Hello everyone, My fiance and I would love to plan a European Vacation in 2012. If we have 10-14 days to explore, where should we go and what time of the year? I have been to London, Edinburgh, and York about 10 yrs ago, but that is it. We love to sightsee but also love to take time to just relax and take in the beauty so maybe a vacation where we can do both would be perfect. We tend to take more warm beach and island vacations. I would love recommendations on different itineraries and ideas as we both have not done much traveling in Europe. Any help would be much appreciated!! Thank you!

Italy is just flat out hard to beat. And, you can find some great deals. We did a 2-week trip just around Italy, and one place was better than the next! We started in Venice, took the train to Florence, stayed in a B&B in San Gimignano, spent a weekend in the Cinque Terre and finished of the trip with a long trip to Rome. The rich history just transports you.

I also lived in Spain, and could say a lot for that country too, but if you really want to sink your teeth into a country, Italy gets my vote.

We're honeymooning in Greece this September, so I might change my mind after that though

@NewsForMaggie That's great to hear. My girlfriend and I are doing a month-long European vacation after my study abroad in London, and after a couple weeks in France and Spain, we're going to be finishing up with a two week finale in Italy. And it looks like we have the same Italian itinerary you did: Cinque Terre, Rome, Florence and Venice. It sounds lovely and we can't wait to go!

>...where should we go? <

To the library to get some guidebooks so that you can plan a draft itinerary before asking for help on how to improve it.

Thank You all for your responses. It helps a lot to hear feedback from others who have traveled throughout Europe to get their opinions. I had some family who just traveled through Italy and said it was just unbelievable. I would love to see Italy, Spain, Greece, France.....etc but obviously cant do them all in one trip. I have done some research but feel I'd rather hear from people about their experiences and trips, their likes and dislikes, etc.

What time of the year are you planning on going? How old are you? What activities besides islands and beaches do you like to do? If you give all of us more info I am pretty sure that you will get more information about your planning?

Italy is really best in early May or late September when all of the other visitors aren't there at the same time.

Thank you everyone for helping out.....We do not have an exact time of year but we were thinking either May or September but I guess it depends on where we want to go?? I am 30 yrs old and my fiance is 29. We aren't really into going out to night clubs, but prefer great food and wine. We would love to eat at some fine dining places as well as the small little places that are well known for a certain food, romantic and fun all at the same time. Wineries are big on our lists. We love the outdoors, will go from doing adventurous activities to just strolling the streets sightseeing and exploring. We love the history that Europe has as well as the beauty and would love to see as much as we can, but also want to take in down time to relax. We love being near water.... boating, swimming, or just laying out. Where ever we choose to stay we would probably prefer to have some kind of view from our hotel. I guess we would need a good balance of sightseeing adventures and down time to relax and take in wherever we choose to travel to and all it has to offer.