kurty[B]

I'm eying a vacation to Europe this winter for a couple weeks and wanted recommendations on where to go? It will not be a ski vacation. I want to see a few different places, but want to spend 3-4 days in one spot before moving onto the next (two weeks overall is how long I will be there). I have been scoping out Italy, and am right now leaning towards getting a villa in Tuscany for a week and then utilizing trains and ferries to get to Greece for a couple days.

This is in no way a vacation to go see all the sights, or have an agenda. I want to get there, get to where I'm going and decompress. I want a place with a view that my girlfriend and I can simply sit on the balcony and relax, but I also want to be able to go do things (sight-seeing, eating out) if we so choose.

I have also looked into Spain, but flights are a little more expensive (cost is not too much of an obstacle, but it will be a factor), and Vienna is actually the current cheapest place to fly into (I've always wanted to go to Vienna, but am not sure if the winter is a good time to go).

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lotsofmagnets

spain or southern italy are what you want.

little tippler probably knows a bit about portugal as well

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Hain

I second Italy as well for that time. Best places for some R&R would be Pisa and Florence. I know two great hotels in both that I will definitely stay at again.

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little_tippler

January and February in Europe can be the coldest most miserable months of the year...March and April it usually rains. Not sure why you're choosing this time of year? September and October are more likely to still be warm but mild - at least in the more Southern countries.

Since you're coming from the States (correct me if I'm wrong), prices here will generally be expensive. Portugal is more expensive than Spain in a few things, but then not in others. My favourite part of Spain is the North - amazing scenery and beaches, and still relatively unspoilt. Italy and Greece I am not very familiar with but I imagine they are nice holiday places all year round, Tuscany particularly. I would suggest Prague as a good Autumn destination too, it's a beautiful city. There are so many places you could choose from, Amsterdam, Brussels and Bruges in Belgium, in France I'd suggest staying in the Loire Valley, Dubrovnik in Croatia, the Southwest of England, like Cornwall...

In Portugal, for an autumn break I would suggest the north of Portugal, particularly the wine region of Douro. It's quite beautiful there, there's a lot of places to go exploring in the countryside, and it's good for a quiet break. The food is also good here, so that's another plus. If you're looking for beaches, I'd say Sintra and Cascais area are the best, or then the Costa Vicentina, which is basically on the lower west coast of portugal - lots of beautiful, uncrowded places there.

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Whether we write or speak or do but look
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Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

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highthief

Spain or Portugal would be the best choices, IMO. If you want to "sit on the balcony" you won't do much of that anywhere north of the Med in January.

Portugal is dirt cheap, Spain is a little pricier but still much less than other parts of Europe, especially in the south as in Andulucia.

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Hain

Not the further south you go. I spent Christmas/New Years in Barcelona in nothing more than T-shirts and shorts. In Italy during February 20 - March 6 it was nothing but sun, mildly chilly occasionally (that was in Venice, don't go by the way unless you have specific prepared day plans).

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little_tippler

@ Hain:

you were probably lucky with the weather. Last year, February was awesome - warm, almost beach weather. Depends on what's hot for you...

This year, February was cold and unpleasant. At least in Portugal, which is where I am. It's pretty unpredictable here that time of year. You can get a week of sun, then a week of rain...it's very fickle.

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

Tully Mars

I really wanted to go to Germany this summer. Was on the phone with a friend one night and was all set to hit "purchase" on the airlines web site. Fortunately we couldn't come up with dates that worked for both of us. I say fortunately because I was set to buy a seat on "Silverjet." Two weeks later I was reading news on-line and saw they went out of business and all outstanding tickets were worthless.

After that near miss I think I'd stick to better known airlines.

I'm now looking to try Denmark next summer. Have a friend there, his family owns a farm and I've been invited to stay with them. Hopefully I don't end up milking cows for my keep.

As for your OP question, don't have a clue, only been in the summer.

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thespian86

Little_tippler... Barcelona? Hot

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kurty[B]

I would normally not plan on going in the middle of winter also (unless planning a ski vacation), but there are various reasons why I can't go earlier, or won't go later.

a) I just started my job, by the time I can take vacation it will be November, and everyone who has been here longer than myself at work has already requested from the week before Thanksgiving till the week after New Years. Basically leaving me hung to dry for those months.

b) I'm in Iraq. Considering I will not be able to take a vacation until almost 9 months of being over here I am not willing to postpone the trip as I have others planned, and generally around 6 months is when you hit that period of getting really really sick of being over here, so by 9 months a cold rainy vacation will probably be appreciated.

c) Like I said, it's not necessarily a sight-seeing vacation. It's more of an opportunity to get with my girlfriend for a few weeks without one of us being jetlagged from 18-24 hours on planes. I'd go elsewhere in the world, but the cost of flight nearly doubles.

If it rains, we'll make use of the bed/hotel/villa we have. If it snows, I'll be happy as can be. If it's sunny, spectacular! I'm willing to hedge my bets. Right now, we're leaning toward flying into Florence, and hanging out in Tuscany (maybe a trip to Greece for a few days).

Hain, what were those hotels you would re-frequent?

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Hain

There was the Airone Pisa Park Hotel. Staff was decent but the room I got was fantastic. Huge bed, TV, wireless internet, big bathroom (I opted out of the bath), and like I said the rooms in the back have a great view of the mountains. Plus there is a restaurant- all windows, can see the whole range. It was closed for the winter though. They did have a bike rack of good mountain bikes for guests to borrow, which comes in handy when you want to go to the grocery store. I had real good wine (under 2 Euros) and brie every day for lunch. My friend and I had a ball. There is a pool for guests as well; an outdoor one, so closed for the winter. Downside to the Airone: it is about two miles out of Pisa. But the bus that is down the street from the Airone goes straight to the inner city and you'll know which stop you have to get off at to see The [Leaning] Tower.


There was the Alex House in Florence. The double bed private suite was the room I got. The room was huge- had a lil' table next to the window (not much view but the street was city sounds amazing). Plus you are literally minutes by foot from all the good museums. Downside was the street got pretty noisy on the weekend. This was just a cheap hotel. If you are willing to shell out the money, I can only imagine what the other places in Florence where like.



And first hand experience: Germany isn't that great in winter (no sun).

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lotsofmagnets

depends where you´re coming from. thanks to adjusting to weather here i sweat at over 15°C so your ´miserable´ is probably quite pleasant for me (now at least.) try spending a winter here....


apparently iceland is easy to get to from denmark and i´m told there´s some cool people and awesome places in iceland

__________________
mother nature made the aeroplane, and the submarine sandwich, with the steady hands and dead eye of a remarkable sculptor.
she shed her mountain turning training wheels, for the convenience of the moving sidewalk, that delivers the magnetic monkey children through the mouth of impossible calendar clock, into the devil's manhole cauldron.
physics of a bicycle, isn't it remarkable?