Beach/Beach Resort in Europe
Aug 2nd, 2004, 03:12 AM
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Beach/Beach Resort in Europe
I'm sorry to keep posting similar question on this forum. I don't mean to clog it up, but it?s just too hard of a decision for a Europe newbie like myself. I?m planning a honeymoon trip to Europe for about 3 weeks. I?m hoping to spend my first week at a beach or beach resort for much needed R&R after the wedding and heading out to other part of Europe maybe Italy, France or Spain. But there?s seems to be so many nice beaches in Europe Costa del Sol and Ibiza in Spain, French Riviera in France, Amalfi Coast and Sicily in Italy, and of course Greece.
Well, Greece is out since everyone tells me it would be more difficult or will take too long for me to go to other countries, unless someone has a different opinion, I?m all ears. So I?m left with the other 3 choices. With hopes of bothering everyone for the last time, here?s what I would like to know? Please keep in mind that it?s going to be the 2nd week of Oct. I?m not sure what?s the weather?s going to be in those beaches during this time of the year.
Which out of the 3 choices do you recommend for the beach part of my honeymoon? Any other recommendation will be appreciated as well. More specifics the better maybe the name of the beach and or name of the resort?
After the beach part of the honeymoon, where/countries do you recommend that I go?
Specific cities that are ?must see? in those countries and how many days will I need to spend in those each cities?
I know this is a lot to ask but I just can?t find a good starting point after much research. And I would greatly appreciate any help from the experts.
Thanks,
Joe
Well, Greece is out since everyone tells me it would be more difficult or will take too long for me to go to other countries, unless someone has a different opinion, I?m all ears. So I?m left with the other 3 choices. With hopes of bothering everyone for the last time, here?s what I would like to know? Please keep in mind that it?s going to be the 2nd week of Oct. I?m not sure what?s the weather?s going to be in those beaches during this time of the year.
Which out of the 3 choices do you recommend for the beach part of my honeymoon? Any other recommendation will be appreciated as well. More specifics the better maybe the name of the beach and or name of the resort?
After the beach part of the honeymoon, where/countries do you recommend that I go?
Specific cities that are ?must see? in those countries and how many days will I need to spend in those each cities?
I know this is a lot to ask but I just can?t find a good starting point after much research. And I would greatly appreciate any help from the experts.
Thanks,
Joe
Aug 2nd, 2004, 03:19 AM
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Oh, couple more things. If someone knows the cost or price? Also, what's the best way to move around in those beaches? Should I rent a car or public transportation? Lastly, for travel around either Spain, France or Italy should I rent a car or should I take public transportation or combination of both?
Thank you
Thank you
Aug 3rd, 2004, 03:00 AM
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Joe,
You?re planning your honeymoon, which you want to be as wonderful as possible, but it?s also your first trip to Europe, and you?re a bit confused. This is understandable.
But you have to have some basic idea, some general plan for your trip, before the many people in this forum can comment on your plan or contribute information about individual places and things to see.
First of all, you?re talking about the last two weeks of October and the first week of November. October can be lovely, but it?s not generally considered beach time anywhere in Europe. The most reliable chart of average monthly weather conditions that I have found is at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/c...tml?city_guide
Unfortunately, the many cities listed do not include resort towns, so one has to use the nearest city to get some idea of the weather at resorts in the area: Seville for the Costa del Sol; Naples for the Amalfi Coast; Monte Carlo for the Côte d?Azur, always bearing in mind that the temperatures are for the entire month of October, so that they are likely to be lower in the second half of October and that there can be a small difference between city and coast in the case of Seville, which is not on the coast but inland.
Your best chance for finding beach weather in late October is on the Costa del Sol: 7 hours of sunlight per day; average daily low 57.2, average daily high 78.8, average precipitation 2.73 inches; wet days (with more than .00975 inches of rain) 6. The corresponding figures for the other areas are: Amalfi Coast: 6 hours, low 53.6, high 71.6, precipitation 4.17 inches, wet days 9; Côte d?Azur: 6 hours, low 60.8, high 68, precipitation 4.41 inches, wet days 7.
So let us say that your R&R at the beginning of your trip will be at a resort on the Costa del Sol. You would therefore fly to Madrid. If you have flown from the eastern U.S., you are likely to arrive in the morning, and I would suggest that you take the train to Seville immediately after arrival. There are AVE trains every hour on the hour that get you to Seville in around 2.5 hours. By late afternoon, you can easily be in your hotel in Seville. The next day will be largely lost to jet lag, so spend four days in Seville. On your 6th day in Europe, you can take a train to Malaga, which will take around 2.5 hours. Give yourself five days of R&R at a resort on the Costa del Sol (Nerja gets generally good reviews, even if it isn't a beach with white sand), which I think you can probably reach by bus from Malaga or, if you prefer, by rented car. You can also take day trips by car: Granada and the Alhambra, even Cordoba and its Mezquita, are not that far away. Unfortunately, for your onward journey, you would have to return to Madrid; in a fast Talgo train, you can do it in 4 hours 15 minutes. From Madrid, you can take an EasyJet flight to Paris Orly for 34.59 Euros per person. (This is a great deal cheaper than taking a train to Madrid for 49.00 Euros per person, changing to an overnight train there ? I could not get the price for a couchette, but I imagine it would be around 100 Euros each ? and arriving in Paris about 24 hours after you leave Malaga.) That day, your 11th day in Europe, is pretty well given up to traveling. So spend four days (days 12 to 15 inclusive) in Paris. On day 16, you can fly from Paris Orly to Roma Fiumicino with Volareweb for as little as 19.99 Euros per person. If you take a flight at 10:15 a.m., you can be in Rome at 12:15 p.m. Spend the rest of day 16 through day 20 (4? days) in Rome. Fly back to the U.S. on day 21. Your open jaw airline ticket from the U.S. would be to Madrid with return from Rome.
You have spent four days in one of Spain?s most fascinating cities, five days relaxing, four days in Paris, and 4? days in Rome. Evidently, this is only a suggestion. You can add a day here, take away a day there. Some flights may not go every day, so you will have to plan around the days that they do go.
Or if you don?t want to take a chance on not being able to bathe, perhaps you could take up the suggestion in one of the posts in reply to your other question of staying in one of the northern coastal towns in Spain and just strolling on the beach. In that case, you would fly to Barcelona (either directly or through Madrid; it?s too long to take the train) and spend four days there before going on to the coast. My impression is that San Sebastian caters to an older age group; I may be wrong. Santander and Santillana del Mar are smaller and may be more pleasant. You could probably take day trips in the north of Spain as well: to Burgos, to Leon, maybe even to Santiago de Compostela. Since I?m not a good authority on coastal towns, you could post a very simple question in the Fodor?s Forum: ?Spain: Suggestions for resorts on the sea for honeymoon in October? and ask for suggestions for day trips in your message. When you have a few suggestions, you can look at www.parador.es to see if there is a parador in the town. Depending on the parador, with a five-night card, you could stay in a five-star parador for five nights for a total of between 359.50 and 426.70 Euros for the two of you, if you plan your stay to include only one Friday or one Saturday. You can fly from Barcelona to Paris Orly with EasyJet for 34.49 Euros, except on Sunday when the price is a little higher. In this case, your open jaw airline ticket would be to Barcelona with return from Rome.
And I don?t want to be indelicate, but what kind of budget do you have for the two of you for the trip? Paris and Rome are relatively expensive cities; in Spain, you will probably have to spend a little less.
If cost is an important factor, you may have to consider giving up Paris or Rome. I know there are lovely places in the countryside in Tuscany, for example, where you can stay quite inexpensively and take day trips to fascinating hill towns or even to Florence. I imagine similar possibilities exist in Spain and France, but in Spain I have stayed mostly in paradors in smaller towns in the country (359.50 Euros for five nights would still be very reasonable?), and I hardly know the various départements of France, having only been several times to Paris and once to Aix.
All of the above is only a suggestion of some lines along which you might think. Use all of it or part of it, or throw the whole thing out. In any case ? like Rex in his answer to your other post ? I would strongly urge you to do some serious reading on your own. Buy a good guidebook to Europe (Fodor?s or Frommer?s or Rick Steves, if you will be traveling on a tight budget) ? to get a better idea of what YOU -- and, of course, your fiancee ? want to do and see most, and then come back to the Fodor?s forum with more specific questions that the experienced travelers here can help you with.
Good luck!
You?re planning your honeymoon, which you want to be as wonderful as possible, but it?s also your first trip to Europe, and you?re a bit confused. This is understandable.
But you have to have some basic idea, some general plan for your trip, before the many people in this forum can comment on your plan or contribute information about individual places and things to see.
First of all, you?re talking about the last two weeks of October and the first week of November. October can be lovely, but it?s not generally considered beach time anywhere in Europe. The most reliable chart of average monthly weather conditions that I have found is at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/c...tml?city_guide
Unfortunately, the many cities listed do not include resort towns, so one has to use the nearest city to get some idea of the weather at resorts in the area: Seville for the Costa del Sol; Naples for the Amalfi Coast; Monte Carlo for the Côte d?Azur, always bearing in mind that the temperatures are for the entire month of October, so that they are likely to be lower in the second half of October and that there can be a small difference between city and coast in the case of Seville, which is not on the coast but inland.
Your best chance for finding beach weather in late October is on the Costa del Sol: 7 hours of sunlight per day; average daily low 57.2, average daily high 78.8, average precipitation 2.73 inches; wet days (with more than .00975 inches of rain) 6. The corresponding figures for the other areas are: Amalfi Coast: 6 hours, low 53.6, high 71.6, precipitation 4.17 inches, wet days 9; Côte d?Azur: 6 hours, low 60.8, high 68, precipitation 4.41 inches, wet days 7.
So let us say that your R&R at the beginning of your trip will be at a resort on the Costa del Sol. You would therefore fly to Madrid. If you have flown from the eastern U.S., you are likely to arrive in the morning, and I would suggest that you take the train to Seville immediately after arrival. There are AVE trains every hour on the hour that get you to Seville in around 2.5 hours. By late afternoon, you can easily be in your hotel in Seville. The next day will be largely lost to jet lag, so spend four days in Seville. On your 6th day in Europe, you can take a train to Malaga, which will take around 2.5 hours. Give yourself five days of R&R at a resort on the Costa del Sol (Nerja gets generally good reviews, even if it isn't a beach with white sand), which I think you can probably reach by bus from Malaga or, if you prefer, by rented car. You can also take day trips by car: Granada and the Alhambra, even Cordoba and its Mezquita, are not that far away. Unfortunately, for your onward journey, you would have to return to Madrid; in a fast Talgo train, you can do it in 4 hours 15 minutes. From Madrid, you can take an EasyJet flight to Paris Orly for 34.59 Euros per person. (This is a great deal cheaper than taking a train to Madrid for 49.00 Euros per person, changing to an overnight train there ? I could not get the price for a couchette, but I imagine it would be around 100 Euros each ? and arriving in Paris about 24 hours after you leave Malaga.) That day, your 11th day in Europe, is pretty well given up to traveling. So spend four days (days 12 to 15 inclusive) in Paris. On day 16, you can fly from Paris Orly to Roma Fiumicino with Volareweb for as little as 19.99 Euros per person. If you take a flight at 10:15 a.m., you can be in Rome at 12:15 p.m. Spend the rest of day 16 through day 20 (4? days) in Rome. Fly back to the U.S. on day 21. Your open jaw airline ticket from the U.S. would be to Madrid with return from Rome.
You have spent four days in one of Spain?s most fascinating cities, five days relaxing, four days in Paris, and 4? days in Rome. Evidently, this is only a suggestion. You can add a day here, take away a day there. Some flights may not go every day, so you will have to plan around the days that they do go.
Or if you don?t want to take a chance on not being able to bathe, perhaps you could take up the suggestion in one of the posts in reply to your other question of staying in one of the northern coastal towns in Spain and just strolling on the beach. In that case, you would fly to Barcelona (either directly or through Madrid; it?s too long to take the train) and spend four days there before going on to the coast. My impression is that San Sebastian caters to an older age group; I may be wrong. Santander and Santillana del Mar are smaller and may be more pleasant. You could probably take day trips in the north of Spain as well: to Burgos, to Leon, maybe even to Santiago de Compostela. Since I?m not a good authority on coastal towns, you could post a very simple question in the Fodor?s Forum: ?Spain: Suggestions for resorts on the sea for honeymoon in October? and ask for suggestions for day trips in your message. When you have a few suggestions, you can look at www.parador.es to see if there is a parador in the town. Depending on the parador, with a five-night card, you could stay in a five-star parador for five nights for a total of between 359.50 and 426.70 Euros for the two of you, if you plan your stay to include only one Friday or one Saturday. You can fly from Barcelona to Paris Orly with EasyJet for 34.49 Euros, except on Sunday when the price is a little higher. In this case, your open jaw airline ticket would be to Barcelona with return from Rome.
And I don?t want to be indelicate, but what kind of budget do you have for the two of you for the trip? Paris and Rome are relatively expensive cities; in Spain, you will probably have to spend a little less.
If cost is an important factor, you may have to consider giving up Paris or Rome. I know there are lovely places in the countryside in Tuscany, for example, where you can stay quite inexpensively and take day trips to fascinating hill towns or even to Florence. I imagine similar possibilities exist in Spain and France, but in Spain I have stayed mostly in paradors in smaller towns in the country (359.50 Euros for five nights would still be very reasonable?), and I hardly know the various départements of France, having only been several times to Paris and once to Aix.
All of the above is only a suggestion of some lines along which you might think. Use all of it or part of it, or throw the whole thing out. In any case ? like Rex in his answer to your other post ? I would strongly urge you to do some serious reading on your own. Buy a good guidebook to Europe (Fodor?s or Frommer?s or Rick Steves, if you will be traveling on a tight budget) ? to get a better idea of what YOU -- and, of course, your fiancee ? want to do and see most, and then come back to the Fodor?s forum with more specific questions that the experienced travelers here can help you with.
Good luck!
Aug 3rd, 2004, 12:54 PM
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Okay, I'm confused - - are you ("Joe"
both jc74 and where2go? In your "other" post (as where2go) - - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34518470 (Malta vs Sicily, etc) you refer to "a long over due vacation for a week in mid Oct. with my girlfriend" - - this isn't how most people would refer to a honeymoon!
Or is it simply coincidence that you and jc74 have the same name (and somewhat similar travel objectives)?
In any event, the "other" thread that Eloise mentioned is http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34517733 - - there are quite a few more responses there.
Click on your own name (in case you didn't know about doing this) - - to retrieve all your previous posts.
Best wishes,
Rex
both jc74 and where2go? In your "other" post (as where2go) - - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34518470 (Malta vs Sicily, etc) you refer to "a long over due vacation for a week in mid Oct. with my girlfriend" - - this isn't how most people would refer to a honeymoon!Or is it simply coincidence that you and jc74 have the same name (and somewhat similar travel objectives)?
In any event, the "other" thread that Eloise mentioned is http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34517733 - - there are quite a few more responses there.
Click on your own name (in case you didn't know about doing this) - - to retrieve all your previous posts.
Best wishes,
Rex
Aug 3rd, 2004, 01:05 PM
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Hi Joe,
I may be a bit of an oddity. I'm a travel omnivore. I love beach resorts, remote primitive vacations and the largest of cities too. I have some empathy for you but I'm confused about what you really want like most others here.
A question - You obviously like beaches and would like to get some R&R on one after the wedding extravganza is over. What is your favorite beach anywhere?
Maybe that will give us some idea of what you might expect or have in mind for Europe. I doubt you will find it in October. Beaches in Europe can be sad little places in the Fall - noone there and not in a good way. You'll be wondering what you're doing there too.
If you feel that you need a beach to "unwind" I agree with ira. Go to a lovely resort in the Carribean for 10 days or two weeks.
Save your money and go to Europe some other time.
Or if you think you can live without it, forget about the beach and just go to Europe. Believe me you can unwind there too, that is, if you don't feel like you have to be sightseeing 24/7/. ; )
I imagine you could combine the two vacation types if you could get a decent flight from the Carribean but that is a lot of travel and think of the packing for beach/city wear.
If I had to pick two cities for a European honeymoon in order :
Florence (I'd probably spend the whole honeymoon in Italy : )))) (lovely Italian hotel, art, architecture, strolling along the Arno and through the city, Italian cuisine, shopping, lovely people.
Paris: (lovely French Hotel, strolling in parks, along the Sienne, museums, French cuisine, La Tour Eiffel : ))) side trip to Versailles.
Runners up: London (lovely British hotel, strolling in parks, walking along the Thames, taking tea and theater in evenings)
and Barcelona ( lovely Latin hotel, strolling the Ramblas, late nights out and Gaudi architecture, museums by day )
I may be a bit of an oddity. I'm a travel omnivore. I love beach resorts, remote primitive vacations and the largest of cities too. I have some empathy for you but I'm confused about what you really want like most others here.
A question - You obviously like beaches and would like to get some R&R on one after the wedding extravganza is over. What is your favorite beach anywhere?
Maybe that will give us some idea of what you might expect or have in mind for Europe. I doubt you will find it in October. Beaches in Europe can be sad little places in the Fall - noone there and not in a good way. You'll be wondering what you're doing there too.
If you feel that you need a beach to "unwind" I agree with ira. Go to a lovely resort in the Carribean for 10 days or two weeks.
Save your money and go to Europe some other time.
Or if you think you can live without it, forget about the beach and just go to Europe. Believe me you can unwind there too, that is, if you don't feel like you have to be sightseeing 24/7/. ; )
I imagine you could combine the two vacation types if you could get a decent flight from the Carribean but that is a lot of travel and think of the packing for beach/city wear.
If I had to pick two cities for a European honeymoon in order :
Florence (I'd probably spend the whole honeymoon in Italy : )))) (lovely Italian hotel, art, architecture, strolling along the Arno and through the city, Italian cuisine, shopping, lovely people.
Paris: (lovely French Hotel, strolling in parks, along the Sienne, museums, French cuisine, La Tour Eiffel : ))) side trip to Versailles.
Runners up: London (lovely British hotel, strolling in parks, walking along the Thames, taking tea and theater in evenings)
and Barcelona ( lovely Latin hotel, strolling the Ramblas, late nights out and Gaudi architecture, museums by day )
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