Hi! This is my first post, so I hope it is okay.

My fiance and I are getting married in May 2012 and have to wait to take our honeymoon until July because I work in the schools. That said, we have planned it so that we will have one full month off from work and would really like to spend that month exploring Europe. I have only been to Ireland (which is amazing and I loved it!) and my fiance has been all over but mostly when he was a young child, so he is interested in seeing it all again as an adult. I realize that July might not be the best time to go to Europe due to weather and crowds...but it's the only time we've got and I would like to seize this wonderful opportunity.

We would really like to go to the following places: Italy, Spain, France and Belgium. It should work out so that we have a week or so in each country (with Belgium having the least amount of time because we just want to go to Brussels and Amsterdam). What would anyone suggest as a good way to begin planning our itinerary? Any suggestions of hotels, restaurants, sights, etc. would also be welcome. We are definitely on a budget but it is our honeymoon, so we want to stay in some decent places so we are willing to pay a little extra to not be in a hostel.

I was curious about whether or not it would be better (in terms of crowds/weather) to start in the south and work our way North or vice versa.

I would be so appreciative of any feedback anyone could offer. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to Fodors and congrats on your HM!

Europe is a wonderful place with lots more than

you can see in one month...

Go a lot Italy/Croatia last May headed to

France Hungary Italy with my wife for our 37th next April

In July it get quite hot and crowded so go south first

and work your way north.

We train regional trains the short legs and fly the long

legs skyscanner.net cheaply for long ones...

For your route fly into Paris aa.com for us we got

free FF flights 2 AA.com by booking closing AAdvantage cards

train/fly to Rome Madrid up to Bruges Brussels

ricksteves.com eurocheapo.com good sites seat61.com trains

We get our best deals on hotel rooms betterbidding.com

Novotel Les Halles 115 euro/nt hotwire.com

Intercontinental Rome Ville 125 euro priceline.com bid

Hilton Molino Stuky Venice 125 euro priceline

Intercontinental.com Budapest $70 priceline

Recent wins for us... weather2travel.com

And insuremytrip.com wise... we use mostly a

no fee capitalone.com venture visa no foreign fees

rack up tonnes of FF miles... Happy Planning!

My first advice is to think in terms of cities/areas, not entire countries. For example, you say you have a week in each country, but if you only want to visit Paris in France (for example) but want to see Rome and Venice in Italy, it probably makes sense to allocate more time to Italy than France. This will also help people advise you on how long to stay where, and to give you suggestions for places to eat and stay.

If you've already done that (which you may have, since you know you want to go to Brussels and Amsterdam - for planning purposes, by the way, Amsterdam is in the Netherlands, not Belgium): Let us know specific cities and we can give more specific suggestions. Do you have specific budgets in mind - nightly costs for hotels, max cost for sit-down dinner or a food budget per day? Someone else's "inexpensive" might be your "splurge," so numbers would be helpful.

Do not think in countries--think regions. Spain will take you 6 weeks, Italy even more. You will do well to limit yourself to specfic locations and make them as contigiuos as possible.
I would start in Paris and end in Rome and have no more than 4 other destinations between. Mine would include Provence, the lakes of Italy, Venice, and Tuscany. Try to make your next destination a max of 4 hours from the last one.

For a first time visit, with a month, I would fly to the easiest place to simple BE, and see a lot, and get relaxed, and have everything very vivid. That place is Nice. Plan multiple days in Nice on your arrival - - it is very cosmopolitan, not very foreign at all - - just plain pretty. Get a comfortable enough hotel there that you will feel relaxed (the price/comfort ratio in Nice is something worth researching hard at websites like www.bookings.nl and www.venere.com ).

From there you could train to Italy, fly to Amsterdam, train to Barcelona - - look at www.skyscanner.net to see where you can go after that to start to piece together calm and manageable trips and sub-trips.

It is great to mix CHEAP flights (see Skycanner) with civilized train trips (overnights suck).

Most of all, with the amount of time you have, TAKE that time to make transitions EASY, cozy, and sweet. Go to all the places you want to see, but parse out affordable transportation, and allow yourself loads of time and flexibility at each major gateway.

Coastal areas in Spain, France, and Italy will be mobbed by Europeans from mid July through August. Consider London, Paris, Düsseldorf/Köln, and Amsterdam with day trips on local rail.

Hostels are normally segregated by sex so you won't have much of a honeymoon in any of those anyway. B&Bs are the next lowest cost and you'll have your own room together, plus a generous breakfast and almost always a very friendly and helpful innkeeper.

A good way to begin planning would be to get a copy of Lonely Planet's *Europe on a Shoestring*. From there get copies of the Michelin Green Guides for the countries/areas/cities you want to visit.

"<i>Hostels are normally segregated by sex so you won't have much of a honeymoon in any of those anyway. </i>"

Many hostels have everything from single-sex dorms to private rooms. Still might not be your 1st choice for a honeymoon, but if it is, you wouldn't need to be separated.

July is in the high season for european holidays. The French and Italians seem to take their holiday as a nation and the Italians start first in mid July so I'd try and start there with Paris before the 27th July which is when the French could start theirs. These holidays don't close down the country but....

You will need to book hotels with AirCon, some cheaper ones will not have this.

Amsterdam is not in Belgium but I guess you knew that

I'd try and cram in a Rome, Florence, Venice two weeker and then a Paris, Bruges, Amsterdam 2 weeker. These two bundles of cities allows you to use the train to get about (so saving on car usage and getting to meet people on the train)

We are kinda assuming you want to visit cities for the vibrant life, dining and art etc but we may have got that completely wrong. Hence' I'd like to suggest you try something a little different and visit one of the ancient dutch cities which sit on the area of Zealand basically in land between Bruges and Amsterdam. This is classic dutch land with windmills and lots of drain canals. Staying in a small B&B in the middle of no-where with the sea lapping outside can be memorable.

I have no connection to this B&B but it gives you an idea of what you could do to have a very quiet couple of days on a busy holiday http://www.bed-en-brood.nl/ (there is an english version of this site somewhere but google will translate), in my view it is little places like this that let you enjoy the true Europe

I travel to Europe every July and the crowds/heat are very manageable. All of Europe is pretty 'lively' (not necessarily crowded) all summer but worse in August so the earlier the better. I also teach and next summer I am leaving the day after my school graduates (late June) so as to get in as much time before August. In most areas except beach locations, July is no worse than May, June and September so don't be scared off by the 'too many crowds' warnings.

I would pick a couple of locations in each country that most appeal to you. In Spain the only place I wouldn't go in summer would be Andalulcia (Seville, etc). You could do Madrid and a few towns in central Spain (Segovia, Avila,Toledo, Salamanca, etc) - or - a few days in Madrid and a few in Barcelona. Then fly to Italy. The places most first timers go are Rome, Florence and Venice and lots of people do four days in each of those and enjoy it. But really ANY place in Italy is wonderful. Then fly to Paris. Pick one other region with small towns (Burgundy, Normandy, Loire) to combine with Paris. Then train to Belgium and Holland and fly home from there.

Key things: book open jaw flights so you don't have to backtrack. It would be equally easy to start in Madrid or Rome and leave from Amsterdam or Paris so see which has cheapest flights from your home. There are lots of good booking sites but kayak is one of the best.

Intra Europe - trains versus flights: Regionally trains are wonderful in Europe - to get around Italy, Spain (where buses are also wonderful) and France. Between countries (other than Belgium/Holland/France where train is best option) it is usually cheaper to fly. Easyjet flies to all those places but so do other cheapo carriers. The prices are much cheaper than the equivalent train trip but once you factor in time getting to and from airports to city center, getting to airports the required two hours early, etc the total time can approach that of a long train trip. Easyjet.com will tell you where they fly and the schedules/prices. Prices go up the closer to the date you are traveling. For train schedules I look on raileurope.com to get ideas of how long trips are and which cities are connected but I never buy tickets from them. I buy the tickets from the countries own train website (www.trenitalia.com; www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/index.html; www.transilien.com - which is SNCF, the french line).

I personally decide where I want to go by looking at photos - either go to a bookstore and browse books or search images on google. If you are interested I have photos of a lot of places in Europe - http://www.pbase.com/annforcier

When you have decided a rough itinerary post a new question here and people will help you fine tune it.

There are tons of hotels in Europe for under 100€ a night double that are perfectly fine and in good locations.

I go to Europe a lot in July, I really like it. There are lots of advantages to July, such as it staying light out really late at night, and not having to worry about packing coats or heavier clothes (makes packing light a lot easier).

But if you are there for amonth and it is the month of July, it isn't going to make any difference in terms of weather if you start or stop in the south. Not sure what you are thinking there, it wouldn't be predictable enough that one part of the month would be cooler than others and even then it would be minimal (ie, supposedly June is cooler than August on avg, so I guess you were thinking the first weeks in July would have to be cooler than the last 2 weeks, but that is nothing to bet on or plan your trip around as it could easily not be true). I've been in France with massive heat waves at the end of June and when it has been quite cool in August, for example.

There is some logic in the which part of July is best discussion. For example weather conditions in the UK in August tend to be cloudy rather than sunny as in July. It seems to be a combo of the Gulf stream and the heating up of Europe. Still UK not on your agenda

San Sebastián (pop 180 000) is the culinary capital of Spain. Some of the finest city beaches on the continent, and a favourite summer destination for the Spanish and French for a couple of hundred years because of the climate. European capital of culture 2016.

A recent article about San Sebastián in NYT: "Pairing this natural beauty with the unrivaled local cuisine — from decadent Michelin-starred feasts to delectable bite-sized pintxos (Basque-style tapas) — may leave your head spinning." http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/08/07...tin-spain.html

One of the best jazz festivals in Europe takes place every end of July (since 1966): http://www.spain-holiday.com/blog/sa...tival-2011.php

I just wanted to say that my husband and I went on an "engagement Honeymoon" after our engagement (doh), to Europe. This was 18 years ago and the other day I found my trip diary. I can't believe how we just rambled all over France and Italy for 3 weeks. So 1) keep a diary, one day it will mean so much to you. 2) You will enjoy being together and walking and talking, we loved train travel 'cos it was so relaxing to watch the world go by and just be together. 3)Florence was our favourite place, I think somewhere cobbled, no cars, so you can walk is very romantic. Have a great trip......