Tossing around spring break destinations: Croatia, Greece, Canaries?
 

My daughter's in London for the year, has spring break in February. She and I were thinking of taking off from there for a sunnier week, preferably one of the lower-cost areas.

She likes the idea of Croatia or Greece but is up for anything. I've never before been to a country where I've never studied the languge, and would feel more comfortable trying to get by in Spanish, French, Italian, or German, but am willing to make an effort. We both are good walkers and more interested in local culture and history than in beaches.

Do you well-traveled types have opinions on Split, the Arcadia area of Greece, Malta? How big a deal is language? Is Corsica worth a week in February? Canary Islands? I am asking this out of total ignorance of all those places except Corsica, so your info cannot be too dumbed down.

Oops I meant to put more tags on.

I mean I'm willing to make an effort to learn a bit of a brand new language, even Greek.

I haven't been to Greece, Malta, or the Canary Islands yet.

Croatia is obviously too large for just one week, and much will likely be very quiet during February -- but Split could be an excellent choice. I loved Split -- I found it dynamic and energetic and fascinating and with a life aside from tourism. It has a gorgeous lakefront, some interesting squares and museums, the incredible Diocletian's Palace and related monuments, and some great markets. That said, not everyone likes it and some Fodorites apparently dislike it.

Split could also be a good base for a few day trips -- Trogir, and island or two (ferries to many islands won't be running regularly then; those that can be reached by regular ferry are the ones most likely to still be "awake" in Feb.), Sibenik and Zadar (both of which, like Split, are university towns and so "open" year round).

You might even consider a night in the stunning Plitvice Lakes National Park, although the weather would not likely be ideal for seeing that glorious place.

As for language: Before I went to Croatia in 2009, I took pains to learn at least a few words and expressions. On at least 3 separate occasions (once in Trogir), a person to whom I said thank you in Croatian (hvala) seemed surprised, and then took a moment to thank me, in English, for thanking them in Croatian. I was told by each of these people that I was the first Westerner they had met who made that effort. Soooo sad. So no, I wouldn't think language will be an issue. No guarantees, especially if you get out of the cities, but I think you will find that Croatians are welcoming and patient -- at least they were with me. With very rare exception (and none in the area around Split), English was widely spoken and my effort to learn any Croatian were valuable not for the resultant communicative value, but rather as a civility in and if itself.

FWIW, I found the Rough Guide BY FAR the best of the half dozen or so guidebooks I used when I visited Croatia.

If you still want more tags, you might flag your post for the editors using the dreaded triangle -- you should be able to ask them to do that for you.

Enjoy your time with your daughter!

Ah, thanks, kja. That is so helpful!

I can't imagine traveling somewhere without basic phrases in the local language.

(Some kind editor must have given me a couple more tags; thanks!)

February in Greece is very Rainy ... warmer than London of course but Athens temps only reach low 50s This website --http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=61761&cityname=Athens-Attica-Greece&units=us -- shows the temp, rain, etc for all sites in Greece. Next to DEc & Jan, Feb is dampest - rainy days 11.5 out of 28.

Contrast it with this website for Canaries
http://www.holiday-weather.com/lanza...rages/february
low temp 57F, hi 70F, ave rainy days 3. MUCH more what you'd want.

I did this just now by using Google, which I recommend to you! No need for us to look up weather for you, we're more about tellling which places are worth spending time in, once you've researched the weather you want.

Hi, travelerjan. Thank you. Weather is not really that huge a factor for us. I wouldn't want somewhere in the middle of monsoon season, but we aren't looking to swim. Interesting architecture, a place where two women would feel reasonably comfortable walking around, maybe good public transport, a museum or two, natural beauty; that is pretty much my wish list.

In one week you could go to Athens and spend all your time there taking a couple of day trips (Aegina, Delphi, Hydra?) or split your time between Athens and Nafplion area.

Google those places for further info if you are not familiar with them.

You will face no language problems in Greece and it is a very safe place as far as you use common sense (actually the only hazard I can think is pick pocketing in Athens metro. Take usual precautions and you'll be fine).

February in the Canaries is warm, with the almond trees blossoming.
We took the whole family to La Palma in February a couple of years ago. It was warm enough to swim in the sea, but still cold up at the Roque de los Muchacos. Lovely walking weather.

If you opt for La Palma try to find somewhere on the west side of the island and not too high. It may not have enough entertainment for you or your daughter though, and it could well be all booked up already. Tenerife has more accommodation, entertainment etc, but also good walking.

mariha, that's very good to know. Greece is where she's always wanted to go. (BTW, just starting Paul Murray's Mark and the Void, loved this little exchange between Irish bankers:
"... what is it Greeks are good at again?" "Um, inventing democracy?" "They've been dining out on that one for a long time."

hetismij, Almond blossoms sound irresistible. Thank you. She might be more interested in entertainment than I am, come to think of it. I would have a few rereadings of the Master and Commander series to entertain me, mentally, around Tenerife, but she wouldn't.

I will forward these to her and let her decide. Really appreciate your help, all.

"long" in the quote above is supposed to be italicized, but I can't figure out how to do that on Mac. Italics would help the humor there, and someday maybe I'll learn how.

For italics: Before what you want in italics, < i > and after < / i > without spaces.

ah, <i>thanks</i>, kja

:-)

Really appreciate all of your thoughts on this.

I need to Skype my daughter on this, I guess, and find out why she's leaning towards Greece. (Though she says she'll be happy with anywhere, and means it.) If it's some island vision, I know that's out. Easyjet doesn't even fly to Crete except summer and fall, and I think most of the ferries shut down. It would be Athens, ruins and museums, with some day trips maybe to the Peloponnesian peninsula. Greece just seems so far away that it would take a leap of courage to get me looking at a whole nother alphabet.

I keep looking at Malta, since I love the idea of an island, and Nice. I'm ready to start flipping a coin and quit fretting.

This would be the last week of February, though looks as if Athens is decently mild then and reasonably sunny, compared to our home town and the UK. We can find an apartment for the money it would cost for a week in my humble Bloomsbury single hotel room, with enough left over for airfare.

Four hours flying time from London to Athens isn't that bad, really — I've done it enough times myself.

Ferries run all year round to every island, so it is possible to visit them even in February. A domestic flight from Athens to somewhere like Santorini or Rhodes takes less than an hour, making a quick visit feasible if you want an island fix. The islands will be very quiet in February, though.

Athens is a better winter destination, with its ancient sites and world class museums. Nafplio, a coastal town in the Peloponnese, is only two hours by road from Athens, and also has lots to see and do. Have a look at this:
http://www.visitnafplio.com

Excellent, Heimdall. A quiet island is the kind of island I like.

Thanks so much.

I've been to Malta twice, once in November, once in February. Very pleasant mild weather both times. Very safe. Fantastic public transportation; very cheap bus routes radiate out from the capital, Valletta, all over the island. Very friendly people, most of whom speak English, as their first or second language. Amazing ruins of thousands of year old temples. They were mercilessly bombed during WWII by the Germans (for something like 3 months daily) but rebuilt out of the same golden-hued limestone that their old buildings were constructed from so there's no jarring modern towers to ruin the skyline. Mdina is walled city that to this day has no motorized vehicles. Prices were very reasonable when I went (1997 and 2008) - don't know if that is still the case. Search this Forum for threads on Malta and mine (under a different name) might come up, but there will some other Fodorites info too.

Thank you, Nepheline. Excellent information. If we don't get there this trip I intend to sooner or later.

I've been surprised how little Malta's mentioned in guidebooks, though our library has Lonely Planet's slim one devoted to it.

It seems to me that your wish list is perfect for Madeira. February will be mild (milder than the UK, that's for sure) and the island has a lot to offer. There's easy access from the UK too. Stay in Funchal and hire a car, there's a good bit to see there.

We stayed at this hotel:

http://www.portobay.com/en/hotels/po...o-santa-maria/

It's well situated on the sea and right next to the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens.

Have you been to Sicily? We just returned from a three week trip, and I think it could also meet your needs in many ways. I've never been in February but when doing my research read that the almond trees are blossoming at that time. I am sure that like any place at that time of year you could run into rain.

Rubicund--I am intrigued by Madeira myself for a winter trip. For people who want to do some walking and enjoy some more scenic everyday places, how much time do you think a tourist could fill there? We are looking for a trip of much longer than a week.

IMO Madeira is great for a week, stretching it for 2 weeks, although that's without adding in any walks along the Levadas. Madeira is renowned for the scenic walks along these old irrigation channels in the hills and they pass through some of the most beautiful scenery.

The climate will certainly be milder than the rest of Europe, as will the Canary Islands. There are several Pousadas on the island, one or two in breathtaking locations.

I'll never forget arriving at a village high in the mountains and finding a small bar & restaurant that offered roasted chestnuts as a snack. With a nice beer, they went down very well.

Madeira sounds lovely, Rubicund. I'd love to go there, will add to my list.

Julies, I did look at Sicily a lot; it was right up there in my 4-way coin-tossing.

Greece it is, based partly on coin toss and partly on daughter's wishes. Decision phase over and tickets bought. We'll have to compromise on urban and nature phases.

Thank you all so much for your help.

Hi stokebailey,

Please come back with a trip report.

I can't imagine traveling somewhere without basic phrases in the local language.>>

stoke, if you're up for a language challenge, I can suggest Bulgaria. Like you I'm always keen to try to learn at least a bit before we go, but because our visit to Sofia was rather sprung on us I didn't get much of a chance, but it wouldn't have made much difference as it's pretty well incomprehensible.

Sofia was lovely though and very interesting, with quite a few day trip possibilities which sadly we didn't have time for. Not sure what the weather is likely to be like in February - the warmth and sunshine that we enjoyed in mid-November was said to be most unusual so who can tell?

perhaps more seriously, Malta would fit the bill for a week, as would Madeira, with the former having more to see in the way of history, I suspect [I've been to Malta, but not to Madeira, so I couldn't say for sure].

Good luck with finding the ideal place!

Hi, Heimdall, I will, and thanks.

Ha, Ann. Bulgarian! You intrepid Higgses. If you think I'm eager for that kind of language challenge I have given the wrong impression. My older brother studied ancient Greek, and could be heard from all around the house declaiming it in his room. He claimed that it had to be declaimed. Until last week I assumed it would be my total lifetime exposure.

We've settled on Greece, weather or not, so I'll start a separate thread with my several questions.

great - Greece. My experience is limited to a trip to Crete, a very long time ago; being intrepid [for which read foolish] having taken buses to get along the northern more built up coast of the island, we decided to hire a car to drive back along the southern coast, using the road that was shown clearly on the map which I still have. It turned out that the road marked on said map was purely advisory, and existed more in the imagination of the map maker than in reality and so far as I know that remains the position.

BTW, while we were discussing languages with some of our new Bulgarian friends, it emerged that there was a funny difference between Bulgarian and Greek in that in Greek "NE" [accompanied by a shake of the head] means YES, whereas in Bulgaria [where it is accompanied by a nod of the head] it means NO. This must be very confusing for people who move frequently between the two countries, which share quite along border - and it certainly confused me.

I do still remember some Greek, which when spoken is quite intuitive, [unlike Bulgarian!] apart from the positive head-shaking and negative nodding. In particular I remember "peponi" [sorry for the lack of actual Greek, I never mastered the written language] means water melon.

I hope that's useful.

Somehow some topics tend to get very off topic but for the record in Greek peponi = melon while karpouzi= water melon.

Furthermore ne or nie or niet or similar= no on many languages on Eastern Europe and Balcans and even central Europe (nie= no in Polish for example while tak= yes and no~yes ,as in yeah, I agree!) and let's not start on body language.....

thanks, mariha - I wasn't completely wrong, and it was about 35 years ago! Greek seems to be the "outlier" in Europe when it comes to "Ne" meaning yes - anyone know why?

You are welcome.

Different countries/regions of Europe use languages originating from different language families.

Modern languages that originate from the same language family often feature similar structure and their words have many common roots. So you may meet similar-ish words for same meaning such as the nie example above.

The languages coming from the Hellinic language family are the ones used mainly in modern Greece and Cyprus plus a few isolated areas/communities such as Calabria and Salento on southern Italy, some villages in Albania and Turkey, some communities in middle east and former USSR etc. This is a rather small area comparing with other regions of Europe where other languages, coming from an other common root are used.

For example Italian, French, Spanish, Portugese, Romanian and many other modern languages and dialects originate from Vulgar Latin and are spoken on a very large part of Europe while an other very large part of Europe is dominated by languages originating from the generic Slavic language family (for example Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Polish, Slovac, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian and many others).

So this is why Greek seems to be the outlier I guess...

Thank you again, mariha.

Now can you tell me why I find German, French, Italian and Spanish relatively easy but struggle with Latin?

For the same reason I find ancient Greek very very difficult although modern Greek is my native language lol

That's reassuring, mariha. I think that it is the lack of opportunities to practice talking, like you would a living language, that forms a barrier for me. Even Bulgarian I could see might make sense if one were there, speaking it.