Help w/trip to Europe this Summer

[HGD24]

My husband and I are planning our first trip to Europe together this Summer. It may also be our last for a while as we are thinking about starting a family in the next year or so.

My husband visited England three years ago for work. He spent an afternoon seeing some of the major sites in London, other than that, his time was spent stuck in an office building in Birmhingham. We enjoy active vacations but aren't really too interested in big cities. We'd like to experience the country-side and small towns but still have plenty to do to keep us busy. We'd like to visit: Ireland, England, Italy and perhaps Germany but we know we can't do it all in 2 weeks. He suggested choosing either Ireland or England for a week and then spending the remaining week in Italy and foregoing the visit to Germany.

Does anyone have any advice that could help us choose what we should do? Thanks!

 

[wideeyes]

if you come to England I would recommend Snowdonia in wales, and the lake district in north England if you like to be active, you should enjoy both of these and they are also beautiful places.
They will be plenty of small towns and villages to visit.

 

[Goofyish]

Welcome to the UK Boards Heidi

It might be a good idea to miss Germany this summer as it's the soccer world cup and so will be very busy

Once in the UK there are a number of cheap airlines that fly to Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Knock in Irelend / Northern Ireland so it's makes it very handy to nip across for a few days:

http://www.aerarann.ie/

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/

http://www.bmibaby.com/bmibaby/en/index.aspx

http://www.easyjet.com/splash.asp?lang=en

These airlines also do cheap flights to Europe too, so you can fly over to Italy quite easily and cheaply.

 

[Ang1e]

There are lots of small towns in Italy that are lovely to walk round - most are very hilly so you will definitely be active walking round them lol

If you fly to Rome there are some towns within a short driving/train distance away - we visited Spoleto & Orvieto last year (trying to think of other places we have been to over the years - will get back to you that one!). We don't like staying in one place too long and liked that we could walk round them and move on to so somewhere else the following day.

Are you sure you couldn't be tempted to wander around Rome and Florence? It would really be a shame to go all that way and not see some of the amazing sights.

 

[WDWfan uk]

Away from the cities there are so many places to recommend all over the country -
The Peak District : places like Dovedale etc . See the following site :- http://www.derbyshire-peakdistrict.co.uk/

The New Forest down in the South :- http://www.thenewforest.co.uk/acorn/

The Lake District :- http://www.lake-district.gov.uk/ (high rainfall area!!!)

Then there's Cornwall and Devon in the South West - a combination of rugged beaches and great countryside - but best NOT to go in the height of the tourist season in July and August.

In Northern Italy, the lakes are beautiful e.g. Lake Como. A lovely place to stay on this lake is Bellagio, where you can take a boat to visit other places across the lake - highly recommend visiting the Villa Carlotta! http://www.initaly.com/regions/lombardy/como.htm

But in Italy you are so spoiled for choice!! How can you go and not visit Venice ? It isn't cheap but you'll never forget it, and there is so much to see here.

 

[HGD24]

Thank you all for the great information you've shared so far. I should have clarified about the "big cities". What I meant was that we aren't interested in the tours, shopping or night life that big cities provide.

We plan to see the major sites of London (and Rome and Florence if we get to Italy) however, we would like to spend the majority of our time in smaller towns getting a feel for the more traditional way of life.

Thanks again for all of the advice you've already given and please post any other advice or information you might have to share

 

[HGD24]

I started looking at flights on airlines suggested by Goofyish and found one on Ryanair.com from Cork to London Gatwick for 6.99 EUR and found another on bmibaby.com for 9.00 EUR. Could that be correct? These prices are before taxes and fees are added.