LynnetteMField

We are hoping to travel to Szeged, Hungary, to watch my oldest son participate in a Jr. World's race this year during the end of July. Exciting! The event is approximately a week. My husband works for a major airline, so we can fly in and out of anywhere, but the problem is we never do! We want to take advantage of this opportunity, with the knowledge this same son will soon be too old to utilize these benefits; we want to pack in the adventure and make this a memorable experience for our family of 4. We hope to take one week before and after this event to tour as much as we possibly can in Europe. Preferably Italy or France, maybe Austria. Car, plane, or train? Ha!

Bottom line: What would be the top 10 MUST-SEEs for a whirlwind southern European tour?
We are not that into touring museums, but would look for the culture and atmosphere - on a budget!

HappyTrvlr

Your Sking for Southern Europe help is confusing as the only country that fits the category is Italy.

adrienne

You need to define what you mean by museums so people know what to eliminate. I think places like the caves in the Dordogne or palaces/chateaux are the same thing as museums. It seems a shame to not want to explore museums as I've been to some interesting ones and have read about many others that I would like to go to. I love to find small, off beat museums such as the lavender museum, balsamic vinegar museum, post office museum to name a few.

How do you feel about churches or other houses of worship?

What do you consider to be cultural?

For atmosphere, I give Venice a #1 rating, especially at night and away from the main tourist areas. There's magic in a vaporetto ride after sunset, looking at the palazzi along the water.

Also:

The Italian Lakes, particularly Como and Orta.
Markets in Provence
A Cistercian Abbey
Pompeii or Herculaneum (although I put these in the museum category)
One of the Roman Basilicas (exquisite)
Urbino, Italy

In one week and on a budget means not running around but focusing on one particular city or area. It costs more money the more you travel around. Transportation mode depends on where you're going so you need to decide that first.

thursdaysd

The week before: Budapest.

The week after: Venice.

Don't short change Szeged itself (see http://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com/.../super-szeged/ )

As adrienne says, moving around tends to be expensive. With a week you can rent an apartment and save on food costs. Both Budapest and Venice have more than enough to occupy a week each, but there are also good day trips from each.

teachandtravel

Fly into Naples, explore historical center of Naples and Pompeii . Stay at Piazza Bellini hotel. Rome also is a must see.

JulieCallahan

I tend to agree with Thursdaysd ... The first week seems obvious enough, Budapest. The last week - something in Italy. I prefer not to move around - so pick between all the wonderful places in Italy.

We almost always prefer to stay put for a week, settle in, develop a favorite cafe relationship.

In any event, enjoy .. (I live in Hungary and just added Szeged to my list of places to go this year).

Cowboy1968

Venice would not be the first place that comes to mind when thinking about a "budget" destination.
OP will be traveling in high season which does not make finding bargains easier.

First of all, your main destination, Szeged, is a bit off the major (air) transportation routes.
So if you want to go by plane somewhere after that week in Szeged, the drive and fly will eat up a full day.

Usually I would not suggest it but maybe you could stick to car transportation for almost the whole 3 weeks. The whole region around the Adriatic Sea and Austria will be on high season. The car would at least give you enough flexibility to stay in smaller or less-overrun places.

Fly in/out Vienna.
See Vienna for 2-3 nights if you want.

Pick up car, drive towards Budapest (Esztergom, Györ can be stopovers)

Stay in Budapest for the rest of the week.
The car will not be of much use here but 3-4 nights in a parking garage won't break the bank. Or you stay in the greener outer districts and take public transport to the central districts. Actually, in July an accomodation in the breezier hills could even be nicer than in smoking hot downtown Budapest.

Drive to Szeged and use car for day trips if you don't need or want to attend that event for a full week.

From Szeged you can drive into Croatia (nice mountains, stunning coastal towns), see a bit of Slovenia, go North into Carinthia (Austria) if you want to see the really high Alps, and end again in Vienna.

thursdaysd

There is no point in renting a car in Vienna and then parking it for most of the next two weeks. Train transport is perfectly adequate for those weeks - for Gyor and Eger as well as Vienna to Budapest to Szaged.

LynnetteMField

Oh my goodness, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate these replies!!!! European travel is new to me/us, and I value all these words of wisdom. I am going to print these out and start pouring over maps.

I guess we just want to soak up a tiny little bit of something different than North America. Coastal towns with sunshine sounds like heaven right now. Never thought to try Croatia or Slovenia; I really appreciate your words, Cowboy 1968. Are they safe enough for a family? Pompeii...amazing to contemplate. To me, that is active participation in history and we'd be all for that, Adrienne; I guess we just don't want to spend all our precious time inside four walls. We are looking for the opportunity to FEEL or LOOK of a culture that's been around for thousands of years. I love the history, teach it in fact, but this time I just want to drink in something DIFFERENT than the Pacific Northwest; beautiful, warm, and outside - rather than inside. Does that make sense at all?

How can I find out when schools let out? We have heard horror stories of people stuck on stand-by waiting in airports for two weeks because they hit the wrong date?

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

teachandtravel

We were in Southern Europe mid July last year. If it looks like you are going in the summer, I will tell you to bring light clothing and several changes of clothes. We're from Colorado and we didn't realize what summers in Europe were like. It is very, very hot that time of year. Also, Rome and Pisa were extremely crowded in July. So plan to go to everything as early as possible each day to beat the heat and the crowds. I have been to most historical sites throughout the US, but nothing compared to the history and awe I found in the ruins in Rome and Pompeii. It was amazing!

teachandtravel

We were in Southern Europe mid July last year. If it looks like you are going in the summer, I will tell you to bring light clothing and several changes of clothes. We're from Colorado and we didn't realize what summers in Europe were like. It is very, very hot that time of year. Also, Rome and Pisa were extremely crowded in July. So plan to go to everything as early as possible each day to beat the heat and the crowds. I have been to most historical sites throughout the US, but nothing compared to the history and awe I found in the ruins in Rome and Pompeii. It was amazing!

annhig

Your problem, if I may say so, Lynette, is that you have too much choice. There is really no reason why you should limit yourselves to southern europe for your first and third weeks - anywhere with direct flights into Budapest [which is about 2 hours drive to Szeged] would do.

So if you want to avoid the heat you will probably find in the south, [and will most probably find in Hungary] you could go to Scandanavia, or Ireland, or.....

however, if you want to stick broadly to Plan A, you could fly into Vienna, spend a few days there before picking up a car and driving to Budapest, which would give you a few days there before you head for Szeged.

At the end of the week there [not sure quite what it is your son's going to be doing, but best of luck to him] you have a choice- either carry on driving, or go back to Budapest and fly somewhere completely new.

if you want to keep to that area, you could drive to the Croatian coast say via Mostar ending up in Dubrovnik, or head slightly further north to Split, or go directly west to Venice. All of those are about 8-9 hours driving time, so easily achievable in a week with plenty of time to explore when you get there.

BTW, easyjet flies to Budapest from Basel, Geneva, Berlin, London and Paris. bearing in mind your husband's job, this may or may not be relevant.

thursdaysd

Is this your first European trip? If so, I HIGHLY recommend some time with guidebooks, both to get comfortable with the idea of traveling there, and to help with deciding where to go. Since you mention budget, I'd start with "Europe Through the Back Door" and "First-Time Europe", then move on to the "picture" guidebooks - Insight, Eyewitness, Exploring, National Geographic etc., to narrow down where you want to go. Try your library, at this stage the books don't need to be up-to-date, or hang out at your neighborhood bookshop with a cup of coffee and read theirs.

For train travel in Europe, read this site: http://www.seat61.com

For budget European airlines (pay attention to the luggage limits and add-on costs): skyscanner.net and whichbudget.com

For booking cheap places to stay: booking.com and eurocheapo.com and hostelbookers.com

And I second the warnings about temperature. I would not want to be in Italy or Spain, especially southern Italy or Spain (e.g. Rome, Naples, Barcelona, Seville etc.) in July or August. Go north!

Cowboy1968

thursdaysd

I suggested the car as ONE option as OP would otherwise have a problem to incorporate the possible destinations without incurring steep cross-border rental surcharges.
Trains are no blanket solution to OP's question as we and she still don't know where they want to go.
While trains are more available in Europe than in North America, it is a myth that we would use them a lot for long-distance travel. Actually, the car rules here as well.

LynnetteMField

These are really truly appreciated comments. What are cross-border rental surcharges, btw?! We haven't done this before, so feel a little overwhelmed (yes, I agree annhig!!!! And thanks for his good luck wishes!) with too many choices. We aren't on a back-packing budget - this is a trip-of-a-lifetime - but don't want to be in debt for years either. And I appreciate all those book ideas, I feel I have much to learn, and really am thankful for the direction. We will consider the advice to go north, but we all seem to want to put our eyes on something Mediterranean. We are so cold and waterlogged here, it just seems impossible to ever be warm again...but we want to hear and learn from your experiences.

janisj

>>What are cross-border rental surcharges, btw?! <<

Only time for a very quick comment right now . . . Those surcharges are when you collect a rental car in one country and drop it in a different country -- the fees can be HUGE. It is almost always to drop a car in the same country where you picked it up.

And sometimes you aren't allowed to take a car from one country into another (mostly in parts of eastern Europe)

JulieCallahan

In Hungary, a car will add cost to the trip, in my view not necessary. This trip can easily be done by train or bus.

We are finishing up an extremely warm winter here, by our standards. Do brace yourself for high temps. We moved to Budapest from Colorado and have decide to escape by returning there this July /August.

For me, Croatia is lovely... But only if you have already hit places like Rome, Florence, Venice, Amsterdam, Paris...

I would be worried about flying standby this time of year. July flights to and from the US are packed in my experience.

mariha2912

"My husband works for a major airline, so we can fly in and out of anywhere"

I would actually fly from US to somewhere in Southern Europe, say Athens, Rome, Barcelona...
You could stay put in one of those cities or split first week on two locations. Say if you arrive in Athens airport AM you can get a quick flight to an island, spend 3-4 nights to de-lag, then return to Athens to soak in the ambiance and sites.

You can then fly to Budapest for your second week,enjoy Hungary and decide on your 3rd week according to a convenient flight out to US from one of those cities or from somewhere else. If you book far in advance, flights from/to Budapest will not break the bank. I checked now and you can fly Athens-Budapest on Aegean for ~120 euro or so.