tcreath

We will be traveling back to Europe for our next vacation, and this won't be until May of 2011 so I'm asking this way in advance. We are in the initial planning stages (I haven't been on a vacation since February of last year's vacation to Turkey and I'm having major withdrawals, hence the early planning!) but I'm concerned about the weather. We've traveled to Europe several times in May and had a good time, but it did rain quite a bit. Now I can handle some rain, and I know that it's impossible to predict the weather, but I'm hoping that maybe we can choose an area with low average precipitation in May. Any advice? We are very open to suggestions. Places we are considering are: Italian Lakes (averages show lots of rain for May), Dolomites (I read that May isn't a great time to visit), or the Dordogne area but would also love to visit Krakow and/or Prague. We will have one week.

Thanks!
Tracy

yorkshire

Hi Tracy,
I know you are a fellow Croatia-phile (and recently visited Turkey), so I won't state my obvious picks. I always travel in late May and have always been blessed with fantastic weather, with the exception of one of my southern Croatia trips (stormy). I always try to go somewhere southern and warm, so I think anywhere skirting the Mediterranean would be a good choice. Have you been to southern Spain? How late in May can you travel?--in my experience, the later the better, but it can start to get quite warm.

tcreath

yorkshire, thank you for your reply! We will be using ff miles, so we will have to start/end our travels before May 15th with AA to fly with fewer miles.

We have not yet been to Spain and are definitely interested. We've also thought about maybe Greece (Athens and the Pelopennesian). Maybe it would be best to stick with the Mediterranean countries?

Tracy

yorkshire

You cannot go wrong with the Mediterranean in my book. Early May probably iffy on weather on the islands, but perfect for the mainland I think (have not been there yet but did research in an attempt to go this year--airfare beat me). There are some great Greece fodorites.
I often use wunderground to check out the typical weather for a place I consider, because I have a low tolerance for cool weather.
Spain is so tremendously varied, you may want to do a little more digging into the weather, but probably safe from constant rain in the south.

bettyk

We spent 2 weeks in Scotland and London in May and had great weather except for our first day and last day!

We've been to Austria in May and had good weather also as well as the time we spent in Switzerland in May.

Maybe we've been blessed, but most of our May trips to Europe have been pretty nice weatherwise with maybe a day or two of clouds and rain.

But it is a crap shoot, really.

tcreath

Thank you both for your replies. Yorkshire, I'm in the process of researching both Spain and Greece, as they both sound like great options.

bettyk, thank you for your thoughts. Yes, it is a crapshoot! We spent a week in Berchtesgaden in May of 05 and it rained for probably half the trip. We still had an amazing time though. We now have 4 month old twin daughters and no longer get to travel overseas two times a year; our trips will be few and far between. Because of this we want to try to avoid a lot of rain by traveling somewhere that will, *hopefully*, be a little drier. I love the idea of the Italian lakes but I don't like the idea of three rainy days in the Italian lakes!

Tracy

bettyk

I think you might be more likely to have rain in the mountain areas where the weather is usually more unsettled in the spring and fall. I know when we were in Berchtesgaden in Sept 07, it was one of the few places where we had any rain at all. Fortunately, it was only for 1 of our 2 days but the rain made it much colder too.

HImom

We went to Europe in March/April 15 years ago & had GREAT weather with very little rain or even drizzle. We were even in London & Bath! Much depends on your luck, I think. Unfortunately, I don't think there is weather insurance for trips. We're hoping we have great weather when we're there this May, but will report back.

tcreath

Thank you again for your replies. I know spring can be iffy. We were in Germany (the Mosel and then Berchtesgaden) in April of 07 and it rained almost the entire time. I'm thinking that I may stick to a more Mediterranean climate, even though we had our hearts set on the mountain region of Italy.

Tracy

Mimar

Let me jump in with a suggestion of Sicily; the wildflowers are supposed to be beautiful in the spring. You can go up Mt. Etna.

May is generally not a good month for mountain areas. It's between ski season and summer.

Dukey

Greece can be wonderful and not yet too crowded/too hot at the end of May/early June, at least in my own experiences. Have had good luck in both Italy and Spain at those times; mid-lake Como last time we were there in late May was very pleasant...

if you want my own advice and if you don;t well, sorry, but i would go to the place you WANT to go...you already know it is a possible weather issue but why go somwehere that is your second choice when your first choice may very well turn out to be wonderful..hey, that's what travel is all about but I'm sure you know this.

yorkshire

Ooh--I just remembered a fantastic place on my list of places to go: Corsica! Mountains, check! May is supposed to be good weather-wise and crowd-wise.

kja

I'll second Mimar's recommendation of Sicily - gorgeous in May with wildflowers everywhere! You might want to try to find bobthenavigator's pictures. With 1 week, you'd probably want to select just one part of Sicily to visit (e.g., the east or the west).

tcreath

yorkshire, I never thought about Corsica but I spent about an hour this morning going through the official Corsica website and I'm impressed and intriqued. We like to be off of the beated travel path a bit, and I rarely hear anything about Corsica. I'd have to see about flights, but it looks like we could fly into Florence or Pisa and ferry from Livorno. I'll have to do more research, but thank you for the tip!

We have considered Sicily a few times, as we do like ruins and history and it sounds like a logical choice. We will add that to the running, along with Greece, Corsica and Spain. For some reason I have a hard time getting excited about the thought of going to Spain, although it is certainly worth consideration.

Thanks everyone!
Tracy

zoecat

This is a nice trip report on Corsica that may help you decide-

http://www.slowtrav.com/tr/tripreport.asp?tripid=1673

opaldog

tcreath: glad to hear you will be traveling again. I really enjoyed your Turkey report last year as we were planning our Istanbul trip (March 2009). This past October we were in our favorite city, Paris. Now we have plans for Barcelona in November, partly due to the great airfares. Not sure if they are still great. You might want to consider Barcelona. The weather is supposed to be nice in May, not too hot, not too cold; 60's and 70's. The city is not supposed to be as crowded at this time. There are also day trips that you could take.

Have fun planning wherever you decide to go.

lhopp

Hi Tracy,

I think you may have had another thread where you were possibly considering Greece? If so, Greece is absolutely amazing! We went last May (5/12-5/21) and the weather was perfect; warm and sunny every day. It also wasn't too crowded yet at that time. We went to Santorini, Naxos, and Athens. There are many beautiful churches, landscapes, and antiquities to enjoy. In Athens, the Acropolis was truly a highlight! We've been to England, France, and Italy, but I'm afraid Greece has stolen our hearts, and we can't wait to go back to explore more islands and the Peloponnese. If you'd like more info, please click on my name and see my trip report. Good luck with your decision, and 2011 will be here before you know it!

latedaytraveler

Tcreath, I vote for Sicily or Provence...