Where to go in July??

Old Nov 10th, 2015, 09:30 AM
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Where to go in July??

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are thinking about planning a trip for late July 2016, but we're unsure where to go. I would love your thoughts based on the following:

1) 7-10 day trip (open to multiple locations if travel between them is fairly straight forward)
2) prefer direct flights from NYC, but not a deal-breaker
3) nice hotel (our definition: really comfortable bed, beautiful view, ideally has a pool and/or near a beach; don't really care about "service" or amenities other than A/C and wifi) under $600/night
4) vegetarian options at many restaurants
5) we like wine, food and just hanging out (husband is into museums, but I'm not that into them); definitely want something relaxing and beautiful
6) warm weather

My husband keeps bringing up the south of France, I keep thinking about the Amalfi Coast or Lake Como. The only places to strike off the list entirely are Spain and Greece since we went there recently.

Thank you in advance!
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Old Nov 10th, 2015, 11:40 AM
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Honestly, if you don't give an idea of your budget and more information about what interests you and your family, where else you might have visited previously etc, it's very hard to give an informative response.

Maybe you could re-phrase your question a bit better?
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Old Nov 10th, 2015, 03:29 PM
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Hi @fuzzbucket, apologies - I should have given more than just our hotel budget. That said, we're still weighing options, so we don't really have one. Overall, I'd like to keep the entire thing under $15k, but that's not a hard limit.

As for interests - those are them! Wine, food, reading books, watching TV. We recently went to London, Santorini and Barcelona, and our favorite leg of the trip was Santorini because we just hung out by the pool at the hotel (Katikies) and looked at the view. I realize that might sound super lame and boring, sorry!

Really just looking for options - possibly even as specific as great hotels - so we can explore some suggested possibilities.

Thanks for any ideas!
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Old Nov 10th, 2015, 04:15 PM
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Well from the US you can fly directly to Nice which gives you a lot of options of charming town along the coast - you just need to search for where the decent beaches are. And there are a lot of options for day trips to old villages up in the hills, some with small interesting museums.

For the AC you would need to change planes (I think, most days but may be different next summer) to get to Naples. Again, the potential issue with the AC is finding places with a good beach.

We have stayed at the Excelsior Grand Vittoria in Sorrento and really liked it - but there is no beach. They have a pool in a lovely garden and the whole property is set adjacent to the main piazza (but is very quiet) so you have easy access to the restaurant and shops in the town. The hotel has a private elevator from the terrace (terrace and balconies of many rooms overlook the Bay of Naples) down to the dock where all of the ferries and hydrofoils leave (to Naples, Capri and the mall towns down the AC coast) as well as a train to Naples and Pompeii - although we had a car. (Unlike most places on the AC the hotel has private parking.) The hotel is very traditional is style - not trendy - but we liked it and loved the views and convenience for sightseeing. The price should fall within your budget if you check out the discount sights - but be sure you get an upgraded room with a balcony overlooking the bay.

But if you want a beach you will need to try one of the resorts that provides real sand for their guests.

There are several very luxurious resorts in the towns down the cost (check out Le Sirenouse) and on Capri. But once on Capri you have the benefit of the island at night when there are few tourists -
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Old Nov 10th, 2015, 04:16 PM
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Sorry - hit post with pen.

Should be Le Sirenuse. And the roblemon Capri is that the ferries don't run in the evenings - so if you leave for the day to sightsee you need to return before dinner.
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Old Nov 10th, 2015, 10:46 PM
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I'll just add that you can always find vegetarian options at restaurants, no matter where you go in Europe. If you eat fish and eggs, it's a no-brainer. Good idea to familiarize yourselves with basic menu language, though, so you don't have any surprises.
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Old Nov 11th, 2015, 12:39 AM
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With that kind of budget you may find a top class travel agent - I never recommend those but in you case, why not.
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Old Nov 11th, 2015, 08:06 AM
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July, northern Italy can be humid especially around the Po valley, I might look at places up in the Dolomites especially as Italian Veggi food is especially good.

Fly in and out of Venice

Hotel Garnì Carpe Diem
Hotel Ansitz Plantitscherhof
Seiser Alm Urthaler

all these have airport shuttles, indoor and outdoor pools, spas, wifi.
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Old Nov 11th, 2015, 08:25 AM
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You are not going to find a lot of vegetarian options in Italy. Most menus in the Amalfi coast feature seafood. They feature meat and some lake fish in Lago di Como. Since these a mega-tourist destinations, you will find some restaurants making a conscious choice to cater to vegetarian, but usually nothing spectacular.

If you are okay with eating cheese as your main protein nearly all the time, then no problem.
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Old Nov 11th, 2015, 08:31 AM
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I wanted to add that you are unlikely to find eggs on the menu in the italian destinations being discussed here. You will find vegetables offered as side dishes, and pastas with vegetable sauces. In the north, vegetable pasta and risotto most often are made with pork-fat base (in the Amalfi coast, it will be olive oil), so if you are a strict vegetarian, you will have a hard time finding an Italian destination where you have interesting variety and options (the Italian Riviera is one of the few, and some parts of Sicily and Puglia).
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Old Nov 11th, 2015, 08:48 AM
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Follow the Tour.
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Old Nov 11th, 2015, 09:19 AM
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Since you tagged your post Switzlerand, and since late July on the med coast, France or Italy, can be extremely hot and a zoo, you might check out the idea of going to Merano, which has long be an Alpine health retreat, catering to people with special diets, but also excellent wine

http://www.meran.eu/en/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merano
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Old Nov 11th, 2015, 01:30 PM
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With those interests, I would recommend a week in Positano flying in and out of Naples. Get a hotel with a gorgeous view and spend your days basking in the sun on one of the many beaches. If you have 10 days, you can include a couple of days in Rome to satiate your husband's museum itch.

I rent an apartment in Positano for at least a week each June and absolutely adore it. I spend most of my time relaxing in the sun, taking a day trip via ferry if I want to get out and about.
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Old Nov 12th, 2015, 04:25 AM
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Interesting point from Sandra about Italian veggie cooking. My sister's family (all veggie and with the language skills) had no problem at all in 3 weeks in northern Italy.

Partially because they used a few veggie apps (hungry cow comes to mind), partially because some menus say (excuse my spelling ) vegeteranio, partially because many peasant dishes are without meat (because peasants can't afford meat), partially because they stayed (for a period) in a high end hotel who understood and made a real point of checking they were happy, showing them around the kitchen etc.

I suspect she is very right about checking if they are using lard, butter, butter and oil or just oil to cook in. If butter is out of your menu then I suspect you will have a problem.

Puglia it would be very easy.
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Old Nov 12th, 2015, 04:51 AM
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It depends on where you go in Northern Italy. In the biggest tourist mecca-destinations, you can find vegetarian restaurants in the cities and even in smaller towns like Bellagio, find restaurants marking their menus as to which items are vegetarian. You can even find this in someplace like Lucca now, so many tourists go there, and surprisingly parts of the Dolomiti, And of course high end hotels will cater to you -- they must!

One of the interesting aspects of Tuscan cuisine is that it is historically much more oriented toward beans, vegetable soups -- although both cooked with lard. But the tourist restaurants of Florence all feature beef steak as the prize dish of the region -- they don't try to sell you beans. Leonardo da Vinci was a vegetarian, and you can sometimes track down the particularly delicious onion soup he favoured, but most tourists stand in line to eat tripe sandwiches as the "must-do".

Similarly, St Francis of Assisi in Umbria is maybe Italy's most famous vegetarian (and the nation's patron saint), but tourists going to Umbria almost never see vegetarian dishes of any interest in Umbria.

While it is generally true that the poor can't afford meat, landscape is probably the bigger factor as to who eats meat where in Italy. Even the poor in Piemonte and Lombardy ate meat as the main feature of their meals (and cheese). Depends on how much grazable land you've got. Along the Italian Riviera there is none, and people eat very little meat except for rabbit. Puglia is similar, although I take it there is significant sheep raising in the interior. Around the Po and the lakes, you find duck and goose recipes, which is what the poor ate as well -- although stretched out in sauces, etc, not whole birds.

There are lot of really delicious purely vegetarian dishes in the Amalfi coast region, but it depends on how much cheese one can stand to eat twice a day.
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Old Nov 12th, 2015, 01:29 PM
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You sound fly-and-floppish. If so, go to the Caribbean or Hawaii. Beaches there will be far better than those in Europe.
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Old Nov 12th, 2015, 01:42 PM
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<With those interests, I would recommend a week in Positano flying in and out of Naples. Get a hotel with a gorgeous view and spend your days basking in the sun on one of the many beaches. If you have 10 days, you can include a couple of days in Rome to satiate your husband's museum itch.>

I agree, it sounds like what you want to do is relax rather than tour around. Have you seen this thread it might be helpful?
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...the-titans.cfm

Have you considered Sardinia, I haven't been but friends raved about it and there are quite a number of nice hotels? Ischia which is an island off Naples also has some places with lovely views, it would work in combination with the Amalfi.

Here's my rather cynical take on the Italian beach club experience, granted I'm no expert!
http://www.somuchmoretosee.com/2012/...xperience.html

Another alternative would be somewhere like the Luberon in combination with Nice. I love Bastide de Capelongue in Bonnieux which has lovely views and a nice pool but rather limited service.

If you're booking higher end hotels it's often worth using AMEX or an Virtuoso agent who can often include an upgrade and free breakfast plus some extra perks for the same price.
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Old Nov 13th, 2015, 01:19 PM
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YOu cannot always find vegetarian options at restaurants in France, not even in Paris, not to mention many other countries. That is presuming one is not simply referring to salads and side dishes. Many restaurants do not have vegetarian main courses. Seafood is not a vegetable and vegetarians don't each fish -- if they do, they aren't a vegetarian.
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Old Nov 13th, 2015, 04:00 PM
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hotel danieli in venice!
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