Destinations for November / Week of Thanksgiving

For such a short trip, I would generally recommend a place with a direct flight from your home airport. Assuming that's Denver, Frankfurt and Munich would be the new options for you. It will be Christmas market season in Germany. I recently learned from another Forum poster about the Nahe Valley near Frankfurt. This would be a new place for you to explore with easy rail links from/to a direct flight.

With the exception of costal scenery, Austria could be an excellent choice. Plenty of history and museums, beautiful scenery across the country, and many of the Christmas Markets will have begun. Base mostly in Vienna and spend a couple of nights in Salzburg.

I've been to Wales and it always has changeable weather, but it will for sure have wind and some rain in Late November. It is OK in Late Spring and Early Autumn but take light rain jacket. I'm thinking Naples and Pompeii might be fun and warmer that time of year. Check out RS Italian Villiage Tour for some ideas on more country style Italy. Friends of mine spent a week in Rome staying in a nice B&B and had a great time!

Your trip is quite short, so that means the potential impact of getting a spate of nasty weather (in many places, including most that you mentioned) is fairly high. Get 4 solid days of hard rain (very possible) and your trip could be mostly washed out.

I’d pick southern Italy. It can rain there, too, of course, but the chances of it just pouring for days on end are much lower. And any rain there would be less chilly.

Southern Italy won’t be summer-like, but can be quite pleasant (and uncrowded). Be aware that many touristy places will be sleepy, with some (maybe most) things closed for the season.

We were in Wales, both south and north, last month (our first time), and it was exceedingly hot, like Colorado has also been this summer, as I suspect you know firsthand. Up on the northern coast, it did rain solidly one day, which provided a slight break from the severe drought that both the UK and Colorado are suffering. We had an apartment in Penmaenmawr, and had a fantastic view of the beach and ocean, as well as mountains above town. The town was a notable seaside resort in Victorian times, but it’s now a plainer spot on the coast, not huge, and not particularly luxurious, but still nice. It’s a little west of the town of Conwy.

BTW, we learned that Llandudno, a city just east of Conwy, has a ski hill, a “Snowsports Centre” at sea level! Don’t expect champagne powder - it’s white Astroturf, and a waiter at The Gladstone restaurant in Dwygyfylchi said he got nasty burns when he fell on it!

Wales gets some snow in the mountains in the winter, but I don’t know if November would have any.

We’d originally planned on spending this coming November in Puglia, the “heel” of the “boot” of Italy. We were there the last half of November 2025, and wanted to see more of the region, especially to the north of Bari, where we haven’t been. We also planned to spend extended time at a cooking school in Lecce this time. Last year, Lecce had some downpour rainstorms, and as the town has no real storm drains, and the rain gutters on the buildings dump right onto the sidewalks, both the streets and sidewalks turned into rivers. We were in Naples prior to Puglia, and saw Pompeii and Herculaneum from there. The days it didn’t rain in southern Italy had mild temperatures; it was noticeably cool when it did rain. Sudden changes have made us cancel (postpone) that Puglia trip for personal reasons, but I may still try to figure out a short trip to London/southern England in late November.

Have you considered Portugal? I haven’t been there in November, but had thought it might be an alternative to Puglia, along with maybe Galicia, northwestern Spain.

Wales is a beautiful place to visit, but I personally wouldn't go in late November. It will be dark very early (limiting your ability to enjoy the many outdoor activities) and very likely to rain a lot. Cornwall won't be much better. Some places we've enjoyed visiting in late November/early December are Lisbon, Andalucia, Barcelona, and Rome. Nicer weather, a bit warmer, and more sunlight. We are actually planning a trip to Naples ourselves this year in early December and it seems like a nice time to go- and makes visiting the large archeological sites a lot easier (and less crowded). I would just check the winter opening times as they might be more limited.

Other potential direct flights from DIA would be Icelandair to Reykjavik (certainly cooler) and Turkish Airlines to Istanbul (potentially rainy, and highs in the 50’s). If you went to Istanbul, you could have Thanksgiving turkey in Turkey! They call the birds “hindi” over there.

One of the better times of year for Budapest ... or Central Europe for that matter. Its the dry season and Vienna and Budpaest arent terribly cold. And its Christmas Market Season.

Lots of good ideas above. If weather is an issue, i like Weatherspark because you can do a comparison. Like this one

https://weatherspark.com/compare/s/2/76575~84771~95434~39782/Comparison-of-the-Average-Fall-Weather-in-Naples-Budapest-%C4%B0stanbul-and-Wrexham#Figures-CloudCover

We are considering North Wales, since we haven't been there before.
However, I keep reading that November is the rainiest month there, so
I am concerned that there will be so much rain that we will not be
able to venture out at all

As much as I love North Wales I probably wouldn’t recommend it in November for a full stay. It is liable to be a bit bleak.
Where ever you travel in the UK in November you can expect to get some rain and you can expect changeable weather. A full day of constant rain isn’t that usual. What you get one day is not that likely to be what you get the next because the weather is usually blowing in from the sea to the west.

As usual I will make the suggestion of my home town Chester which could fit what you are looking for. It’s very historic with good transport links, 2 hours from London on the train and easy access to Manchester and Liverpool airport.
It is literally on the Welsh border so it’s an easy trip into North Wales if the weather is on your side. It’s also on the Mersey Rail train network so a short hop to Liverpool for all the sights and museums there. Lots of coastal scenery in north wales but also on the Wirral, just next door.

I second Vienna. We didn't go to Vienna until our 12th trip to Europe and were surprised at how much we liked it.

No coastal scenery, but we absolutely love Austria and Bavaria during the Christmas markets. Beautiful old towns, alpine scenery and contagious holiday atmosphere. I’d fly into and out of Munich. Stay in Salzburg or the area for 5 nights, easy access to Salzburg, Berchtesgaden and the Salzkammergut, the Wolfgangsee, St. Gilgen, St. Wolfgang, etc.

I’d then move to Innsbruck (or Hall in Tirol, our favorite in the area) for a couple of nights before returning to Munich airport.

We did our third trip to these in early Dec. 2024.

https://www.salzburg.info/en/salzburg/advent

https://www.wolfgangseer-advent.at/en

https://www.berchtesgadener-advent.de/en/home-eng/

https://www.tyrol.com/activities/events/all-events/haller-adventmarkt

https://www.innsbruck.info/en/events/christmas-markets-innsbruck.html

www.badl.at

We used to make a practice of picking a European capital and going for five or so nights. Living on the east coast makes that much simpler. We looked for inexpensive nonstop flights and Hilton properties because we were using points to stay. We’ve been to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Madrid, Amsterdam and Istanbul for short trips in late November/early December. It’s not hot but there is a higher probability of rain. I would pick chilly over heat and humidity any day. Early sunset isn’t as much of an issue in cities. More time to enjoy the lights. Of the ones mentioned, I would recommend Istanbul. We hired a private guide for a half day tour, the rest we did on our own. We liked Istanbul so much that we took the Rick Steves Turkey tour not long afterwards.

Thanks everyone for the lots of very helpful ideas. I think the advice to stick to non-stop flights is spot on and I also appreciate the point about short days being less noticeable in a city.

My hubby and I will have to sit down and decide what our priorities are for this trip.