Recommend a European country!

In My Humble Opinion
41

Count another vote for the Netherlands, for all of the reasons White Ink listed, and more. Piratess and I went on our 20th last summer there. This was my first trip outside of North America, her first trip to Europe. We spent a few days in Amsterdam, and then took the trains around the southern part of the country (Utrecht, Maastricht, Valkenburg, The Hague, Rotterdam, etc.) The whole trip, including airfare, was under $2200 for the both of us.

Unbelievable scenery, incredible museums, beautiful people. Ya just gotta go.

42

Burnt Sugar We love you back. :slight_smile:
Thank you, Dread Pirate Danno You’ve made my day. Hope you all come back, soon.

43

Riga, Latvia.
Spain is very nice, also.
If you really want to save some money, you could try Buenos Aires, Argentina or Santiago, Chile; they look a lot like Europe and they’re a lot cheaper.

44

Summer 2004? England’s your destination! Plenty of art, plenty of history, plenty of good scenery.

45

So, Sam H, based on all of the suggestions, it looks like we have managed to narrow it down to…

Europe!

:smiley:

46

I liked the northern coast of Spain - Santander is a lovely town where most vacationers are Spaniards.

Scotland’s very nice too - much more enjoyable than England for me.

47

oh, and a quick heads up on Guidebooks… I find that the Rough Guides are the best written of the lot.

48

:wink:

I may need more than one trip! But so far I’m still thinking Italy and Greece.

Spain and Prague are starting to sound good as well.

I live in the Northern New Jersey. I’m not shocked to hear Comcast sucks everywhere else too. They’re not going to be my ISP very much longer.

49

Belgium. The people are beetlely (and I can say this, a lot are my relatives) but the beer is insprired.

50

“beetlely”?

51

yeah, like a beetle… hard carapaces and multiple limbs… but they still brew great beer

52

Sam, you really can’t go wrong. I’ve mentioned my choice, but I’ve really wanted to go every other place metioned also. Every suggestion here is good.

The thing is, you need to understand that Europe isn’t that inaccessible. You can do several trips. You need to do several trips. The trick is to learn what your level of comfort is and try to travel as cheaply as possible within that level of comfort. Be prepared to travel at the off peak times. Learn to take advantage of private accomodations. Go a bit off of the ‘tourist’ path. Maybe go with a place like France first, and then branch out as you get comfortable with the travel.

Having said that, consider spending a few days in one place, rather than doing a whirlwind tour. It’s nice to relax a bit.

One more thought: Corsica.

53

Sam, you mentioned Italy and Greece. You might enjoy doing something along the lines of what we did.
We flew into Milan, took the train to Venice, then the overnight ferry from Venice to Corfu. We then flew to Crete, and made our way by ferry back to Athens, island to island. From Athens we flew to Rome. This trip took two and a half weeks, late June into July.
The bulk of it was in Greece, because we had already been to Italy several times.
The trip was a great combination of historical ruins, delicious food, and gorgeous beaches.
If you want to avoid Greece because of the Olympics, maybe you could do an Italy-Croatia trip.

54

BAVARIA, man! And, yes it is SO it’s own country - just ask anybody that lives there!

I’ve never been anyplace I’ve liked as much - the best four years of my life, and I doubt I’ll ever be that happy again. [sigh]