Planning on Traveling in the Winter, Possibly Southern Europe - help!

It won't be warm or warmish in Italy or France. You'll need winter clothing, but you can still have a nice trip in December and January, even in northern Europe. Germany's Christmas markets are terrific. Avoid Switzerland if you want to avoid high prices. Italy's cities can bust your budget too.

You need to figure out WHAT you want to see, explore and experience. What interests you? What will you budget be? Places like Rome, Paris, London, etc can eat up an entire budget BUT with loads of research and planning you can find budget accommodations in each city. For instance would you agree to stay in a convent or monastery? The London School of Economics has dorm rooms but they fill up fast. Will you rely soley on public transport? I think at this point you need to figure out what your budget is. Really decide if it's Southern France, Italy, more of Spain, or even Prague that interests you. Personally, I decide where I want to go first then create a budget to make it happen. But that's just me. Take at look at this website: www.journeywoman.com. Might be helpful.

You can see a bunch of stuff in 4-5 weeks. If you stick to southern France and Italy, distances and travel times between major sites aren't that long. Very easy to pick out a chain of great places that are 2-4 hours apart by train. When I lived in Germany, I liked to take trips into Italy in the winter since I could walk around sightseeing and it wasn't bitter cold (though it was snowing in Milan once when I passed through- central and southern Italy are warmer). Rain is no real problem- it's no Pacific Northwest over there. As you say, even northern Europe would be no problem for an Albany resident. My first trip to Paris was in January, and I loved it. Guess it was in the 40's most of the time. Speaking of, you could catch a budget flight from Spain to Paris, and then head south to Provence/Cote d'Azur. A few years ago I did a thirty day trip through five countries in southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Croatia). I think I spent about $3,500. I stayed mostly in hostels and a few cheap hotels, and generally ate one restaurant meal per day. Didn't scrimp on admission fees, snacks, drinks, etc. Train fares in Italy, especially on the regional/non-high speed trains, are quite affordable. Not too bad either in France as I recall, again especially on the non-TGV (high speed). Good luck!

Also... I never skied in Europe. Not something I'd want to do as a solo traveler. You'd have to look into it, but I imagine lift tickets and equipment rental would blow up your budget real quick. I also imagine any budget accommodation such as hostels would be booked up well in advance. Switzerland is crazy expensive, French and Italian alpine areas less so. Btw, have you considered what you will do with your excess clothing and luggage after your semester is over? You could ship some stuff home (expensive) or store it and come back to your place of study before flying out (probably also expensive).

Thanks for all your advice! As far as WHAT I want to see, all the places I listed are high on my country list. I've been to Paris before though, but the southern area of France is a place I really want to visit. Plus, a friend might be available in Nice to stay with for a few days. I am not against all and any boarding options. Hostels, monasteries if that is an option. I'm open to it all :) As far as skiing, that is what I said. It would kill my budget. Skiing cheap in the US is expensive, let alone at a famous alpine resort in the Alps! haha. I think that the S. France - Italy idea is more reasonable. I plan to either ship my extra stuff home or leave it with friends who live in Madrid and pick it up when I go home. I have to compare price options, but yes I have thought of it. Do you think it's too ambitious to fly out of Barcelona into France, go through S. France into Italy and work my way north to south, and maybe fly out from Greece? And do it all in 4-5 weeks? I want to do a lot, but I don't want to feel too rushed...

Not too ambitious. For instance, you could quite easily do this itinerary in around three weeks: Carcassonne 2 nights Avignon 2 nights Nice 2 or 3 nights Milan 2 nights Venice 2 or 3 nights Florence 3 nights Rome 4 nights
Naples 3 nights So with 4-5 weeks you're golden. There are reasonably priced flights between Rome and Athens if you want to add in Greece. Check skyscanner.com to get an idea of flight options and costs. It's really a matter of deciding what you want to see in these countries- like where in Greece besides Athens you would want to go. Depending on where you want to go in France, you could just go by train from Barcelona. Barca to Carcassonne is about 3.5hrs. It's not an easy price comparison to do re: your excess luggage. Buying a plane ticket from Athens, Rome etc to Madrid just to pick up a suitcase kinda sucks. Looks like shipping a 40lb box with Correos de Espana costs about 100 euros- you can check out their website. (Someone on here said their kid took an old suitcase, threw it away at the end, and shipped clothes in a cardboard box to make it cheaper and easier). Then you'd have to compare the cost of flying back to the States from Madrid vs. the other city. If you can crash with friends in Madrid the last night, that might just be easier, plus you wouldn't have to worry about reliability of the Correos.

Remember, Rome is as far north as NYC and the south coast of France is at about the same latitude as Portland Oregon. The Balearic Sea does temper the weather but it still gets cold. Going to the coast of Spain or France in December is a little like going to the coast of Georgia in the December. Doesn't mean you can't have a great time. Everyone is different. If a region is famous for it's beaches or it's lemon trees or .... I want to be there when they are at their best. If I can't then I look for a place where the weather can work for me in adding to the trip and not taking away from it. The Christmas markets of Germany or Red Square in Moscow come to mind. And if you do want inexpensive skiing look at the High Tatras in Slovakia.

"Remember, Rome is as far north as NYC and the south coast of France is at about the same latitude as Portland Oregon." This isn't really a response to that specific comment, but I see similar erroneous assumptions on weather made quite often on this website. Quite simply, you can't compare the latitude of a location in Europe and assume that it will experince similar temperature ranges to a region in North America at the same latitude. Much of western Europe benefits from the moderating influence of Gulf Stream current, which keeps winter temperatures considerably warmer than they would be if latitude were the primary influence. For example, London sits at about the same latitude as Winnipeg or Calgary, but it usually stays well above freezing for most of the winter. Likewise, the northerly port of Trondheim stays ice-free throughout the winter, even though it's at a similar latitude to Fairbanks, Alaska. So Cara, being from Albany, I don't think you're likely to hit any temperatures that you can't handle. Now, you can definately compare hours of daylight... just not average temperatures.

More info on winter travel. There is one big weather influence to consider, however. The atmosphere can be quite damp. Meaning, much of that brilliant rural scenery you see in postcards hides behind a gray shrowd. Couple that with the much shorter periods of daylight, and exploring rurual areas becomes a low-yield endevor. Unless you're headed to the mountains for winter sports, stick to the cities. Speaking of mountains... Yes, you can ski affordably in the Alps, but you may have to settle for less than the world class experiences. Look for areas that only have a few lifts (Nesselwang in southern Bavaria is one, but there are others). These are usually considerably cheaper than the larger resorts. The flip-side, however, might be that these towns with smaller ski infrastructure would be less likely to have hostels. And as the others mentioned, stay away from Switzerland, it will bust your budget very quickly. Finally, if you have a student ID, you should qualify for substantial discounts on both lift tickets and equipment rental.

I've vacationed in Europe in February for 3 of the last 4 years, twice in Italy and once in Andalusia. I had a few cold, gray, rainy days in Italy in Venice, Ravenna, and Florence, but I also had warm sunny days when I didn't even need a jacket. The temperatures were never down to freezing and people were still eating gelato all the time. I tucked disposable handwarmers into my pockets, always had a good rain poncho with me, and had a great time. The big advantage to being in cities is that there are lots of indoor things to see. A couple of layers of good thermals will keep you warm enough most places in Italy. December is a really good time to go north to see the Christmas markets but it will be considerably colder. Check out hostelworld.com - you can see what hostels are available and the prices. There are also reviews.

And don't discount weekends while you are in class. When my son was in Berlin for a semester, a group of students would take off many weekends (usually they had 3 day weekends)and hop a cheap flight to Budapest, Stockholm, London, etc, and stay in a hostel. They had a blast and they learned how to travel cheap. I believe there were student discounts as well (but don't quote me on that). Something to check out.