Where to go considering cost?

With the exception of a few notable places, my husband and I generally do not travel the same road twice. We're both avid travelers keen to see as much of the world as possible, but with Earth having land mass of over 57 million square miles, we've got our work cut out for us.

I just booked my tenth trip to Scotland. I love the place. It's friendly. It allows me to enjoy history, music, whisky, walking, photography, and now friends! That said, I now try to alternate my Scotland trip with something else. It comes down to the reason for the trip. I'm usually doing a walking trip for at least one week on my trips. So it's become more of a trip to walk with friends that is also in Scotland. This year we're staying on the Black Isle which is new for me. I'm now trying to decide what to do with the last few days--do I visit familiar sights or do I head to the southwest of Scotland a corner of Scotland that I've never visited.

Pam

London will most definitely cost more. If you want to see new places but keep costs down consider going to Eastern Europe.

London in particular is one of the pricier cities in the world. I enjoy London so it's usually where I fly into and out of when I travel to Europe. That's just a personal preference. In fact, going again in November. So yes, I do visit places I've been before. This time I'll be spending 3 days in the Cotswolds which I haven't experienced then flying onto Barcelona where I've never been. Easyjet and Ryanair are like SouthWest Airlines to me. Cheap, professional and a great way to see other cities. So you could easily see London, travel to Scotland, as well as fly to your "old" standbys. Just takes a bit more planning since those airlines rarely fly into the larger airports. There is always the wonderful train travel experience as well. Just my 2 cents.

For variety we sometimes mix a destination already visited with some new cities. For example, we love Paris so in January we visited Paris and added Beaune and Lyon--new destinations for us.

In Germany, if you haven't been to Berlin it's fantastic and reasonable in cost compared to other large European cities--you could also visit a city that you love and want to visit again.

In Italy, we're thinking of visiting the Le Marche region which would be new for us and adding Rome, a city that we enjoy a lot!

And, if you'd like to try a city that's exotic and inexpensive, try Istanbul!

I agree that the UK is expensive! Enjoy the planning--you'll have a great time no matter where you go!

I don't want to necessarily take sides in this one, but I think whether or not you back to the same countries depends alot on how much time you've spent there before and what you've done.

I personally love Germany and Austria and have been there 3 times in the past 5 years. I've never gotten tired of it and there's always more than enough new things we haven't done before. No matter how many times we've been there, even when we have visited areas we've been before, we've loved every minute of it. Can't wait to go back.

Now if I could spend a month in the region, maybe I could do most everything I'd want, but that will never happen.

My wife has also mentioned trying some new locations, and inevitably I'm sure we will. We also considered the UK but for the same reasons you stated, we passed. Maybe when/if we retire we could visit places off season and without the crowds.

We love to travel and have gone many places; but the UK- esp. London and Scotland (Inverness area) are our favorites. We have been more than 40 times in over 20 years. London can be expensive- but it is managable. Scotland is a bit less expensive. We like using the Tube and the train systems. I'd encourage you to consider something like this- London- 3 to 5 days with some day trips- train to York- 1 or 2 days- train to Edinburgh, 2 or 3 days- train to Aviemore, 2 to 4 days, train to Inverness, 4 to 7 days with day trips. Possibly include Galsgow, but it is not my favorite. Then either fly back to London, or train back with one or two overnight stops. Feel free to private message me.

We haven't traveled that much, but this spring will be our 3rd trip to Paris in 4 yrs and our 2nd to Amsterdam and London. This is the first trip to not add someplace new. Our next trip will probably be to the south of France. We have such ambivalent feelings about Italy it doesn't look like we will ever make it there....he really doesn't want to do Rome and I totally don't want to do Venice.
As expensive as travel can be, you should only go where you really want to -- whether you've already been there or not!

yes London can be expensive (lodging) but most museums are free and you can walk to many sights. Also the sights are knock-outs!I have been to London over 10X but never tire of it.France is also a good value with lots to see. However Paris is costly but worth it in my opinion.

We travel a lot to Germany since my husband has family there. We branch out after that, but stay somewhere within driving distance of Frankfurt.

This summer, though, we took a big extended family trip to Ireland. My husband and I had been there before, but it's been 12 years, so it was good to go back.

We did take a hop over to Germany to see his family while we were "in the neighborhood" and were surprised at how much cheaper things were there. In Ireland, beer at the pub was 4 euro/pint, which is about $6 with the lousy exchange rate. In Germany, it's about 2.50 euro. A plate of fish and chips in Ireland at a pub will cost you 13 euro, but schnitzel in a restaurant in Germany is only 8 euro.

We'd love to take our kids places we haven't been yet, like England or Italy, but we also have to consider that it'll probably cost almost twice as much to go there as it would to go to Germany and Austria.

I like to revisit new countries when I travel. But I sometimes will incorporate a favorite place or two. I love Munich and used that as a starting point for traveling east. The world is so big and I have so much more to explore I can't imagine myself spending all my time in one area.

Try to always go to new places. I fear going to the same region again might be like re-seeing a movie.

Our kids will have to see Rome on their own when they are older... :)

Pete

We usually go to new cities or countries, but there is some places we definitely want to go back too, and London is one of them. I did not find it that expensive, like the previous poster said, most museums are free, i did lots of research before i went, and i found good places to stay and eat for a reasonable price.

We were in France and Holland in May 2008, Italy in October 2008 and London and southern England in May 2009. We don't tally receipts daily, but our impression was that generally the UK was a better value overall than the other countries we had recently visisted. It could have been the exchange rates at the time, or the fact that we may have becomed inured to the higher costs of Europe, but we were pleasantly surprised. We remembered London from a few years ago as the most expensive place we'd ever visited and were happy to find the deals we did on meals, lodging and sightseeing....the free museums in London alone saved us a mint as compared to say, Italy.

While we like to see new places, there's a lot to be said for re-visiting a place too...a little familiarity can add a comfort level missing in new locations where everything is new and unknown. Having already seen the "biggies" you may take a slower pace, discovering wonderful places you once rushed by to get to your "must see" list on previous trips. Have a great time wherever you go.