Well, I ended up with 2 free tickets to use within the next year, each can be redeemed for a flight less than $1000. I'm getting married in May, so we're thinkin a European honeymoon with free airfare.

Next, the obvious question: Where to go?

Here's some details:

We'll be flying out on a Monday, and back on a Saturday.

We're both history buffs, and want to enjoy some leisurely site-seeing, but not be too hectic in traveling all over the place or running around stressing out. Just want a tightly-packed group of good things to see, so we can take our time and get to them whenever we feel like it.

Money is an object, so it's gotta be reasonable.

Our current top three:

Italy (probably Rome or Northwestern Italy)
Scotland
Switzerland/Austria.

So shoot, I just want to get as many opinions as possible. Thanks

7/13/2006 8:28:54 PM

swizterland is expensive

go to italy stay in rome and go spend some time in the almalfi coast

most beautiful place i could ever imagine and very romantic

italy has wonderful food & wine for not a lot of $

lots of history too

i vote italy

7/13/2006 8:38:59 PM

I would do istanbul. I've always wanted to go there.

7/13/2006 9:16:00 PM

constantinople?

7/13/2006 9:26:32 PM

if you do italy...do umbria...region in the mountains right smack dab in the middle. you can get to rome from there by train...and there's a lot of good cities without the hustle and bustle of ridiculous tourism for you to enjoy.

i can give you 3 weeks worth of cities to see in this region...if you want more info, PM me.

7/13/2006 9:30:18 PM

We just went to Italy in April--it was awesome.

I recommend going to Venice, Rome and Capri (and Sorrento/Amalfi coast)--all were amazing.
You can take the train around to different parts of the country for pretty cheap. Just depends on how much time you have. We also went to Florence, Pompeii, Tuscany region.

May is probably a nice time to go--warm, but not too hot, and before the summer crowds get there.

Some friends just went to Paris for their honeymoon, and that sounds good too.

7/13/2006 9:54:12 PM

Italy

thats where we're planning on going for our next vacation.

7/14/2006 1:16:34 AM

Italy has its share of problems... especially rome.. lots of tourist trap shit, not so authentic if you hit the famous historical areas, not exactly unique, and well the travel there is supposed to be horrible as far as safety and convinience goes (in certain areas). not to say its a completely bad place, but scotland was nice, as long as its not raining, the hills in scotland made me want to move there. if you go in may, and if i am not mistaken, it should be the same as when i went in june/july and it was amazing.

Morrocco was quite original... go to spain then travel down. its not hard, and if you go a bit outside the tourist areas there its a great expierence. even southern spain is quite nice.

Switzerland is ass expensive and from everything ive heard not worth money if your not filthy rich.

On a off note i found parts of eastern europe amazing also, some of those cities arent quite discovered yet, and can be quite nice. Cheap, and more authentic. If your history buffs, then that place is a treasure trove.

Stay away from austria, havent heard anything worth while about it. Everyone i met that traveled there, all said the same thing. A one day thing then you get tired of it. i could ramble on and on... good luck....

7/14/2006 2:56:06 AM

Quote :

"if you go in may, and if i am not mistaken, it should be the same as when i went in june/july "

i was gonna say that the weather is still probably pretty shitty in may, but for once i actually looked it up first... i have to say the results are rather surprising.




Edinburgh's annual rainfall is only slightly greater than London's and many of the east coast towns have less annual rainfall than Rome.

Generally speaking, the east coast tends to be cool and dry, the west coast milder and wetter. July and August are normally the warmest months, average temperature of 15-19oC/60-68oF bring a jacket

from http://www.visitscotland.com/aboutscotland/Climate/climate


[Edited on July 14, 2006 at 3:17 AM. Reason : brought to you by scottish propaganda]

7/14/2006 3:14:24 AM

Honestly, I loved Switzerland. The people were all very nice and it seemed like someplace that'd be great to live in (or best retire in). Very relaxing with the mountains and all. Bern is gorgeous and quaint and just fun to spend the day wandering around in. Lucerne was also really pretty. Okay, basically the whole country is gorgeous. It IS more expensive than other areas though.

7/14/2006 5:06:32 AM

Quote :

"italy has wonderful food & wine for not a lot of $"

I dunno, in my experience, the food in Italy (at least northern Italy) isn't entirely spectacular for a tourist, unless you are keen on week old lasagna and 10 euro 2 oz fillets of pan fried mystery meat. There is great stuff in Italy (fresh produce, cheese, great sausages and meats and sauces), but if you want it on the cheap, the best thing to do is to go to a grocery store and cook it yourself. Or find an Italian friend to suggest a place for you. For every good restaurant in Italy, there are 10 more places that suck, especially in the touristy areas.

Ha, but the drinks are great, especially limoncello and grappa.

Also, the Italian Alps are very beautiful, around Bergamo and up towards the Swiss border.

^^Edinburgh is a really great city, one of my favorite cities in Europe. But, if you're going to Scotland, skip Inverness (and Loch Ness). Pretty country-side, but there's nicer places in Scotland. Plus it's boring.

7/14/2006 6:18:40 AM

Switzerland is wonderful and would be my #1 choice to go back to. I thought Italy was really dirty, but switzerland was spotless.

7/14/2006 9:34:44 AM

scotland ftw

7/14/2006 9:44:44 AM

Bruges

7/14/2006 9:47:24 AM

Just returned from england/scotland visiting relatives a few weeks ago, and was quite amused. If you like quaint, then scotland is for you. Visited edinbourgh, and basically wished I had more time there. The castle is pretty large and take a couple hours to navigate through. Rosslyn Chapel was nice as well. Get outta the tourist trap areas and you'll find more little pubs and shops than you've ever seen here. Std of living and thus the price is almost twice that of here. There are a dozen other things you can see or do. This is good for a two or three day trip in the trip. Edinburgh train station is near the center of the city if you happen to fly into Glasgow. The only thing, as with all of the U.K. is that the weather can go from sunny and warm, to cold and rainy in a few hours, continuously for days on end. This aint the omfg-everywhere-else-sucks but it'll show ya some insight.

[Edited on July 14, 2006 at 11:16 AM. Reason : words]

7/14/2006 11:15:10 AM

Yes I second Brugge!! Very lovely-- sort of like a midevel town, with lots of great architecture and history... and so much chocolate!

and there's a pub called "da pub" and it's light outside in may until like 11pm

7/14/2006 11:18:51 AM

Quote :

"I dunno, in my experience, the food in Italy (at least northern Italy) isn't entirely spectacular for a tourist, unless you are keen on week old lasagna and 10 euro 2 oz fillets of pan fried mystery meat."

haha you got fucking gypped.

italy has tons of great restaurants if you just explore the cities

7/14/2006 11:25:04 AM

exactly...which is why i'm saying--you want non touristy areas rich in history and culture? with good restaurants for a good price? PM me...i got three weeks worth.

[Edited on July 14, 2006 at 11:34 AM. Reason : ]

7/14/2006 11:32:41 AM

I've looked at Mediteranean Cruises for out honeymoon. I want everything taken care of, so I don't have to worry about anything. I've already done the back-packing around Europe, so I'd like more of a "no-worries" vacation. It looks like are some good cruises that go to Italy, Greece, Turkey, etc.

7/14/2006 11:35:27 AM

I've been to all these places, though I didn't go to Rome in Italy. We were mostly around Venice, went to Verona, etc.

It all depends on what exactly you're looking for. I'd say Italy is a good bet for the historic side of things. I highly recommend going to Venice. You can always get a romantic gondola ride, though I have no idea how much that costs (it probably isn't too much since the group I was with paid for us to have them). And if you're like me, you'd enjoy feeding the 10 million pigeons.

Scotland is just a really fun place to go. The people there are really charismatic. I'd say go there if you like drinking. I was 16 when I went there and the people were trying to get me drunk all the time.

I only went to Switzerland for a day or so, so I don't know too much about it, but it is pretty expensive. If you do go there, though, visit Liechtenstein if you can. It's a pretty cool little country.

My personal favorite is Austria. It's not that there's a ton of stuff to do there, but it made me feel at home. I stayed at this little hotel in the mountains and the staff was amazingly nice. It was within walking distance of a bunch of shops and stuff in a fairly non-touristy part of town from what I could tell. Go to Austria if you want to relax more than to be doing stuff all the time. It's probably true that if you want to see a lot of historical things you'll only have a few days of entertainment there. There are some pretty cool monasteries and things there though, and I think some castles? I can't entirely remember what stuff was in each country since it was several years ago and we visited a lot of places.

7/14/2006 11:39:08 AM

^^my boss went on one of those cruises for their honeymoon--had a great time

7/14/2006 11:40:37 AM

yeah, it would be fun, but with the plane ticket over there, i think its going to be too expensive. if i had 2 free airline tickets though, id be all over it.

7/14/2006 11:41:24 AM

i knew a couple that went to amsterdam for their honeymoon and they loved it

7/14/2006 11:44:04 AM

Personally I thought Venice was overrated. Any town with canals is going to be somewhat dirty. Sure it was pretty at night, but during the day you can see all of the trash floating in the water, water damage on the buildings, etc. Florence was much prettier.

I know everyone says Paris is so romantic, but I wouldn't do that because its so busy. I don't know, do you want a relaxing honeymoon, or one where you are running all over the place looking at the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Napoleon's Tomb, Notre Dame, etc. Or maybe you don't even care about that stuff?

I really liked Munich, but I don't know for a honeymoon.

7/14/2006 11:46:59 AM

Munich is awesome, definitely was my favorite city on my recent trip. but you're right, it's not ideal for a honeymoon (but if it's on the way, you should definitely stop there for a couple days).

I mentioned Bruges because it's a very medieval city, with the looks of a Venice (lots of canals, without as much trash). But it's fairly small (you can see all the major sites within the city in about a day or so), and it's still a touristy city so you don't have any language barriers. Plus there are many different options if you spend more time there. If you feel like putting in some effort, you're about 8-10 miles from the beach, so you can just rent a bike and ride all the way out there.

The food is great, the beer is even better (we found a bar charging $2.40 euro per glass of Chamay... almost brought me to tears). And yes, the Chocolate is good (and everywhere).

7/14/2006 1:20:50 PM

Quote :

"Italy (probably Rome or Northwestern Italy) Scotland"

yeah stay away from switz if $ is a big concern.

i spent 9 months living in NW italy, the alps are pretty and vencie is right there....but I've been to better places for a honeymoon.


island hopping in greece? its cheap, beautiful etc
bavaria is friggin beautiful, and the people are way beyond nice.
croatia? Beaches are beautiful, real cheap.
some random island off the coast of europe?

7/14/2006 1:28:36 PM

I lived 4 years in italy (and visited the swiss mountains alot, since i lived in Milan). spent a summer in paris, and traveled alot in europe. So here is my advice:

when i think honeymoon i think beach in the pacific. but you seem to think differently. In europe
you either want a honeymoon or you want a historic touristic trip. you gotta pick on of the two cause most of the time wherever there is a historic spot, there will be alot of tourists. If i was to go on a honeymoon, i would go to somewhere remote where tourists dont usually go. Synapse mentioned a couple of good examples.
I would say the Greek islands would be my number one choice, followed by croatia.

However if you insist on the sight-seeing aspect, here ius the ultimate honeymoon in italy plan.

Book the ticket to Rome, spend a couple of days relaxing and sightseeing/fucking in rome. Then take the Boat off of the coast of Rome(two hour ride) to the Elba Island. which is to the north west of Rome. There you can rent a boat for a day and just cruise around small Islands all day. you can land on one island with nobody on it, and fuck all day. You basically have a mini version of greece. your own private island.

thursday, take the train to Venice, spend the day walking around. There isnt much to do other than visiting Saint Marc's cathedral and Il Palazo ducale.

Quote :

"get a romantic gondola ride, though I have no idea how much that costs "

Yeah, that too, i was there this summer, and i managed to talk the guy down from 150 to 70 euros. Remember in Italy everything is negotiable.

In the afternoon, Take the vapporetto(steam boat) which is the equivalent to the bus system in venice to the Island of Murano. They make very nice stuff with glass there. You can visit the glass factories and watch how they have been making glass there for centuries.

friday morning after breakfast, take the bus or train from venice to verona (about an hour and a half), visit Juliet's house. That should be romantic too, given that Romeo and Juliet is the ultimate romance story. Take the Traing back to Rome that evening.

Spend saturday relaxing and shopping, and then head back to the US.

Thats the best plan i could think of for a honeymoon. I have never been to scotland so i cant really judge. The Swiss mountains are not worth the money, just go to the italian side of the alps and you will spend half the money you would spend in Switzerland and pritty much get the same thing.

I hope this helps.

7/14/2006 2:16:40 PM

scotland is not romantic...at least not the parts I travelled in.

stick to the med

oh and and theres always Spain, I never ventured into the southern parts but I hear its beautiful. And in my experience, Spain was the cheapest country to travel through (cheap rooms, food etc)in Europe (not counting eastern europe of course)

7/14/2006 2:21:44 PM

Go to Amalfi if you want pretty much the most relaxing, beautiful vacation you can possibly imagine.

7/14/2006 3:51:07 PM

damn...won't work...nvm

[Edited on July 14, 2006 at 3:59 PM. Reason : ]

7/14/2006 3:58:27 PM

It's a honeymoon. You're with the one you love, and you're in Europe. Don't let all these jaded globetrotters tell you what to do...

7/14/2006 4:09:19 PM

yeah, and if its a good honeymoon, you wont see much outside the bedroom anyway.

7/14/2006 4:09:55 PM

^^but he asked for our opinion

[Edited on July 14, 2006 at 4:20 PM. Reason : screenname was deceiving]

7/14/2006 4:18:38 PM

Don't forget to consider flight time being over 15 hours and at least a day or so to adjust from jet lag...

Those are the only things keeping me from choosing too far a destination for a honeymoon.

I heard Belize is nice!

7/14/2006 4:24:27 PM

jet lag is a myth

7/14/2006 4:25:09 PM

Quote :

"Bern is gorgeous and quaint and just fun to spend the day wandering around in. "

McDanger and i got stuck in bern overnight without a place to stay. we ended up staying up all night in the train station because we missed the last train out

FUCK BERN

7/14/2006 5:37:55 PM

Prague. Its one of the cheapest cities in europe and one of the most beautiful.

7/14/2006 8:34:57 PM

I would 2nd Prague. Vienna & Salzberg are very nice as well. One specific thing I would suggest is a train ride through the Alps. I went from Vienna to Zurich & the train ride was absolutely gorgeous.

7/14/2006 9:59:45 PM

True, Prague is definitely beautiful and it is cheap if you stay away from the tourist trap locations, but I'm not sure I would recommend it for a honeymoon. Unless you stay far away from the English speaking sections, you're going to run into an unbelievable number of stag parties full of the most annoying and loud idiots you'll ever see. The center of the city is small and you can walk around and see most of the major sites in a day or so. Maybe I'm biased because I am in Prague so much, but personally it is not a place I would want to spend my honeymoon. If you want to spend it in the Czech Republic, though, I'd certainly recommend Karlovy Vary over Praha.

Italy is a great spot for a honeymoon.

[Edited on July 15, 2006 at 9:59 AM. Reason : hooneymoon? wtf]

7/15/2006 9:57:12 AM

^ he has a very good point.. awesome city.. but not overly authentic at times.... i went through a few cities in southern spain and i found them quite nice. try sevilla or some in that area. i know i was blown away by the people there and i regret not spending as much time there. Let us know what you decide, i would want to know what you decided to do after all these opinions

7/15/2006 10:20:00 AM

Quote :

"One specific thing I would suggest is a train ride through the Alps"

i railed through the alps 3 times before we actually got to see them!

once it was dark

the second time we fell asleep from staying up in bern all night

finally saw it on the 3rd try

absolutely gorgeous but not so good for taking pics through the train window

7/15/2006 11:29:39 AM

If I were to go to Europe, I'd probably start with Germany, but Austria/Switzerland might have a higher concentration of interesting places at a shorter drive. Still, der Schwarzwald.

7/15/2006 6:47:10 PM