Maur2010

HI-
I am traveling this July from California to Europe with my 20 year old daughter for about 2 weeks. I have never been to Europe so would love some input on what countries to visit. We like to shop, love great food/wine, love to explore towns/cities and sightseeing. The countries I am considering visiting are Italy, Spain, France and England. I know I don't have enough time to visit all of these countries, so would love some feedback on which countries would be the best to visit. My daughter will already be in England-so I can fly there to meet her and stay there awhile or meet her in another country.I definitely want to visit Italy, but not sure which other countries to visit.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Nlingenfel

My 1st choice would be Italy. There all special, but I always think Italy is the best place to start.

qwovadis

Paris would make sense to meet then seat61.com train your way down to Venice-tourism.com through the alps over the simplon pass hopping on and off neat places.Florence and Rome fly back to LON.skyscanner,net booking.com nice lodging eurocheapo.com good city tips. Spain too crammed for me.But if you did not train but flew everywhere you might squeeze in Barcelona for a couple of days but too crammed for me.

Have fun!

ellenem

For me, with just two weeks, England and Italy would be enough. I suspect you want quality time for exploring, not a quantity of checkmarks on a list.

CathyM

I think you really need to do some research and determine what is best for you based on your interests. Everyone has personal favorites and you're going to get all kinds of different advice.

I would suggest that with only 2 weeks you do not plan on visiting more than 2 countries. You could easily spend the entire 2 weeks in one country visiting a couple of geographies. If you choose large cities like Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, London you could easily spend 5-7 days each just in these cities and doing various daytrips.

Also keep in mind the weather in July. If heat is a factor you may want to consider the heat and humidity in Andalucia and Southern Italy in making your decision.

It's tempting but avoid the urge to try to visit 14 cities in 14 days. I know from experience on my first 2 trips to Europe as this is what I did. It was very tiring and there was no time to just sit back and enjoy the experience. It became a game of ticking off places to see and moving on versus enjoying where I was at the moment.

Maur2010

HI-
Thanks for the great info. I definitely do not want to visit a lot of cities in such a short time period; I think 2 countries total would be fine with me. We are not really interested in visting museums and big cities. As far as Italy-I am really interested in visiting Tuscany.

easytraveler

Suggest France and Italy as your two countries. Maybe with a couple of days i London when meeting up with your daughter.

Fly open jaw into London and out of Paris. Air France from California is good!

greg

I think some clarifications are needed. You have never been to Europe but you are not interested in visiting museums or big cities.

What about big cities that does not interest you? Similarly what about museums that does not interest you?

What I am getting at is that these entities in Europe are quite different in Europe than what you have in California (I have lived there,) so unless the you can clarify the essence of what does not interest you, you might also run into what you don't like in small cities or outside the museums.

I don't go to museums in my home city. I am not a museum person at home. They are expensive and boring. However, I visit museums in Europe. I don't presume museum=boring concept when I visit different environments.

StCirq

There aren't any BEST countries to visit. YOU need to do the research and figure that out. Otherwise, you're just getting opinions about other people's preferences. Get guidebooks, do research, look at maps, don't count on strangers to figure out your life plans for you when pleasure and lots of money are at stake.