Vacation Help!
Feb 21st, 2015, 11:40 AM
#1
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Vacation Help!
Hello! My husband and I are looking to go away for 7 nights. We are both 33 years old and love to travel. We are not sure of where to go and was wondering if anyone had some great ideas! The last vacation we went on was to Italy and Greece (Rome, Amalfi Coast (Positano/Ravello), Mykonos, Santorini, Athens). Our favorite place in the world to date is Ravello, but we LOVED Rome as well because we really enjoy seeing the historical sites and experiencing such a wonderful city. We were thinking maybe Barcelona and Mallorca/San Sebastian or maybe Paris and Nice...we have never been to another European country together. Can anyone suggest a vacation with a city and beach area that we could do 3 nights in each place that would give us a little bit of history and a little bit of relaxation? If you can suggest a city with history and then a beach town that also is historical, it be wonderful! Thank you in advance - we are open to anything!
Feb 21st, 2015, 12:35 PM
#3
Barcelona and Mallorca, does pretty well. Barcelona is not that old, (1850s) so in Europe we call that new 
. Still the architecture here and along the coast is well worth the visit. The only slight issue with such a wonderful city is the high quality of pick pocketing but that is only really in one district. So be sensible as in any major city.
Palma in Mallorca (a harbour front) is older but after being given back to the Spanish at about the same time as Barcelona was growing up and is now very much a traditional capital of this tourist island. Best places to stay are up on the NW coast with good beaches and fine walking.
June would be fine, book early. You can fly or catch ferry between.
. Still the architecture here and along the coast is well worth the visit. The only slight issue with such a wonderful city is the high quality of pick pocketing but that is only really in one district. So be sensible as in any major city.Palma in Mallorca (a harbour front) is older but after being given back to the Spanish at about the same time as Barcelona was growing up and is now very much a traditional capital of this tourist island. Best places to stay are up on the NW coast with good beaches and fine walking.
June would be fine, book early. You can fly or catch ferry between.
Feb 21st, 2015, 12:48 PM
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yeah, I agree, I think Barcelona is a good idea. I don't get the beach need but in case you don't know it, Barcelona itself has a beach. So if you wanted to spend your limited time n Europe actually doing something and seeing something, other than hanging out at a beach, you could do Barcelona for several days and Mdrid. I suspect you can't fly out of Mallorca, anyway, to go home. But that's probably true of San Sebastian, also. It depends where you live, but it seems like it isn't Europe.
Paris and Nice would b e fine, also, but that beach is not particularly nice, so if you are picking that city solely for that reason, I'd look elsewhere. It's probably not what you expect, it isn't sand, at least not on top, I'm sure there is sand under all the rocks, but not like in Spain. There is no reasonable way to get between Barcelona and San Sebastian other than flying, as far as I know. The train takes forever (like 10-24 hours) and involves multiple transfers. So the train between Paris and Nice would be much more convenient in that regard. It takes a bit less than six hours and you don't need to transfer.
That still wastes a lot of a day in your short trip. I'd forget the beach idea or make do with the beach in Barcelona, and then maybe add Madrid to it. Or forget Paris and just do Nice and some other part of the Riviera or Provence, for example, if you must have a beach.
Paris and Nice would b e fine, also, but that beach is not particularly nice, so if you are picking that city solely for that reason, I'd look elsewhere. It's probably not what you expect, it isn't sand, at least not on top, I'm sure there is sand under all the rocks, but not like in Spain. There is no reasonable way to get between Barcelona and San Sebastian other than flying, as far as I know. The train takes forever (like 10-24 hours) and involves multiple transfers. So the train between Paris and Nice would be much more convenient in that regard. It takes a bit less than six hours and you don't need to transfer.
That still wastes a lot of a day in your short trip. I'd forget the beach idea or make do with the beach in Barcelona, and then maybe add Madrid to it. Or forget Paris and just do Nice and some other part of the Riviera or Provence, for example, if you must have a beach.
Feb 21st, 2015, 11:22 PM
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Here the OP has got much strange info...
<Barcelona is not that old, (1850s) so in Europe we call that new>
Barcelona dates back at least to the Roman city Barcino from the 3rd Century BC. Barcelona was conquered by the Visigoths in the 5th Century and later, for a short time, by the Moors. Lots of fabulous medieval buildings in the Gothic quarter, and the city walls date back to Roman times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Barcelona
You fly from Barcelona to Bilbao in one hour, and then direct bus to San Sebastian in 70 mins.
<The train takes forever (like 10-24 hours) and involves multiple transfers>
The train takes 5h 30 mins and no transfers. http://www.renfe.com/
But I agree that both Barcelona and Mallorca and Barcelona and San Sebastian could be great combinations. Take a closer look at plain fantastic San Sebastian. June is a perfect time of year to go. The summer is here but the tourist invation of July and August is still some weeks away. http://www.euskoguide.com/places-bas...stian-tourism/
<Barcelona is not that old, (1850s) so in Europe we call that new>
Barcelona dates back at least to the Roman city Barcino from the 3rd Century BC. Barcelona was conquered by the Visigoths in the 5th Century and later, for a short time, by the Moors. Lots of fabulous medieval buildings in the Gothic quarter, and the city walls date back to Roman times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Barcelona
You fly from Barcelona to Bilbao in one hour, and then direct bus to San Sebastian in 70 mins.
<The train takes forever (like 10-24 hours) and involves multiple transfers>
The train takes 5h 30 mins and no transfers. http://www.renfe.com/
But I agree that both Barcelona and Mallorca and Barcelona and San Sebastian could be great combinations. Take a closer look at plain fantastic San Sebastian. June is a perfect time of year to go. The summer is here but the tourist invation of July and August is still some weeks away. http://www.euskoguide.com/places-bas...stian-tourism/
Feb 22nd, 2015, 01:44 AM
#6
Yeah but Barcelona proper is a modern city born out of early industrialisation and due to some pretty good town planning and investment is a wonderful example of what good town planning can be, the little town before the modern era was nothing much to write about and was mainly destroyed both by fire and town planning. Yes you can visit what has been saved, but given what is all around you why would anyone bother.
Feb 22nd, 2015, 02:41 AM
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bilboburgler, you are totally misleading about the history of Barcelona. Yes, the Eixample area is a 19th century and great town planning thing, but the Gothic quarter and the Raval on both sides of Las Ramblas ("Barcelona proper") date back much, much earlier.
In the 12th century Barcelona was by far the largest town in the region. It was a thriving Mediterranean trade town. In 1258 James I of Aragon allowed the merchant guilds of Barcelona to draw ordinances regulating maritime trade in the city's port, and in 1266, he permitted the city to appoint consuls to all the major Mediterranean ports.
The international bestseller "The cathedral of the Sea" is about Barcelona in the 14th Century. From the review in The Independent:
"In the 14th century, Catalonia's ships dominated the western Mediterranean. Its merchants opened offices in every port to Alexandria and built fabulous mansions on Barcelona's Carrer Montcada. But the empire was overstretched. Mid-century, plague halved the population. The king taxed the Jews to finance his wars and his nobles ravaged the countryside to feed the city. Peasants starved. Ildefonso Falcones's adventure novel is set just at this moment of Catalonia's greatest glory, when ostentatious wealth is barely papering over imminent collapse." http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...or-810752.html
In the 12th century Barcelona was by far the largest town in the region. It was a thriving Mediterranean trade town. In 1258 James I of Aragon allowed the merchant guilds of Barcelona to draw ordinances regulating maritime trade in the city's port, and in 1266, he permitted the city to appoint consuls to all the major Mediterranean ports.
The international bestseller "The cathedral of the Sea" is about Barcelona in the 14th Century. From the review in The Independent:
"In the 14th century, Catalonia's ships dominated the western Mediterranean. Its merchants opened offices in every port to Alexandria and built fabulous mansions on Barcelona's Carrer Montcada. But the empire was overstretched. Mid-century, plague halved the population. The king taxed the Jews to finance his wars and his nobles ravaged the countryside to feed the city. Peasants starved. Ildefonso Falcones's adventure novel is set just at this moment of Catalonia's greatest glory, when ostentatious wealth is barely papering over imminent collapse." http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...or-810752.html
Feb 22nd, 2015, 03:52 AM
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;-). The official Barcelona website has created a great guide to the city's history. 45 chapters with a lot of cross-sectional sites. A very interesting resource: http://www.bcn.cat/historia/pag/capitols_en.htm
