Hello! So my mother, who is not the biggest fan of traveling and has never left the country, impulsively bought us round trip tickets to Paris in July. I visited Paris for a few days while studying abroad but I don't know much about it and didn't really care for the city.
Does anyone have any suggestions of places to go (other countries) that might be cheaper to travel to and stay? I'm not sure how far to consider traveling in a 10 day period. Any suggestions would be very helpful- we really have no idea where to start!

Welcome sammtimm.

So are you saying you don't want to spend any time in Paris? If not you really don't even have to leave the airport, just get a connecting flight to wherever appeals to you.

On the other hand, Paris is a universally loved city, so it might be an idea to stay there and explore for at least 3 nights. Do some research, and armed with a little knowledge I'm sure you will find plenty there to entertain you.

If you want another destination it would be helpful if you could reveal what your interests are.

Your mom probably has a few ideas of her own.

It sounds like your mother wants to go to Paris and bought you a ticket to accompany her as well so I would certainly start with visiting Paris. You can easily spend the whole time there or you can visit another place as well. London is an easy train ride away but there are a zillion other options. Where else does your mother want to go?

Why didn't you "care for the city?" That might give us something to go on. If your mother wants to go, you might want to give it another try, this time armed with some research under your belt.

Ask you mom where <i>she</i> wants to go since she bought the tickets . . .

if the entire trip is 10 days you will only have 7.5 days on the ground so you could do something like Paris and say Amsterdam for a couple of days OR London for 4 or 5 days and the rest in Paris -- but knowing anything that you liked/didn't like about Paris (or anything else) would help a lot. hard to give advice.

Realize you will have to be back in Paris the night before you fly out so in actuality you will have about 6+ days to play with total.

This is mom's trip so get with the program.

That being said, my DH and I stayed in Paris for 2 weeks and took guided day trips to Bruges and to 3 Loire River castles. Versailles and Chartres are also options.

What does your mother envision seeing in Paris?

Take her to dinner in the Eiffel Tower.

I second TDudette's advice above. I hope you will give Paris another chance.

Try getting a good guidebook or two to Europe--maybe one for you and one for Mom-- and read up on what's where. You've got quite a bit of time to plan, so maybe each of you reads one and you then compare notes and choose where you want to go.

As Janis says, you don't have time to go very far or see much beyond Paris and one or two other places. So choose carefully based on yours and Mom's interests.

At that time of year, I'd be thinking France, UK, Belgium, the Netherlands or Germany as Italy and Spain will be HOT and Italy expensive anytime. Also if you look at places outside major cities, it will be less expensive if cost is a concern--e.g. Mechelen in Belgium is a fascinating city between Brussels and Antwerp with good rail connections.

I gather you mean cheaper for hotels than Paris, as you already have the plane tickets and it will be expensive to change them. Is that what you want? A place cheaper than Paris to stay but where you can easily get to from Paris?

Just about any part of France, actually, even some of the bigger cities have cheaper hotel costs than Paris, in my experience. And Restaurants should be cheaper also.

If you don't like big cities (and I can understand that, FYI it is surprising to some people on Fodors that everyone doesn't want to spend every minute of their sole European vacation in Paris for days on end), you could go south to Provence. I know it is July and will be hot, but it is a completely different vibe, and the cities are much smaller (like Avignon or Aix). Or maybe Nice, it is cheaper, but a larger city than those in Provence. Now Provence is kind of a summer getaway area so that is usually the peak season for hotel costs there. I found Nice relatively cheap, definitely in comparison to Paris, even though that is popular in summer, also.

I could go on and on, as I said, other areas of France will usually be cheaper, so you can pick one. Of course you will pay some to get there by train, so if cost is your sole reason, you may not come out ahead. If you just don't like Paris or big cities -- other areas would be the Loire or Normandy or Brittany or Alsace or Burgundy (or even the SW, I love Toulouse and around that area, but it is very hot in summer).

I don't consider the Netherlands, Switzerland or Belgium particular "cheap" so wouldn't present them as a big savings over Paris.

oh, if you really want to go someplace completely different that is cheap, Poland or the Czech Republic or Spain would work. But you'd have to fly to/from to get there. Spain will be very hot in summer.

July is perfect for Northern Spain. It's easy to fly from Paris to Bilbao and visit San Sebastian and area, then fly back to Paris to leave for home from there. I didn't find San Sebastian particularly cheap though...

Thank you all for your replies!

To answer a few of the questions and thoughts from above, I'll first clarify a few things. Our on the ground time is the 10 days; so our whole trip is essentially 12 days. My mom bought the tickets to Paris because they were cheap and knew that I enjoyed my previous time in Europe. She herself does not really know anything about countries in Europe so she does not hold any preference over where to visit and what to see. Also, she is from a small town and is not really into museums/art; so I am looking for things to do that revolve more around people/cultures/food/etc.

I don't hold anything against Paris- I do plan on spending the last 2 or so days of our trip in the city. I simply did not love it like I did some other european countries I visited. I absolutely loved places like Bruges, Brixton (borough of London), Brighton, Bath, Perugia, and Cinque terre and I feel like my mother would enjoy the cultures of these places as well. I realize I could potentially go back to these locations, but I would love to hear any suggestions that might be similar to these.

Essentially, I have been tasked with setting the entire itinerary as, in her words, she is "just along for the ride." Would people suggest trying to find hostels in these places or should we try a site like airbnb?

Again, thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge and opinions!

I don;t know what to say to someone who prefers Brixton to Paris.

You still didn't say why you hadn't enjoyed Paris, and why had you prefer Bruges, Brixton, Brighton,... So we don't know which cities to recommend to you. I couldn't think of any single thing that those cities you loved offer but Paris doesn't. Cultures? If Paris doesn't have enough cultures then I don't know what does.

No offense, I'm just trying to understand your point so we could help.

"Would people suggest trying to find hostels in these places or should we try a site like airbnb? "

Well actually I would suggest hotels or B&Bs. Do you really think your Mom would be comfortable in a "hostel"?

Loving this thread.

Paris being a dump I would go to Romania. Real cheap in comparison.