As a relatively new retiree, I am tired of whirlwind tours of Europe. My next trip will be in the fall to Paris where I will be renting an apartment for the month of October and hopefully living the life of a Parisian.
Does anyone have any suggestions regarding other cities in Europe that would be fun to spend an extended period (4 weeks - 8 weeks) ?
Steven, I envy you your time in Paris come October. I rented an apartment in Paris two years ago for the month of August. Best travel related decision I ever made. It was so nice to leisurely explore Paris at my own pace and not have to pack all those wonderful museums into a week or two. You will love it!
After visiting each of them for 6 days last summer I would recommend both Berlin and Budapest. I would rent an apartment and spend a month in each in a heartbeat, but to spend that much time somewhere it's probably best if it's somewhere you have visited before so you know you like it there. A month can be a long time to commit to somewhere new and unknown. You might try a month long vacation spending a week in each of 4 cities to see where you might want to rent an apartment for a month on a future trip.
Wow, what fun. I would love to stay in London for a month....or more. So much to see and do!
Congrats on your retirement and the chance to take longer trips. I think a month would be about a week too long for me, but London and Paris would be great choices. Another city we loved is Budapest, I think I could spend a good deal of time there getting to feel at home (but still not a month, guess I'm just restless). Spring and fall definitely beat summer travel. With that much time I'd consider winter too. Short days and cold wet weather wouldn't be such a problem with a long stay in a big city. And winter brings those short days and weather anyway here in the PNW -- why not endure them in a big European city instead?
Predictably I am going to suggest Budapest. We enjoy it because despite the language the customs, norms, values, and kindness of the people remind me of my youth in the 70's and 80's. Very familiar and very comfortable with just enough newness and opportunity for exploration to be very interesting. Well suited if you enjoy jazz, opera, concerts, theater, food, more food, out door cafes and stunning vistas. For people of a certain age there is also a small thrill from being behind the Iron Curtain.
I've loved doing that in London and Paris in the last two years. Not a month, unfortunately. But one place per trip, with a couple of day trips.
No more whirlwind trips for me.
It's probably not realistic to think you can "live the life of a local." Especially in countries (other than UK) where you don't speak the language at a level above the average 4 year old.
But I enjoy not burning up all the time and money madly dashing about getting from point A to B.
Prague, I have been visiting there for over 20 years and hope to spend a lot of my retirement there.( got a few years to go yet)
Cheap to stay there you could have 2 months or more there for what you would pay for a month in Paris. loads of places to visit within a few hours of the city, superb public transport system that is cheap and very efficient.Food is cheap and beer cheaper than water. fantastic parks to enjoy great ,cultural scene, amazing art galleries and museums and a wonderful city to stroll around and find your own Special Place , mine is the little courtyard behind the main church in the Strahov monastery Sunday morning listening to the organ music , really nice before all the tourists decend.
I would love to spend 4-8 weeks in Scotland. I might choose Glasgow, but Edinburgh would be wonderful. What if you spent a month on Skye or some other island. That would be very different from the city stays. Also, I might go to Glasgow in January so that I could go to the Celtic Music Festival which lasts at least two weeks.
Good luck and have fun picking your next spot.
Pam
Rome -- tons and tons to see. Or Amsterdam which is a great city on its own but is also a great base with excellent public transportation.
Venice (during shoulder season - not during the summer when it would be really hot and crowded). Amsterdam - English is widely spoken, excellent cultural offerings, great transit system and bike lanes all over the place, and easy to get to many other cities/towns quickly and cheaply on the commuter trains and good high speed train connections to other parts of Europe if you are interested in spending a long weekend (or two) elsewhere. Antwerp - it's got more of a city pulse to it than Bruges (which tends to roll up the carpet at night) - also (similar to Netherlands) the language barrier not as much of an issue in Belgium - and easy to get commuter trains for day trips (or high speed trains for long weekends out of Belgium). If you like a city on the smaller side - and a place with zero language barriers, Galway (again, during shoulder season like June when the daylight hours start getting very long - or, if you don't mind it being a bit more crowded, during the Galway Arts Festival in the summer). Galway offers train service to some other parts of Ireland (ex. Dublin), but they also have Bus Eireann service that fills in the gaps to other parts where rail service doesn't reach. If you aren't completely adverse to renting a car during your stay, you may want to consider more of a smaller Irish village - like Kinvara, across the Bay from Galway (about a 40 minute drive) and right on the edge of The Burren - very peaceful and quaint, yet still has a nice selection of about a dozen local pubs (several of which offer live music on certain nights), a few good restaurants, and a good location to drive around and view other parts of Western Ireland and along the coast (depending when you would stay, you could also consider spending a couple of days and nights staying out in the Aran Islands). For a 2 month stay, you could actually spend 1 month in Western Ireland and the 2nd month in Northern Ireland (Belfast or Derry).
Since you are retired and probably pretty flexible about whenever you want to travel, you might also consider something like signing up to volunteer in a program like Vaughan Town in Spain. They offer locations all over Spain - volunteers agree to spend a week with business professionals from Spain who want to improve on their English conversational skills - in exchange, you get free room and board at one of the resorts around Spain where they host the program (you pay for your own plane ticket to get to Spain). Read the requirements carefully on Vaughan's website - you aren't there to learn Spanish - you are expected to only speak English - and often the days are long and can stretch into the evenings (you are expected to eat all meals with the program participants) and check out some of the videos available on YouTube from past sessions to see if it is something that you would like.
We spent a month in Paris and it still felt way too short. Enjoy your time there!
I'd love to spend a month in England, close enough to easily spend the day in London but stay in a smallish village and make day trips to other places nearby.
We've stayed in London for a month and still have lots to see!
Once we stayed for 5 weeks in a small town in southwest France called Pezenas and it was amazing. Smaller places that are centrally located can be great choices.
We also spend extended periods of time in northern England in the Lake District - there are many things to see and beautiful cities and towns within easy reach.
Parts of Switzerland, although expensive, are good places to stay for a while. If you base yourself in Valais you can easily get to Lake Geneva, go through the tunnel to the Berner Oberland, Zermatt, Chamonix, Aosta, and other great mountain locations.
Amsterdam is another place you can spend lots of time...the Netherlands is a small country and you can see much of it with easy day trips as well as all there is to do in the city.
I'm jealous! I can't wait for first trip when we retire in six years, where we we can slow down and don't have to squeeze all kinds of stuff into our limited two week European vacation.
What about Lisbon? A lovely city, with many day trip possibilities.
Congrats! You will love it. I recently realized how spoiled I have become living over here. Our normal mode of travel is one city at a time for (usually) a whole week or however much time the kids have off from school. We recently had company dropping in on us for 2 nights, as part of their blitz of 4 cities in Europe in 2 weeks. I used to do that too. no more. Enjoy taking the time to smell the roses and explore those little holes in the wall that you formerly might have rushed past. Vienna is another good choice. Very centrally located. Just a few hours by train from Prague, Budapest, Munich, and Salzburg.
Roma. Firenze. Roma.
4-8 weeks in a city is also a good time to combine it with a language course. Then the only question remaining is which language would you love to learn? I've done 6 weeks at the Sorbonne many years ago and used my free time to explore Paris. I wouldn't mind doing something like that in Barcelona or maybe Florence ... I do speak German already, otherwise I'd also recommend Berlin.
