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4 days here, 2 days there...not much of a vacation. You'll waste a whole day traveling with little payoff. 

Take those two days and see the surrounding areas outside of London. Easy to spend 2 days with a Bath/Stonehenge itinerary, with a sprinkling of Salisbury for good measure. Or, head up to Warwick Castle and stay on the grounds for two nights with one full day at the Castle - jousting, awesome birds of prey show, a working trebuchet. Soak up some countryside.

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4 minutes ago, Txzen said:

head up to Warwick Castle and stay on the grounds for two nights with one full day at the Castle - jousting, awesome birds of prey show, a working trebuchet. Soak up some countryside.

get a little blood letting, try out an iron maiden .......

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  • 5 years later...

Dusting this thread off a bit. Just got back from two weeks in Europe that included the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. This was my first time traveling to Europe during the Winter, and overall I really enjoyed it. The crowds were essentially non existant and rates on flights and hotels were very attractive. Tons of great Christmas markets and lights to enjoy. Plus, there’s something really nice about enjoying a Belgian beer while sitting outside a cafe during the cooler months. Besides a fews days of rain in Bruges and Ghent, the weather was fine and what we expected for mid to late December. Happy to provide more details about things we liked/places we went if people are interested in traveling here in the near future. 

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10 hours ago, Vertuzzi said:

Dusting this thread off a bit. Just got back from two weeks in Europe that included the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. This was my first time traveling to Europe during the Winter, and overall I really enjoyed it. The crowds were essentially non existant and rates on flights and hotels were very attractive. Tons of great Christmas markets and lights to enjoy. Plus, there’s something really nice about enjoying a Belgian beer while sitting outside a cafe during the cooler months. Besides a fews days of rain in Bruges and Ghent, the weather was fine and what we expected for mid to late December. Happy to provide more details about things we liked/places we went if people are interested in traveling here in the near future. 

Shhhh don’t spoil the news that November and December are the perfect months to visit Europe.  Let the morons go bake to death June through October. 

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We’ve been watching Christmas Market walking tours on youtube as background noise during the workday for the last couple of weeks. These walking tours are pretty much what we do when exploring a new european city; we walk probably 5 miles a day just looking at stuff between the sites.

We’re thinking about doing a trip to hit a few of them next year.

The ones that are the most charming (to our eyes) are in bavaria stretching east to france. They seem to do them up pretty big there. A few that piqued our interest that are somewhat clustered around southern Germany.

Salzburg AU

Basel, Switzerland

Riquewihr FR

Strasbourg, FR

Baden-Baden GE

Stuttgart GE

Nuremberg GE

 

 

 

 

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My kids are close to getting old enough to start traveling.  We are committed to Disney World in 2024 but I think starting in 2025 we will be able to do one trip abroad each year, and I have Europe at the top of my list.  I have traveled quite a bit, but it was mostly solo and 15+ years ago.  I have a long standing fantasy to visit the places shown in the last 2 episodes of Band of Brothers, which is Bavaria and Austria.  I have never been there but my hope is that the natural beauty will be enough to entertain me, the wife, and 2 girls between 10 and 15.  Would love any pointers.

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Have them watch the sound of music. If that doesn’t pique girls’ attention for bavaria and salzburg, I’m not sure what would. The movie is based in Salzburg Austria. We watched the movie last night because my wife associates it with Christmas somehow.

Also Disney based their castle after Neuschwanstein castle in Schwangau GE.

There’s a mike’s bike tour out of munich that’s worth the day trip. They take you to Scheangau, take you on a short casual bike ride around the farms and lake, stopping for pics with the castle as the background, take you to a restaurant with excellent beer from their own brewery and brats, take you on a tour of the castle, and then back to munich. It’s a damn good day. If they like disneyworld, they should enjoy this.

image.jpeg.33a9a7cbe9dffcdd4eb18f894cd1f62e.jpeg

 

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58 minutes ago, GenXer said:

We’ve been watching Christmas Market walking tours on youtube as background noise during the workday for the last couple of weeks. These walking tours are pretty much what we do when exploring a new european city; we walk probably 5 miles a day just looking at stuff between the sites.

We’re thinking about doing a trip to hit a few of them next year.

The ones that are the most charming (to our eyes) are in bavaria stretching east to france. They seem to do them up pretty big there. A few that piqued our interest that are somewhat clustered around southern Germany.

Salzburg AU

Basel, Switzerland

Riquewihr FR

Strasbourg, FR

Baden-Baden GE

Stuttgart GE

Nuremberg GE

 

 

 

 

We did a trip two years ago, when the Xmas markets first re-opened after COVID, tied in with visiting our son when he was living in Berlin.  We hit Christmas markets in Berlin, Cologne, Koblenz, Lubeck, and Copenhagen.  Just super cool, one of our favorite trips ever.

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1 hour ago, GenXer said:

We’ve been watching Christmas Market walking tours on youtube as background noise during the workday for the last couple of weeks. These walking tours are pretty much what we do when exploring a new european city; we walk probably 5 miles a day just looking at stuff between the sites.

We’re thinking about doing a trip to hit a few of them next year.

The ones that are the most charming (to our eyes) are in bavaria stretching east to france. They seem to do them up pretty big there. A few that piqued our interest that are somewhat clustered around southern Germany.

Salzburg AU

Basel, Switzerland

Riquewihr FR

Strasbourg, FR

Baden-Baden GE

Stuttgart GE

Nuremberg GE

 

 

 

 

Nuremberg’s horrible - skip it. It’s all fat Americans asking if they can pay in US dollars.    
 

Munich’s markets are very good, especially the medieval market, and Salzburg is amazing. 

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12 minutes ago, The Ace of Aces said:

Nuremberg’s horrible - skip it. It’s all fat Americans asking if they can pay in US dollars.    
 

Munich’s markets are very good, especially the medieval market, and Salzburg is amazing. 

I took the family to nuremberg in 2016. Our son wanted to see all the WW2 history. We went to nuremberg and enjoyed it a lot. Highlights include 

1. A bunch of teenagers sitting on the ship of fools statue staring into their phones. Because irony.

2. Took the bus to the nazi party rally grounds stadium. We met a local woman on the ride. She was going to the grounds to play pokemon go. It gave me the grins to thonk of hitler’s grand plan and stadium reduced to a pokemon go playground.

Nuremberg kinda holds a special place in my heart.

I’ll look for some youtubes on munich. We were kinda underwhelmed when we were there in 2016 but it may have just been the rainy weather. I did enjoy it when I went there in 2000.

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Shhhh don’t spoil the news that November and December are the perfect months to visit Europe.  Let the morons go bake to death June through October. 

Well I do like European beaches and Mediterranean destinations, so that lends itself to summer months and I’m just fine with that.

Although I would like to go skiing in St. Moritz or Chamonix at some point, so perhaps a winter trip is in my future.
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4 hours ago, patrickdrinksbeer said:

definitely interested in more about belgium in december. planning a trip for brussels & bruges for next december. beer will be drank.

Belgium was the second leg of our trip after spending our initial 4 days in the Netherlands. Most of our time was spent in Ghent and Bruges, with the only time being spent in Brussels for traveling to other destinations. 


https://www.1898thepost.com


In Ghent, we stayed at a really awesome hotel, 1898 The Post. I’ve attached a link to their website above. It’s the old post office that’s located next to the Saint Michael’s Bridge and Church. Make sure to grab a cocktail at the Cobbler, the bar located inside of the hotel. Ghent is a well preserved city with many cool things to see, including going to the top of the Belfry Tower of Ghent, touring the 10th century Gravensteen Castle. We also spent some time viewing Saint Bravo’s Cathedral. 

https://hoteldukespalace.com

We then hoped on a short train ride to Bruges. We stayed at the Hotel Duke’s Palace, the former residence of the Burgundian aristocracy. Another great hotel located near tons of shopping and restaurants. I’ve attached the link to their website above. This was the part of the trip for my wife’s birthday, so our itinerary was a bit more relaxed. Lots of shopping and general sightseeing around the really cool town. One thing I highly recommend, especially those that enjoy sweets, is the Old Chocolate House. They have an old tea room where they serve multiple variations of hot chocolate and waffles. Dinner was at Le Mystique, a multi coursed French meal located inside of the Hotel Heritage. I really enjoyed the slow pace of Bruges. We spent a lot of time drinking beers in the city’s various cafes and bars. 

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i will absolutely do that. 

One of my favorite parts of 3 weeks over there. The B&B comes with an open beer fridge, breakfast is great. The biking was fun, but might be too cold for that. Some 100+ year old bars around and a cool hop museum in Poperinge https://www.toerismepoperinge.be/hopmuseum.

The gas station, convenience store in Watou had probably 70+ beer and the most expensive was like 1.5 euros.
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On 12/27/2023 at 11:05 AM, The Ace of Aces said:

Nuremberg’s horrible - skip it. It’s all fat Americans asking if they can pay in US dollars.    
 

Munich’s markets are very good, especially the medieval market, and Salzburg is amazing. 

It’s kind of the opposite direction from where OP wants to go, but at Christmas the town of Seiffen in the Ore Mountains is fantastic. Very Wes Anderson vibe, literally the whole town is engaged in making nutcrackers and wooden toys.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiffen

Instead of Nuremberg, try Regensburg and then you’re also close to Dresden. Both peak Christmas market towns. 
 

And I’m biased but I have always found the most FUN to be at provincial markets in Czech and Slovakia. Bratislava counts even as a capital. Off the path so the focus is not on tchotchkes and quaint tourist shit. It’s for locals, so it’s amazing food and cheap booze.  The “turbo punch” (extra shot in a cup of already boozy Christmas punch is a fave). As it gets later, the crowds get younger and hotter, recommend. 

 

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Any specific recs? Copenhagen and Stockholm can be covered easily in 3 days each (even though we like to camp out in a city and just go slowly to get the vibes) so we can be flexible with planning. 
Make sure you do the boat garage (Vasa museum) in Stockholm. That was fun. And eat some picked herring. I love that shit.
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17 hours ago, Chewbacca said:
On 12/27/2023 at 7:01 PM, The Ace of Aces said:
Any specific recs? Copenhagen and Stockholm can be covered easily in 3 days each (even though we like to camp out in a city and just go slowly to get the vibes) so we can be flexible with planning. 

Make sure you do the boat garage (Vasa museum) in Stockholm. That was fun. And eat some picked herring. I love that shit.

Agree on the Vasa.  

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Any specific recs? Copenhagen and Stockholm can be covered easily in 3 days each (even though we like to camp out in a city and just go slowly to get the vibes) so we can be flexible with planning. 

Helsinki has a coupla days in it - take the ferry out to Suomenlinna for sure. Then, get out in the country. If you’re there in the summer, the thing to do is rent a cabin on a lake. You build a fire. Drink. Sauna. Plunge into the cold lake. Repeat. We very much have that on our agenda. We also went to Fiskars, which your wife would likely enjoy (a restored village with lots of craftsmen), and Turku, which has some great waterfront activities and history. Honestly, we’d love to spend a good week plus in Finland one summer.

Oh, and agree on the Vasa - it’s a must-see, one of the cooler things we’ve ever seen.

We love Copenhagen. You can end up eating multiple meals at the Torvehallern food hall. There’s an outpost of Grod there, which is a “porridge” restaurant - my wife tries to have us eat breakfast there every day. And nearby is Host, a fantastic high end place that actually isn’t too pricey, and you can usually get a reservation if you get on it sufficiently ahead of time. As for stuff to do, all the usual (seriously, pull up any guide on the city).
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11 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


Helsinki has a coupla days in it - take the ferry out to Suomenlinna for sure. Then, get out in the country. If you’re there in the summer, the thing to do is rent a cabin on a lake. You build a fire. Drink. Sauna. Plunge into the cold lake. Repeat. We very much have that on our agenda. We also went to Fiskars, which your wife would likely enjoy (a restored village with lots of craftsmen), and Turku, which has some great waterfront activities and history. Honestly, we’d love to spend a good week plus in Finland one summer.

Oh, and agree on the Vasa - it’s a must-see, one of the cooler things we’ve ever seen.

We love Copenhagen. You can end up eating multiple meals at the Torvehallern food hall. There’s an outpost of Grod there, which is a “porridge” restaurant - my wife tries to have us eat breakfast there every day. And nearby is Host, a fantastic high end place that actually isn’t too pricey, and you can usually get a reservation if you get on it sufficiently ahead of time. As for stuff to do, all the usual (seriously, pull up any guide on the city).

I didn’t know you were a Host fan. I love that place.

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On 12/27/2023 at 6:47 PM, Brisketexan said:


Man…I’d spend more time in Finland. Finland is fucking cool.

This.  I went to Finnish Lapland a few years ago in early March, and maybe the best trip I've ever done.  Saw the northern lights multiple times, stayed in a glass igloo, dogsledding in untouched gorgeous wilderness, skiing, snowmobiling, Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, ice breaker boat, sauna

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