Poll: Where would you go in Europe for a week?

Definitely a direct flight, probably somewhere familiar so I can hit the ground running. I pick London.

Montenegro

It would be very rare for us to spend the dollars to fly to Europe for only one week. However, we did do an 8 day tour of Iceland in 2021 that was great.

Definitely Paris but only in January or February. Too crowded otherwise these days. And it’s still beautiful in the gray winter light.

Any of the major cities would work for me. Fly in, stay in the city, have a great time, fly home.

Iceland. That is a great time for a quick introduction to the country.

1. Paris
2. London
3. Madrid

I have done this quite often.

For only one week? London would almost be my default, but for simply just one week I think it would be Reykjavík.

Munich (Oktoberfest), Stuttgart (Volksfest), and Bamberg.

This is a one week beer trip and must be done while Oktoberfest and Volkfest are happening.

1. Paris
2. Paris
3. Paris

hahaha....

The whole week in only one of this places.

1. Wengen
2. Vienna
3. London

If we are fantasizing, I am assuming no jet lag. Staying in one place so not to waste time traveling between cities or hotels.

It definitely has to be a direct flight. And also depends on time of year - temperatures. My top choices would be in order of preference:

1. Rome

2. London

3. Paris

Runners up

Barcelona

Amsterdam

Lisbon

Copenhagen

Edinburgh

Depends on time of year

Paris
London
Madrid

Direct flights from PHoenix to Europe are limited to PHX to LHR (Heathrow). So one week in London.

If it wasn’t for the flight issue, I’d choose Vienna or my favorite city Venice.

Depends on time of year

Truth. Summer I might choose Copenhagen. Or Stockholm.

Oh, heck, let's get real. St Andrews.

Spring or fall? Tenerife - easy to get to from London and cheap. All inclusive, adults only, on the beach. A week of that is just right.

Summer? Terschelling - Fly into Amsterdam. take the ferry. Get a bike and ride around. Find a quiet spot and chill. No Americans.

Winter? Zurich or Prague. Both are great in the winter.

One week would be too short for someplace new. So, one of the big three - London, Paris, Rome. We wouldn't even have to plan anything. OK, maybe Venice.

I had a job with 2 weeks yearly vacation for the first 5 years and then 3 weeks after that so I got good at the one week Europe trip. We like cities so that's how we focused it. Some trips we did:
Vienna/Prague
Rome
Florence/Venice
Paris/London

We like a pretty fast paced trip anyway. We'd leave work early on Friday to catch an evening flight out and 9 days later on Sunday we flew home. Those first few days back to work were a bit jet lagged but it was fine. It was definitely better than not going to Europe at all!

With a week, depending on time of year, I would return to London or Mürren, or for something new I’d go to Amsterdam or Prague/Vienna.

London. Overnight flight LAX to LHR.

Stay in a different neighborhood.

Stroll about in a different park or along the Thames walkway.

Experience a new Evensong.

Fancy a pint in a different pub.

Have coffee at another Costa.

Enjoy another bus route.

Buy a different sandwich at a Pret.

Different theatre production

See if the sweet and sour prawns at Joy King Lau in Chinatown are just as good as they were the first time I ate them for dinner.

Enjoy the company of dear friends who live in London.

I did this last year over Labor Day weekend, just decided I needed to go to Paris for 8 nights at the last minute & I did. The urge is coming up again to head back there, but I have made other commitments for the remainder of this year.

Linnae, due to work and pet obligations, all of our vacations are limited to 7-10 days. So our answer is... pretty much anywhere.

Even at 63-years-old we like to push ourselves and see as much as possible in the time we have, but we still have plenty of down time in the evenings to stroll around and enjoy the culture, often with a drink in hand.

Very much depends on the season.

Winter- a city stay in London, Rome, Venice or Florence

Spring- somewhere with lovely open gardens, like England. Fly into LHR, rent a car, and surrounded myself with spring beauty for the week

Summer- too busy with my own gardens to travel

Fall- another car trip. Fly into Paris then rent a car for the Loire. Or Frankfurt for the Rhine/Mosel

Venice or London.

For a mere week and if the air fare were an incentive , taking the overnight non-stop flight out of SFO (or LAX), arriving in the morning, and this week is in the summer, then my answer is Paris and France. No doubt about it., SFO to CDG and you're there after the 11 hour flight.

@Pam +1

1. Stockholm
2. Rome
3. London

Depending on flights, time of year, etc. Definitely a one city trip for me, but if traveling with DS, would hit 2 cities.

edited to add: This is weird, I typed 4, 5 and 6 to add to 1-3 being Paris, but it is showing up here as 1,2,3.

Generally I'd pick one region or even 1-2 cities; intercity travel can eat up a lot of time. My first trip to Europe was a week in London, and I'm sure I could have stayed another week if I'd incorporated day trips. As it was I never left Greater London. During high season I can fly direct to Frankfurt, so I'd probably land there. That way I'm flying 9 hours instead of 12-15. From there I could take a train to Alsace, Paris, Berlin, Brugge, or Utrecht and home-base there for a week.

Let's do something more ambitious though: down the Rhein to Bavaria. Bear in mind I haven't checked to see what's open what days.

• Fri 18:00: Fly out
• Sat 13:00: Arrive Frankfurt, brief look around, train to Koblenz, sleep
• Sun: Burg Eltz, if time permits train-hop my way to Bonn, Köln, and Düsseldorf for some beers
• Mon: Rhein cruise St. Goar to Bacharach. Maybe take a train back, maybe bring my bag and stay in Bacharach.
• Tue: Train to Bamberg or Nürnberg, take a tour if it's early, otherwise just sightsee
• Wed: Visit a museum or take a guided tour.
• Thu: Train to Munich, walk the old city.
• Fri: Guided tour of Munich, look for other ideas from Happy to Wander's 3-day Munich plan. I like her channel and we seem to enjoy the same things.
• Sat: More Wandering, plus find out where people gather to watch football and go there.
• Sun: Grab some breakfast, train back to Frankfurt ~9:00 to fly out 14:00, arrive 20 minutes before I left.

Given the short timeline, I'd take guided tours wherever possible. They know where the good stuff is. I know Neuschwanstein is on a lot of lists, but it seems like a big commitment for a short stay.

Ireland. In 2002, I spent a week in Ireland. Nobody was flying because of 9/11, and the airlines were practically giving away seats. I booked a ticket to Ireland for $250. It helped that I had previously visited three times, but was happy to visit it once again.

I did a very nice short trip last summer:

3 nights in London; Eurostar to Brussels

2 nights in Brussels; regular train to Amsterdam, via Rotterdam

3 nights in Amsterdam; flew home from Amsterdam

We did this about 15 years ago to take my MIL to see relatives in Switzerland. The plane ride with multiple connections from Oregon is just too long a journey to make this enjoyable and we never intentionally did it again.

Agree with a nonstop flight, preferably as short as possible, and a stay in the destination city. So probably Edinburgh, London, or Paris, all of which I have been to before but would be delighted to spend another week in. There’s plenty to see and do in all of them.