Your 2 cents please!
 

Hello!

My husband and I have about 12 days at the end of December for a vacation and we are looking for some savvy travel suggestions. Our point of origin is San Francisco and we would like to experience a country outside the U.S.

We are in our mid 30's and love history, museums and good restaurants. We are not put off by cold weather and are looking to get the most for our money (and our 85K AA miles) so we were thinking London, Wales, Ireland? Open to any advice/suggestions even if not in the aforementioned cities.

Thanks for reading this post!
:)

If you like history, museums and good food, how about Florence, Italy and it's surrounding areas? Or, Paris might be another good option for you as a first timer to Europe.

London is wonderful but to get the most out of your miles, go to PAris. it's got everything your looking for with a little more "foreignnness" than London for an extra hour in the air. Or do both on an open jaw flight with that many days.

See if you can use your miles to go to Paris and then fly on to Rome. 6 days in each city.

This may be off topic, but have you thought about Thailand? You may be looking for a European vacation--I'm not sure if you posted your message to the other forums--but also indicated that you are looking to get the most for your money. With the Euro as strong as it is, it will be expensive over the holiday season. Many museums will be closed.

I was in Thailand in the summer of 2001 and it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever traveled to. I'm not sure if AA flies to Bangkok, but Thailand is rich with culture, history, good food, very friendly people, and a favorable exchange rate.

With 10 days, you could do the entire country--Bangkok, with its ancient temples and water markets, Chiang Mai in the north, with lots of mountain hiking and villages, and Phuket/Krabi in the south. The last is particularly stunning--the limestone cliffs all along southern Thailand are unlike any other. I kayaked through the cliffs and saw monkeys and birds as if out of a nature program. The highs will still be in the 80s in December, so you can enjoy the unspoiled beaches, the scenery, and the great local food (some of my most memorable meals cost $2). The dollar has held fairly steady against the Baht, and you could get fairly luxurious hotel rooms for less than $100 a night, which would not be really be possible in Europe.

Look through the travel section at your local bookstore to see if this is something you and your husband might be interested in. You can also check out tourismthailand.org.

One caveat--Thailand is still a developing country, so if you are looking for western European refinement, Thailand is not the place for you. That being said, I loved my trip there and look forward to going back. Good luck.

We're using our AA FF miles to fly to Barcelona with a 3 day stop-over in London on the way home. A few years ago, we used them to fly to Rome with a 3 day stop-over in London. The flights from London are on BA which is partnered with AA. The FF people at AA are really great to deal with, making suggestions about destinations, dates, connections, etc.

We too are from SF.

DH's first non-English speaking trip was to Paris and practically over his dead body. He was terrified and neither of us speaks French well.

I insisted that *I* wanted Paris for my honeymoon.

After our trip, he couldn't wait to go back! We spent 10 days there last December.

I'd vote for Paris.

Here is my two cents if you decide on Europe.

I will try to help you with the AA miles and possible destinations.

If you decide to use your miles for a coach ticket, you can fly to just about anywhere in Europe. It will cost you 40K miles each, as it is off-peak time. So you have enough miles for the 2 of you. You could do this on AA and any partner airline, and/or combination of.

There is another possibility, although you are little short on the miles. AA allows you to upgrade from any economy published fares to business class for 25K miles each way to Europe. You would need 100K miles for the 2 of you and also purchase a cheap economy tickets, which should be about $450 R/T each. The benefits are well worth it in my opinion. The business class has 60" pitch, with almost flat seats for sleeping, dinner and breakfast menus(no midnight snack table-only on transpacific), above average wine selection and free alcohol as well. You get BOSE noise-reduction headphones to use during flight, amenity bag, and the best part, a fast-track through immigration. Another great benefit is the fact that you would also be earning some of your miles back as you will be traveling on a purchased ticket. It's about 6K miles each way, so you get about 12K back each, and even more if you have any status with AA. If you don't have any status, this trip would get you Gold status for the future if you sign-up for the Gold Challenge before the trip.
The one drawback, would be that you could only do this on actual AA planes. You still have a nice selection of European cities but not all: London, Manchester, Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt. You are still allowed to do an open-jaw, as in flying to London and returning from Paris, or whatever other combo you decide to do. Also the upgrades are capacity controlled so it takes little work to make sure you pick the flights that have these seats available.

If you have any more questions about the above, please post.

Personally, I love London in late fall and winter. The accomodations are cheaper, not as many tourists, easier to see plays, just overall less hassles. Sure the days are shorter, it may be grey, but I've experienced very sunny days in January, although somewhat chilly. Never did I feel absolutely cold and I'm from sunny, hot Florida, but that's just me. Maybe you could split your trip into 2 parts and take a cheap low-budget airline from Lomdon to Madrid and/or Barcelona and warm up a bit before heading home from Madrid, if you do the upgrade option, or Barcelona if you just do a straight coach ticket.

I summed up my two cents worth in my reply in the thread http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34445350

Best wishes,

Rex

Though I certainly enjoy England, if you're really interested in "the most for our money" I'd say it's cheaper in France than England.

I've 2* hotels for two booked in France this December for 54 euro in Nantes, 40 euro in La Rochelle and 60 euro in Paris.

It might be a bit cheaper in Spain.

Hi

Paris, Paris, Paris

or London and Paris

or Paris and Rome

We used miles in 2002 to do a week in London then Eurostarred to Paris for another week. It was great! You will really feel like you've make two separate vacations.