Europe the second time around

Kathi,

all those places in 4 weeks? did you stop to breath?

good luck on your next trip and hope you enjoy it as your first.

happy trails.

An all Italy trip...it can keep you busy for weeks.
Great food, great shopping, lively people (gorgeous men!) and beautiful scenery. Check out the movie Under the Tuscan Sun (Diane Lane and Raoul Bova)
Also another wonderful film coming out is " The Trip to Italy" (a British film with 2 comedians driving and eating their way through Italy).

What did you like on your last trip? Are you looking for completely new places or explore more of somewhere you already went? You could do a Scandinavian trip next if you want something different. If you like seeing big cities Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm are beautiful places to visit. The suggestion for an all Italy trip is a great idea (Florence, the lake area, Cinque Terre, or the Amalfi coast, Pompeii, so many choices of great places to visit.) Southern France would be another good choice. One of my favorite areas is the Mosel/Rhine area in Germany. You have beautiful scenery, vineyards, pretty towns, castles, and you can even throw in some great Roman sites in Trier. This area has good train transportation and bus transportation between even some of the smaller towns, and can easily be together with many other areas in Germany, or Alsace. You will probably get better suggestions if we know what you like, but my suggestion after your last trip would be to focus on and explore one area that you enjoyed.

Yes, all those places plus a few more in four weeks,LOL, I like to say I have adult onset ADD, I like to keep doing, see as much as I can see. (We are 50 and 20yrs) I am not very good at a slower pace. On my original trip I thought I'd only get to Europe once due to finances, so I planned as much as I could, finances changed a bit, so I would like to see more. We really enjoyed guided bicycle tours to Versailles,in the Amsterdam countryside, and Fussen. We also loved horseback riding in Greece, and would love to ride again elsewhere. I don't like to explore cities much on my own, I like to join a walking tour and have someone else tell me the important facts/ history, so recommendations there are appreciated. I feel like I learn more that way. Anyway, I hope this helps with suggestions, I always appreciate the input!

@ kathi,

I rode in Hyde Park my first time in london. It was expensive, but something you don't do everyday so i splurged on myself.

On my trip to Stockholm i found a place to ride in a park near the city. about a 15 minute bus ride. but we had others participants that didn't have a lot of experience so our ride wasn't as fast as it could have been. if i remember correctly, they have rides into the city but i think its on a Sunday.

happy trails.

If you're interested in a walking tour, you might think about Scotland. I've done some great walking trips in the Highlands. I've combined a week of walking with a week of touring. You can see Edinburgh, some castles, and lochs and then walk. Here's the general link to VisitScotland's page on walking in Scotland. The company I went with is sadly no longer leading walks except for alumni of earlier walks, and then it's more like a reunion of past walks. There's a decent list tours/guides on the Walk Highlands site. I would recommend searching on walking holidays Scotland to find more companies. Then you can see if the tours sound interesting to you. Here's one that I found, Walkabout Scotland and the trips they've got for this year. Then there are the TA reviews of the company.

I think it's a wonderful way to explore a country. I advise going with a Scotland based company rather than REI or another US company, because you'll be more likely to meet people from Europe. On the walking holidays that I've gone on, I've been the only American. We had Dutch, English, Belgian, German and Swiss!!! And one time we had someone from one of the "Stans," but I can't remember which one!

Pam

Sicily is my latest love! If you want to really see her, I'd suggest 10 days minimum. I've been twice and still haven't seen it all. I had a great guide for the East side of the Island, including Mt. Etna (hike to the top) a beautiful vineyard, Syracuse. On the West side you have a totally different "look" to the island, and the Valley of the Temples is incredible. My guide for the East side was: legendofsicily.com

Another vote for doing a tour of Italy. You could really see a lot in 4 weeks. Also, I always advocate for Poland. Although on a multi country tour, it can be tough to get there unless you are already in that part of Europe or are willing to fly.

Another suggestion: Was there a place you really loved your first trip? Go back! There is something wonderful and comforting about seeing a city you know and love for the second (or third, fourth, fifth....) time. You already know where you are going and can spend more time in your favorite spots and reminisce about your previous trips.

Try visiting Ireland and then catching a budget European airline to either Scandanavia (Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo/Bergen) or down to Italy. They're all locations worthy of a full trip to themselves.

On two recent train trips in Czech Republic and Hungary and a bus ride, we didn't enjoy our mass transit experiment. Budget European air carriers are just a treasure to have when a budget's concerned, as you can see so much more--cheaply.

Consider Scandinavia.

I would suggest that you go to RS "Our Tours", click on "All Tours" and look thru that big list of his tours to find some that might interest you. Then click thru to any of those and click on their itineraries to see where they lead. I am not suggesting that you sign up for one of his tours but rather suggesting that they would be a good source of information. Also, the more information that you provide in your post, such as time of year, number of days available for Europe, general budget, etc, will give us volunteers more information from which to send recommendations. I find that the more time I spend in one place, say 2 nights minimum, the more I come away with. I have gone to Europe 11 of the past 12 year and return this coming Friday and still have plenty of places to go to and see.
Good luck and happy travels.

I received a few suggestions for Scandinavia. Oslo or Stockholm? I don't want to do both, then I thought Copenhagen and head south (Germany, Czech Republic , and where do you suggest in Switzerland?) Again, I would like to go for a month, either June or Sept, not sure yet. Again, thanks for any input.

If you go in June, Oslo would be wonderful! It is my favorite Scandinavian city. Pristine is the best description. Though I agree with Pamela that Scotland is great for an extended trip. Why not combine them. They have a shared heritage!