Choosing a destination: Scotland, Central Europe, or Italy

As for crowds, I think all of the popular destinations in Italy will be busy any time of year, but if you go off the beaten path and learn a little Italian, you can escape the tourists and it is well worth it. I’ve only been to Italy in the late fall and Rome and Florence were bustling with people, but they’re still wonderful destinations.

I’ve been to Scotland, Prague and Vienna in May and while there were plenty of other tourists, but the crowds were manageable. Prague was quite cold when I was there in May about five years ago. Prior to my trip, the weather forecasts didn’t predict it would be as old as it was, which got down to the 30’s at night. If I had packed a warm coat, just in case, it would have been fine.

Do you have particular experiences you’re interested in or are you open to seeing what each place has to offer?

Thanks for the answers! These are all destinations we are interested in visiting, it's just a matter of what to do on this particular trip. Based on what you say and what I've read elsewhere, I might plan on visiting Italy during the non-holiday winter season to avoid the worse crowds.

May is a good time to visit Scotland. I was there this year and, although we had some cool and breezy days, there was only one day of our 18 that was dominated by rain.

I want to add that you are wise to start your decision making process now. We made our Scotland reservations last October, and even then there were some locations that didn't have a lot of choices available. Not sure what next year will bring....

I'd recommend taking a look at several years' worth of actual, historical, day-by-day weather data on the website timeanddate.com. I like to check the most recent five years.

Budapest May 2023

Use the pull-down box at the right above the graph to change the month and year. Use the Search box near rhe top right to change the city.

In addition, monthly-average precipitation statistics are usually included in the climate-summary chart to be found in each city's Wikipedia entry. I use those a lot.

I don't find monthly-average temperature data very useful beyond seeing which of two cities is likely to be warmer. An average figure can hide some very unpleasant extremes, and I think there's a natural tendency to look at an average high temperature for a shoulder-season month and think "that's not so cold" when it tells you nothing about what you're likely to experience at 10 AM or 6:30 PM.

My choice in May would be Scotland, hands down. We spent a week there in mid-May a few years back, combined with a week in England. The weather was perfect—sunny and mid-70’s most days, with one partial day of drizzle that did not keep us from exploring the Charles Renny Mackintosh path through the city on foot.

https://www.thechaoticscot.com/charles-rennie-mackintosh-glasgow/

The long hours of daylight at this time of year make for very pleasant evenings; we often enjoyed a stroll after dinner. And I have to say the Scots, as a group, are the friendliest people we have met in all our travels. On 3 separate occasions (once at breakfast and twice at dinner) the people at the next table initiated an extended conversation with us after hearing our US accents. In Oban we ended up pulling our tables together to have after-dinner drinks and dessert, and we talked for an hour.

The only downside was that my husband says we should not go back to Scotland, because it will never be that nice again. 😔

Italy, on the other hand, is a place we visit over and over——but we would never go in May (too crowded). March and October are the months we like to spend in Italy.

You don't say what your weather preference is, so it's hard to advise you based on that. I was in Scotland this past May. I loved the weather. A few days of light rain, but mostly pleasant, cool weather. If you prefer warmer weather, you might not prefer Scotland that time of year.

Of course there are no guarantees of what the weather will be like in any place at any time. I visited Italy in May 2009 and it was unpleasantly hot (upper 30s Celsius/upper 90s Fahrenheit). I was in Prague in late March/early April 2019 and it was warm and pleasant.

One thing to consider is that by late May and early June, you'll be dealing with midges in the Scottish Highlands. I was in the West Highlands early in May and the midges weren't out yet, except a few early stragglers.

Been to all the places you mentioned and loved them all.

I rate them based on History, Art and cuisine.

1) Italy wins hands down. There is so much to see and you can do the big three in 10-14 days. Big three are Rome, Florence and Venice.
2) Budapest/Vienna/Prague, second choice. All three cities are great.
3) Scotland, yes there is history, but Scotland is very scenic and if you love the out of doors, its great, but can't compare to the first two choices.

You guys have all be extremely helpful! It's nice getting some first hand expertise since what the thermostat says and how it feels isn't always the same and we don't want to make overcrowding in high season worse.
And I wouldn't have even known to ask about when the bigs are at their worst in Scotland! That's a great piece of information.

Midges are found more in damp locations and rural areas, particularly in the west and the islands. They are weather-dependent (warm, wet, and windless weather favors them) and location-specific. You can google to find areas that are relatively midge-free, such as Inverness, Edinburgh, and other areas away from the west coast.

https://www.scottish-at-heart.com/midges-in-scotland.html

We never saw a single one in our week in Scotland ( third week of May) and we were walking two of our days on the West Highland Way, where they are reputed to be at their worst.

No place you mentioned is going to be too hot or too cold or too wet in May, so this comes down to what kind of experience you want. An over generalization would be that for nature, Scotland, for "an American in Europe" traditional holiday then Italy, and to push conventional knowledge boundaries a bit, Prague and Budapest

Oh, time matters too. 10 days Scotland or two stops in Italy, or just Budspest and Prague. 14 days a longer Italy trip or Prague, Vienna and Budapest. Remember 2 weeks is really 16 days. Use the last weekend.

And thr RS crowd hates these sorts of trips, but Ryan flies from Edinburgh direct to Rome, then Ryan and Wizz go direct to Budapest from Rome and a couple of other Italian airports in about 2 hours. These flights start at about $100.

I'd definitely want to push a trip to Scotland to 14 days (or longer).

I spent 3 weeks in Scotland this May and absolutely loved it! It's a beautiful country, the people are the friendliest anywhere and the weather was great. I was there around the same time as Lane, and it was pretty much what he said - one or two rainy days (but not hard rain) and mostly alternating sunny days with cloudy days. I loved the cloudy days, actually - it made the scenery that much more breathtaking. It was warm enough that I only needed a light jacket at the beginning of May and by the time I left towards the end, I didn't even wear that.

If you do go to Scotland, I would encourage you to visit places not always frequented by tourists. For example, Skye is a popular tourist destination (with good reason - it has magnificent scenery) but it is very crowded. I was on the islands of Arran, Mull and Harris & Lewis, and these were much less crowded. Regardless, you will love every part of it. And FWIW, I had no problems with midges during the time I was there (from May 3rd through May 25th).

The others are correct, however, that you should start planning now if you go there. I started booking in September for my May trip. Not all places will book that early, but you can always email them and ask them to let you know when they will start booking 2024.

Scotland honestly totally surprised and mesmerized me. More than exceeded expectations. I loved the landscape, people, food, music, and atmosphere. We were there in April, and were told we were experiencing very good weather for that time of year. Our trip included Edinburgh, West Highland Way, Skye, and Inverness. Granted, when we went there was very little in the way of crowds--April of 2009. It seems like Skye has really ballooned in terms of visitors from what I have been reading. When we were on Skye, I actually had this total feeling of solitude which I now realize is often not the case. Same with our drive through the Highlands--places that we stopped were very quiet and our group of four were often the only ones there. In any case, Scotland really touched my soul (even more than Ireland) and I would love to go back, so if you love the mountains, and variable weather, and outdoors, and walking, and salmon (always my choice for dinner), history, and great music and people, this might be a good anniversary choice.

In the time frame you're planning, I'd go to Scotland.

We were planning on Scotland 6/2023, however it was going to be difficult to get accommodations for our dates. That is affordable accommodations. We had to switch to Plan B which was catching a cruise out of Rome around to the Greek Islands back to Amalfi Coast, Florence and back into Rome. I've been to Italy 10+ times, and never tire of it. The crowds in Florence & Rome are getting to be miserable some times of the year, however.

For a Plan B for you, I would suggest Prague/Vienna/Budapest. They are cities we've been to numerous times, and we love them.

We did a river cruise which started in Budapest for 3 nights,then Vienna one night and Praque for 3 nights. Really enjoyed it.