<p>My daughter is abroad this semester in Madrid, and we are trying to come up with the perfect vacation for the family to take after meeting her in Madrid when she finishes her semester. While my daughter will have been on several trips before we arrive, my husband and I have never been to Europe. My son will travel for a week or so by himself before meeting us in Madrid, so she will have visited some of Spain and has been to Germany. </p>
<p>I am thinking we will travel in all, 10-14 days. My daughter wants to show us around Madrid for a few day and then we will head somewhere. that somewhere is the problem. It needs to be easy to get to from Madrid and then back to the east coast on the return. We are currently leaning towards Italy; any other thoughts?</p>
<p>I want to make this as much of a budget trip as we can, but at the same time, this might be our first and only trip to Europe so I want to make it nice. My son wants to spend a day or two in one city and then train to a new area every few days. I don’t even know where to start (other than to enlist the help of a travel agent!) </p>
<p>If this were your first trip to Europe, where would you go and why? While we aren’t a family that usually goes to museums and art galleries, we will do whatever each city has to offer.</p>
<p>Italy’s a great destination. Everyone I know who’s visited Italy (including me) seems to like it. There are a few other recent threads on CC regarding travel in Italy. They have a lot of good tips including how to save somewhat on lodging. France is in between Spain and Italy if you’re traveling by surface transport so you can visit some of France as well. At the north end of Italy is Switzerland and the alps - also a very nice area to visit. In Switzerland you can be exposed to the ‘Italian’, ‘French’, and ‘German’ sections. You could then loop back into Spain of you’re returning from there. If not, and if you have any time left, you can consider heading into Germany. </p>
<p>Since you haven’t been there before and might not return, I suggest you plan for 14 days (or more) rather than 10. It’ll be easy to filll up the time. The downside is that with the decline of the dollar Europe’s pretty expensive for Americans right now. I did a family trip there last summer and tried to just ignore how expensive it was. Regardless, I encourage you to go and just economize where you can (food, lodging, transport). It’s worth it.</p>
<p>My top ten list of things to do in Europe probably include at least five cities: London, Paris, Florence, Rome, Amsterdam. So I think the first thing to do is to promise yourself that you are coming back. While the big cities are all well and good some of my favorite times in Europe really have been on the backroads. Some examples: wild baroque churches in the middle of nowhere in Germany, Tinturn Abbey in Wales, hiking in the Alps, cathedrals like Chartres or Vezelay, exploring the wine regions in France, biking round the Loire region, a week spent exploring Brittany, a day on the beach in Etretat painting the same views Monet did, having a picnic on the banks of Loch Ness. I’m not a fan of two days here and there - especially if you want to build in time for day trips to see things near the big cities. (Chartre for example can be done as a day trip from Paris.) </p>
<p>I’d think about the one thing you’ve always wanted to see: Eiffel Tower? Roman Forum? Michaelangelo’s David? The Sistine Chapel? The gondolas fo Venice? Tower of London? Which one grabs you the most? Start the trip there and see what else is worth seeing. If you stay put you get a chance to really see what that particular city and/or country is like.</p>
<p>Italy is a great choice - too much to see there even if you just stick to the northern half. There was a good thread within the last year of Italy suggestions.</p>
<p>Austria and Germany. Castles, history etc. Use the trains. Salzburg to Vienna is a great train trip.</p>
<p>Spain itself has a lot to offer. Portugal too. And go to the Island of Madiera. SO beautiful.</p>
<p>Or for a little more flavor (and possibly less museums and galleries), instead try Morocco. Marrakesh. Fez. Atlas Mountains. Roman ruins. Take me with you.</p>
<p>Do you need to leave Spain? If you only have 10-14 days, why not just limit your trip to Spain? It’s a fascinating & varied country – so much to see there! But if you feel you really want to see some other place, I’d recommend Paris – just.because.it’s.Paris! Take advantage of cheap air fares and fly, to save time. For a major European city, Paris has an impressive selection of not-outrageously-priced hotels right in the center of the city. Plus, it’s fairly compact, and you can see A LOT in a few days, and even could do a couple of day-long side trips – the chateaux Versailles, Vaux-le-Viconte, Chantilly – by taking local trains. Have a good trip! (Even if you choose some other destination :))</p>
<p>Since 10-14 days isn’t a lot of time I would concentrate on having an intimate experience in a few places rather than getting the cook’s tour in a lot of places. Those 1-2 day stays in various cities, with lots of traveling in between, just make everyone tired and cranky. I’d start by thinking carefully about what my family has enjoyed doing together in the past. Are you more the urban experience types, do you prefer outdoorsy activities, or would you like some combination of the two? You might want to combine visits to a couple of cities with explorations of the countryside and combine train travel with car rentals. </p>
<p>Once I’d decided what kind of experience I want to have, I’d look at flight schedules and figure out what city you want to fly out of. I would think that Madrid, Paris and Milan would be your best bets, but London would be a possibility too (the flights from Heathrow are generally the cheapest, but that’s balanced by the time and expense to get there from the Continent).</p>
<p>After you have your final destination picked out, you can sit down with maps, train schedules, and guide books. From Madrid you have some fabulous choices - you could swing down to Morocco or up the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona, then the Riviera, then either Liguria/Tuscany or central France to Paris. Or if you want to visit both Italy and Paris there is a nice overnight sleeper train that runs between the two cities - my daughter and her friend took it last year.</p>
<p>Have fun planning your trip, and remember that less is often more. You want to feel relaxed and stimulated by the end, not exhausted.</p>
<p>I would recommend that you make a conscious decision and settle on one, maybe two countries to visit in the two weeks span. Europe has way too many places and things to see and do than a two weeks vacation would allow. So, think small and close by.
Any destination outside Spain is great and within easy, short flight, reach.
Since exploring in detail another country [even if Spain has its own things to see aplenty] is excluded, I would suggest first of all Paris, France. A short stay of 3-4 days should let you “wet your feet” in what is probably the greatest city in the World. 7 days would let you explore museums, the great neighborhoods, etc.
If you are bound on coming back from Madrid [due to flight costs from another city than arrival], than from Paris you can travel by train [TGV] to Amsterdam in 3-4h. Spend another 2-3 days there.
That’s it.
Plan your stays in advance, now is the time to start planning. Look at this site TripAdvisor.com for more in depth info and possible lodging options.</p>
<p>I’m the type, like other posters on the thread, who prefers to stay longer in one area than hop around. </p>
<p>You have 10-14 days total, including your time in Madrid? If it were me, I’d let my D show me around Madrid for at least 3 of those days, probably more like 5 days. There’s a lot to see in Spain, and it’s less expensive than many other places in Europe. Then I’d hit the area in France loosely known as the Languedoc. You can travel through the region at a leisurely pace, especially if you rent a car, and there’s lots to see. Here’s why: "Then history and art tourism, with Carcassonne, Toulouse, Montpellier, countless Roman monuments (such as the Roman arenas in N</p>
<p>My in-laws live in and around Barcelona, so we go there every few years. I think it’s a great city, especially for people who like Modernist architecture and design. Plenty of buildings by Gaudi and others…also, the Picasso museum, Joan Miro museum, museum with medieval frescoes, underground Roman streets and houses you can wander through, the Gothic quarter, the Drassanes (shipyards where Columbus’s ships were built and launched).</p>
<p>I have only been to Paris a couple of times, and I found it not very enjoyable for short visits of a few days (too intense and busy). I think if we go again, it would have to be for longer. Last time we went to visit our Spanish relatives, we flew into Paris and drove down to Barcelona. Our favorite area by far was the Dordogne region in southwestern France. We visited castles (Castelnaud and Baynac), rented canoes and rowed down the Dordogne river, walked around farmer’s markets, and ate a lot of great food. I wish we had been able to visit one of the prehistoric caves - next time.</p>
<p>I agree with the stay-in-one-place crowd…I moved to Germany six years ago and still haven’t exhausted the possibilities.</p>
<p>My mom, aunt, and cousin are coming for a visit this spring, and we have planned four days in Madrid, three in Brussels/Brugge, and day trips to Metz (FR) and Cologne/Bonn, plus afternoon drives into Luxembourg and along the Mosel River, Trier, maybe local castles or WWII/Ardennes sites if they are interested.</p>
<p>I do love Paris, and it will be beautiful in May. In Italy, I vote for Florence and Cinque Terre.</p>
<p>Do check out Ryan Air–often they run specials with only tax and a .01 euro ticket price (a recent round trip from Germany to Madrid for both my daughter and me was around 70 euro). I always say it is like the Greyhound line of the skies, but it is affordable and fairly dependable. There are several other low-cost carriers, but we’ve stuck with the one that serves the little airport near us. Also, look at rail offers in each country. In Germany, we have the “happy weekend” fare which is 35 euro for a group of up to five people for all day on Saturday or Sunday (2nd class and doesn’t apply to the faster Inter-City Express), and there is a similar offer for weekdays after 9 AM within any single German “state.” In Belgium, you can get a ticket good for 10 rail segments for 70 euro, and the segments can be shared among a group. I imagine every country has something like that, but I haven’t checked.</p>
<p>I used to think it didn’t make much sense to rent a car and drive with the price of gas here, but it hasn’t increased so much in the last few years like it has in the states, so that’s not such a factor any more. It does take a brave soul to drive in any major Italian city, but most of Spain is not too bad.</p>
<p>My daughter did two months in Europe just travelling this fall and visited a lot of places. One of her favorites was Barcelona. She also liked the Alhambra. I would be inclined to agree with those who recommend Italy (I really liked Florence) because I loved the food there. But everyone has different reasons why they travel. Do you like food or museums? Cars? Scenery? Hiking?</p>
<p>Keep the great suggestions coming, I love them! I have no idea what this group would like to do as our usual family vacations involve a beach, a chair, a book and lots of dinners out; we really just relax!! My husband has never taken more than a week off of work at a time and when the kids were younger he took off one week in the summer and one during spring break. Spring break was usually Disney World or Hilton Head, and summers were on the Gulf. The closest we have been to being tourist is when we have been to NYC or DC where we did all the typical tourist sites. </p>
<p>I think we would best be served by visiting locations and exploring the city by viewing the architecture, checking out the scenery, eating lots of food, and I like the idea of bike riding on the outskirts of a town.</p>
<p>As far as Spain, since the kids will have been there, done that; I figured we would head somewhere together that they hadn’t seen so we could enjoy it together. If I didn’t say so before, we will spend a few days in Madrid to allow my daughter to show us her “home.” We do not want to spend too much time in Spain just so we will have time to visit whatever location we decide on. If my husband could take more time off or if we had more money, I would stay much longer and see so much more!!</p>
<p>If I may ask a tangent question: how safe is it for an American student with no previous experience to travel with a friend in Europe (especially in Germany). Thanks!</p>
<p>Actually, I’d go to Madrid, Amsterdam, Vienna and Paris. =] I’d love to see the house where my great-grandmother lived in Vienna. The others are just really rad.</p>
<p>I’ve heard it’s really safe in Europe even if you’re backpacking. Many adults I know have had a European backpacking trip they still reminisce about today. I can’t wait to go myself. I’m currently teaching myself French for it. Though I can’t wait to get my Spanish back, actually SPEAK French and possibly pickup some German!</p>
<p>I would spend half the time in Paris, then London, then fly home from London. It doesn’t sound like you’ll be heading back to Europe anytime soon, and you want to make sure you see Paris and London, and have time to do the sightseeing in those cities.</p>
<p>I agree with Grumpster about spending quality time in Paris and London. Five full days apiece is none too long for either of them. You’ll really have to rush to see all the sights if you spend less than four days in either city. If you go to London and you’re a true CC afficianado, I’d recommend taking a day trip to Oxford which is little over an hour from London by train. Beautiful architecture, tons of history, easily walkable in a couple of hours, and a day away from the metropolis.</p>
<p>You really need to think about your travel style. I hate rushing and would rather take a lot of walks around a city and sit in cafes soaking up the atmosphere instead of just blazing through the big tourist stops in a couple of days on a highly regimented schedule.</p>
<p>If you want to fit more into your trip, I’d add Rome. I actually prefer Rome to London (it’s tied with Paris as my favorite city). Rome, Paris, and London were traditionally the big three of European travel. My vote for London over Rome if you only do two cities is mainly due to the ease and speed of travel with the Chunnel. It’s also a little easier to be in a place where you speak the language.</p>
<p>Europe is really expensive for Americans right now. I’d save money on hotels (choosing the cheapest hotel you can get close to a subway and within walking distance of restaurants and some key sights) and do my splurging on experiences, like getting half price tickets to a West End show at Leicester Square in London, or having one meal at a really good restaurant in Paris (although this requires bringing one “nice” outfit).</p>
<p>My big Paris tip: Get a map of the bus sytem and catch the 42 at any stop. Ride it all the way until you’re back at your original stop. You will pass by many of the key sights of Paris (Champ de Mars, Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, Madeleine, Opera) and also see some real Paris neighborhoods. The 63 bus also has a very scenic stretch. These two bus routes are a great way to see a lot of Paris for very little money, especially if you’re tired and want some time off your feet.</p>
<p>Thanks mathmom! I’ve never traveled abroad, so I’m just a little apprehensive because of my own inexperience. Also, I’ve heard that there is some degree of anti-American sentiment these days, which worries me too. I am trying to keep my own insecuritites to myself though! ;)</p>
<p>I lived in Germany during the Reagan years. There was a lot of anti-American sentiment, but most people are well able to distinguish the difference between countries and their citizens. (And actually my boss loved Reagan - he wanted his taxes reduced too.) At least when I was in Europe, Switzerland and Germany were probably the safest country. In Italy there was a fair amount of petty theft - purse snatching and the like - you do need to be a little more careful there - especially in Rome. London and Paris are both a little grimier if you go afield. (I’ve done things like study low-cost housing and have been in every sort of neighborhood alone in the daytime.) The tourist areas of every city though are very safe.</p>