Jay709

So I'm taking my girlfriend on a vacation this summer, specifically the last week of August.

We've been bouncing around ideas for about a month now and we're having a hard time narrowing down our choice, so I figured I'd appeal to the internet for some insight.

We're looking to have a fairly active trip, see some cool stuff, with some unique activities. Beaches and shopping aren't of any particular importance. Flying out of Canada, running on a budget of roughly $2500 per person with a week to spend.

Ruled out most Caribbean locations and the States.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

Jean

You've posted on the Europe Forum, so I presume you want to go to Europe.

Off the top of my head, I'd say the Berner Oberland area of Switzerland for its variety of outdoor activities. But you only have a week and Canada is a big country, so exactly what are your flight options? Where in Europe can you fly into and out of without multiple or inconvenient connections? Does the $5,000 include air fare?

StCirq

Good thing you're not interested in beaches, as the last week in August will be standing room only on European beaches.

Think about Scotland, the Italian Lakes, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, Turkey.

And yes, does the $5,000 include airfare or not?

Andrew

Go to Hulu.com and look for all of the Rick Steves videos on Europe - there are a bunch of them. Watch a few, see what appeals to you.

I vote for Slovenia, having visited last September. It's less touristed (by North Americans) than the "typical" Europe hot spots like Italy and France. Slovenia a really wonderful little country; many Americans I talk to (Canadians too?), even the ones who have been to Europe, have no idea where Slovenia even is, so it sounds very exotic. You could easily spend a week in the capitol city of Ljubljana and drive through some small towns, Lake Bled, and Triglav National Park to see some castles, do some hiking, etc. For your budget, flying to/from London might be most practical and then using easyJet to fly to/from Ljubljana. (you could do the same with Paris I think).

There is a Rick Steves Slovenia video on Hulu (last I checked). Click on my name above to find my recent trip report.

Jay709

Thank-you for the replies.

$5000 is the total budget for the trip and we'll be flying out of Halifax or Toronto.

Europe is the primary choice, but we're keeping our options open, we had a look at some Costa Rican locations as well as Belize, Chile etc...

We're looking more towards countries with interesting culture, landscape and history. At one point we were pretty close to selecting Bucharest for a Music Festival and potentially Transylvania afterwards. Iceland has also been strongly considered, there's just so many options, haha.

Hulu.com isn't available to Canadians.

adrienne

How does hulu know that you're Canadian? Do you have a particular IP address that hulu blocks? What if you crossed the border and used a US address. How would hulu know you were Canadian?

I thought internet addresses were available to anyone with an internet connection no matter where they were located.

mamcalice

Have you been to Europe before? Easier to make suggestions if we know what you have liked and already seen.

Andrew

adrienne: <i>How does hulu know that you're Canadian? Do you have a particular IP address that hulu blocks? </i>

That's almost how it works. It uses the IP to figure out what country you are in; if you don't have a US IP block, it will block you.

FYI, if you want to use Hulu in Canada, you can sign up for a US-based VPN service; connect to that, then you can use Hulu in Canada - because it will think from the VPN that you are in the US. But signing up/using a VPN is too much trouble for most people.

I have a VPN at home, and when I'm in Europe I connect to my VPN so I can use Google Voice to make free phone calls via my laptop back to the US. Google Voice does not work in Europe based on the IP - but it thinks I'm in the US at home when I'm connected to my VPN.

Jay709

Have not been to Europe before. The extent of my traveling is within Canada, the northeastern US, Dominican and Cuba.

adrienne

Thanks Andrew! I'd not been on hulu before but I see that there isn't much there to get excited about so our Canadian friends should not be disappointed.

Jay - do a bike ride across Belgium. You certainly don't want to be in the August heat, especially now that we know you're from the cold place up north! Belgium is lovely and small enough to cover in a week.

Amy

Before I even read your second post, I was going to suggest Iceland. Since you only have a week, there are a lot of advantages: it's closer, it's easy to do a lot in a week, and it takes in all of those things you ask for.

Here's an old list that gives some reasons for choosing Iceland: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...in-iceland.cfm

mamcalice

I think I would consider Paris and a bike trip in the Loire.