Summer Trip Planning

Another European city: how about Vienna? There is a direct connection from LAX to Vienna on Austrian Airlines.

Regardless of the reputation of LAX, it is an airport that is convenient as this direct route to Vienna shows, if you want to consider that.

Barcelona can be really hot in the summer. Water shortages happen every year.

Copenhagen would be my recommendation to add a real different impression of Europe. In nearly every report on best places to live Copenhagen is in the top 3. It has a lot of waterfronts.

You didn't say which summer month, or how well you tolerate heat, but the earlier, the better before the heat gets too uncomfortable in late July and August. To complicate the situation, large cities are hotter than other areas. For example,

The first two suggestions were vert good. Again, anywhere with a direct flight to the north. Avoid most of France, Spain, Italy or Portugal. And, as one said, fly open jaw into either Barcelona or the other city and out of the other with a low-cost European airline flight in between.

I always cringe a bit when people start freaking out over “summer” heat. June is summer and June isn’t that hot in most of Europe, at least not relative to Los Angeles. Early August in Barcelona? Maybe then I use some caution …. But still go and have a blast. But I am from South Texas before moving here.

Ive never thought planning a holiday around the trip home was a good priority. Planning around what you are interested in always made more sense to me.

(did you enjoy “X”? Naaa, not so much but it was non-stop home and we will be back to Europe in 10 years)

But using time well while in Europe does make sense. So, go to GoogleFlights and put in Barcelona to Europe, non-stop and see what pops up. I just did. 9 June you can come visit me for $56.

You have the advantage that Barcelona is very well connected with discount airlines non-stop all over Europe and that LAX is well connected as well, maybe you have to make one stop in route from just about anywhere.

Have fun choosing.

I vote for Vienna. I was surprised at how much I loved that city.

He is there until the end of August so we will most likely go visit after he has been there a while and has become familiar and comfortable enough to show us his favorite spots. We plan to see him first and travel after and then go home. My older son did the same trip a few years ago and we spent a few days in Barcelona, went to Mallorca, fly over to Rome for a while and then back home to LA. Yes it was hot and busy but not much more we are used to. It was a great trip and we saw a lot. We would like to try something different this time. Copenhagen sounds interesting. What about Denmark or Oslo? Hungary? Greece?

I haven't been to Greece or Copenhagen/Denmark recently. Weather-wise, I'd prefer the latter, and I'm not a fan of trekking all the way to Greece for just a few days.

Budapest is fabulous and would easily keep you busy for 4 or 5 days, but central Europe can be very hot in the summer. On the other hand, Budapest doesn't feel as tourist-clogged as many other European capitals, and it has excellent, well-priced restauranta.

Oslo is nice, but I think it's a shame to go there without spending some time gawking at the incredible Norwegian scenery. You could fly to Oslo, see a bit of the city, take the fabulous Norway-in-a-Nutshell route to Bergen, see a bit of Bergen, and get a connecting flight home from there. That would be a very different experience from Barcelona from just about every perspective, including weather. Note: Lodging and restaurants in Norway are expen$ive. Some components of the Norway-in-a-Nutshell route sell out, perhaps well in advance. You'd need to pin that down quite early.

If you want to keep it simple and just go to an attractive city where you don't have to worry about extreme heat and will have enough to keep you busy for 4 or 5 days, I highly recommend Stockholm. For me it has more of a "wow" factor than Oslo, though I enjoyed both. Sweden isn't quite as expensive as Norway, and I found the food to be better--though the hotel breakfast buffets in Norway were really great.

Okay still guessing dates a bit.

Our son will be interning in Barcelona this summer.

and

He is there until the end of August

So I will take a wild guess that he is arriving early June?

visit after he has been there a while and has become familiar and
comfortable enough to show us his favorite spots.

To extend my guessing, I think you will go maybe after the first of July?

Many places are getting warmer by the first of July, but the hottest day in a lot of Europe is the last day in July give or take so you arent necessarilly going to face the worst. And in my book, coming from South Texas, the worst is still pretty darn nice. If it is a hot day, then 3 to 5pm you go to a museum or in my town it would be a wine bar. No great loss.

As for where, forget the weather, you go to a place that interests you. "we went, we missed all the stuff we would have loved, but it was cool" NO! Go to the great places of your dreams the weather wont matter. If you seriously have no idea, then London and Paris. No one goes wrong with Paris and few go wrong with London once you get past the language barrier.

Of course acraven is correct about Budapest LOL. Except the heat part. Hasn't ruined my life yet.

To help decide where to go, watch a lot of videos, or at least thats what works for me.
Here are some starters:
Favorite Tourism Video of Budapest https://youtu.be/1nd5AtZIrTk?feature=shared
Anthony Bourdain describing how visually pleasurable Budapest is https://youtu.be/0nd9DuDGCz0?si=aa0c19KaJHEtabkX