Best "Base" Cities

What about Florence? Rent a "villa" for a week and take all kinds of day trips by car, including driving to the nearest bus stop for a day trip into Florence. (Read villa as small cottage or part of a large house.) We've done this in connection with renting a place in Austria (Strobl - about an hour from Salzburg). All kinds of good day trips by car from there (Melk Abby etc.) The cottage thing is good if you want to fix your own breakfast, occassional dinner, do laundry and be in a more rural setting. Night life is generally a no go. We've also done this in Tours (although that might not be far enough North for your criteria). Cottages usually run o/a 1K a week but you can save a ton of $ on food and eat healthy if you so choose.

Look for a city that is centrally located with a good transportation hub. Perhaps either Köln, Mainz or Frankfurt. They have excellent train and airport connections with lower prices to reflect this and also offer reasonable hotel rates. From any of these 3 cities you can reach pretty much any place you desire in a few hours. They are also near to many great day trip towns.

It would have to be a pretty darn special place for me to pay $1000 a week! I fail to see this a bargain. There are so many really nice guesthouses and hotels available for less than 80 € per night. Check out Lees posts!

For Switzerland, look into Zurich, Bern or Luzern.

Hi fellow tar heel... Consider Salzburg or Innsbruck. They are great small cities inthemselves and have good rail connections. Vienna is also good. From there you can "do" Hungary, etc. as well as Austrian and lower German cities.

RE renting a villa for 1K a week. I should have specified that this is a good option for four people traveling together.

Whatever you do, don't make Zurich your home base. I've had two terrible experiences there. It is also very hot there in summer compared to other cities in Switzerland and there are very few hotels with air conditioning. Bern and Basel are definitely not my picks for favorite places with hotels. Pick someplace with a higher altitude :). Lucerne is nice with frequent trains to Zurich and Geneva. Geneva has frequent trains to many places, and it is definitely a nicer city than Zurich. There are many apartments and time shares all over Switzerland. Book early. Ask specific questions. Assume any walking distance is twice what you are told. If there is not AC, consider carrying a piece of flexible window screening with you. The mosquitoes in any town on a water's edge (Salzburg, Zurich, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, etc) can be maddening at night when you are having to keep your windows open to have any air circulation (unless you have air conditioning) and cannot sleep despite being tired beyond belief.

A good city is Brussels. You can get to Cologne, Paris, etc from there because of frequent trains. Munich is an excellent base city, in my opinion. Frankfurt and Stuttgart are not worth getting off of the train. Paris is a big city, but I found the people there to be very pleasant (?!!) and the transit system there to be wonderful. All trains go to Paris. :^) Good travels!

Hey Dodie, thanks for making my day. Just as a question, how much time have you spend in either Frankfurt or Stuttgart? How much do you know about them? Have you done any tours in them? Do you know what they have to offer or are you just one of the many that are going by hear-say?

I usually praise my own city a lot, but this time I am going to take Stuttgarts side. Though I havent really been there, after looking at all the things there are to do there and historic places to see, like palaces, etc. I would love to go there.

Honestly, I get really annoyed when cities get "damned" especially by folks who probably know zilch about them.

In response to my friend from Frankfurt: I have been to Frankfurt twice. I had a terrible experience in Stuttgart. I had a first class ticket. There is no where to wait in the train station, so I went to the first class lounge, where I was promptly told to leave. I was screamed at and spat on. In Frankfurt I was cheated. Both cities were dirty and full of trash - not my usual experience in Germany, where I have found people to be overwhelmingly friendly, helpful, scrupulous, fastidious, and kind. I try not to judge a city on first glance, always giving it at least one more chance. These are my experiences, and I wouldn't have shared them, except that you asked. I hope this helped.

So, 2 terrible experiences in Zurich, 1 terrible experience in Stuttgart including being screamed at and spat at, 1 terrible experience in Frankfurt that includes being cheated, something tells me that you might be doing something wrong when you travel. Why else do you keep having these kind of things happen to you? This seems quite unusual. In addition, trashy and dirty are not adjectives I have ever heard in relation to either Stuttgart or Frankfurt. Were you just at the train station or did you venture out to some of the many beautiful, historic sites in either of these cities? Europe is well known for having sort of "trashy" areas near its train stations.

To be honest, I was somewhat appalled in Paris, that every where we went, it stunk of urine. This included every Metro station and inside the Sacre Coeur. (why would someone pee in a church?) Rome too was quite dirty, but I certainly did not let it detract from my enjoyment of the place, nor do I tell people not to get off the train there. One dishonest or crappy person out of 600,000 that made your day miserable should not damn a city.

OK, I have ranted and said my piece, and not been very helpful to Eric and his question. I will now get off my soapbox. Sorry Eric!

For Northern France, with a 3-hour train ride, Paris as a base is kind of a no-brainer.

You can get just about anywhere in Northern France from there in three hours, and there are many fine destinations to choose from, and you might even find a few things to do in Paris.

Thank you all so much for the great feedback!

"Both cities were dirty and full of trash"

Are you sure you were in Frankfurt? If anything, I found Frankfurt to be rather excessively clean for a large city.

Hi Eric. This fall we stayed in Padua (Padova) as our base for a few days exploring the Veneto. It is a lovely old university town in its own right with the incredible Scrovegni Chapel among other interesting and accessible sights. From here we took day trips to Venice, Verona, and Vicenza that were convenient (trains all day long to and from all cities) and inexpensive. Check out the hotel Al Cason in Padua...friendly, reasonable, nice restaurant, internet and a 5 minute walk from the station. Good luck!

Eric,

In Italy I suggest Milan.It's very close to other nice places: Venice, Cenona, Genova, Florence.
In France: why not stay in Paris?
In Germany you can even choose MUnich or Stuttgart. Stuttgart is close to Cologne and Strasburg, France.

Dodie,

I have to disagee with you.
I lived in Stuttgart some years ago and believe me, I found it very clean.
You obviously had hard time and were in those cities at the wrong time. I can't believe they kicked you out from the waiting area.

Stuttgart train station is lovely and they certainly have plenty of places to sit and to wait on a train. Frankfurt train station is beautiful too, since its renovation. Again, lots of places to sit, have a coffee, people watch, bookstores, etc.

I would second (third?) Paris, Brussels, Florence..and in Spain, Madrid is as close the the hub of the wheel as you can get

I'm sorry so that you were offended, but I feel perfectly comfortable sharing my experiences, since they are true. While it is also true that I have only been to three continents, 42 states, and 14 countries, I am sure that those who have travelled more than I can attess to the fact that each person's opinions of travel experiences is equally valid. If you check the archieves of this site, you will find my entries starting in 2000. Your personal remarks have not been taken seriously, since you do not know me. Sorry about the problem with the "adjectives" -- I am a chemistry teacher, not a linguist.

By the way, the tone of your comments just affirmed what I experienced in Frankfort and Stuttgardt regarding the cities and the people who live there. I love the majority of Germany, and now believe that my assessment of these two cities was right on the money. Thank you for your comments and your time.