AShikha

I am getting married next year on valentine's day!!! By end of feb or early march we would go for our honeymoon. My husband wants to cover London and Disney land mainly. I am fond of beaches and resorts... Mostly we are thinking to cover London - Paris/Switzerland and some relaxing place where we can hold our hands and walk.
Our trip will be of around from 12 to 15 days. For both of us it would be our first international trip (outside india). Both of us are food lovers and enjoy adventures also. We are thinking we can cover 3 countries. By no means we want our trip to be hectic. We do not want to do packing and unpacking every next day. Along with fun, enjoyment, sight seeing we want a lot of time for ourselves.
Please suggest what can be done to make our trip memorable and most perfect. Need help!!!

janisj

Congratulations!

You are flying in from India so you will lose two whole days+ just flying to/from. So with just 12 - 15 days you will only have about 9.5 to 12.5 days free to do things. Since you want some down time you really can't fit in more than 3 places. Unfortunately, no place will really be 'beach weather'.

So pick the two cities you want to see most and then think about what sort of quiet/down time you want in what is essentially still winter.

Paris & London & and a few days in the countryside will be about the most you can squeeze in.

(An aside - and not meant as any sort of criticism AT ALL . . . just an observation. But my goodness the Swiss Tourist board must do some amazing promotional work in India. We get just TONS of folks from India - a large % being honeymooners . . . and every single one wants to see Switzerland - and usually in just a very few days)

nytraveler

Well you are going to have trouble finding beach weather anywhere in europe in Feb or early March.

We were in southern Spain in late April and it was warm enough then (80s) and there - and the hotels had opened the pools - but only just - and other places would still be too cold for the beach - you would need late May at least.

So either you need to retime your trip or give up on the beach.

As for Switz - I love it - even though it is shockingly expensive. But again - you would be going there in winter - and unless you wanted to go skiing or other winter sports it's just too early in the year. Again May is as early as I would go (many higher passes are closed by snow until end May or even June) if you want to see meadows covered with flowers and Heidi and all the cows and cowbells. In April you are likely to get a lot of mud. And the cows don;t go to the higher meadows that early in the year - they keep them near the barns in case of snow.

the time you are going is best for cities - since will be cold to chilly and quite possibly rainy in many places. Even Italy as far south as Rome can get snow then - although it's rare.

So - pick a different time or a different trip. (You really must understand that europe is a temperate - not a tropical climate - with 4 distinct seasons - and you seem to be looking for summer in winter.)

BigRuss

<<I am fond of beaches and resorts>>

Yeah, weather suitable for that won't be on offer in February or March in Europe except for the parts of "Europe" that are actually in the Caribbean (e.g., France or Netherlands-owned islands). You can get to a beach far closer (Goa, Thailand, Maldives) easier than going to Europe-in-the-Carib.

If you want to see Disney, then go to Florida. The French version is no substitute.

That said, Paris and London would work fine.

adrienne

You cannot cover these 3 countries in 12 days. Choose 2 cities or 1 city and some day trips to smaller towns.

I would not want to visit a theme park in northern France late February, early March. It will be cold, damp, and most likely rainy. As weather is unpredictable, you could get some sunny days but the former weather is more normal. That's why Disneylands in the US are in Florida and southern California - the weather is warm, even in winter.

Gordon_R

Janis - the Swiss tourist board don't have to try that hard. It's the hundreds of Bollywood movies and music videos with a backdrop of the Swiss scenery which inspires many Indian tourists.

annhig

if you have 12 days on the ground, I would fly into London [good place to start as most people speak English to one extent or another] then get the eurostar to Paris, and then the train through the Alps to Venice. THat way you get the views without the expense.

if you want to spend a day at Disney while you're in Paris, that's up to you but I think that I would rather got to Versailles.

congrats and good luck.

janisj

Ah - Gordon_R of course -- I hadn't thought of that. Makes sense.

nytraveler

Yes - only they don;t make it apparent that the moves are made in the SUMMER and for some reason many Indian wedding seem to be in the winter. (In the US these people would probably go to Hawaii or the Carib for the relaxing beach honeymoon)

AShikha

By far you guys are correct that Indians gets attracted because of movies. I do get your point that the weather is not suitable for Europe for the months we are planning.
I will now find out about florida and california!!! It seems all our wishes can be fulfilled there starting from adventure to relaxation...
If anybody aware about these places then please do elaborate...
Thanks for all the concern shown. Thanks a lot!!!

Mimar

Do look at the Hawaiian Isles. I think you could find lots of what you want there -- with a side trip to LA for Disneyland.