Poland. The Heart of Europe. Forget Warszawa. Outdoors..Zakopane or the Northeast. History, tour the Death Camps. Driving? Anywhere in Poland. Polish family, find their city or village. Best choice..Wroclaw.

Wroclaw is very nice indeed, but for something a bit more off the beaten track, the western Molvanîan city of Sjerezo is a real gem!

Hey everyone, You're doing really good. I'm going to have to get out a map to find some of these places. In response to why Europe I guess because we really enjoy history, especially Roman and Greek. Of course European history is what we are most familiar with and we find we learn so much every trip. It amazes us how many places we've been where the Romans beat us there! I'm glad to hear that Egypt is a possibility from a safety standpoint. The other thing holding us back is that my vacation time is during the summer and living in Florida, I don't need to go from hot to hotter. I have toyed with a Christmas vacation visit and taking our two children, 19, 22. If that's not a good time it will have to wait a good number of years until I retire!
Sicily has been on my list, very interested but again isn't it really hot in June? Australia and especially New Zealand are places I'd like to go but am waiting until we can go longer than 3 weeks since it's such a long flight might as well stay a good while. Have really enjoyed the Australians we've met on our trips. Having to do some convincing of the hubby though. He really is the Europe addict, I'll go anywhere. Saw a show on the travel channet last night that had the 50 best vacation destinations which was interesting and gave me a couple of ideas. The Barrier Reef was number 1.
South Africa was one of the places and it looked pretty neat.
How long to do Poland?
No one has mentioned China.
Enjoying all the chat!

Teresa -- we went to South Africa and Botswana in May 2004 (just last spring!) It was autumn there and the weather was extraordinary. We booked the safari in Botswana and then found airfare around it -- should have consolidated the Cape Town portion to either all before or all after, but we didn't. I actually kind of liked that the trip wasn't over when the safari was. We were in Cape Town for 4 days/3 nights (after an overnight in London before we flew to Cape Town), then flew to Maun via Johannesburg and did a week-long safari with 2 nights each in three different camps. Then we flew back to Cape Town and "did" the wine lands and the coast for another 5 days/4 nights. (see the Africa/Middle east forum here, or www.virtualtourist.com/radiomom and you can see my trip reports with photos there) We did a full day trip with some Fodorites in Cape Town and had a blast.

Hi
I'm glad you had a great vacation in Croatia. We were there last year and loved it. This year we just came back from Poland, where we cut our vacation short because of the rain and cool weather. Never left Warsaw as we planned. I think that we were spoiled last year in Croatia by the warm weather and sun. We were spoiled and next year we may go to a warm, sunny place like Sicily, Crete. You get a bit spoiled when you go to a country that is having good weather.
Think about that for next year.
Enjoy
Alan

Stop postponing Australia!
Just come a couple of times - that's what we do with Europe!

Thanks for the help! Lots of places to read up on the board about.

i've said it before, and i'll say it again: SLOVENIA! talk about a gem. from the day we returned back to london, my boyfriend and i kept saying, "when are we going back to slovenia again?!?"

Victoria, I bought the Lonely Planet Guide for Slovenia last year but we decided Croatia would be enough to cover in our 18 days. How long did you stay there? How long would a vacation there need to be done right?