Please sign in to post.

December Vacation Recommendations

We've made two previous posts about our itinerary, and used a lot of the feedback that you gave us, and below is our final itinerary for our trip. We are meeting up with out family in Budapest, and then visiting Bruges and Paris. These three stops were already booked, so we don't have any flexibility on these. Since we're on a budget, we are flying into Florence from the US, and from Basel to Budapest, as these were cheap, direct flights. Also, we've already been to Amsterdam, Rome, and Prague, so that is why we are not seeing any of those areas on this trip.

We're looking for any recommendations that you may have from your experiences! Are there any of the locations in which you think we need more or less time? Do you have recommendations for the towns as far as what to eat, sights we must see or activities we must do?

Also, do you think a day trip from Basel to Lucerne would be worth it? We currently are not planning on it, because it is $150 and a 2 hour round trip train

All of your input has been very helpful so far, so thank you!

Florence 3 days

Venice 4 days

Vienna 3 days

Salzburg 2 days

Nuremburg 4 days

Rothenburg 1 day

Colmar (w/ day trip to Strasbourg) 4 days

Basel 2 days

Posted by
15777 posts

Does this include travel days? It would be clearer if you indicated the number of nights in each city.

Posted by
8164 posts

I lived in Germany for four year and disliked the long Winters.

It gets dark at 4:30PM and it is cold. If you go take warm gloves and a hat and scarf as well as a long overcoat.
Also, extra socks so you can wear two pairs.

why go to Germany in the Winter. Check out South America, Argentine and Chile or Australia.

Posted by
2602 posts

I agree with post #1, it would depend on whether travel days are included.

I personally love the cold weather and don't mind the short days of winter, but everyone is different.

Posted by
5 posts

I should have phrased it better, that is how many nights are in each city. Travel is included in those counts, but we will generally travel first thing in the morning, and have around a half day left when we get to the city. So for the first day of Venice, the first half will be spent leaving Florence and traveling to Venice, then the afternoon/night would be spent in Venice.

When we are in cities, we like to wake up early and explore the whole day until late at night. So we typically use the traveling times as our relaxing time to just watch the scenery go by, rest our feet, or take a nap.

Posted by
8312 posts

Much improved itinerary. I would have substituted Munich for Nuremburg, however.

Posted by
3050 posts

Yeah, 4 nights in Nuremberg seems long but i'm assuming you're using it as a jumping off point for day tours? Rothenberg can be done easily as a day trip from Nuremberg but I guess you wouldn't be able to do the night watchman's tour. Actually now that I think about it, the tour would start early in December and may be doable, in which case I'd highly recommend not moving for just one night.