Markaphx

Hello fellow travelers,

I am in the planning stages our next trip, which will be in April 2012. We will have approximately 3 weeks and want to visit some new areas we haven't been before.
We had thought we were decided on a trip starting in Madrid, then Barcelona, Carcassonne, renting a car and traveling through the South of France with multiple stops to include Nimes, Arles, Aix, Monaco, and flying home from Nice (and several day trips along the way to smaller areas).

I started reading some topics and trip reports here about some other destinations and now I’m torn between this trip or changing up our plan completely.

The second option is flying into Warsaw and making our way down eventually to Dubrovnik, with multiple stops including Prague and Budapest. I know this is a lot of ground to cover. We would probably include some overnight train trips, which we have done before.

My question to the group is which trip would you suggest?

Some information about us: We are both 40 years old and enjoy being very active on vacation, to include lots of walking, hiking, and fitting the most we can into every day. No sitting on a beach for us! We enjoy museums but they are not what we plan our day around. We like to see historic and beautiful locations. Our first love is Italy, but the last couple years we have been expanding our travel to more countries.

I am very interested to hear your opinions on which trip you suggest.

Michael

You may want to take a look at the Michelin Green Guide <u>Languedoc, Roussillon, Gorges du Tarn</u>, and of course, there are plenty of hiking options in the Pyrenees.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...7623717915043/

yorkshire

I think one consideration is that the Spain-France trip covers less ground (literally and figuratively) and seems appropriate for three weeks.
The eastern Europe trip could certainly be done just fine in that amount of time, but in my opinion two weeks is perfect for traversing just Croatia, leaving about a week for the rest. Granted you'd be taking efficient trains from city to city, but does that sounds as good to you as leisurely exploring one limited area? (I travel a lot like you--except for the fitting a lot into one day part.) Either way you can't go wrong.
A nice part about the eastern trip would be the abundance of history for the first half and the abundance of nature for the second half--though there are both in both of course.

Lexma90

We've taken a trip that's similar to parts of your first plan, and visited many of the other places, and considered a trip that included Croatia. In addition to time considerations, which itinerary depends on what you want to spend your time on. Both locations have some beautiful scenery, so that's less of a decision factor. Both have potential for outdoor time and cultural activities. One thing will be, if it's important to you, that the food (IMHO) in Spain and France will be much better than you'll find with your other itinerary.

On our trip (a little less than 2 weeks), we started in Barcelona, then after stops in Girona and Figueres (the Dali museum), we spent a couple of days in the Languedoc. We love old, ruinous castles, and spent most of our time there visiting the "Cathar" castles. Carcassonne, BTW, is not the best city for Cathar castles - they're spread throughout the area; the castle in Carcassonne has been much (and inaccurately) reconstructed. Plenty of places for hiking to the various castles.

We then headed up to the Dordogne area for 5 or so days; we'd been to the area before, and wanted to revisit. Highlights there are more castles, from the middle ages primiarly; prehistoric cave paintings; gorgeous scenery and great food. We ended our trip by taking the train to Paris for several days.

Provence we enjoyed for the Roman history and the food. Also beautiful, but in a different way. When faced with a choice of returning to Provence or the Dordogne, we chose the Dordogne.

Madrid - we're visiting there for the first time this fall. Not known so much for its history, as it's a "young" city dating back to 1600 or so. We're going primarily for the museums.

Your other idea, we've also done part of. Several years ago, we considered a trip to the Dalmatian coast (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro), and decided that for our interests (history, art, and not beaches), we weren't as interested in that area. Instead, we began in Prague, then rented a car for a bit over a week to visit the rural Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, ending our trip with several days in Budapest. Prague is as beautiful as I'm sure you've heard. The rural areas were interesting, beautiful, and full of many castles to visit. Budapest was a more cosmopolitan city than Prague, and less charming. This itinerary had fewer museums and art than we usually like, but you may prefer that.

Between the two itineraries, I would choose the Spain/France combo, but cut out Madrid (if you're not so into museums) and add the Dordogne.

Enjoy your decision-making!

qwovadis

It will be lots colder in April in the east more fronts

weather2travel.com

Personally prefer Madrid Ronda Andalucia over to Barcelona

Costa Brava sunfrance.com Carcassonne Nime

Arles www.lecalendal.com AIX Nice/Monaco area

Better vibe weather for me... cheaper 2 if careful...

Especially than Croatia amazingly expensive for me last year

eurocheapo.com otel.com booking.com betterbidding.com deals

Happy deciding,

StuDudley

>>We will have approximately 3 weeks and want to visit some new areas we haven't been before.
We had thought we were decided on a trip starting in Madrid, then Barcelona, Carcassonne, renting a car and traveling through the South of France with multiple stops to include Nimes, Arles, Aix, Monaco, and flying home from Nice (and several day trips along the way to smaller areas).<<

>>Our first love is Italy, <<

I love Italy too. But since you seem to have not visited the South of France or Eastern Europe - how can you say that you love Italy first???

Warsaw is farther north than any spot in the USA, except Alaska. It is north of Calgary Canada. What is the weather like in this region of Canada in April??

If you like to hike & "get out & explore" I would stick to the South of France. We've spent about 50-55 weeks vacationing in the South of France, and 4 weeks in Prague, Danube Valley, Vienna, and Budapest.

I have the following itineraries that I developed from our experiences in the south of France.

- 27 pages on the Cote d'Azur & Provence

- 35 pages on Languedoc, Roussillon, and Lot

- 20 pages on the Dordogne.

e-mail me at [email protected] if you would like a copy of any of these.

Stu Dudley

kja

I think you will see and experience some wonderful things whichever trip you take, but I think "flying into Warsaw and making our way down eventually to Dubrovnik, with multiple stops including Prague and Budapest" is WAY too much for 3 weeks. I'd give that closer to 6 weeks, and I travel HARD. Hope that helps!

easytraveler

Agree with Yorkshire: Warsaw to Croatia is too much for three weeks. You're underestimating the amount of things you can do in those countries. The Czech Republic alone has enough castles to visit for three weeks...and more.

I'd suggest going with your original instinct and visit Spain-France. You'll have more than enough to do there in the allotted time.

Markaphx

Thank you everyone for the great advice.

I still want to see Eastern Europe, but will save it for the next trip.

Spain here we come!

c41

We just returned from a three week trip to the Basque country and France and Ireland. I would do the Spain France trip. The north of Spain and South of France is beautiful. If you fly into Madrid you might consider traveling up to Bilbao and exploring the city of Portugalante and then taking the coastal route to San Sebastian, which is very lovely. You can take the train from there, up through the Pyrenees. If you want to travel through the Basque coastal regions there is a blue train that goes to a lot of the little villages and the bus service is also excellent. Some villages to see on the way to San Sebastian are Mundaka, Gernika, Markeena, Bakio, Burmeo, the Caves of Zugarramurdiis, Lekeitio and Ondarroa; also St. Jean Pier de port and St. Jean de Luc. Pier de port is very pretty and is a major village where many Basque people departed for the United States in the 30's and 40's during the war. From San Sebastian you can travel to Lourdes by train through the Pyrenees. Lourdes is an experience. We also stopped in Poitiers on the way to Paris and found this little city a quiet gem. Not a lot of tourists and some very beautiful churches and quaint cobble streets. We had a lovely meal at Alain Bouh'n which was down from our hotel (The Grand Hotel). If you are renting a car, I understand the Dordogne Valley is a must. We traveled by train from San Sebastian to Paris. It was very scenic and comfortable. I bought the tickets through Rail Europe with no problems and it was very easy. I did everything online.

c41

One more tip is do not take American dollars. It is very difficult to find a bank that will exchange. The exchange houses are very expensive and charge a lot for commission. There was one bank in Bilbao - the main BBK bank in downtown Bilbao changed dollars to Euros for three percent commission. The only place in Paris we found was American Express exchange near the opera house and they charged 5 percent. Be careful using your debit card for cash as there is a high fee on the European end.

Michael

<i>Be careful using your debit card for cash as there is a high fee on the European end.</i>

The debit card is the ATM card, is it not? If so, the European banks do not charge a fee.

Kwoo

Markaphx,
I've been to the Czech Republic twice, and to Krakow once, & we were also in Spain last October (Barcelona, Costa Brava, Pyrenees & Girona). Both regions are very, very different from each other. personally, I like them both equally & would not be able to tell you to choose one over the other. EXCEPT that I do agree with the other posters that traveling from Warsaw to Croatia is too much in 3 weeks. so, if you decide to go to Eastern Europe for your next trip after Spain/France, you do need to do more research & trim down the number of destinations. For example, we spent 10 days just in the Czech Republic 2 years ago & didn't see all of it.

If it is helpful to you, you can click on my name to read my trip report to Spain from October 2010 and my trip report for the Czech Republic from August 2009.

Happy planning!

traveller27

You seem to have very similar interests to my husband and I when we travel. My first "love" is also Italy, but we've also travelled to the the south of France and Spain and we both really enjoyed those trips. As far as opportunities for walking, hiking, and visiting medieval towns - you'd love the south of France. There are lots of both "perched medieval towns", as well as lovely coastal destinations.
We also really enjoyed Madrid and Toledo - both have lots of spectacular areas for walking.

traveller27

You seem to have very similar interests to my husband and I when we travel. My first "love" is also Italy, but we've also travelled to the the south of France and Spain and we both really enjoyed those trips. As far as opportunities for walking, hiking, and visiting medieval towns - you'd love the south of France. There are lots of both "perched medieval towns", as well as lovely coastal destinations.
We also really enjoyed Madrid and Toledo - both have lots of spectacular areas for walking.