Deciding which country to visit in Europe is like choosing
which cocktail to have next at an all-inclusive; they are all great and
available. When Richard and I decided to make our first summer trip to Europe,
we had so many countries to research and ponder. Since we tend to decide on
travel destinations by following our heart; we decided to make the decision
easy on ourselves and just choose based on our “bucket lists”. I had my top
choices: Spain, France, & Greece. Richards top choices were: Spain, Netherlands,
Germany, & Greece. We narrowed them down to France and Spain. Our next step
was deciding which cities we wanted to explore. We went for the obvious ones,
but even added a few unique stops to the trip.
Here was our itinerary for our 2011 trip to Europe:
Destination
|
Length of stay
|
Paris, France
|
3 days (4 would have been better)
|
Mallorca, Spain
|
3 days
|
Ibiza, Spain
|
3 days
|
Madrid, Spain
|
4 days
|
Marrakech, Morocco
|
2 days
|
Barcelona, Spain
|
4 days
|
Lisbon, Portugal
|
3 days
|
Algarve, Portugal
|
2 days
|
Total vacation time: 24 days
So how did we select which cities to visit? We simply had
heard some places were beautiful, we had something we were interested in
exploring there, or we wanted to be a little adventurous. Location also came
into play. We were only going to visit Lisbon but once we found out we could
rent a car and see a great coastal town in only a few hours, we added the
Algarve to our trip. We found a crazy deal on a flight to Marrakesh from
Madrid, so we jumped on it, leaving our Madrid hotel (yes we were paying for it
and not staying there) and most of our luggage behind for two days. The Algarve
turned out to be incredible. So much so, that we've been discussing buying rental
property in the region. However, then you feel obligated to vacation there more often, but
that’s an entirely different debate and blog post.
* Our two other Europe itineraries will be available soon, in an upcoming post.
To make things simple, select a couple "must see" cities and then build from there. Look for deals and unique extra destinations that will give your itinerary it's own personal feel. You'll be surprised how many times it's the cities, towns, or villages that you just added on that create so many incredible memories.
* Our two other Europe itineraries will be available soon, in an upcoming post.
To make things simple, select a couple "must see" cities and then build from there. Look for deals and unique extra destinations that will give your itinerary it's own personal feel. You'll be surprised how many times it's the cities, towns, or villages that you just added on that create so many incredible memories.
What cities are your "MUSTS" when in Europe?
 |
| Algarve, Portugal Photo: @conciergecouple |
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