Please list down your favourite places in Europe.
 

Hi all!
Some 3 years back I used this forum to plan a Euro trip and discovered many hidden gems thanks to this forum. Valuable advice I got here was skipping brussels and going to Brugge instead. Also someone recommended going to Halstatt when visiting Salzburg, which was the highlight of our trip.

So im hoping to get valuable advice from experts here again. My husband and I are planning a trip to Europe in early August'17 for two weeks. We are in our late thirties and our interests when travelling are Sight seeing, food and experiencing different cultures. We are not into art museums or Night Life.
Countries that we have already visited and DO NOT plan to include in our itenary are Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Austria and Czech Republic or UK.

Please advise where you would recommend us to visit as we are totally in the initial phase of our planning and are totally open to any suggestions. Please list your most favourite places ( countries, cities or towns) in Europe and I will research more about them. Even better if u could suggest an itenary for these 2 weeks.

Thank you.

Spain is great but too hot in August (unless you go north.)
St Petersburg , Stocholm..? both very beautiful.

I would say Portugal and Spain but they would be awfully hot. You have a very short time, so even if they are expensive, why not go to Scandinavia. Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finlan, or Denmark.

Wont be able to enter St Petersburg because Ill be getting a Schengen Visa which only allows me to enter any of the 26 Schengen countries. These are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland

Stockholm Im reading up more on....
Thank you for your input!

I had to get Russian visa for SP...

Bedar ' suggestion is good ( yes, Scandinavia is expensive!)

So what would be your top picks in Scandinavia?

Countries that we have already visited and DO NOT plan to include in our itenary are Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Austria and Czech Republic or UK.>

Limits it a lot -Central/Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Spain and Portugal and Ireland and Greece.

Are you going by train or car or plane or thumb?

For trains and suggested itineraries check www.budgeteuropetravel.com (Online European Planning & Rail Guide has many possibilities; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com.

Scandinavia is rather expensive compared to most of Europe. Denmark no so much - I love Copenhagen and doing day trips from it. Stockholm is cool but the best thing in Scandinavia I've done was to take the Bergen Railway -one of the top scenic lines in Europe to Bergen then take the awesome fantastic Norway in a Nutshell loop from Bergen to the fjords and a boat ride around them.

It is an awesome boat ride Stockholm to Helsinki - nights are still long and you can ogle a terribly beautiful coast the whole way pratically.

Central Europe favorites - Prague - Krakow (Poland) -Budapest.

best thing in Scandinavia I've done was to take the Bergen Railway -one of the top scenic lines in Europe to Bergen then take the awesome fantastic Norway in a Nutshell loop from Bergen to the fjords and a boat ride around them.

It is an awesome boat ride Stockholm to Helsinki - nights are still long and you can ogle a terribly beautiful coast the whole way pratically.>

Sounds awesome... I'm looking up more on this!
If you could provide a link for both, it would be very helpful.
Thank you.

Sorry I have only been to places you DO NOT want to include!
:-)

Slovenia (Bled, Triglav national park, Ljubljana, Skocjan or Postojna, Piran) and Croatia (Zagreb and Istria - Rovinj, Motovun, Groznjan, etc plus Plitvice and Zadar) is an easy, compact and not expensive two weeks itinerary for august.

Go to Iceland for a week and Norway for a week. Both countries are gorgeous and very easy to drive around. Or you could easily spend two weeks in Norway. We were there for 6 days and started and ended in Bergen. Saw some beautiful country. One place we absolutely loved was called Nes Gard http://www.en.nesgard.no.

August- weather will be better in Scandinavia and Scotland, Russia.

Countries?
Cities?
Towns?
Villages?

Istanbul

Portugal is nice for a few weeks -rent a car and go up and down. Still cheaper too than much of northern Europe.

Why have you ruled out Austria? Have you driven the Großglockner on a picture-perfect blue sky and sunshine summer day? Are the cool and crisp Krimml waterfalls not of interest? Is your camera card full of Hallstatt and Salzkammergut photos? Are you tired of fresh fish? Have you hiked/walked the vineyards of the Wachau or Vienna in August, when the grapes practically burst with every snap of the camera, and the wine taverns are offering up cold glasses of the house white?

Having done everything described above, our teen daughter (and her two friends) and I are heading into the Tirolean Alps for two weeks in late July/early August. We are renting a family apartment where DH can meet us on the weekends. Our plan includes plenty of wandering and loving (respectfully) on all of the alpine cows that we may meet; lounging by the pool; and eating incredible meals.

Some food for thought.

they've been to Hallstatt and loved it - in OP -they want to visit different countries.

PalenQ, Hallstatt is not the entirely of Austria. ;)

Ugh. *Entirety" of Austria is what I meant.

We have lived in this gorgeous country for five years and "sightseeing," "food," and, "experiencing different cultures," describes most of Europe. The Austrians we encounter when we cross city limits sign are not at all the same as the Viennese. Austrian cuisine is not, "Viennese" in its entirety, either.

Really, we do not know what the OP is seeking.

Countries that we have already visited and DO NOT plan to include in our itenary are Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Austria and Czech Republic or UK.>

Pretty clear to me what OP wants and does not want to visit.

You are spot on right -countries are different from large cities to countryside -France for example has so many neat different regions that are so so different from Paris.

But OP has stated he/she don't want to visit Austria but a new country.