DH and I are in our 30's celebrating our 5 year anniversary and trying to plan a 10 day last minute trip to Europe end of October 08' niether of us has been before. Friends have recommended 2 Choices

1. Paris, Rome, Venice
2. London, Dublin

Also hotel/B&B recommendations needed as well. We are trying to stay around $200us a night.

Please help us decide. Thank you

Paris and esp Rome and Venice will have much more tolerable weather IMO in late October over a perhaps soggy British Isles.

otherwise it would depend on what you expect in these two very different choices.

I don't think you will be doing a good job of seeing Paris-Rome-Venice in 10 days,and you wluld exhaust yourself and your budget, so I suppose I would suggest the London/Dublin alternative.

But to be kind to yourselves (and to avoid being scolded on this or any other travel board!) you might want to get a couple of books from the library on ANY of those cities, for each one of them individually would probably provide enough to see (with a couple of side-trips) for a first trip to a new country.

I know that October is fast approaching so you will want to come back on when you decide on the itinerary and ask about hotels when you know your budget.

PS My husband and I spent our 15th wedding anniversary in Paris in October-2 weeks and it still wasn't enough!

I don't like either of your choices.

When you say a 10-day trip, does the 10-day include travel days? If yes, you really only have 8 days to do sightseeing.

My vote would be either:

1) Rome + Venice only
2) London + Paris

Make sure you fly open-jaw; ie, fly into one city and out another. This way, you won't waste precious time traveling back to the initial city.

Happy 5th anniversary!

Are you talking 10 days total?

if so that is only about 8 days "on the ground" - then when you subtract travel time between cities you'll lose another day or so.

So - IF you do mean 10 days total - you do not have enough time for Paris, Rome and Venice.

Probably the best "two fer" would be London and Paris. Fly into London, 4 days in London. Train to Paris, 4 days in Paris. Fly home from Paris. Of your 5 cities - that would be my #1 choice.

OR -- you could do 5 days in Rome and 3 in Venice.

Now, if you really mean 12+ days including your travel days w/ 10 days on the ground -- then you <i>could</i> squeeze in another city. Rome/Venice/Florence for instance. But I'd still stick to major two cities only.

If you really want Dublin, you could fly in to Dublin and stay 2 days/nights. Fly to London for 4 days/nights. Train to Paris for 4 days/nights. Fly home from there. But London and Paris are definitely worth more time.

I would suggest Venice and Rome also. Where are you flying from? Can you get non-stop flights? That would help make my decision. Also agree that you should fly open jaw to get the most out of your time.

1st ever trip to Europe...to celebrate an anniversary...it has to be Paris!

Team it up with another city of your choice.

Think you would enjoy Rome, Florence and Venice more than London and Dublin. It would be easy to fly into either Venice or Rome and take the train between cities. Fly home out of the other city.

Have you considered a river cruise tour. They are very popular now. Grand Circle Tours is recommended. I have not been on one of their tours but my relative has gone on 4 tours with them and each one was good. www.gct.com

http://www.gct.com/gcc/general/defau...8&amp;page=All

Forgot to mention when you make up your mind I am sure Fodorites have excellent recommendations for b&amp;bs. Also check on tripadvisor for reviews.

London &amp; Paris only or Paris &amp; Venice (which I love). Fly into Paris and out of Venice.

ttt

I agree with Sue (Paris and Venice or Paris and Rome)... or even Rome and Venice. I do like London and Dublin but would not be my choice for end of October. I nearly froze in Dublin once in August, although that may have been unusual (some bad storm and lots of rain, people were literally wearing wool coats, as I recall).

I think you need to decide on your itinerary first because it would be fruitful for people to start giving detailed hote/B&amp;B recommendations, as choices will be limited at that budget.

oh, I forgot to add that another reason for not doing 3 cities (it is simply too much, basically) is that you have never been to Europe before and are trying to plan this at the last minute. Decent accommodations at a budget are oing to be hard to come by at the last minute for October in Paris, for example, as that is one of their peak hotel seasons. I suspect it won't be super easy for Rome and Venice, either. Don't know about London, except cheap hotels that are nice are rare there to begin with.

This isn't the kind of thing you do at the last minute well when you've never been there and make it really complicated (three cities, transportation between them, etc.). Paris and London would be easy, though, with the Eurostar.

Agree that 10 days isn't enough for Paris-Rome-Venice. Maybe you could cut off two or three days and just do Paris. Use the extra money to splurge a little on hotel, wine, etc. For romance, you can't beat Paris, now matter the time of year.

www.hereinfranklin.com

Are you stuck on cities? If you've never been before, that can be exhausting just by itself. Maybe, a few days in a city, then a romantic cottage with wood-burning fireplace in the countryside?

Which country do you most want to see?

I have no idea why people have not suggested Spanish destinations to you. Actually, I have no idea why your friends are recommending these places to you at the exclusion of others (except the obvious explanation that they haven't been to the other places).

Anyway, that's how I'd begin: By figuring out between the two of you which country you both would most like to see together.

After that, the details.