stillaliveca

My wife and I are planning a trip to Europe this fall or next spring and are toying with going to either Britain or Italy. We have had wonderful trips to Greece and Spain respectively in the past few years; so the U.K. would be a contrast. On the other hand we know that we would love Italy. We will be going for 17-20 days, and whichever we don't see this time, we will see on a future trip hopefully.

We like to sightsee, eat well, see rural areas as well as the cities and my wife likes to shop. We also are unsure which country is the more expensive these days for our Canadian dollars.

I'm looking forward to your suggestions.

rex

Britain will be modestly more expensive than Italy, in large measure because of costs in London, but in both countries, the cost of visiting the major cities will be double the cost of smaller towns and rural destinations.

I think 5 days in the Englishcountryside followed by Venice and Tuscany (half Flrence, half hill towns) would be a great combination for 17-20 days.

Best wishes,

Rex

mjs

This is a difficult question. On one hand Britain will be alot different from your experiences in Spain and Greece so the contrasts might be interesting to you. On the other hand Britain will definitely be more expensive than Italy with the possible exception of Venice. The time you have will make a trip to either country quite pleasant. In Italy for example, you could do the Amalfi, Rome, Florence/Tuscany and Venice quite comfortably in your time frame. In England you could do London than rent a car and explore the country. I would do one country at a time and do th other one another time. My vote would be for Italy as you may be able to get an inexpensive package to London + for your next trip if you keep an eye out for great deals off season in the future.

m_kingdom2

What a ridiculous question, how indecisive you are!

Do you want guaranteed sunshine and a Mediterranean flavour or grey skies, and gloom?

I live in London, and always look forward to my fall (how Americanised I've become dears) vacation to the Neapolitan Riviera.

Go to Italy, London will not leave you with the same feeling of calm and all round well-being that Italy does!

stillaliveca

Interesting replies from all of you. I have sworn off driving in Europe and we'll be taking trains and buses. I presume that will not be a problem in either country. We will stick to just one country though as neither of us like jumping around.

I do wish that there was a way to meet local people though, other than waitresses and innkeepers. Any suggestions for either of those countries or just in general? We are both over 50.

CCJPO

I have been a reader of this site for a while, and have been fortunate to have learned a great deal from the posters, and have utilized said information on many of our trips. I live in Nevada, and due to some extremely fortunate circumstances over the past five years we have been able to live 3 months a year in Mexico, and 3 months a year in Europe. Prior to that my only experience out of country was two trips to S.E Asia in the late 60's, early 70's, courtesy of Uncle Sam.

With that said I am going to guess that this will be my first and last post, as I will probably be banned for my entry.

What I have learned on the internet is that most people ask questions because they they want honest, well thought out input. People ask because they just don't know the answers. These folks want information, not sarcasim, not put downs, not talked down to. I have found that most queries are from people who have a real desire to learn from other people who have an honest, well thought out opinion based upon fact. I know that I do.

And while I do know that there are trolls out there, and that there are people out there that get their jolly's from being antagonistic, and that there are people out there that really don't know what they are talking about, but that they do participate on forums out of some need to get their kicks out of seeing their own words in print, much the same as those people who talk just to hear their own voices.

That stated, M_Kingdom2, IMHO, you are not participating in this forum in a positive, nor productive manner. Your posts tend to be negative in content, tend to put down people who have, what appear to be legitimate questions about areas that they wish to be informed, not spat upon.

So since it appears that your prefer to have a parasitic, rather then a symbionic relationship with the participants of this forum, it may be that you are just a troll, or perhaps a Fodors' employee, and your mission is to create some sort of, well something on this site, or perhaps you are just a simple poser, or maybe you just travel vicariously through this site in order to give the impression that you know what you are talking about, or that you are just a culo/a trying to impress people.

Be that as it may, as BAMBI used to say, or at least to paraphrase, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

TO: stillaliveca - Try the UK - it is a whole different experience. Yes you would love Italy, we love Italy, we also love the UK, different ports in a storm. ENJOY

isabel

As the last poster said, there are idiots on this forum who like to put people down, pay no attention to that m_kingdom guy, if you read enough on this forum you know he's not worth paying attention to.

Your question asked for opinion rather than actual information so of course you'll get just that. My opinion is that since you've been to Spain and Greece recently you should try the UK. If you had not, then I would say Italy. My only "problem" with the UK is that it doesn't feel as "foreign" as other places in Europe, especially Italy. I suspect that coming from Canada you'll experience something similiar. They speak English, the landscape is somewhat similiar to the northeast North America, some of the architecture is similiar, the weather, etc. But of course, it is very different and a wonderful place to visit. Since you've been to southern Europe it would be a nice change.

With almost three weeks you could do a nice trip that would include close to a week in London, and then some of the English countryside but still leave time to also go to Ireland or Scotland. I would choose Ireland except that you say you don't want to drive and Ireland is defiitly best done by driving. It really is quite easy, and fun actually, to drive in both England and Ireland. Any chance you'd reconsider that? It's also the best way to see some of the smaller towns in England, though it is quite possible to do them by train. If you do go to England be sure to include Bath and York, two places I found especially enjoyable. And London is definitly worth almost a week.

These of course are just opinions, but that is what you asked for. Which ever you choose, have a great time.