Greece, Italy Or Swiss in Late Oct ??

Old Aug 28th, 2015, 04:56 AM
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Greece, Italy Or Swiss in Late Oct ??

Hello Folks,

I am planning a trip with my wife & two year kid around 25th Oct. This will be our first visit to Europe and my son's first international experience.

However I am confused about which country to go and i hope of you can help me pick one.Here are some details/concerns -
- As mentioned We are family three will flying out from India.
- I have 7 nights in hand.
- I am a professional photographer and would love to shoot some great scenery.
- We do not want to travel to very cold destinations ( because of my son )
- We also would like to avoid too much of walking.

So given the information above, which country do you think will be best for me.
So far I have filtered Greece, Swiss & Italy. I am ranking Swiss higher than others because of ease of transportation and scenic beauty.
But every country has some advantage over the other. Is there any other country I should opt for?


Please let me know your thoughts. Your help would be highly appreciated.

Thank you
Rahul
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Old Aug 28th, 2015, 05:06 AM
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Well one of the pleasures of Europe is the walking. October is one of those Shoulder months, certainly if I wanted to be warm ie 20C+ I'd stay in Greece and maybe even the islands.

I guess you know what you have to pay for in Switzerland?

Italian scenic beauty is up there too and the public transport is pretty good.

So I can see your quandry. Still I guess Swiss will not be freezing yet
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Old Aug 28th, 2015, 05:21 AM
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Late October into early November is a problem with the "not too cold" part of your message. Switzerland lie higher above sea level than other countries and the weather could well be quite cold and maybe even snow and predicting the weather is difficult in Europe. The other problem will be that in late October, many resort areas start to close for the winter and restaurants and hotels may not be available.

Your main requirements are scenery and warmer and while the Greek Islands may be comparatively warmer, the amenities in the resorts will be closing and the same is true in Southern Italy. If the weather is poor, things will close sooner.

What about Sicily or the Costa del Sol? Both are far enough south to have the vestiges of a summer and both offer scenery worth photographing, maybe not of the Swiss standard, but it's about compromise in this case.
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Old Aug 28th, 2015, 08:44 AM
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Late Oct can be very quite cold in Switz - esp when you get into the mountains. Also what you think of as the scenic beauty won't be there - what you see in the movies (cute cows in bright green fields, lots of wildflowers, alpen horns players contrasting with white mountain tops) is what Switz looks like in summer - not October. In Oct cows will be in their barns, flowers gone and skies often gray and mountains shrouded in clouds and mist.

I agree if you want warm temps in Oct I would head for south of Italy or Spain - not anyplace north of the Alps. And the Greek islands are summer resorts and by end of Oct much will be closed.

Finally Switz is VERY expensive - so not sure how that fits into your plans.
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Old Aug 29th, 2015, 10:43 AM
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The Greek islands might be ready for their winter sleep, but there is always Crete, the most south point of Europe, where the weather will be warm enough, just like in Spain and Sicily.. ( if not warmer).

There's a lot to see on Crete archaeological sites, nature, nice picturesque cities, and given the fact that it has a large permanent population, it doesn't fall into a winter sleep, like many other Greek islands.

Another option would be to tour the Peloponnese, which is as south as Sicily, and has endless archaeological sites, nice cities, beaches, mountains, monasteries......and warmer weather, being in the South of Greece.
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Old Aug 29th, 2015, 05:09 PM
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Went to Switzerland late October thru November 4 a few years ago. Encountered sun and temps 50-65 degrees F the whole time with the tail end of gorgeous fall colors...just sayin
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Old Aug 29th, 2015, 07:36 PM
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Sure, you have a chance of unusually good weather out of season, but realistically, it could just as well go the other way and have really terrible weather while you are there, so you should probably take less risk and use the average as your guide.

Only seven days on the ground. Pick carefully one place with lots of scenery close by as a base. Explore from there.

Crete, have not been, but based on visits to several other Greek Islands, it should be a great choice.
Sicily is larger with many interesting places, only time to explore one side, but beautiful.
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Old Sep 5th, 2015, 02:34 PM
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Crete or Sicily for warmer weather-Have you thought of Malta??
Have fun
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Old Sep 27th, 2015, 09:45 PM
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Thank you all for your suggestions. Will update my final itinerary soon.
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