Hi there:
I am currently going through European travel withdrawal. Last year at this time, I was weeks away from one of the most incredible trips our family has ever taken; 4 days in Paris, 4 days in Venice, a week in Tuscany and 5 days in Rome. So I'm in the long range planning mode for our next trip. (perhaps early summer 2008) Every bone in my body wants to go back to Santa Maria Novella Pharmacia for one more whiff, or be eating the incredible salami in Greve or looking at Caravaggios in Rome after the Scavi tour BUT the world is a big place and it's time to see more of it.

Here's what we like - since we're lucky enough to be able to take a short resort style trip every year to Hanalei, HI and relax and recharge, the hustle and bustle of big or semi-big European cities really appeals to us. Museums, cafes, great meals, early morning markets, ancient ruins are right up our alley.

Some thoughts have been:
a week in London and surrounding areas and a week in the Irish or Scottish countryside
Hitting the Eastern European cities like Prague and Budapest
Santorini and Athens

I'd love your thoughts as I try to get the Italy monkey off my back... or maybe be talked into the places we missed like Positano, Sicily, Cinque Terre, etc.

Thank you so much!

If I were you I would go back to those places you're still craving and not quite "done with" yet before I hit new ground.

Not exactly the same but my family has been skiing in Aspen for various holidays for over twenty years. A few years ago we started going other places to ski because I thought we should branch out and see what we've been missing. Four vacations in a row my kids said to me (and I thought to myself), "Well, it isn't Aspen."

I've stopped trying so hard to find other ski resorts that satisfy us on all levels (skiing, restaurants, shopping, service). We just spent spring break there two weeks ago and I have already been asked if we're going back for Christmas next year.

I'm all for discovering new places to love but no guilt in enjoying the familiar.

I see amwosu's point, but I kind of have to disagree. With just one trip to Europe under their belt, italy06's family may love Prague just as much as italy and may eventually become czech08.

You seem to have a few places in mind, so why not read up on them on the web and in guidebooks and see which speaks to you the most? I loved Budapest and Hungary and the English countryside. Whatever you choose, you can't go wrong.

Ooops, meant Budapest and Prague. By the way, it's easy to add lovely Vienna and even Salzburg to that itinerary. Dresden and Berlin if you're ambitious. That's what we did.

czech08 has a nice ring to it! Thanks for some great ideas - my daughter traveled to Budapest and Prague on her spring break and loved it. And it's not too ambitious to add Vienna and Salzburg to this if we have say, three weeks?

And amwosu, I know exactly what you mean - I've been going to Hanalei for 20 years now - tried other places in the Islands and my kids say the same thing, "it's no Hanalei!"

Thanks again.

Definitely not too ambitious. We did Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Dresden and Berlin in 17 days, and we didn't find it rushed.

By the way, I feel about the Riviera and Provence the way you feel about Hanalei and amwosu feels about Aspen. But we had to go to several places to know that, for us, France is the IT place!

By the way, you might want to consider Provence. It is heavenly. (But more similar to Italy, of course, than the central European places already discussed.)

I was going to say Spain but not in the summer. Another vote for Central Europe.