malifornia

Hey guys!

We are finally planning our honeymoon now that we are married. My husband has been to Europe before but I have not so he is giving me the choice for the second country. We will be traveling first to Highcliffe, England for a couple days with his grandparents. Then on to London for a couple days. I'm having a very difficult time figuring out where to go next because everything is appealing to me. We don't want to travel around too much, but it's hard to choose just one other place and hope that it is a place we will enjoy.

We are considering Spain, South of France, and Italy. We really love food so going someplace with delicious fare is a big priority. Unfortunately, I can't eat food that has a ton of cheese or cream in it so I'm worried about going to a region that uses a lot of dairy and missing out on the best foods there.

We like night life, pubs, beautiful sights and cities. We are pretty active so we would enjoy beautiful walks or hikes. Although we might hit up a museum or two that is not a huge item on our list.

We were looking at Barcelona because a big city on the Mediterranean seemed appealing but after reading the forums so much I am worried about choosing to spend all our time there and coming to the same conclusion as some of the posters here. It is still appealing to us but I am hesitant because it seems to be a city people either love or hate.

Here is our really really rough itinerary:

May 13: travel
14: travel to grandparents sleep there
15, 16: grandparents
17: travel to London:
18, 19: London
20: travel to ?
21 to 28: ?
29: travel home from ? (Doing open jaw after reading the forums here a bit)

Husband has done London before so we aren't planning on spending too much time there but if we decide to just do one other place besides Highcliffe and London we may add another day to both. Otherwise we could potentially do 2 other places if they are close or convenient to travel to.

Sorry this is so long, thank you for reading and thanks in advance for any helpful advice we can get.

pariswat

I'd do Paris and from there to Nice to finsih on some beaches.

Eurostar (train) from London to Paris is very convenient and freom Paris good fast trains to Nice.

Barcelone is a fabulous city, that I would recommend without any hesitation for young people. Fly from Paris with a low cost company such as Vueling.

And congrats for your wedding.

janisj

Congratulations!

Do you mean the Highcliffe in Dorset? It is close to a three hour drive from Heathrow.

Is London on your true 'wish list' or did you include it mostly because it is in England? I ask because w/ just 2 days you won't see much of London at all. I'd either spend at least 5 days there or drop it entirely.

If it was me I'd split my time after Highcliffe evenly between London and Paris (or Venice or Barcelona)

malifornia

Thank you!

London is on there because of proximity. I was questioning the 2 days as well. My husband studied abroad there so I think he wants to take me to his favorite places but I don't think we are trying to see everything there is to see because we want to experience something new to us both. That's why Paris is not on the list. He has seen everything to see there as well and Paris was not his favorite.

Venice is definitely one I would be interested to see.

janisj

>>I don't think we are trying to see everything there is to see<<

Don't worry about that -- you could spend 2 <i>years</i> there and not see everything.

I really think Dorset, 6-ish days in London and the rest in Venice would be a lovely division of time. There are many flights from London to Venice some on budget carriers like easyJet.

malifornia

I think I am more drawn to the sights of Italy and the food of Spain. Simply because I think I might be able to eat more of the staples in Spain. Going to Italy and not being able to eat pizza and gelato? Depressing. I don't really know much about Southern France but my husband said that he is interested in going there and the beach sounds relaxing. Hopefully may would be nice enough weather to truly enjoy.

Also I know it's probably ridiculous to plan a honeymoon around my stomach, hahaha.

malifornia

Also, I realize Italian food is more than pizza and gelato but I don't know enough about the different regions to know what they all have to offer.

malifornia

Also, apparently I say also too much.

Bedar

In my years of living in England, weather-wise May was the best month. May it be for you, too. Forget Barcelona. For your second place, choose spectacular Paris or Venice. May is a good time for Venice - you'll miss the awful crowds of summer.

Kathie

If it were me - and it isn't - I'd choose Paris as the second city. It's beautiful and interesting and the food is fabulous. It's also an easy trip from London.

Are you from California? (I ask because of your screen name) If you are, I think you will find the beaches in Southern France to be a disappointment. I think you are better off creating relaxing time somewhere else. So in Paris, plan to stroll in some parks, sit in cafes with a glass of wine and watch the world go by, take the batobus on the Seine - we bought a two day ticket for a couple of Euros more than a one day ticket.

You have such a limited time in London, choose two things you really want to see (in addition to your husband's favorite pubs or whatever) and make sure you see those. For me, the Tower of London would be number one.

Plan to fly into London and out of Paris (or whatever second city you choose) as it will save you both time and money.

germanabroad

Hi there, I love Barcelona and am sure you'd have a great time there but not sure you'd want to stay for a week. You'd probably want to think about hiring a car and taking in some parts of the Costa Brava ... Still not sure It would be my first choice as honeymoon destination ... Depends on what you're looking for? If it's nightlife, Barcelona would be a good choice.

If you're looking for somewhere a bit more romantic in Spain, maybe look into Seville and Grenada, both are wonderful. Seville in particular has great food, lots of tapas bars to tour, I was there in May a couple of years ago and the weather was great.

Italy ...

Venice is breathtaking and very romantic, you'll feel as if you'd stepped into a painting ...again 2-3 days is probably enough but you're also close toVerona which could make a nice second stop.

Have you thought about Florence and Sienna? Both lovely, wonderful and romantic and combinable if you take the train.

In France you could go to Nice and some other places on the Côte d'Azur - avoid Monaco-there's great 20th c art everywhere and it's beautiful ... Again I'd hire a car and explore.

As to the non dairy food choices, all 3 countries do use dairy but you can also avoid it quite easily and still eat very well especially by the sea.

Anyway, just a few ideas. Think about what you picture yourself doing on honeymoon and whether you want to be by the sea, spend all your time in acity etc

malifornia

We discussed more and I think we are looking at doing London and Venice. So we may add a couple days to both the grandparents and London and then round it off with Venice. If you guys think all we need is a few days in Venice maybe we will throw in a couple days somewhere else. Thoughts?

Or we could also see if there are any good day trips from a Venice to keep it fresh.

malifornia

Forgot to mention yes I am from California currently living in Oregon.

nytraveler

If you have the time - and for a honeymoon - I would do 5 days in Venice- or 6 if you want to do a day trip - Verona or whatever. It's just a fascinating city and there is way more to see and do than you wold imagine.

Mimar

In Italy you can eat sorbetto instead of gelato and choose a pizza without cheese.

How bad is your milk problem? My husband takes lactase to help him digest milk products. We went to a Boots pharmacy/chemists in the English Lake District to get some lactase. Such an idea totally flummoxed the clerk. She called in the pharmacist and he explained there was very little demand for such a product. Thought England was more multi-cultural these days.

If you have a very bad problem with milk, print up some cards in Italian explaining the problem. Just to make sure the message gets across. You can find the appropriate wording on the Internet.

malifornia

Thank you Mimar! Good idea with the flash cards. I don't have a huge problem. If a little cheese or cream is in a dish I won't be too bad off. I just can't have heavy cream dishes or anything super cheesy. Too rich for my stomach. I'm just hoping that the cafes will have some milk alternatives for my coffee.

malifornia

Any suggestions on places to stay in Venice? Done a little research today and I'd like to stay in dorsoduro area. I've been looking at airbnb because we like the kitchen option but we would consider hotels as well. Any other rental sites to check besides airbnb?

malifornia

Hey guys, so I updated my itinerary and have a few questions for you all. Here it is:

May 13: travel (maybe stay near the airport and crash out?)
14: travel to grandparents sleep there 
15, 16, 17: grandparents (3 1/2 days Highcliffe)
18: travel to London
19, 20, 21: London (3 1/2 days London)
22: travel to Venice
23 to 28: Venice (6 1/2 days Venice)
29: travel home

Is that too much time in Venice? Venice looks lovely and we don't want to be too rushed on our honeymoon but there are so many other beautiful places we could go and I don't want to regret not seeing anything else. If you guys think we should stick with the longer time in Venice would you suggest any nice day trips we should take from there? Thanks again!

malifornia

I just reread NYtravelers post again and that made me feel like we might be making the right decision. I keep having people rave about cinque terre (sp?) When I tell them we are going to Italy and it is making me second guess everything.

annhig

Hi Malfornia, I was going to say Venice too, for lots of reasons - it's a wonderful place for a honeymoon, it's easy to get to from London, and there's loads to do. Also it's slowly sinking, so may not be there for much longer.

6 ½ days is nothing like too long to stay in Venice but there are several easy day trips you can do - the islands of the lagoon, Verona, Padua, Vincenza - though I doubt that in the end you would want to do more than one or two of them.

<<I'm just hoping that the cafes will have some milk alternatives for my coffee.>>

unlikely, but no-one will mind if you get out a sachet of milk substitute for your Caffe americano [not cappuccino or caffe latte as they contain milk] which you can buy at home and take with you, and of course espresso is meant to be drunk black anyway. The cuisine of Venice is not milk based and if you have a pasta dish that is normally served with cheese, they bring it to the table to serve it, so you can always say "non, grazie". Pasta dishes with fish are not normally served cheese so those would be perfectly safe for you, as will ordinary fish and meat dishes. if the worst comes to the worst, just say "senza formaggio" [without cheese] or write that on a piece of card if you don't feel confident about saying it.

but really when you get there, you will see how easy it is to avoid it. Italian cooking is very simple with very few ''ready made" dishes where they might hide some milk or cheese - just a few fresh ingredients simply put together.