Travel in February

With 5-6 days TOTAL- you will really only have 3 or 4 in your destination. You loose one day each for arrival and departure. Depending on what you want from your trip (the more info you give us the better our answers will be), you could get a nice taste of ONE city. London would be my pick, others here love Paris or Rome or Barcelona. Your schedule would be something like this: Day 1- fly to destination Day 2 - arrive destination in early morning- some walking around to acclimate- but no major touring Day 3- major sightseeing- 2 or 3 museums or other sites Day 4- same
Day 5- departure for home arriving late afternoon or early evening.

Linda, your question is just a teensy bit vague. Are we to assume that you are limiting your scope to Europe? Where have you been on previous trips? What do you mean by "adventure"? My first thought is Mexico. Your trip is so short you won't want to lose days to jetlag, there's often plenty of adventure, and its warm.

If you mean Europe- well, Prague would be a bit different- or Istanbul. But if you only have 5-6 days, I think I'd look at somewhere closer to home. How about Canada? Montreal has a really European flavor.

What are you looking for on vacation? Warm, castles, etc? Most of Europe will be dreary, sunset about four pm. Similar to NEw York. I have done several trips in winter and enjoyed it, London, Paris, etc. but can't help unless know what you are looking forward to seeing, doing.

I agree with Maggie - Montreal would be a good choice. Not a lot of time lost to travel, no time lost to jetlag, and it is definitely different.

Thank you all for responding. Sorry I was so vague. My daughter studied in Barcelona and went to many countries during her weekends abroad. I have been to London, Paris, Rome, Florence and other places. I would like to go to a city (don't care if its cold) to sight see. We were thinking about Iceland, just not sure if its the right time of year. Another thought was Edinbourough. I have been to Ireland but not Scotland. Any thoughts about that? Thanks in advance for your responses.

Obviously she wants to go to Europe. We have done 6 nights in France and 4 and 5 night trips to Amsterdam and Belgium. Both Fance and Amsterdam were February trips. Belgium - my sister and I did two nights Ghent, one in Brugges and one Brussels. Amsterdam we have split between Amsterdam and Delft / Haarlem / Leiden. Short trips are easy when you are flying out of NYC and traveling somewhere (like Amsterdam) where the airport is very close to the city. Have fun!

I am very partial to Edinburgh, not been to Iceland. Of course most places will be cold, dreary and dark at about four pm but if you don't mind cold, suggest either Edinburgh or as other said Amsterdam, can't remember how far either was from airport though or flight times.

Moscow! Or you can come join us in Budapest or Kiev.

In Feb. the days are already getting longer as the shortest day was back on 21 Dec., so telling people that the sun will set at 16:00 or that it will be dark then is incorrect. In Germany at least, the sun won't even set until 17:00-17:30, depending on if you are talking about the 1st of Feb. or the end of Feb. Edinburgh is fun, so if you haven't been there, give it a try. My daughter and I loved it there. Have you thought about Berlin? Lots to do there to keep you busy for a week and it won't break the budget.

Jo is right, I meant sun going down starting 5pm early part of month and about 5:30 like here on East coast. Correction made!

Reykjavik - February 15, 2013 sunrise at 9.23 am
sunset at 6.02 pm

Depending on the dates (I didn't check them out for this year) you might think about Carnavale in Venice. It is truly a unique experience...mystical, magical and doesn't matter if it is cold (althought it was pleasant when i went) The mist and fog just adds to the whole experience) Edit... Dates for Carnavale are Feb. 2-12 2013

If you will enjoy February or not obviously depends on where you go, but more so on what you enjoy. The winter is the high season for concerts, opera, ballet and in a lot of instances food. Then there is ice skating in the parks sleds. on the hills, and thermal baths surrounded by snow. Personally I enjoy The snow when it is so cold that its pure powder. I used to go to the fringe areas in the winter for the discounts but for me I discovered that Rome at 45F wasn't nearly as enjoyable as 10F in a country that knew how to really make good use out of the winter months. Embrace the cold and have fun. Budapest, Vienna, the High Tatras of Slovakia, Cesky Krumlov, Prague, Budapest are really affordable. Switzerland and northern Europe a little less so but just as good. We spent time one January in Moscow, it was fantastic and fantastically cold! Go explore, be adventurous!