Overwhelmed with choices!

Go on YouTube and spend some time watching Rick Steves videos from places you haven't been. See what grabs you. My library is full of guidebooks (Rick Steves and otherwise.) Sometimes, I get a few out of the library and read up on places and see what interests me.

I recommend Slovenia and Croatia. Slovenia especially is still not as discovered as Italy, France, etc. I haven't yet read of anyone visiting Slovenia (or Croatia) who said, "Gee, I wish we hadn't gone or hadn't spent so much time there." Instead, people gush about how much they loved it.

I am assuming you reside in the US? If so and given that you have only ten days, you should limit yourself to places that you can reach with a single, preferably direct and short(ish), flight. This might limit you to western Europe, i.e. Scandinavia, the UK/Ireland, Spain & Portugal. A little further opens up Germany & Switzerland, etc.

From that list, I would then judge which of those locations gets me nearest to ten day's worth of places I could/would visit comfortably.

As you can see, I am focusing on minimising travel time, maximising 'on the ground' time. Of course, within reason, some journeys by car or train can be part of the holiday too, allowing a form of sightseeing. I wouldn't want this to be a big chunk of time though, otherwise a holiday can start to feel more like watching a travel movie without commentary!

A friend went with 5 other students to take a trip too, and they had to figure a way for all 6 of them to decide where they were going. Since they mostly couldn't decide where each of them wanted to go, they got 3 index cards each, and voted on their top 3 choices. The cards were all gathered and any destination that got at least 2 votes was put on the list of what could be voted for in the 2nd round :) with a reason WHY added to it, to convince the others. They did narrow it down after a while.

It was a group of 6 young women, they decided on London, because the guys are so handsome :)

We all have our priorities!
Have a great trip, wherever !
-Alison

You could agonize over this for months, but the fact is that you can have a grand 10-day trip just about anywhere in Europe. I would just caution against thinking you're going to see "Spain", ""Germany" or any other large country in the amount of time you will have. Better to think "Catalunya", "the Basque Country and Asturias", "southeastern Germany", etc.

Perhaps thinking about the weather would allow you to eliminate a few places. September might still be uncomfortably hot in Andalucia, and it's past the peak period for visiting Scandinavia.

I'd look at Portugal. It's small enough that you can see Lisbon and several interesting places in the north in the amount of time you have. But the airfare may not be super-low. If you're willing to risk cooler (and possibly wetter?) weather, you might snag a cheap flight into Amsterdam and focus on the Netherlands.

Does that mean 10 days on the ground?

My favourite destinations for September are Portugal and Croatia, although Croatia is better the first half of the month before places start winding down for the winter.

Ten days means 9 nights, so for Portugal, consider flying into Lisbon for 5 nights, have 1 night in Evora then end in Porto and fly home from there.

In Croatia, fly into Split and have 4 nights in Split, including a day trip to Plitvice Lakes (ideally spend a night here) and time in Split and Trogir, then travel to Makarska or Korcula for 3 nights, then Dubrovnik for 2 nights and fly back from there.

If your 10 days includes getting there, I would opt for Portugal, as Croatia won’t be as easy for you to fly into and you will spend too much time in transit.

Have you considered a cruise that includes the Greek Islands. You don't have to move and it is a great way to see the islands.

Switzerland is very expensive, even compared to Germany and Austria.

You could go to Munich and take day trips to Salzburg, Austria, Augsburg, Garmisch, Fussen and Nurenburg. Also do the Romantic Road that includes Rothenburg on the Tauber.

Portugal is wonderful, the people are special.

For a mix of culture, good food, and lots of nature, I would suggest Slovenia plus Vienna. We did that combination last September and it was a memorable and fun trip.

I read about this somewhere. When trying to decide between 2 things that seem equal to you, toss a coin. Not to go by what turns up, but because you will know which one you really want because you will be 'rooting' for it! LOL! I liked the suggestion about listing a few places, then each person voting for their top two or three.

My personal favorite would be either London or Scotland. Stay based in London the whole trip and do several day trips by train or bus. Windsor, Brighton, Cardiff Wales, Bath, York, Winchester, Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Cambridge, Canterbury, Dover are all possible (among many others). Kew Gardens, while technically part of London, can take most of a day, as can Greenwich.

If you want to include Scotland, then I'd suggest the following- London 2-3 nights, then train to York 1-2 nights, train to Edinburgh 1-2 nights, train to Aviemore- 1-3 nights, then train to Inverness 2-3 nights. Then fly home.

We want some culture, cute towns, good food and lots of nature.

Consider Ireland. It has all the above, is not that expensive, and there's no language barrier (well, hardly any).

With 10 days I wouldn't go to far east in Europe. We typically travel to Europe in September/October and we like to take advantage of fall/harvest time. If you enjoy wine you could go to places known for wine. The Mosel/Rhine area is lovely in September. You could base in Koblenz and visit small towns on both the Rhine and the Mosel, perhaps do a couple hour river cruise, visit some castles and wineries. Or perhaps, you might think about a trip to Spain. The Basque area or Barcelona area? In Barcelona area you could stay a couple nights in Girona and do the rest in Barcelona or do a couple days on the Costa Brava

Unless money is absolutely no object, consider the approach that I take: Make a "wish list" of places you want to go eventually, and then pick the one that offers the best deals on flights for when you want to travel. The difference between a bargain flight and an expensive flight can be $1000 or more per person. You don't want to get your heart set on a specific destination only to find out that you can't get there without spending an absolute fortune.