14 days in Europe - where to go?
 

My husband and I will be travelling to Europe at the end of September for two weeks. It is our 25th wedding anniversary. Looking for recommendations for an itinerary. We enjoy sight seeing, some history, good wine and good food. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Thank you.

Have you ever been to Europe before, and if so, where did you go? If so, would you like to definitely go to a new place or not? Also, do you speak any foreign languages, more than a phrasebook/memorizing phrases level? It's not that you can't go elsewhere, of course you can, but if you do speak another language, you might enjoy going to a country where you could use/speak the language. it does add an extra dimension to travel when you can speak the local language, and presumably you learned one because you were interested in the places where they spoke it, if you did.

Otherwise I think you need to settle first on general counties before you need to get into specific itineraries. Two weeks is a good amount of time. If you want one, okay, here is it: go to Spain and visit Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, and Malaga or Granada. With 2 weeks, you could do that. Or go to Toledo instead of Malaga/Granada. Exact itinerary would depend on whether you even had any interest in doing that. It will still be fairly warm at the end of September, though, in Spain.

Thanks Christina.

In terms of areas we would like to see, they are as follows: Germany (been to Frankfurt before though), Austria, Switzerland, Spain (or Portugal). Thinking about flying into Germany, and home from Spain or Portugal.

For a first trip to Europe many people do London and Paris - either just those two with day trips, or London, Paris, Amsterdam. There are a number of reasons why this is such a popular plan.

1), if you are a native English speaker, then starting in London makes everything a bit easier since there won't be a language barrier. It's still a foreign country but you kind of get 'broken in' easily before gong on the France or elsewhere. 2) There are also tons of flights into London so you can usually get a flight that is relatively inexpensive. 3) You can take the train to Paris (or Amsterdam) which is a bit easier than doing another flight (there are tons of cheap intra-European flights but you have to get to the airport from city center, get there at least 2 hours early, etc. - making it just a bit more trouble than a train). 4) London and Paris a not only wonderful cities, but so well known and heavily featured in movies, books, etc. that it's fun to see for real all those places you've seen/heard/read about. 5) There are easy day trips from both those cities to other, smaller cities and rural villages, etc. so you can get a taste of the country without having to change hotels. Day trips are great because you can plan several, then either take them or don't depending how much fun you are having in London or Paris themselves.

I would probably advise flying into London for about a week, then taking the train to Paris for the other week and flying home from there. But it would also be a great trip to split the time and add in Amsterdam as well.

Or if Italy is somewhere you've always wanted to go that's also a great place for an initial two week trip. In that case the 'classic' is Venice, Florence and Rome.

There's a reason people take these 'classic' first timer trips but if you have a special interest in a certain country or region then do that.

14 days means at most 3-4 bases - Germany, Austria and Switzerland could work but Spain/Portugal way too much with those. Anyway trains ar great and for a good fix on European trains and where to go by them check www.ricksteves.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.seat61.com.

Munich - Salzburg -Swiss Alps could work - fly into Munich and out of Zurich.

How long is he actual trip? You say 2 weeks . . . Is that a firm 14 days home to home, which would net you 11.5 days usable days on the ground and probably some jet lag on the front end. So say 11 days and then half a day for every location change. Not time for more than three major destinations.

OR -- is it some fungible two-ish weeks?

Makes quite a difference.

You could do Munich and Salzburg areas and then fly to Spain and home from there.

But, yes how many days do you have on the ground - not counting first and last days?

Two weeks would be plenty of time for the popular Prague-Vienna-Budapest holiday. September is a lovely time in Central Europe; there are numerous grape harvest festivals across the countries, and in Austria in particular there are also Almabtrieb to enjoy in the western half of the country. The sightseeing itineraries write themselves. As for the food, there is more to Austrian cuisine than Schnitzel and Sacher Torte, and the whole "meat and potatoes" imagery that springs to mind when discussing Central Europe. Lastly, the wine is spectacular, from the Czech Frankovka to the Viennese Grüner Veltliner to the Hungarian Kekfrankos.