Katie21

Hi, We are trying to put together a trip for 2015 that has a few opportunities for skiing but also for sightseeing. We are planning 10 weeks in total and looking at overland train travel through Europe. At the moment we have:
Fly into Istanbul - see Istanbul
overnight train to Plovdiv; bus to Bansko (few days skiing here).
Sofia, Veliko Tarnovo and onto Romania to see Brasov, Sibiu, Sighsoura and then overnight train to Budapest.
Train to Vienna (maybe Salzburg or Hallstat) and then skiing in Obigurgl in Austria.
Train to Murren for skiing.
Train/Bus to Andorra for skiing and then onto Madrid and Andulucia (Seville, Cordoba, Granada) for Easter.
Overnight train Madrid to Lisbon - see Portugal (Sintra, Lisbon, Evora, Porto).
Possibilities are then fly to ireland or Greece (to catch some warmer weather) as it would be mid April.
We would like to maybe do Poland or Lviv but are concerned about weather this time of the year and also feel we need to skip through places like Budapest and Vienna due to poor weather. Also the summer towns in Bulgaria or Romania would not be good to visit.
The question is how do we put together a winter itinerary where we only want occasional skiing but still want to visit highlights for sightseeing. Is there better places to visit to achieve this? any help appreciated.

nytraveler

Have no idea why you want to skip Vienna or budapest. Both cities re lovely in winter and there are tons of museums and cultural activities.

Tulips

Hi Katie, for skiing in Europe watch out for the school holidays. Many hotels will only book for a week, and it gets expensive. In 2015 the busiest week for Austria and Switzerland will be the week starting 16/2. And Easter holiday starting April 6.
For France February and early March are school holidays - avoid during the weeks that Paris schools are off. You can find this online.

sparkchaser

2015?

Anyhoo, Germany's 2015 Easter vacation for schools varies from March 25 to April 17, depending on the state.

Dukey1

Ireland vs. Greece for 'warmer weather' than Portugal? Ireland???

Michael

Aside from skiing, cities are better in the winter in case of poor weather because they have more indoor activities--I would not skip Vienna or Budapest because of bad weather. In Poland, Krakow would be my choice with Zakopane nearby for skiing.

Katie21

Hi and thanks for your replies. I hadn't really considered the impact of school holidays but will check on those dates. Thinking about what I mean by 'poor weather', we know it will be cold but are trying to avoid drizzle and rain and slushy footpaths... however looking at rainfall for that time of the year it is actually less than summer in some cases. Will certainly leave in Vienna and Budapest. We are also doing some research on Zakopane. Many thanks again.