natural beauty sight seeing in Europe
 

My husband and I are planning our trip from India to Europe. We have 10 days and we want to visit places of natural beauty like the alps. We have already been to Switzerland. Kindly suggest some good places to visit - its just the 2 of us !!

Hi N,

The Amalfi Coast, the Cinque Terre, Tuscany and the Dolomites in Italy.

Provence, the Dordogne and the Auvergne in France.

The Cotswolds and Scotland in the UK.

All of Ireland.

The Fjords of Norway.

The Alpine region of Austria.

Greece.

For a contrast with Switzerland, I thought the natural setting of the French Cote D'Azur was breathtakingly beautiful. Beautiful coastline, if you head out into the mountains (Alpes Maritimos) the views will capture your heart!

I also thought the natual beauty of Southern Germany-Northern Austria was incredible.

Another place where my jaw just dropped witnessing such natural beauty was the Western Highlands of Scotland. It was magical, just amazing.

The advantage with all three places mentioned is that a 10-day trip will be perfect to explore at leisure without driving tremendous distances.

There are so many possiblities in most countries. Here are just a very few: The Silla (Calabria), Pollino park (Calabria and Basilicata), Aeolian islands (Sicily), Nebrodi mountains (Sicily).

Hmmm ! Ten days--natural beauty.
I would head to the Lakes of Italy and add the Dolomites.

Southwest England - Devon to Cornwall. Also the Channel Islands.

Most of Central Europe costs a half or a third what west Europe costs. So I list

The lakes of Masuria in Poland and Lake Balaton (especially the peninsula) in Hungary

The high mountains, the Tatra, between Poland and Slovakia and the Carpathians in Romania, on the line Pascani, Bacau, Adjud, Focsani, Buzlau, Ploiesti.

Hill walking in south Bohemia, south of Ceske Budejovice, near the Iron gate in Serbia, and in other national nature reserves of Serbia.

The Danube delta, acres of country for waterfowl and reeds, in Eastern Romania near Galati.

I am afraid that the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania (cheap countries) are nothing special, while those of Croatia and Montenegro cost as much as places in western Europe.

If you fly to Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich or Vienna, whichever is cheap and convenient, for 80 euros you can take a train for a day from the airport east or south to these stretches of country, quite as beautiful as the great places of western Europe. The reason everybody lists places in the west is that until 1990 these countries were almost out of reach, and travel agents are conservative people. Moreover, in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia few people use English, and the travel infrastructure of hotels, trains and information offices is not strong, as it is anywhere from Poland to Hungary. But please hurry: this last year has seen signs of enterprising Fodors readers going off to Cesky Krumlov, Eger, and other places unmentioned five years ago.

Welcome to the new Europe

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Nidhi,

I'm from Scotland & there have been various media reports here about the increase in "Bollywood" films being shot in the Western Highlands - apparently it's become very popular for location shooting over the last couple of years.

If you pay us a visit, maybe you'll already be familiar with some of the scenery!

Jim

M

Iceland! Perfect for a ten-day trip and will surely be like nothing you've seen before in terms on natural beauty.

When are you travelling, that may affect your decision?

the mountains between Ronda and Arcos de la Frontera in Andalucia, Spain. Particularly Grazalema.

How about Slovenia and/or Croatia. Or Iceland for some outstanding scenery and nature.
My next choices would be Bavarian Germany or alpine Austria.

I second, third, forth all replies which said Iceland.