My wife and I work in education and our April vacation week starts on Easter weekend. We're looking to arrive somewhere on Easter Sunday, departing the following Saturday. Having been to a variety of places (England, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Spain), we'd love to travel to somewhere that's new for us. However, we have a relatively short time (5 full days plus part of Easter Sunday). We've loved similar length stays in London, Berlin, and Paris. Any suggestions for one or two cities that would be good to visit at this time of year and not completely shut down on Easter Monday?
Posted by
Columbus, OH, USA
2065 posts
How about the Netherlands? Amsterdam and varied day trips. Train travel is easy and convenient to many great places. Fantastic museums and art. We have visited four times though a bit later in spring than your schedule, and particularly for the flowers. FWIW the Keukenhof Garden says they’re open Easter weekend. As to Easter Monday I could only guess, but even Rome over the holiday was surprisingly accessible a couple of years ago. Many years ago I asked a travel agent why he never had any deals for us. He laughed and said, “ You’re teachers! As along as you travel at Christmas, spring break and summer vacation you’ll never get a deal”. Hang in there. The best is yet to come!
Posted by
New York, NY
1586 posts
SeetheWorld - I recommend Andalusia Spain as an ideal location for an Easter April visit. La Semana Santa celebration is a sight to see.
https://www.goworldtravel.com/travel-spain-easter/
Posted by
Washington DC
27908 posts
April is a very good month in southern Spain, weather-wise, but SeetheWorld may already have been to Andalucía. Barcelona would be an option (be prepared for crowds). Budapest or Prague would have enough to keep you busy for 5-1/2 days if you're OK with April weather there. Or Lisbon.
You can go to a city's Wikipedia page and take a look at summary climate data. For more precise information, seek out the actual, day-by-day historical statistics on the website timeanddate.com. I think that's a lot more useful for shoulder-season temperature information.
Posted by
franktown, colorado
2252 posts
Sicily-maybe Palermo and Catania but a longer stay when you can explore the smaller towns would be more meaningful (and fun!). Sicily is awesome any time but particularly during Easter. I'll be spending the Greek Orthodox Easter in Greece this year (2020) and really excited abut that new-to-me experience, too. I am sure wherever you choose to spend your time will be terrific and a wonderful experience for you and your wife.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15777 posts
If you only get to Andalucia on Sunday morning, you'll have missed Semana Santa, mostly what you'll see is all the colored wax on the streets from the candle drippings. Anyway, you seem to want somewhere new.
I could happily spend that much time in Budapest or Istanbul, maybe Lisbon as a first-timer. Netherlands? Easy to base Amsterdam and day trip.
Posted by
OP
Connecticut
2 posts
Thank you everyone for the suggestions. We've been to Andalucia, and although we loved it, we'd like to go somewhere new. Amsterdam is a possibility as are Prague and Budapest. We hadn't thought about Sicily, but it's an interesting suggestion. Keep the suggestions coming!
Posted by
the Middle Coast
292 posts
Maybe I'm going completely off base since this is posted in General Europe - how about Antigua, Guatemala? This may not work for you this year since you'd be arriving on Easter, but if you're in education, chances are you have vacations around the same time each year. Antigua's Semana Santa processions are supposed to be some of the most amazing in the world, with beautiful ephemeral carpet designs made out of wood shavings (I found this video that gives a feel for the experience). I'm in education as well and am counting down to a year with a break that would work for me to go (it's looking like 2023 for me). My Spanish teacher lives in Antigua and I love hearing her talk about all of the celebrations, plus Antigua is just a gorgeous city.
Posted by
Washington DC
27908 posts
I assume Sicily has decent odds of good weather in April, but the island is truly a 2- to 3-week destination. With just 5 days (and flights into and out of Sicily might be longer than for some other destinations), you would have to concentrate on one small part of the island. It just seems a lot of hassle (and probably also expense) to go somewhere just to scratch the surface.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15777 posts
Malta - similar weather to Sicily, 5 days is a very reasonable amount of time there. Amazing place.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
19969 posts
Hungary is a very Catholic country and that can be a blessing if you want to share in a significant cultural day, or a pain if you just want to tick off boxes on a tourist list. The weather is generally very good in April, usually some short lived showers followed by clear skies.
Posted by
Myrtle Beach, USA
12313 posts
Semana Santa in Spain is the best. Whatever you do, don't spend it in Barcelona. Barcelona is the least religious city in the least religious part of the country. From experience I can tell you the only Semana Santa activities are extra masses at the churches. They have one procession on Good Friday but it's put on by expats from Seville.
Most people think of Seville as the place to go. I'd recommend Zaragosa or Valladolid. Valladolid is the nicer city to visit. Both are well known inside Spain for their processions but virtually unknown outside Spain. Seville gets all the tourist traffic. The other two offer a unique cultural experience with virtually no tourists.
I spent Holy Thursday in Zaragosa. It was maybe the best experience in a lifetime of experiences. There were 26 processions from Thursday afternoon through the night. The size varied from maybe 500 to several thousand in a procession with hundreds of drummers and station of the cross floats.