sunrise1940

My husband and I want to spend one month in one city, or one small area, next Spring. I am looking for suggestions from people who have done this, or perhaps spent two weeks but would have happily stayed longer. We have traveled in Europe quite a lot and always rented a car or took trains. As the years have passed we find that a bit too stressful. So, we hope that “peeling the onion” in one wonderful European city will be a very good experience. We do love the countrysides of all the countries, but the stress of driving and traveling around a lot is ruling it out. We first thought that Paris, Rome, Prague, Budapest, Berlin, or London might fit the bill. I prefer Paris, husband prefers Berlin, and we ruled them out (temporarily) and also the others for various reasons. What is the city (other than the ones I named) that you could happily enjoy for a month?

Christina

interesting, I never would have thought of Berlin. For me, it would be Paris or maybe Barcelona. But I don't think you can just ask others, there has to be some reason you yourself are interested in a city and want to be there. For me, it's language (and I have spent a month in Paris several times for studies, but know Spanish and would like to know more). I'm not sure I could really "enjoy" being in a city where I didn't speak the language at all for a month, but I just wouldn't do that to begin with. If I were going to spend a month in a place, I'd spend at least a year studying the language, probably, as I enjoy doing that. And then I'd probably take classes when I was there.

I know a lot of people aren't interested in studying languages, though, but I think you'd have to have some reason of your own to want to be in a place, whether that or cultural. I also spent a month in Paris once attending master classes in piano at a music conservatory, so I could see myself in a city with a very developed classical music scene, also. But I'd have to have some interest in a city's cultural venues and research it to decide if I wanted to spend a month there, I wouldn't do it because someone else liked it.

Or perhaps family history could be a reason. I have a friend who spent a month in Florence as she had Italian family background and wanted to experience some of her roots, although I'm not sure she had been to Italy before. She also spent a year studying Italian before going to make the most of it.

pariswat

Lyon would do it for me. Or Provence, bsing myself in Lyon + Avignon.
Or Muenchen, Tuscany, Edinburgh.
Or Scandinavia - never been there.

Or an island. I like islands, you are in a delimited area, homogeneous and usually not too big...

I could do Corsica.

welltraveledbrit

Hi Sunrise,
Over the last few years we have done this several times. We spent a month in Lisbon, three months in London and just over three weeks in Rome. We enjoyed the time we spent in all these places and if you click on my name above you can find the trip reports for each sojourn. It's very different to take your time, because you get around to the secondary things which may in fact be more interesting that the "top" sites. Of the places we've spent more time you've ruled out all but Lisbon, here's a link to our blog posts.

http://www.somuchmoretosee.com/search/label/Lisbon

We enjoyed Lisbon precisely because there wasn't so much we felt we HAD to do. It was a very relaxing month and we really spent the time to hang out an enjoy the ambiance which was very different to London, Paris and Rome where there's so much to see

Language is relevant, for example in London we were able to enjoy the theatre while in paris I was opting for classical concerts. Berlin certainly has incredibly museums and lots of cultural offerings but I'd be concerned about the weather depending on when you're going. London is a strong contender to me because there's so much to see and do. I realize you've currently ruled it out but just in case here's what we did over three months which gives you an idea of smaller museums and sites.

http://www.somuchmoretosee.com/search/label/London

One of the great things about going for a longer period is the planning, making the time to read about the history and culture of the city. You can see some of our planning threads here....

http://www.somuchmoretosee.com/searc...rip%20Planning

Outside of the places you've mentioned we have several places on our list where we'd like to spend a month or more, Athens, Naples, Nice, Venice and Istanbul come to mind along with Stockholm where we could visit friends. I'd only consider Barcelona in the deep off season. I wouldn't want to spend a month battling the crowds.

Peter_S_Aus

We have visited Venice five times, each time for a couple of months. Getting to know the "second tier" of attractions, as noted above, is fun.

If you click on my user name, you will find trip reports for each visit.

Venice works well for us - there is quite a small town feel about the place, and living in a fully pedestrian environment is fun.

StCirq

Personally, I would opt for outside the box and do something like Toulouse or Marseille or Genoa or Istria or Bari or Reykyavik or Malta or Agadir.

mokka4

Sunrise,
would you daytrip?
If your budget allowed it, I would say, Lucerne, Switzerland. Beautiful small city, with so many points of interest, both in town and within 2 hours...to include mountaintops, lakes, small villages, historical sites, museums, and a multitude of cafes/restaurants, frequent street markets. However, Switzerland is darn expensive.
Well connected for public transit...

NewbE

I would choose London, because of the absence of any language barrier. I can speak or get by in Spanish, French and German, but it would be so easy to enjoy an English speaking country, for me. Theater alone would be a wonderful treat. England is also a small enough country that you could drive all around it if you wanted to get out of the city.

joan

Does it have to be a city? As in large?

If not, a Tuscan village like Montepulciano could make me happy for at least a month...exploring and hanging...aaah!

Lucky you!

traveller1959

I perfectly understand your point.

But, in order to give you good advice, we need more information about your preferences. What do you like? How do you want to spend your days? What climate do you prefer in spring? How much does budget matter? Which month exactly (it makes a big difference whether you want to go in March, April or May)?

Climatewise, my first thought for springtime would be southern Europe: the Côte d'Azur, Barcelona, Tuscany, Greece...

welltraveledbrit

Marseille would appeal to us too, good suggestion.

sunrise1940

I appreciate everyones efforts to help us decide were to spend probably our last trip to Europe. It has all been helpful.
Traveler1959: Good questions that made me think.
• Planning mid-May to mid-June trip for mild weather (get a break from Fl heat!)
• My husband, because of some health reasons, needs to be able to get back to our apartment a couple of times a day for some downtime. I, on the other hand, am more active so would like to be able to walk to places within a 20 min. walk to stores, a park, museum, or just an outdoor café.
• We would take a few day trips when husband has good days.
• We enjoy museums, just not every day.
• Love exploring new neighborhoods, outlying areas—peeling that onion.
• Meeting new people.
• Visiting markets, festivals, folk dancing....
• As for restaurants, we prefer light meals, not the Michelin several course ones.
• Budget, mediocre (apt. usually $200 a day for a nice one). Switzerland for 2 weeks was included on our 2012 trip and we survived the prices there! 

I like your suggestions for Nice (we have always meant to return there for more than the usual 3 or 4 days. Just don’t know if there is enough to do there without needing to go on a lot of day trips, although I personally would love taking trains to several villages in Provence and revisiting many of them. Lisbon: we were there with our teen sons in 1984 and also the Algarve. I suppose there would be a lot more to see now as it must have changed a lot. We spent 2 weeks in Amsterdam as part of 2012 trip and liked it a lot. Really good city for walking. I could go back because even then we did not get to a lot of areas.

St.Cirq: I too have considered out of the box places. If you have spent time in Toulouse or Marceille, please tell me about the cities. How about Turin? Been to Istria but spent most of the time in Rovinji, just can’t picture a whole month there!

Mokka4: Luzern, yes, that has been on our radar a lot lately. A month there though? We loved staying on Lake Geneva with frequent trips to Vevey and Montreax, then moved to Chateau d’Oex for a week. Breathtaking scenery in all places! However, we stayed at a vineyard and it was fabulous scenery but no place for me to walk when husband needed that downtime/nap/ reading, etc. and I was itching to go somewhere.

I am going on too much, but I will blame it on traveler1959 because of the questions he asked me. I know this decision should not be so hard---but it is. 

mokka4

Sunrise:
Can your husband ascend the 'lower' mountaintops, like the still spectacular Stans, Rigi or Pilatus? Lunch on a sunny terrace, a short walk to an outlook, or an hour-long circular hike?
Einsiedeln with its rococo monastery housing the famous Black Madonna, lakeside Zug with its famous cherry torte, Rapperswil with its Polish castle/deerpark/Capuchin monastery and well-known rose gardens...all about an hour from Luzern, making lovely half-day trips.. Not to mention Bern and Zurich, for your more cosmopolitan feel!

mokka4

Or, what about Bern itself? Such an eminently walkable city, arcaded even, for bad weather. I rented an apartment in 'town' two years ago, and loved being able to drop 'home' in the middle of the day. Cultural activities abound. Transport central. Quirky shops...
ok, now I want to go back...!

IMDonehere

We have spent a month in Madrid and Barcelona and accumulative far more than a month in Paris, London, and Santiago de Compostela.

Prague is good for seeing other places and I would not want to spend a month in Budapest. And we have never been to Berlin.

Using your criteria as stated at 8 PM, I would narrow it down to Paris and Barcelona. Great parks, neighborhoods, restaurants, markets, and as for folk dancing, it is rarely mentioned but we love to go down to the Cathedral on Saturday night and Sunday morning and watch (and if you have the inclination) join in the traditional Catalan folk dance La Sardana.

Switzerland could qualify as the sleep clinic of Europe.

KTtravel

How about splitting the difference -- two weeks in Paris and two weeks in Berlin?

We spent two weeks in Paris last year and had a great time. We hope to someday spend a similar amount of time in London, Rome and possibly Istanbul.

swandav2000

Hi sunrise1940,

I was going to suggest what KTtravel did -- two weeks in Paris and then two in Berlin. I thought that having a single rail transfer wouldn't be too difficult to handle and would be a lot easier than moving every 3 or 4 days --

I understand your comments about having the fabulous scenery but no place to walk in Switzerland -- probably because you stayed isolated in a vineyard. How about staying right in Vevey itself? There are wonderful walks along the lake in both directions; there are wonderful walks up in the hills above the lake (access them by cable car, train, or bus); and there are dead-easy and fun excursions by train to Morges, Nyon, Montreux, Villeneuve, Glion, etc that can take only 2h or 3h total while your husband is resting.

Or how about somewhere in the Engadin Valley, which seems to be missing from the places you've visited in Switzerland. Again, there are numerous walks you can take up & down the Inn valley, and you can visit nearby villages and towns for half a day.

Well, have fun as you plan -- and I hope you find just the right spot!!

s

DebitNM

We just did a week in Lyon (no car) and it was about 2 days too much).


Personally, we would do 3 or 4 places in a month split between cities and more rural areas./ villages. It may sound odd, but we would be bored with a single place for a month.

May in The Luberon is lovely, before it gets too hot and too crazy. A week in Prague, a week in Paris, a week in the Luberon and one other spot would be my idea of a good split. Maybe more in Luberon and Paris. We stayed 2 weeks in the Luberon with a car and were busy with day trips the entire time.

welltraveledbrit

Of course it depends on what you enjoy (and I understand some may get bored) but I would say stick with your "peeling the onion" one month plan. As someone who has taken this approach I think there's a lot to be gained. A longer stay afforded us the time to relax and appreciate the destination.

Given your husband's health constraints the hills in Lisbon may not be great.

<Meeting new people> I have to say I think can be harder to meet people when staying in an apartment than in a hotel. We've met people through conversation exchange which we used in Paris and friends of mine swear by the online service "meet up". We've also met friends of friends in places we've ended up. But I think your best bet for meeting people locally could be through your interests, folk dancing etc.

traveller1959

sunrise:

If you are going from mid-May to mid-June and you want to escape Florida heat Northern Europe might be the better option than Southern Europe where the sun will be burning and where it can get pretty hot.

Given your interests, an apartment in a larger city with nice, walkable neighbourhoods, shops, restaurants, museums and good public traffic would be perfect.

There are many cities in Europe which would fit the bill. I start by countries:

- UK: In London, you will find pretty neighbourhoods with parks, restaurants etc., especially around Chelsea, Mayfair, Kensington. Tons of things to see and to do. Price level: $$$$ (from five).

- Switzerland: Luzern is a lovely, picturesque town, but I am afraid you will get bored after a few days, because it is very small. Larger cities with more options are Bern and Zürich. Both have their charm and since the railway system is so efficient in Switzerland you will be in an hour in Luzern. However, due to recent currency changes, prices in Switzerland had been skyrocketing. It will be much more than in 2012. A friend of mine just returned from Luzern and she said they charged 24 Franken for the simplest pizza! So, price level is $$$$$.

- France: Paris would perfectly match your criteria. Like London, an incredible array of attractions. Besides, lots of cafés on the boulevards which might appeal to you. However also pricey: $$$$. Nice also has quite a bit to offer and there are dozens of art museums in nearby towns, many of them easy to reach from Nice. But it might be pretty warm in June. Also $$$$

- Germany: Your hubby is right - Berlin would also fit the bill perfectly. Some 200 museums, a lively restaurant scene, parks, grand old buildings, rivers, lakes - and a moderate price level: $$ Or München - a grown-up village close to the Alps? $$

- BeNeLux: Amsterdam is a lovely city to spend a month. In addition, there are many options for daytrips and the sea is close. Price level: $$$

- Scandinavia: Have you thought about Copenhagen? A beautiful historic city. Prive level: $$$$

- Austria: Vienna is a charming city. Also everything you want. Price level: $$$

- Eastern Europe: Prague, Krakow, Budapest - all charming historical cities and all $.

I know, it will be a tough decision. Keep thinking.