Europe For $1500? Thanks!
 

Good morning!

Id like to take a birthday trip this mid December and I am hoping that you can offer some suggestions on where to go, where to stay, and what to do!

<font color="red">Heres the rub</font>: my husband is to plan this trip. Its sort of scary but I know he can do it! It will be more special to me if he can put this trip together than if I do it myself!

Maybe you have some favorite destinations, hotels, activities that you would be willing to share to help him get started-that would be really helpful!!

Here are some general stats that might be useful in making your suggestions:

Budget: Id like to stay around $1,500.00 for hotel and flight combined

<font color="green">Where to go </font>
4 nights
From PHL (Philadelphia, PA)

<font color="green">Where to stay </font>
Clean
Close to transportation
Not too noisy
Safe
Own bathroom (the bigger the better)
View of something pleasant
Prefer unique d&eacute;cor (ie: hotel room that doesnt look like hotel room, if that makes sense!)

<font color="green">What to do </font>
We love history, culture, architecture, nature

My husband and I have only visited London and Paris. We loved both cities and they both fit our needs perfectly but Id like to visit a new location! Based on my research, Amsterdam and Prague seem like they might work?? I dont know…

Itd be totally perfect if he could whisk me away to some picturesque location where we could immerse ourselves in the history and culture by day and stroll the quaint tree-covered, shop-lined streets by night, arm in arm, sipping hot chocolate, enjoying the world around us! Maybe duck into a local pub and have some friendly conversation with the locals. Sigh…Doesnt that sound so romantic!? Im giggling just thinking about it!

I hope Ive provided enough information to spawn some suggestions! Thanks so much in advance for any help you are able to offer and have a super day!!

&quot;...my husband is to plan this trip...&quot;

uh...not off to a good start :d

I'm sure you will get lots of interesting suggestions...but if you can find a cheap flight to Brussels, then Bruges sounds like a great destination for you. Ticks all your boxes and cheaper than Amsterdam. Bruges is very romantic and atmospheric in December.
If you can catch a cheap flight to Paris, then perhaps to a secondary city...Lyon, Dijon, Bourges, Strasbourg, Angers.
A cheap flight to Dusseldorf or Frankfurt, then perhaps train to a smaller city like Bamberg (from Frankfurt) or Muenster (from Dusseldorf).
I would also suggest Graz in Austria, but airfares to Vienna would be pretty high that time of year. It's a beautiful train ride from Vienna to Graz though.

Prague and Amsterdam are both excellent choices for your &quot;what to do&quot; likes and for a 4-night trip.

However, I just did a quick itasoftware.com check for the month of December:

Airfare to Prague (with a connection) is about $200 per person more than nonstops to Amsterdam.

Also, the first and last week of December are considerably more than the second or third week. Go figure.

Amsterdam would be perfect imo.

If your husband is planning this trip, then I rather discuss any suggestions with your husband, which leads me to a question...does your husband wants/needs any help?

If you're staying just 4 nights, I suggest you only visit one city. And that will probably be determined by the price of airfare. I suggest you do some research to find deals on airfare, then plan from there. With a short trip, you will want a simple round-trip plan that won't involve more than one change of planes. Make it easy on yourselves to get over and back. And do you want a Christmasy-December, or a warm weather get-away?

Check out &quot;40 Best Bets&quot; a monthly feature in Budget Travel magazine. They often show packages for only staying 4-5 days. You might figure out your top several choices, then see what kind of prices you find for each (since you seem open to a number of destinations).

With only 4 days, my decision would be based on where you can fly to non-stop from PHL. With that little time, I would not want to waste time changing planes.

My second consideration would be the price of the flight weighted against where I most want to go.

Thank you-I appreciate each and every comment/suggestion you guys have offered!

I think Id like a more Christmasy-December rather than a beachy-December.

Sasp &amp; viajero2, you guys are right, I guess my husband should sort of take over! He means well but hes not exactly a self-starter if you know what I mean (sorry honey)! I think he thinks he can just throw something spectacular together at the last minute-which maybe he can-but I think that could be too risky!?

Ive told him about the great information you guys have provided on this post (and given him the link) and told him about the abundance of information on this forum as a whole.

After today, Ill no longer check in with this thread so any future posts under my name after today will <i>hopefully</i> be from him! And…if you dont see any future posts….

Hopefully I can gauge by the amount of future responses on this thread that hes got the trip in the works, or maybe those future responses will be you guys wondering where NatureGirl’s husband is!? Hahah!

Thanks again, really!

haha...too funny. Your husband will be fine. Also, don't take a lack of questions and posts as inactivity. There is alot of information just from reading other similar posts.

Actually I would wait to plan such a trip. Your best shot at cheap airfares will probbly come around end of October-early November...$1500 isn't much to work with if you aren't getting a deal. I agree w/the prior poster, you need to be able to fly direct w/the short time frame. BTW - some of us husbands do all the planning...

Perhaps you could fly to Munich for the Christmas Markets. It's a great city anytime, but really special with the Christmas Markets. We also took a train to Regensberg and Nurenberg to see their markets. Prague also has the Christmas Markets, I think.

Hi SAnParis! Im sorry if I came across as lumping all husbands in the &quot;not so good at planning a trip&quot; category-that certainly wasnt my intent!

In fact, Id be ok if my husband were in that category alone b/c then at least some wives could be whisked away on their vacation-haha!

My husband jokes with me and tells me that life isnt like a soap opera with candle-lit dinners on rooftops or surprise romantic getaways! I guess a girl can dream, right?

I-|

Hee hee!

Not at all, I kind of do the planning, sell her on it, then we do specifics together...not that we are too specific anyway. But, I had to hard sell her on Montserrat, so she is buying off on Saba w/no problem. Finally have her sold on Iceland as well (that has taken a while)...Just don't get in a big hurry, I would guess cheaper flights won't hit until Fall, unless you just stumble across something.

This is a story someone else's husband told me (definitely didn't happen to me!)

A man surprised his wife with a trip for their anniversary. First, he gave her an envelope with plane tickets and show tickets to New York. She was thrilled! They spent several days there, she had the time of her life.

Then, at dinner in New York, he gave her another envelope. Inside were plane tickets to Paris. She nearly died of happiness - she'd always longed to go to Paris.

They flew to Paris. And waiting for them in the hotel lobby? Her 3 children. They spent a very happy week in Paris.

The other detail that he told me was how he got the money to buy everything without his wife knowing. He couldn't withdraw the money from their account nor could he charge things as she pays the bills. So he decided to go to his bank to get a $10,000 loan. The (woman) loan officer initially had the usual bank-like concerns until he told her the whole story. With tears in her eyes she said &quot;Come back in the morning and I'll have your cash.&quot;

So yes, husbands exist who can plan great trips! (Of course this is the only one I've ever met :) )

NatureGirl-

I'm glad you have such great faith in your husband. Being a control freak myself, I do all our trip plannings.

Anyway, as far as your upcoming trip is concerned, I agree that you should stick with ONE city, and fly nonstop.

Having lived in Philadelphia for a few years, I know USAirways fly nonstop to quite a number of European cities.

Munich is a good suggestion - you can even do a day trip to Salzburg.

Apart from Munich (and the obvious London/Paris), USAirways also flies nonstop to:
Amsterdam
Frankfurt
Madrid
Milan (new route)
Rome

First off, I think the Christmas Markets sound like a lot of fun-I love that stuff!

In regard to relinquishing control (yk: its not easy and, at least in my case, its more like a miracle versus a leap of faith), and in stark, stark contrast to the great story (er, fairytale in my case) told by rosetravels, Ive got a little tale of my own…

Picture it: the months leading up to Spring Break, my husband (my then boyfriend of roughly one year) and I decide to go to the Bahamas. He had been before so he took control of the trip, which is fine b/c I was 18 and had never planned a trip! He compiled all this information and presented it to me, similar to the process SAnParis described. It seemed ok so, what the heck, lets go with it! Well, at the last minute I came across a great deal on a hotel and we ended up switching our hotels. On the flight to the Bahamas the following conversation took place (Im still shaking my head at this):

Him: So…maybe its a good thing we switched hotels…
Me: Oh? Why is that? (flipping through magazine)
Him: Well, I didnt tell you something about the hotel we were <i>supposed</i> to stay at…
Me: (put down magazine and look at him) What??
Him: Well, there was a great bargain at this one hotel but the travel agent advised against it. I said I wanted it anyway since it was such a great deal. She made me sign a waiver…
Me: What kind of “waiver?” What are you talking about!?” (getting angry)
Him: The form said that, despite the agents recommendation against it, I wanted this particular hotel despite the fact that it smelled of urine...
Me: “Smelled of urine!?” And when you were going to tell me that?
Him: On the flight…

Ahh! I know what youre thinking: how on earth can this boy be trusted to plan a trip! Its ok, its ok, at least I hope. Over the past ten years weve had <b>countless</b> conversations on how that was a bad and wrong decision on so many levels!

Please oh please no waivers this time!

[-o&lt;

Hahah! Of course I laugh at it now but…

1500 for two people sounds difficult. airfare will likely be 2/3 of that... or more.

Hi NG,

At the moment, for Dec, USAir is offering about $583 to MUC, 600 to AMS and 512 to LGW, all inclusive.

I don't think that the price of petroleum is going to drop enough to significantly affect the prices, but you might want to continue checking through August.

Does your 4 days include flying in/out?

((I))

NatureGirls- go to go-today.com and post your budget. This site will answer back when and where can you go within that budget.

While I realize that airfares are much higher now than they have been in the past couple of years, I think a $1500 budget per person for just airfare and hotel is quite doable ... and I would even say easy. The poster who suggested concentrating on those cities to which you can fly nonstop from Philadelphia is right on-target. I particularly like the idea of going to a place with a Christmas market. Prague has a good one. Or you could also look at Budapest, which has great deals in the winter months when Prague is still rather expensive. The other suggestion about Go-Today is also a good one, and it's not unusual for Go-Today to use USAirways for packages; look for packages where the base price is from Phila. (I recommend this with the caveat that Go-Today hotels are rarely charming in the way you want).

naturegirl,

I jokingly tell my husband that if he had a travel agency it would be called &quot;Ulysses Travels&quot; as no-one else would come back alive.

But for your trip - the Christmas markets in Germany can be magical. I also think Vienna or Prague would be lovely if you can get a non-stop flight for a reasonable price.

not sure if this is popular in the US but if i were taking a four night getaway, i would not even think to book the hotel separate from the flight. from london we can book a &quot;city break&quot; with hotel and flight much cheaper than separately. and you have a great choice of centrally located hotels.

...and no, this is not a &quot;package tour&quot; nor are you with a group in any way.

NatureGirl-

Is the $1500 for both of you or per person. I had the impression it's for both - but if it's per person, you'll certainly have much more flexibility.

Yeah, Im sorry I was unclear: Its actually $1,500.00 total.

This reminds me of the movie Father of the Bride when the wedding coordinator Franck calls the brides dad and gives the quote of the wedding. The dad hears some price, like 4 thousand and says &quot;oh, 4 thousand isnt bad,&quot; and Franck goes, &quot;hahah, nooooo, FORTY thousand!&quot;

:O

Anyway, definitely $1,500.00 total to cover the cost of the flights for both of us and the hotel stay…

Thanks again for the suggestions-they are so much appreciated!

OK these are only to give an idea, they're from an issue of Budget Travel's &quot;40 Best&quot; feature:

Budapest, 5 nights, leaving from Phili, $599 pp

Helsinki, 3 nights, leaving NY, $549 pp

Ireland, 6 nights w/ car, $679 pp out NY

My thought is that a budget package may be the easiest way to pull off 4 days in Europe for 2 people for $1500.

Have you considered Lisbon. Not only is it extremely reasonable (cost wise), it is a beautiful city with loads of history and culture. It has the beach and the mountains of Sintra.
Look at the Portugal thread and see for yourself.

Don't worry NatureGirl, It was pretty obvious you meant $1500 total. (Sometimes I wonder - oh, never mind)

I think $1500 is doable - of course it is your husband who has to figure out how to do it. Since there are soooooo many cities in Europe that meet your criteria, if it were me, I'd search for the veary best fare to any city. And then make a fabulous trip where ever that happens to be.

I'd probably check for London first off because it often has the lowest fares and there is the BIG plus that priceline is brilliant for London. 4* hotels for less than $100 - sometimes a LOT less than $100.

some husbands can plan great trips!! Mine did.....the night before our 20th anniversary he gave me an envelope with a plane ticket in it...the next morning we were in the air flying to Puerto Rico for a week!!! He planned the whole vacation...5 star hotels....everything i could possible want or need...next year is our 25th and i can't wait to see what he has planned....i'm hoping Europe!!!

You guys have provided so much helpful information that I feel confident that my husband cant possibly mess this up! Haha!

I started to look into some of the leads you guys posted-I couldnt help myself. But, janisi, youre so right that he has to figure it out-which is part of the beauty of this!

I think you guys are right on with the direct flight thing and the package deals of hotel and air which almost always decrease the total price.

Also, the 4 nights includes flight time, unfortunately, unless it was an overnight flight the day before. Like, Im looking to stay the nights of 14, 15, 16, and 17 (so it would be ok to leave the night of the 13).

Well, thanks again and keep your fingers crossed for me!

((Y))

Ill of course let you know what happens

:)

Ok .. I think I was kind of dense yesterday about the $1,500 budget. Still, as other posters have said, it's still do-able at this price level, but only if you buy a) a package or b) find a fare sale. However, I think you're going to have to accept the fact that you probably won't have a charming hotel.

Here are a few suggestions for places to look. For Prague/Budapest/Vienna/Krakow/Warsaw, check out Austrian Airlines specials. For Scandinavia, check on specials on SAS or FinnAir (and yes, Stockholm or Copenhagen are actually possible for this price if you look around, though you'll find food expensive once you arrive). For German cities, you may do better looking for USAirways packages directly with a travel agent. For a variety of major European cities, check out Go-Today.com. If you can deal without nonstop flights, British Airways sometimes offers good packages at this time of the year.

Tree-lined boulevards, in December? Perhaps you should be posting on the South American board!

The boulevards will still be tree-lined - just not &quot;leaf lined&quot;