daytrips that upstaged your base city and why
 

list an instance or instances in which a daytrip location was far more magnificent than the spot you picked as your base....preferably a location you wish you had originally chosen as your base in the first place. I'll go first:

We chose Brussels as our base city in Belgium. The Grand Place was very nice, the food and chocolate great, but we were a bit underwhelmed by the attractions that were very spread out. Grafitti, litter, a barren winter landscape, and infinite scaffolding didn't help. Aside from the guy that sold us our metro tickets the people appeared cold, in a hurry, and miserable. Ghent was a totally different experience. It boasted a medieval skyline of churches and the belfry, the castle, lively market square with lots of locals, canals, and smiling faces from the college students. Crossing the St Michael's bridge was like stepping into a time machine. I also loved the architechture which i found far more Dutch and Gothic. We had our best meal there as well

There are only two rules:

1. list your base location and the daytrip
2. explain why you felt the latter was so much more enjoyable

participation is encouraged! :-)

I thought you picked a base city because of it's location with relation to the planned day trips.


My daytrips to Tangier, Gibraltar, Frigiliana, etc. upstaged my base location in Spain.

We stayed in Sliema on the main island of Malta. However, my favorite day was on Gozo, a neighouring island. It was greener, more stunning and fun to explore.

I once spent a week in Siena and one of my day trips was to the Val d'Orcia area. I liked Siena but LOVED the Val d'Orcia and southern Tuscany countryside. As soon as I got home I started planning a trip to the Val d'Orcia area. I love the beautiful landscape, lovely small towns, and the ease of getting around. I have now visited the area multiple times for weeks at a time and will continue to return.

Same thing happened when I spent a week in Perugia. Liked the city but preferred the countryside and the villages of Umbria.

I'm not all country though- I still love Venice, Rome and Paris, but only in winter months when they are cooler and less crowded.

I stayed in Florence and day tripped to Siena - and really wished I'd done it the other way around! Siena is touristy but lovely. I'm not a museum person, so to me, Florence was just...crowded.

Recently, I stayed in Antwerp and day tripped to Leuven - and really wished I'd stayed in Leuven instead. Leuven is a lovely town. Antwerp...isn't. As it was my last stop before flying home out of Brussels, Leuven would have been even easier by train to the airport than Antwerp, as I later figured out.

I also stayed in Antwerp this summer, but you can't get a pasta dish under 20 Euro, and it costs 5 Euro to get into the cathedral. I like Leuven too but this time went to Mechelen, where I had a 3-course meal for 11 Euro right on the square, and the cathedral was free and gorgeous, and it has the fab Het Anker brewery (known best for Gouden Carolus) - - and it was easy, friendly, and nice. Ironically, Rick Steves just sent out a newsletter saying that smaller cities can be nicer than bigger ones - - and he specifically suggested Antwerp over Brussels! Ghent is nice too, and I also really enjoyed Namur a year ago. Small cities have what the big cities in Europe USED to offer more exclusively, and do it more casually, joyously, and without hordes, I mean hordes of tourists - - a kind of ant stream that makes many places worse than Epcot Center.

I did a super quickie Italy trip this summer, and Bologna was kind of deadsville (it was fabulous last November, but with the students gone in the summer it was not as much fun), and Lucca was fantastic, especially with a bike from the hotel (it is easy to avoid the limited ant stream there). But Florence after that was frightening - - it is Grand Central Station of plodding tourist masses.

The big tourist draws in Europe have become frighteningly, numbingly overrun, and the places tourists don't seem to go (e.g., love Utrecht, am grossed out by Amsterdam) are more and more the real pleasures.

Based in Florence for a week but did an over-nighter in Montepuliciano. We would have done that originally but our number of people went from 4 to 8. Next time I would just rent two apartments. We love Munich but never stay but a night there. It is so much more beautiful an hour south. Easy enough to hop the train for the day.

I actually considered Antwerp ........read that it had a cosmo vibe but considered it would be unnecessary with Paris our next location. I've read that others on here found it underwhelming

My brother just came back from Paris, and couldn't stop stammering about the sheer number of tourists there. They did a food tour that they found amazing, but also had a 45 minute wait at Versailles just to buy a train ticket at one of the few machines back to Paris! They couldn't stop talking about what an abomination it was to wait 45 minutes to get a simple train ticket, and that the facilities for buying train tickets were so inadequate - - and how their guidebook never told them otherwise. Personally, I never need to see Paris again, thankfully.

Avignon-It was too dirty, dog poop all over, dirty streets, drunk men around the bus station. We took a day trip to Uzes and and I fell in love. I will be going back to Avignon because we made so many good friends there.

Should you ever consider the Netherlands, Amsterdam is a good base for quite a bit. Once you've check all the major museums in town with the VanGogh being the highest on the list, then head to the Kroller Muller Museum into the countryside litterally. This is set in one of the most magnificent European forrests. The trian ride will afford a good image of the country. The KM boasts the second largest Van Gogh collection after the VG Museum in Amsterdam.

Same goes for the visit of Rotterdam if you are into the 20th century various types of architecture; some experiments there may not look the most successful some 40 years later.

Just a couple of ideas.

We planned to spend a week in Bologna. We were underwhelmed by it and couldn't understand the hype. We took a day trip to Parma and decided that's where we'd rather be. We went back to Bologna, checked out of our hotel and moved on to Parma to spend the rest of the week.

I always say that the best day I had in Vienna was in Bratislava.

Stayed in Munich but absolutely loved Salzburg - wish we had stayed there.