Where to?

[tennbengal]

So - hitting my 25th wedding anniversary this July and Jen and I have never been overseas (not really - a few trips to Canada and a cruise that touched Mexico).

We are hoping to be able to swing time and money free enough to afford a week in Europe or so could zig and do a resort dealie in the Caribbean. Just curious, any of you have any thoughts/suggestions for a week-long trip to Europe? Or had good luck at a Caribbean all inclusive resort? If europe, I am not sure I am feeling entirely adventurous, thinking Western Europe based. Any suggestions on doing it ourselves vs travel agent?

Etc.

[Johnnie]

Travel agents still exist? I know they kinda did when I was at Ramstein. They just put package deals for things together you could buy. Which makes me think...if you have a friend in the military maybe there's a chance they could hook you up with something.

Anywho, what time of year? Summer? That makes me inclined to tell you to go somewhere with water. And here's a sleeper country: Croatia. Dubrovnik, especially. I never got to go there, but I did island hop on The Yacht Week to many of the random islands in the Adriatic, and holy hell, it was gorgeous.

If that's not your thing, I will always maintain that everyone goes to Berlin. By a mile my favorite city in Europe that I was able to visit. Do a walking tour. See the holocaust memorial. See the wall. Get an AirBNB by the Brandenburg Gate. Hit all the sites. Trust me, it's like living history when you're there.

And you can parlay that into something like this: https://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/itiner ... e=20170603

That was my next thing to do if I were able to stay in Europe.

If you need ideas, just use this website that I used when I was stationed in Germany for ideas: https://www.rtttravel.com

Now, note, you can't buy those packages as a civilian, but it gives you an idea.

Good luck!

[tennbengal]

Yes - summer - somewhere from mid-July to late august timeframe.

And, thanks Johnnie.

[Sabo]

Prague is awesome, and fairly easy to get around as an English-only speaker. It also was dirt cheap when I visited, but I'd expect it isn't a bargain any more. Dublin is pretty great, too.

[rass]

Maybe he'll pop in, but cerrano and his wife ate and drank their way through Portugal last summer (and Ireland the summer before). The Portugal trip looked pretty great on my phone.

[Pruitt]

So - hitting my 25th wedding anniversary this July and Jen and I have never been overseas (not really - a few trips to Canada and a cruise that touched Mexico).

We are hoping to be able to swing time and money free enough to afford a week in Europe or so could zig and do a resort dealie in the Caribbean. Just curious, any of you have any thoughts/suggestions for a week-long trip to Europe? Or had good luck at a Caribbean all inclusive resort? If europe, I am not sure I am feeling entirely adventurous, thinking Western Europe based. Any suggestions on doing it ourselves vs travel agent?

Etc.

I have used Trip Advisor a number of times when looking for places to stay, and it has never steered me wrong.

Madrid is a great place. Day trip to Toledo, three hours to Barcelona. Easy to fill a week there.

[brian]

You're going to get a lot of suggestions, all of them good. But here's the real question.

What do YOU want to do? (Or more accurately, what does your wife want to do?)

Because touring England and Ireland? Great.
Spain and Portugal? Great.
A Mediterranean cruise? Great.
A Caribbean cruise? Great.

Just comes down to a question of how much you want to spend and what you really want to do. For your 25th I'd advise thinking big. If you've always wanted to visit Europe then do that. You'll be fine just about anywhere you go even without knowing the language if you just brush up on some basic words and stick to major cities. Don't spend too little or too long in each city. I usually advise about three days for most cities. If you plan on a 10-11 day trip you should be able to hit four different cities. If you're a little nervous about planning it all yourself there's a great company that does fairly inexpensive guided tours that usually include airfare from the US. I'll look up the website and post here in a bit.

[brian]

Found it. I've used these guys a couple of times for a trip to Iceland and the Yucatan and I can't say enough great things.

[Shirley]

I'd say that if you and your wife have never been to Europe, you should plan on at least a few of the major, obvious places. I'd say, plan to hit both London and Paris for a few days each. Maybe add in one more city (Berlin, Amsterdam, Prague) and then one natural beauty place, like the Alps or the Mediterranean. In fact, maybe choose Rome or Athens for your third city and then do a few days on a Greek island (e.g. Santorini).

[sancarlos]

The dollar is strong so it's a good time to go to Europe. For your very first trip, I recommend Britain, since they speak English, making it relatively stress-free. Could take the Eurostar train from London to Paris or Brussels for a quick roundtrip add-on. (Of course language is rarely a problem in big cities).

[govmentchedda]

So - hitting my 25th wedding anniversary this July and Jen and I have never been overseas (not really - a few trips to Canada and a cruise that touched Mexico).

We are hoping to be able to swing time and money free enough to afford a week in Europe or so could zig and do a resort dealie in the Caribbean. Just curious, any of you have any thoughts/suggestions for a week-long trip to Europe? Or had good luck at a Caribbean all inclusive resort? If europe, I am not sure I am feeling entirely adventurous, thinking Western Europe based. Any suggestions on doing it ourselves vs travel agent?

Etc.

Jump now on flights to Europe. Well, jump now, if you're willing to go in the spring. We got RT from Orlando to London, non stop, for less than $500 pp.

[testuser2]

I have used Trip Advisor a number of times when looking for places to stay, and it has never steered me wrong.

Madrid is a great place. Day trip to Toledo, three hours to Barcelona. Easy to fill a week there.

I spent a week in Madrid last year. I was surprised at how much you got for your money. Centrally located in Spain. Short train rides to Segovia and Toledo. A bit longer to Barcelona, but could do an overnight stay there.

[Tom 1860]

Just a few ideas:

Look at what festivals are taking place across Europe when you travel, if you like any of them, go for it...

1: Do Barcelona for a day/night and then go north to Girona for a day/night stop over (best restaurants in Europe) and a lovely city to walk around.
2: Paris, Berlin, London are all well worth a visit. I would look at London first of all because the pound is very weak and the language is not an issue.
3: If you think Italy is your thing, do Florence, it is the best by far, unless you want to Mob it up on Sicily, which is really beautiful.

Off the beaten track ideas/not so obvious selections:

1: The Highlands Scotland and the Isles, if the weather is good, are unbelievably beautiful, up there with Yellowstone in my opinion (although not similar).
2: South of Munchen, all the way along the Swiss/Austrian border is really lovely at that time of year. Amazing countryside.

I would almost be tempted to do Prague, Vienna, Budapest and onto Vienna, however, it really depends what you want to do. Do you want to do cities, countryside, culture over natural beauty or a combo of both.

I would say that sitting on a beach can be done anywhere...

[A_B]

Cornwall, I think is the best option.

[govmentchedda]

Can I threadjack for a minute?

What suggestions do ye Swampers have for England and Scotland? The only thing on our agenda is to go to Edinburgh, and we fly in and out of London. Does anyone have any knowledge on how to get tickets for a Premier League game? It seems damn near impossible to get tickets for Tottenham/Everton on March 4. I'd also love to see Southampton/Man U on March 11?

[Tom 1860]

Cornwall, I think is the best option.

Lots of beaches, lots of old people, lots of bullshit about King Arthur... Pretty sure you can find all of this in Miami?

[The Sybian]

For our honeymoon, we did a Mediterranean cruise on Costa, an Italian cruise line. Being on the ship felt like being in Italy, as the overwhelming majority of passengers were Italian, so the food, entertainment, everything was catering Italians. IIRC, 2% of the passengers were American, and 10% were native English speaking. Almost all of the crew spoke English, and they had excursions with English-speaking guides, so that was never an issue. Our dinner tablemates were Canadian and English, so that was good.

We did 3 days in Rome before the cruise. Upside was hitting 8 other cities, but obviously not getting much time in any of them. Barcelona was easily the city we wished we had more time in, and the first city we'd return to. Malta and Tunis were extremely cool stops, and places I never would have thought to go to.

[wlu_lax6]

Can I threadjack for a minute?

What suggestions do ye Swampers have for England and Scotland? The only thing on our agenda is to go to Edinburgh, and we fly in and out of London. Does anyone have any knowledge on how to get tickets for a Premier League game? It seems damn near impossible to get tickets for Tottenham/Everton on March 4. I'd also love to see Southampton/Man U on March 11?

As I recall there is a former swamper who had season tickets to Arsenal (they are home the 7th UCL and 11th Leicester). He was able to hook up a coworker of mine. Have no clue if a PM would work.

One of my coworkers is a member of the Spurs fan club. He never has problems getting tickets for Spurs games through that channel.

[tennbengal]

Can I threadjack for a minute?

What suggestions do ye Swampers have for England and Scotland? The only thing on our agenda is to go to Edinburgh, and we fly in and out of London. Does anyone have any knowledge on how to get tickets for a Premier League game? It seems damn near impossible to get tickets for Tottenham/Everton on March 4. I'd also love to see Southampton/Man U on March 11?

As I recall there is a former swamper who had season tickets to Arsenal (they are home the 7th UCL and 11th Leicester). He was able to hook up a coworker of mine. Have no clue if a PM would work.

One of my coworkers is a member of the Spurs fan club. He never has problems getting tickets for Spurs games through that channel.

bttg?

[The Sybian]

As I recall there is a former swamper who had season tickets to Arsenal (they are home the 7th UCL and 11th Leicester). He was able to hook up a coworker of mine. Have no clue if a PM would work.

One of my coworkers is a member of the Spurs fan club. He never has problems getting tickets for Spurs games through that channel.

Red Army was the name, I believe. I think BTTG had Arsenal season tix as well, anyone still in touch with BTTG?

[A_B]

He's still a facebook friend.

[LewP]

So - hitting my 25th wedding anniversary this July and Jen and I have never been overseas (not really - a few trips to Canada and a cruise that touched Mexico).

We are hoping to be able to swing time and money free enough to afford a week in Europe or so could zig and do a resort dealie in the Caribbean. Just curious, any of you have any thoughts/suggestions for a week-long trip to Europe? Or had good luck at a Caribbean all inclusive resort? If europe, I am not sure I am feeling entirely adventurous, thinking Western Europe based. Any suggestions on doing it ourselves vs travel agent?

Etc.

Back in the 70's I was in Munich Germany with the Army. Loved the place and I highly recommend it!

[Tom 1860]

So - hitting my 25th wedding anniversary this July and Jen and I have never been overseas (not really - a few trips to Canada and a cruise that touched Mexico).

We are hoping to be able to swing time and money free enough to afford a week in Europe or so could zig and do a resort dealie in the Caribbean. Just curious, any of you have any thoughts/suggestions for a week-long trip to Europe? Or had good luck at a Caribbean all inclusive resort? If europe, I am not sure I am feeling entirely adventurous, thinking Western Europe based. Any suggestions on doing it ourselves vs travel agent?

Etc.

Back in the 70's I was in Munich Germany with the Army. Loved the place and I highly recommend it!

This is livin', this is style, this is elegance by the mile
Oh the posh posh traveling life, the traveling life for me
First cabin and captain's table regal company
Whenever I'm bored I travel abroad but ever so properly
Port out, starboard home, posh with a capital P-O-S-H, posh