Any europe trip advice?

Question

Hi

I'm going to europe in spring 2010 for 77 days.

We are going to be going to

1.England

2.Scotland

3.Denmark

4.Germany

5. Austria

6. Switzerland

7.France

8.Italy

9. and Greece.

So I was just wondering if anyone had any advice about what places to go to and avoid in these countries are. Things that we must see ad do. The temperature in spring for these countries. Also the holiday(activities etc.)hasappropriateopriate and fun for 2 15/16 year old girls and 2 adults.

Thanks :)

Answer 1

In London there are lots of things to see and do and even if you base yourself there you can go on day trips to other places which can be gotton there easily by train eg Cambrdge or Oxford, Stonehenge, Stratford upon avon ( shakespeare), cotswolds...otherwise hiring a car is good too. York and other towns like Harrogate, Whitby ( by the sea) etc are worth a look as well up in hte north. I was not overly taken with Birmingham which does nto have the greatest reputation in the world for being pretty or worth seeing. Depends on what you want to see. I wasn't taken with Brighton ( although the brits LOVE it)...i found it tacky and the beach was literally rocks!!

I never got to Scotland ( even tho I lived in England for a couple fo years!!!)

Didn't get to Denmark, Germany, Austria ,Switzerland or Greece

BUT I did go to Italy and France and they have so much to see and do as well.

In Italy I can recommend all these places

Verona - has a lovely feel and is pretty

Venice - is just different to other towns/cities and is quite small so doens't need more than 2 nights max

Sienna - is lovely and has a medeval feel( I stayed in a little mountaintop village in the Sienna region called Montepulciano which was lovely and nice to get away from the throngs of people and tourists)

Rome - has a few things to offer, especially in the roman stuff. I did a day tour from Rome to Pompeii for the day which was great ( I don't recommend Naples as a city to stay in ...in fact I have heard the south in general is not the greatest to visit,.....so maybe concentrate on the central/north)

Florence is very pretty, but LOTs of tourists. Pisa ( tower) is not far by train and you can easily get there...apparently there is not much else there apart from the tower. I also visited a lovely little town called Lucca, again not far from Florence by train and it has less tourists and was a nice escpae for me.

Bologna is back to medieval and a nice town as well.

France - well Paris has lots to offer in museums, places to see etc and I had 5 full days and still did not see enough!!!! Probably my fav city for things to see and do.

I stayed in an area in central France around a towns of Figiac and Cahors for a couple of weeks and loved it. It was filled with wonderfully pretty towns and villages ( like St Cirq lapopie, St Cere, Autoire ( small but worth it!) and Rocamadour is pretty cool. WE had a hired car so for this area thats the best. There are also lots of caves with rock paintings or used by people a few thousand years ago and the whole area has lots of rolling countryside. We went to Touslouse for the night and that was a nice city and we also made it to Grenoble which is a skiing town and has a different feel to other cities and has cool mountains surrounding it.

Some places will not take huge amounts of time to see as they are small while others like France and Italy have so much variety and things to offer.

A city I absoultely loved was Prague...its one of my favourties as its pretty and different and cheaper than other cities further west. I did a day tour to a lovely town in the south called Cesky Krumulov......utterly charming and has lots of charm and history.

I also loved Croatia...which has stunning coastlines, is cheap, people are friendly. The capital Zargreb is inland and has a different feel from the coastal towns I went ot ( Dubrovnik SPlit and Zadar) but had a nice feel. Consider it an option....some people have not had great thigns to say aabout parts of Greece and you have islands to see in Croatia as well......one of my favourite places.