wolverin3

Hello all,

We have our anniversary during April. So we were planning to head to Europe for 2 weeks from the second half of April. What would be a good destination to cover in these 2 weeks? Our initial idea was Greece, but we were also looking at Czech, Hungary & Poland. Now we are pretty much confused since the flights are really expensive to these places. I'm completely open to suggestion for people who have visited Europe before.

Last year, we were in Italy and absolutely loved that place. I doubt anything else will come close to that, but I'm up for anything that sounds good. Croatia has also been on our wishlist from a long time. Is there any way to cover multiple countries or should we stick to a single country? We generally like to explore every place thoroughly so that we don't miss out on the culture of that place.

Thanks in advance for the help, folks!

justineparis

Well first off no one can really tell where you should go as we dont know what you are looking for.. history, luxury, hiking, beaches, museums, dining at fancy restaurants ???

I will add that if you were looking at Greece for a beach destination its not really beach weather there yet .. and many of the islands are barely opening their doors ( so to speak) but if going to tour historical sights on the mainland and maybe some hiking.. then good timing.. less crowds and no heat to worry about ..

Also .. have found its cheapest for us to fly into a major hub and then just get a inter-europeon flight to other places. .. ( we can get some super cheap flights to europe from west coast.. like 800 return to london.. then add a 150 dollar Easyjet flight etc..
/
Anyways .. what are your interests.. ? Have you been to Paris ?

wolverin3

Thanks for your reply Justine. With regards to interest, I'm okay with basically anything. Good architecture and landscapes would be nice, but I'm open to other options too. Coming to the Greece part, we'd like to explore the mainlands, yes and also the islands (Santorini, Mykonos etc.)

Also haven't been to Paris, but I heard France is one of the most expensive places in Europe which is why I didn't consider it in the first place. I've been to only Italy in Europe so far. Some places I'm interested in are Croatia, Czechia, Spain (maybe). As I mentioned, I'm open to suggestions.

I'm currently working on my flight plan and as you mentioned, looking out for some good option to major cities like Rome/Paris/Frankfurt so I can take a train or flight from one of those cities to my destination.

isabel

Spain!!! It ticks all your boxes - going in April, liked Italy, want inexpensive flights.

Southern Spain (Andalucia - Seville, Cordoba, Granada) is gorgeous and that time of year is the best to visit as it can get extraordinarily hot in summer. Only possible drawback is that around Easter there are a lot of festivals - that could be a plus to experience them. But things will be more crowded and possibly harder to book accommodations. A two week trip you could easily fly in and out of Madrid, spend a few nights there, go on to Andalucia. Possibly also include Toledo.

The least expensive and least amount of 'agony' (connections, flight times, etc.) places to get to in Europe from the US are Spain, Portugal, France, UK, Netherlands. I love Croatia and Greece but they are much more expensive and difficult to get to. And the islands - in either Greece or Croatia - are not in full swing in April. There is still a chance of rain anywhere in April and not much to do on islands in the rain.

Paris is NOT one of the most expensive places in Europe. Sure it can be, any city can be expensive if you want luxury hotels and meals. But it can be one of the less expensive places as well as there are tons of options in all price ranges for hotels and restaurants. 'April in Paris' - that would certainly work for you as well.

Here's my photos, maybe they will help you decide a destinations - https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/

StCirq

Honestly, you need to settle down and do some very basic research. Or, alternatively, just wing it as you don't seem to have a plan.

Regarding your theory that France is one of the most expensive places in Europe, you need to think again. We are Americans living in France and it is a WHOLE lot cheaper than living in Washington, DC, was. Italy can be cheaper than France, or not, depending on where and how you travel. Obviously, there are cheap places to travel in Europe (mostly Eastern Europe, maybe parts of Spain and Portugal).

Why are you working on a flight plan if you don't even have a targeted country to visit?

Your stated goals of finding good architecture and landscapes are so broad as to be confounding. There is hardly a square meter of Europe that doesn't have some gorgeous architectural gem or some wondrous landscape. You're not going to "cover" any country "thoroughly" in 2 weeks, so I'd just pick the place you can get to most cheaply - it doesn't sound as though you're terribly discriminating or have any special desires. Find plane fares you can live with and just go.

whitehall

Since budget, and flight cost, is your first hurdle, go to sky scanner.com, type in your departure location and write "Everywhere" for your destination. It may cost a fortune to get to Croatia, for example. But you might get a round trip to various other locations for a few hundred dollars. Then do a similar search from a few of these inexpensive locations, and you probably will find that you can get to Croatia for a fraction of what it looked like on your initial search. We had a credit we needed to spend, so we picked the least expensive place to fly, and we booked Copenhagen. From there, we have inexpensive alternatives including the Balkans, Poland, northern Italy and Croatia, among other places.

bilboburgler

In terms of cost, the northern European countries, Denmark/Norway/Sweden/Finland are the expensive ones with Switzerland thrown in. Then cities tend to be more expensive than the country while ignorance can really bump up the coast of anything and timing (being in Rome in holy week adds a bit to the bill)

I'd buy the rough guide for Europe and have a good read of all 1000 pages to get a view.

You mention that you have visited Italy. Given the sheer size of it, I doubt you have seen more than 1% of the place, where did you go so we can suggest some alternatives.