Suggestions?

Spain and Italy will be the cheapest combination for meals and accommodations, and transportation once in-country. Balance that against air fare to get to Rome, Madrid, or Barcelona. You may find it's cheaper to get an inexpensive flight to a gateway like London, Paris, or Frankfurt, then catch a discount airline flight south. Check whichbudget.com for discount airlines and where they fly. Yes, the UK is VERY expensive, especially London.

I agree with Norms comments in general. Also set a daily budget then try to make it work on paper bef you decide.Realize it is anyones guess what the xcg rate will be. To me, Spain and Netherlands are less costly destinations for lodging and food.London can be costly but remember most museums are free so that can save alot and you can walk to alot of sights.

Patty, from what I've observed over the past 5 years, you may want to get to Ireland before it becomes as expensive as London.

NWA has a non-stop flight from MSP to London that is typically reasonably priced. You may catch a deal on it if you try to connect through Detroit. In the fall, don't pay more than $800 for your ticket. You may get lucky enough to find something for around $600 at that time of year.

My family and I did 7 nights with a car in Ireland, than Dublin for 3 nights, then London for another 3. If I were to change anything, I would reduce Dublin by one and add it to London. Try Priceline for you hotel in both Dublin and London. We got a great deal in both places, near the city center in each. London is expensive, but I didn't find it outrageous, especially given the deal we got on Lodging.

Give some thought to Portugal, a less crowded, less costly alternative, with fair weather in the fall. Whatever the decision, have a great time!

I'd go for the UK. With less than 2 weeks, you could really focus there. I'd recommend the following; London 3 or 4 nights. Do some plays and do a day trip to Windsor and one to Bath and one to Cardiff, Wales. York- 1 night-take the train from London -Kings Cross(leave around 8am and arrive around 11). Take train to Edinburgh. Spend 1 or 2 nights. Take train to Aviemore- spend 1 or 2 nights. take train to Inverness spend 3 or 4 nights (5 if you don't do Aviemore). Do day trips to Orkney, Isle of Sky and a trip up Loch Ness with a side trip to Colloden and Clava Cairnes. Train to Sterling- 1 night. Train to Stratford-Upon Avon , stay 1 or 2 nights. Train to London- 1 night then fly home. You could add Glasgow as an alternative to Sterling. Let me know if you want hotel suggesstions.

In two weeks you can do a good tour of Britain. If language is an issue, this might be your best choice.

You could also do a pretty good tour of Northern Italy or Spain.

Ireland is also great, but you probably don't need two weeks to cover it and two weeks isn't really enough to add it to England, Cornwall, Wales and Scotland.

Netherlands won't take two weeks. One day in Amsterdam is plenty (unless sex and drugs is your primary reason for traveling). There are other nice places in the country but not enough for two-weeks. You could possibly include Belgium, Luxemborg and Cologne.

Wherever you go, it will be expensive. The dollar is down and the change to Euro seemed to raise prices all over Europe (at least according to the Europeans). There are lots of options to save money depending on how pampered you need to be.

If you go in September, stay north. For October or later, go south.

I can attest that London IS very expensive - I just got back on Sunday (3 of us - me, husband, 16 yr. old son) and feel somewhat "beaten up" by the cost & the exchange rate. I knew it was going to be costly, but everything seemed to be basically double to what I have to pay for things here. We saved a lot of $ by picnicking (we had a fridge in our hotel) and using "take out" outlets (Marks & Spencer's Simply Food is a good one), not to mention making sure to take full advantage of the English breakfast offered by our hotel and taking some fruit from the b'fast buffet bar for snacks. We had a lovely lunch in the courtyard of the Tate Modern - Granny Smith apple slices (from our hotel - we'd made sure to have a sharp Swiss Army knife in our luggage), baguettes (from the local bakery) & 5 hunks of "exotic & fancy" cheese (purchased from the cheese shop at Marylebone Station - which, by the way, is a fantastic place to find what you want - if you stay close to the station you have mid-low priced eateries, soup stand, convenience store, a "Simply Food," newstand, pastie shop, sandwich shop, cheese shop, AND a subway and train station. We found it an ideal base area). Other times we purchased "stuffed baguettes" and crudite to eat picnic style or nipped into one of the museum cafes for soup when we needed a hot meal. We didn't feel the least bad about eating in the cafes as all the big museums are free and we felt lucky to have all that gorgeous art for the price of a meal. We did, of course go to restaurants sometimes, but were of the consensus we enjoyed arranging our own food more.

One day my son & I went "grocery shopping" in the Harrod's food courts & purchased some veggies to cut up, hummus, ready-made entrees that could be eaten cold & some odds & ends (yeah, that's right - exotic candy). It wasn't THAT costly & we got to experience some of the gorgeous offerings we'd only just gawked at on previous trips (asparagus spears wrapped in Parma Ham, Beef Wellington, hors d'ourves that looked like little works of art). That was a fun outing as well as a food aquisition mission. As for cost of attractions, the London Walks are only 6 GBP, as mentioned, most museums are free, and others (Cabinet War Rooms & Churchill museum etc.) are reasonable (especially for the value).