Need advice Best European city for New Year celebration
 

I need your advice, in fact I need a lot of advice! I am planning a surprise New Year's trip for my husband and my 19-year-old daughter. Whis is the best European city to ring in New Year, in your experience? We like fireworks, street parties, food and drink, classical concerts, cooking, art and old history. We love staying in apartments (any recommendations?), shopping for local food, cooking and travelling on our own...not a cruise- or all-inclusive kind....the place cannot be too cold, -5 C is OK... Any events you recommend? any particular places to visit ? Any New year's festivals, concerts?Which old European city would you recommend for the best new year's celebration experience? GOt to be affordable too...Thanks in advance!

Based on your interests - Paris.

We also loved nye in Lisbon

Thank you! Paris is so huge for us, we are actually planning a special trip on another occasion. I also heard it's not very affordable...

Rome

Paris is totally affordable. Where are you getting your information? I've never been, but I've actually heard that NYE in London is spectacular, but that IS a really expensive city, compared to Paris.

And by the way, Paris is not huge. It's quite compact.

Amsterdam if you like your fireworks on the wild side. Plus street parties.

Vienna may be an option, depending on how you define affordable. There is a "New Year's Path" throughout the InnerStadt, the City Hall and the Prater offering entertainment for all ages, food, waltz lessons and more; and residents and tourists alike start ringing in the new year with fireworks from the early afternoon on. For as reserved as the Viennese can be, somehow New Year's brings out the party. Last year we headed up into the vineyards to watch the fireworks across the entire city (as well as in the vineyards)--quite something to see! On New Year's Day the Vienna Philharmonic concert is displayed on a massive screen at the city hall, too.

We spent NYEve in Salzburg one year after reading that it was one of the best NYE celebrations in the world, mentioned alongside Sydney, etc. We loved it. Fireworks everywhere, lit up sides of buildings with maps of Austria, scenes of Salzburg, etc. Ice skating rink in the middle of town, and best of all wonderful street markets selling ooey, gooey sandwiches as you walked along with sparking wine in hand.

It's a very navigable city. While we didn't stay in an apartment, we did have a double room for us and our son at the Goldener Ente right downtown which even had cooking facilities. Food everywhere was wonderful. I'll hunt up the link to my trip report from that year and post it on this thread for you.

I recall that we did a day trip by train to Vienna to see the holiday decor in that city--long but fun. And, of course, Salzburg always has lots of music. Should meet most all of your criteria.

Wherever you decide to go, have a wonderful time.

Here's the link to my trip report on our Salzburg New Year trip. Highly recommend it.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...n-salzburg.cfm

Hogmanay in Edinburgh, several days of concerts and street parties drawing on both traditional and contemporary music and with a series of fireworks. http://www.edinburghshogmanay.org/

Amsterdam. One big street party.

Many Thanks everyone! Thanks for your time and thanks for the links, I've saved them all, for both 2013 and future trips. I know who is going to Hogmanay as soon as she possibly can: my daughter :-) France: great to hear that Paris is affordable..! By "Paris us huge for us" i meant it is a place of great cultural significance to us as one of The Main European Cultures...our ethnic family roots are from Europe, but we live in Canada so travel is expensive for us. It will be a separate and very special trip for us, to go to Paris one day, I think we will plan it for spring or summer...I was thinking a major old-architecture and old-culture place that doesn't get too ugly-cold on winter. I can handle comfortably up to -8C as I realize we'd have to do a lot of walking. I grew up in Siberia but my hands freeze quickly when it's -10C and under...Planning to go to Vienna this summer already! does anybody know how bad (cold and wet) it gets in Amsterdam in winter?

London.

Amsterdam in winter: it depends. Last winter was long and cold, with snow in december and nearly and 11 cities race, but there are winters that are mild and wet. We rarely go below minus 10 though.

The think you need to remember about NYE is that fireworks are a diy affair then. So everyone lights their own. Usually there are street concerts everywhere and many people's favorite area of the city is Nieuwmarkt/Zeedijk where many Chinese restaurant owners light their fireworks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUAEEtYitnQ

Probably anywhere..Eating white grapes in Madrid as the bells toll!! Fireworks in Cacasonne seen from a little way away on a hill top. Everyone celebrates nye and usually does it up right. A word of caution.Canada can be cold, cold and humid, cold and dry but Europe will be damp cold so layers, layers, layers!

I have celebrated bringing in the New Year in Rome, and in London. Both were lots of fun for different reasons. I particularly enjoyed Rome..there was a massive crowd at the Piazza Republica with fireworks, etc. Fantastic. Rome was cold but not overly so, but it did rain quite a bit. Rome obviously has that old world architecture that's on your wish list.

London was fun but I celebrated with my travel partner's high school friend (married to a Londoner) at their flat. It was more low-key but it was great spending it in a neighborhood very much off the tourist track. (Don't ask me where...it involved several tube stops and a long walk in the neighborhood). London was cold and damp, but not miserably so. We were in London for 5 days and I recall very little sunshine during the entire time.

My goal is to spend each year in a different country(this year I'm going to be in Mexico). Maybe you'll make that a tradition too! Hope you enjoy wherever you end up!

Hi O,

> I am planning a surprise New Year's trip for my husband and my 19-year-old daughter. <

You and DH go to Vienna or Paris.

Your daughter goes to Prague.

Happy Holidays.

((I))

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...m#last-comment

Amsterdam has a HUGE huge New Year's Eve celebration - bombastic - like a war going on with all the fire works coming from every roof it seems in the city!

The OP hasn't been back since October. (The thread was topped by an advertiser)