (fantastic audio guide; my kids loved it) and the Pont du Gar, but there are a couple of other major Roman sites in the area, and we liked those two.

 

For medieval Europe, the Pope's Palace in Avignon is great, as are the ruined Cathar castles near Carcassonne. There is a ton to see--we stayed busy every day for two weeks--and our kids (then 1.8 months, 7, 7, and 10) had a great time.

[SKL]

Well, we always do trips with many stops in a short time frame, so ....

 

We are planning a 2-week trip to Europe this year.  I don't remember all the details off hand, but it involves flying into Greece or thereabouts and flying out of Dublin.  We plan to do the intra-Europe travel by train.  Our stops will include a Greek island, Athens, Rome, Venice, Barcelona, Madrid, Salzburg, a train ride thru Switzerland (I don't recall if there will be any specific stops there), Paris, London, Edinburgh, Stonehenge, and Dublin.  Yes, I know it sounds a little crazy.  But that's how we roll.  :)

[Audrey]

A week and a half in Cahors, then a visit to my favourite sister-in-law in Inverness.  Then, if she'll have us, I'd love to have an afternoon to have tea with Laura Corin, too. 

[momma2three]

I don't think I'd do all 3.  I'd do a week in London (maybe a little more) and the rest of the time in Paris.  Honestly, I LOVE London and could find things to do every day for a year there, so I'd probably spend the whole time there :)  So many great museums (make sure to check out the Museum of London... it's really an amazing museum, all about London's history... I think you could probably spend most of a day there), and parks, and plenty of theater to take kids to, and the public transportation goes just about everywhere.  You got all the historic sites, and it's very very easy to take the train to other locations outside of London (Bath, Stonehenge, Oxford, etc).

[PeterPan]

Would it be your only time to get to go or a spontaneous trip?  And would you be be taking a lover or kids?  :D

 

If I knew I were going several times (I've never been), then for a spontaneous trip with a lover I'd do bath houses and beaches and resorts and eat like a queen and sweat it off between with long walks and sand and massages. 

 

If going only once, I'd be relegated to normal tourism, blah.  Don't they have any good caverns or interesting things to do over there?  Maybe go find smuggling sites and war sites?  If you ask my dd, she'd want to do a Holocaust tour...

[Cammie]

A few years back we did a similar trip in 3 weeks.  A week in London, 3 days in Paris, 10 days in Italy - Rome, Florence, Vinci, Sorrento, Pompeii (we drove).  It was AMAZING!!  We did it with two kids ages 5 and 9.

[abcinnc]

We've taken a few 2 to 2.5 week week European trips. They include:
1. Flying into Rome with 4 nights there and a day-trip to Pompeii and Sorrento while in Rome. We then rented a car in Rome and drove to Tuscany for 2 nights in a farmhouse and visits to a couple of small towns, then 3 nights in Florence. We then drove to Venice, turned in our rental car and spent 4 more nights before flying home.
2. Four nights in London hitting major highlights and going to the theater. Then high speed train to Paris where we rented a car and drove into the countryside seeing Normandy, Monet's home, etc, 2 days at Disneyland Paris and then 5 nights in Paris in an apartment with a view of the Eiffel Tower.
3. Flew into Rome for 3 nights then wonderful 11 night cruise on Celebrity Reflection to Messina, Athens, Rhodes, Santorini, Mykonos, Ephesus, and Naples (we went to Capri on this day).

We are trying to decide ourselves what to do next and are leaning towards Spain, but are not sure.

[SadieMarie]

I would do a week in Spain and a week in Portugal. Or maybe I would do Spain and Italy.

[JadeOrchidSong]

A week and a half in Cahors, then a visit to my favourite sister-in-law in Inverness. Then, if she'll have us, I'd love to have an afternoon to have tea with Laura Corin, too.

Laura Corin lives in the U. S. Correct me if I am wrong, Laura! :-)

[JadeOrchidSong]

I think we will extend it to 2.5 weeks then. 5 days in London, 3 days in Paris, 5 or 6 days in Italy.
This will be for dh, me, and two boys (ages 10, 12 ). We do want to go again in the future, maybe five years after the first time.
Or maybe we will skip Paris and spend more time in London and then Italy.

[Laura Corin]

A week and a half in Cahors, then a visit to my favourite sister-in-law in Inverness.  Then, if she'll have us, I'd love to have an afternoon to have tea with Laura Corin, too. 

 

Brilliant - please come for tea, Audrey.

 

L

[Laura Corin]

Laura Corin lives in the U. S. Correct me if I am wrong, Laura! :-)

 

No - I live in Scotland.  I lived in the US for two years, but that was pre-children.

 

L

[bettyandbob]

Italy for a week or more. Pompeii, Florence, Rome, Venice.

Then, one of these:
1. I'd go to Greece because it's very cheap right now,
2. Spain, beaches in the south, Barcelona, Madrid, or
3. Paris 3-4 days, plus something else in France

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I think we will extend it to 2.5 weeks then. 5 days in London, 3 days in Paris, 5 or 6 days in Italy.
This will be for dh, me, and two boys (ages 10, 12 ). We do want to go again in the future, maybe five years after the first time.
Or maybe we will skip Paris and spend more time in London and then Italy.

 

Skip Paris???  Oh my!!!  If it were me, I'd probably do 4 days in Paris, including the day trip to Versailles, 3 days in the Loire Valley (castles, castles, everywhere!), hit Avignon and some of the other Provence sights for 3-4 days, then go on to Italy. 

 

But I have very fond study-abroad memories of France, so I'm biased. 

 

For some reason, London doesn't really interest me much, though I'd love to see Stonehenge if I were in the UK. 

 

JMO, but I would plan 1 day out of 4 to be a low-key, find a nature park kind of day to recharge and catch up on travel journals, label photos, etc.  Otherwise, it just will all blur together. 

 

If you come back in 5 years, then that would be the time to do the big emotional WWII tour, IMO- London, Normandy, Germany, etc. 

[FaithManor]

I prefer a focused week in just one city or small region with a day in the middle to sleep in and hang around the hotel and rest so that no one gets too worn out. I would be very inclined if I had two weeks to spend one week in Paris and one in Rome. London is great, but I would not want to do three major cities in that time frame.

If we can manage the finances, we will be going to Rome in late May next year as a gift for ds's graduation.

[JFSinIL]

Pick just two major cities - Rome and Paris or London - and stay a full week in each, doing lots of sight-seeing AND a couple small day trips ( for example, from Rome go see Hadrian's Villa and then zip via train and then bus to Pompeii).  Don't try to cram too much in! 

 

When we went we did flew in and out of Milan simply because hubby had a college friend living there (she married an Italian) and they offered a spare bed) so we did a bit of Milan, then took train down to Rome for about a week with day trips to Pompeii and Hadrian's Villa, then took the train to Bern for a couple days to see Alps and because there was another free bed for us (with my b-i-l doing post-doc research at university there) then a final few days in Florence before back for one night in Milan before flying home.

 

Too much traveling in 2.5 weeks. And we were just a couple, not traveling with kids.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Two major cities it is then. I hate rush, too.
Rome is a must. Maybe Paris. So it will be 6 days or so each.
We would love to take a train ride from Paris to Rome.

Does it mean it is time to brush up on my French?

Would love to see Laura Corin in Scotland on our next trip! By the way, Laura, I am burned out for teaching Chinese. We are taking a break. It is such a terrible language for reading Dan writing. Need encouragement.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Yes. I tried all the languages there and have to say that Italian is the hardest for me. I studied French for three years in college and grad school.

[JadeOrchidSong]

My boys want to go to Italy and Greece. Sounds like a good plan. They will research and come up with a travel plan for us.