AmandaVS

My husband, sister, sister's boyfriend and I are planning a trip to Europe (late) October or November 2012 for approximately 10 days. I am looking for some ideas on destinations. Originally, I thought Dublin/London/Rome but after reading other forums it seems 10 days are not enough for three major cities. Any suggestions on 2 major cities and day trip(s)?

I studied abroad in '05 and visited London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Prague, and Seville. I don't mind going back to ONE of those, but am hoping to see a new city on this trip. My husband and sister's boyfriend have never been to Europe. My sister has been to London. We are interested in seeing amazing sights, eating amazing food, and the men would be thrilled if they could golf. Not so much into hiking/backpacking/skiing and things like that... prefer big cities.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thank you!

pmccallum

If it were me in your situation, I would definitely go to Paris and then either Florence or Rome. Dublin would be great too, as would Barcelona or Madrid or Amsterdam or Berlin . . . Ah, decisions, decisions.

StCirq

How about Turkey and Greece?

AmandaVS

I would personally love to visit those places but my husband and sister do want to go to at least one "major" city like Rome or Paris...

Barblab

Paris and Berlin.

Christina

I don't think 10 days is too short for 3 cities, I've done that. But when I did it, they were closer together than your first idea. That's what I think is the problem with that. So I was going to suggest Dublin, Edinburgh and London, very nice combination and golf would be possible. But then I saw this was planned for November, and I don't think that's such a great time for those places. If it were September, okay.

I'd suggest Madrid, Barcelona, Paris. At least they are in a fairly reasonable direction, whichever end you start at. At least that's only two countries and Barcelona is different from other parts of Spain. And Spain should't be terribly cold in November, I guess, at least Barcelona. I don't know about golf, I think you have to be doing a vacation where you are staying outside cities for that to work very well.

jnjfraz

This might help with your transportation issues. Buy a round trip from whereever you are to the best large city that is at a good price. Then go to this site and get inexpensive direct flights to other places you might want to go to. http://www.whichbudget.com/

The flights should help you spend more time in the cities than traveling via other modes.

Gardyloo

You need to remember that most of Europe is considerably farther north than most of the US, so "late October or November" runs the risk of being pretty cold/wet in some cities. Not that that's necessarily a deal breaker, but with only 10 days it would be a shame to have cold or inclement weather play too big a factor.

So I probably would opt for cities more to the south than north - Barcelona in particular could be great, Rome too. And Paris in the autumn is glorious (also winter and summer, but you already knew that.)

sheri_lp

How about Rome and Amalfi Coast? Positano is stunningly gorgeous in October! or at least it was when I was there

clausar

i would combine Rome with Athens, both cities have great sights, weather will be warmer as in the north of Europe, and you can golf in both cities...
Athens is the ideal basis for day trips to Delphi, Nafplio, Epidavros and Mycenae

scrb11

If they insist on lugging golf clubs, limit it to two cities. Or better yet, leave the clubs and the men home.

Paris and Madrid or Barcelona.

You can do open jaw, fly into one city and return to the US from the second destination. So that might mean train from Paris to Barcelona, which is closer by train (they're about the same length of trip by plane).

Or an Italian combo like Rome and Venice or Rome/Florence/Venice. Even if you've been before, there's always something new to see. Or maybe you have a bigger budget so you can dine better than you did as a student.

mamcalice

That time of year you might consider either Rome and Barcelona, Madrid and Andalucia (Seville and Granada) or Paris and Barcelona.

Encourage the men to leave the golf clubs at home. You can play golf anytime but you're only in Europe for 10 days. Enjoy the experience.

StCirq

<<I would personally love to visit those places but my husband and sister do want to go to at least one "major" city like Rome or Paris...>>

Istanbul and Athens aren't "major cities?"

MissKelsey

Not sure about your travel dates but there is a chocolate festival in Perugia Italy from Oct 19th to the 28th. I've never been but a friend did and loved it For me Paris is always top of the list for cities.

Russ

"We are interested in seeing amazing sights, eating amazing food, and the men would be thrilled if they could golf."

I wouldn't waste my time traveling super-long distances by train or waiting at airports. Pick some places that are near one another.

3-4 great cities with great museums and other sights that you could visit in 10 days: Brussels (2 days), Bruges (2-3) Cologne (2) A'dam (3-4)

Brussels-Bruges: 1 hour
Brussels-Cologne: 2 hours
Brussels-Amsterdam: 2 hours

Amazing sights:

Cologne Cathedral: the most visited sight in Germany, the most massive Gothic cathedral in northern Europe

800+-year-old Marksburg Castle south of Cologne on the Rhine: http://www.roadstoruins.com/marksburg.htm

Grand Place, Brussels: truly awesome. http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowUs...-Brussels.html

Bruges: the whole town is picture-perfect.

Brussels is full of great food. The diplomats there require it.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...-Brussels.html

And the beer doesn't get much better than in Belgium and Germany. Tell the cretin golfers to drop the clubs and head to the pubs. Nice brewery tour in Bruges: http://www.halvemaan.be/
Heineken in A'dam: www.heinekenexperience.com/

Russ

"(2 days), Bruges (2-3) Cologne (2) A'dam (3-4)"

Oops. I meant 2 in Bruges and 2-3 in Cologne to include an outing to Marksburg Castle.

And an outing from A'dam:

http://www.zaanseschans.nl/

fmpden

IMO, the key to a short trip is keeping the travel distances short. Anytime you change locations you will lose at least a half day of productive sightseeing time just packing, unpacking, checking in and out of hotels, finding the train and next hotel, get oriented at new location, etc. Add your travel time, especially if long distances, you can easily lose a whole day or more. Change locations three or four times in a ten day trip and you have lost a significant part of your total time.

So do a triangle of Paris, Brussels, London, Paris, with shorter travels distances for example.

Our preference is always open jaw tickets -- into one city and home from another. We recently did a Madrid (3), Cordoba (1), Seville (3) and Granada (3) and home from Malaga. That was more rushed that we normally do but it give good variety with very reasonable time travels. You could do the same thing in Italy of into Milan or Venice and home from Rome. Or into Rome and home from Zurich which we did a few years ago. On a short time trip you really don't have much time to play golf.

suze

Paris/Amsterdam
Paris/Barcelona
Venice/Geneva Lac Leman region

For 1st timers nothing wrong with the ever-popular London/Paris or Rome/Venice combination (except you have already been to them so doesn't fit that criteria).