Where to next year? England and Italy have been great but...

We did a great trip that began in Amsterdam, went through Brussels/Brugge, and ended up in Paris. Very easy transportation-wise and we had a great time! Highly recommend.

Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm are a great trio, easy to travel between them too.
Madrid, Seville, Granada, and Cordoba will give you an intense dose of Andalusian Spain. Fast trains travel from Madrid, Seville, and Cordoba. You can easily add day trips from Madrid to Toledo and Segovia.

We LOVED Belgium and didn't expect to. That one was an unexpected gift, and we can't wait to go experience more of it. Great architecture, art, history, food and BEER (!!!!) and very nice people.

Bruges, Gent, Antwerp and a wee bit of Brussels (not our fave of the 4) so far.

I've fallen in love with the Balkans - Croatia, Montenegro, parts of Bosnia, but particularly Slovenia. Italy has drawn me back a few times since my first trip in 2007, but I've been back to the Balkans numerous times now. Hard to explain why. The area is not all charming - the former Yugoslavia still has ugly industrial warts left over from the communist years, but there are also charming towns, astounding natural beauty (e.g. Plitvice Lakes National Park), lovely seaside beauty, and important history (e.g. Sarajevo). There are tourist traps like Dubrovnik (mobbed with cruise ship tourists), but compared to Italy, this region doesn't feel nearly as touristy, especially by other Americans.

One appeal for me, I guess, is that the Balkans are so much less popular than western Europe. Many people don't have a clue where countries like Slovenia are - but no one would wonder where Italy or France is. I kind of like visiting places like that instead of just the places everyone else visits.

Suki,

How much time would be good for Cordoba?

How about France? Paris, of course, is absolutely amazing and then you can catch a fast train down to Provence!

go to your local book store (hopefully there is one) and just look at the travel guide book section that way it is just not Europe

I would highly recommend Spain. Last spring we traveled to Madrid, Seville, Granada and Barcelona. We particularly enjoyed seeing the Alhambra in Granada, the museums in Madrid and the architecture in Barcelona. It was one of the best trips we've taken.

thanks everyone. I am leaning to Andalusia Spain after some on line reading and looking through some websites on its Moorish history. Its hard to choose but that area of Spain looks like it would take my breath away.

Thank you for all for taking a moment to let me know your experiences and your great suggestions. On to planning this.

What did you like so much about Italy? Do you want to experience something similar or somewhere with a different feel and culture?

Scandinavia, the Baltic states and the Baltic coasts of Germany and Poland will be fantastic in late summer and quite a contrast to Italy likewise the Balkan area as previously mentioned.

Spring or early autumn would be ideal for the Balearics, particularly Mallorca or the Greek islands.

Spain is wonderful, like Italy a mix of big cities and small towns, ancient sites and architecture, but also modern, great cuisine and wine. For someplace very different, you might look into Bulgaria!

It's tough, there are so many great places!

I will say that Andalucia is my favorite area in Europe. It is different than anywhere else and exciting while still being accessible. You could do Madrid (with a side trip to Toledo?), Seville (side to Cordoba?) and Granada for a good intro to the region. Madrid is, of course, not Andalucia but is easy to fly into and less than 3 hours buy train from Seville, which is the heart of Andalucia. Barcelona is also a wonderful city. It is Catalan and feels different than the rest of Spain - to me it feels like it has more in common with other parts of Europe like southern France while Andalucia is kind of it's own little corner.

Finally - if you really like Italy but want something a little different, why not consider Sicily? Just as a place to start looking consider flying into Catania, staying in Taormina for a couple days then Siracusa, then Agrigento, then somewhere on the north coast (I stayed in Scopello and day tripped to Erice and Segesta), then finish in Palermo. There are Greek ruins, Baroque towns, an active volcano, Norman castles, nice beaches, and great art. It's Italy, but with a lot of Arabic, Norman and Greek influence.

Oh - it would be so hard to choose. Our first trip we did Italy and London. Second trip was a whirlwind thru 6 countries (UK/France/Germany/Austria/Italy/Switzerland) and I fell in love with Switzerland tho we only had 3 nights there. Then we've been doing mostly UK/France/Italy.

This year we did NL and Belgium with a 4th visit to Paris. As someone else posted - we loved Belgium - probably because we went in with no expectations whatsoever. NL was great as well - small and easy to get around. We went in April to take advantage of the tulips in NL - and biking around the tulip fields by Keukenhof was one of the most beautiful things I've seen/done.

The South of France (Provence and Cote D'Azur) are amazing as well.

Switzerland and Belgium are both on my 'return to someday' list. My bucket list is long and unfortunately, the more places I see, the more I want to return to them!