Surprise European Trip for 30th Birthday

OffalyMedic · 05-11-2018 10:28am #1

So my OH is 30th next Summer and i'm looking at booking a 7-12 day holiday for us around Europe to take in a few cities/ countries. We probably wont travel until late September/ October. I have it narrowed down to 6 trips with broad itineraries but i cant pick one! I'm looking for advice off people here who have visited the cities i have suggested - would u recommend it, anywhere that you wounldn't go to again or suggest missing? I want to make it a trip to remember and enjoy. Organising it early so i know how much i need to save. Budget about 1500 for flights and accommodation and travel.

1. Zagreb -> Plitvice -> Split -> Hvar -> Dubrovnik
Day 1: Arrive + Explore. D2: Walking tour and move to Plitvice. D3:Explore lakes, waterfalls, hiking trail. Travel to Split D4: Guided walk Diocletians Palace, Zlatni Rat beach on Bol. D5: morning ferry to hvar island hopping boat cruise. D6: Travel to Dubrovnik. D7/D8 Go Home.

2. Berlin -> Amsterdam -> Bruges
D1: Arrive + Explore D2: bike tour, night out D3: train to Amsterdam D4: Explore D5: Explore D6: travel bruges. D7: Home

3. Dubrovnik -> Bay of Kotor -> Tirana -> Saranda -> Corfu -> Athens
D1: Arrive D2: visit lake skadar D3: Kotor + beaches Herceg Novi D4: Walk tour Tirana D5: Travel to Saranda D6: Ferry to Corfu D7: beach + clubs D8: fly to athens D9+: explore + home

4. Rome -> Florence -> Venice -> Ljubljana -> Vienna -> Budapest
D1: Arrive D2: Walking tour, head to florence D3: explore Florence D4: train to venice. Explore D5: journey to Ljubljana maybe lake bled D6: train to Vienna waling tour D7: explore vienna D8: travel to Budapest walking tour D9: thermal baths and home.

5. Reykjavik ->Akureyri->Lake Myvatn ->Borgarfjordur ->Hofn ->Vik ->Golden Circle -> Reykjavik
D1: Arrive D2: Drive to Akureyri – whale watching D3: Goðafoss Waterfall en route to Mývatn Lake. Explore Dimmuborgir, Námaskarð and Dettifoss Waterfall before arriving in Borgarfjörður. D4: Travel to Hofn D5: Visit the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, Skaftafell National Park glacier hike then continue to Vík. D6: Depart for Reykjavik- Visit Reynisfjara Beach, Drumbo, waterfalls of Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss,Gullfoss Waterfall, Geysir Hot Springs and Þingvellir National Park. D7: Home.

6. Budapest -> Krakow -> Amsterdam -> Prague -> Berlin -> Bruges
D1: Arrive Budapest D2: explore then overnight train to Krakow D3:walking tour, visit Auschwitz and see old salt mines D4: Day train to Prague, walking tour and visit genuine beer hall.D5: Explore Prague D6: Train to berlin D7: Explore D8: Train to amsterdam D9: Explore Amsterdam D10: Train to Bruges D11+: Explore Bruges and Home

woodchuck · 05-11-2018 12:00pm

You've obviously put a lot of thought into this, but I think most of your plans are overly ambitious and you'll end up spending more time travelling between places than actually in them! For a 7-12 day trip, ideally 3 places would be best, 4 max (excluding day trips - it's the repacking and checking in/out of accommodation that gets tiresome!).

Option 1 could be doable. I did a similar trip in 1 week or so, but started in Zadar instead of Zagreb. Zadar wasn't amazing, but it was a good place to fly into to visit Plitvice before moving on to Split and Dubrovnik. Plitvice lake is incredible! Dubrovnik is really nice too.

Option 2 also sounds doable.

Option 4 is definitely too much for 10 days. I'd stick to Rome, Florence and Venice only. If you've never been to Italy, this would be a great trip and there is so much to see in each city that you'd be doing yourself a disservice not to spend a few days in each place.

Option 5: it's not clear how many times you'll actually be moving accommodation or if you'll be doing some of those as day trips. Iceland is amazing and you can definitely see a lot in 7-10 days, but just make sure you're not checking in/out of accommodation every other day! It is VERY expensive over there though. You might get good deals on accommodation and flights, but eating out is unbelievably expensive. I would highly recommend Iceland as there are so many natural wonders, however as a present it might be too expensive? So if you do go down this route, maybe see if you can find an apartment where you have the option to cook yourselves (even groceries are twice as expensive as here though and you don't really want to be doing a lot of grocery shopping while on holidays!).

Option 6: Again, it just sounds too ambitious. I'd pick either the first half or the second half of the trip.

Sorry I don't know how much help that is! But mainly, I think you're being overly ambitious. And the options are so broad. Surely there are some places that appeal to you or him more than others? Maybe pick a city/country you've always wanted to go to and plan from there...

schemingbohemia · 05-11-2018 12:32pm

As above, way too much travelling involved for me.

How about Sicily or Sicily and Naples? You could have a base in Sicily and travel around, weather should be lovely and there's lots to see and do. Or fly into Naples, head to Sorrento for a couple of days then get the Ferry to Sicily and pick a base, have amazing food and visit really interesting ancient sites whilst also having a bit of a beach holiday.

OffalyMedic · 05-11-2018 2:02pm

Thanks for the advice everyone. All the above are based of tours run by companies but I want to organise it myself so we can come and go as we like and do what suits us. We have done city breaks and sun holidays that's why i wanted to do something a bit more adventurous for the occasion but i take on board that i might be somewhat to adventurous with some of the above plans. We've both been to Italy separately on family holiday so i'm not overly keen on returning for this holiday.

1. Maybe i could limit it to Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik?

2. Amsterdam is a a place we want to go but i think a couple of days here would be loads? He's been to bruge before and highly recommends it and i've been to Berlin and loved it too but would really love to visit all new places.

3. Again here i could reduce number of towns visited by maybe doing Dubrovnik for 2 days Saranda 1 day Corfu 2 days and Athens 2-3 days

4. Considering i'm not overly pushed on doing Rome again and have also been to Budapest. I could make this less full on by just doing 2 days in Venice 2 days in Ljubljana and lake bled 2 days Vienna and maybe 2 days in Budapest or extra day in one of the other cities.

5. He has mentioned going to Iceland a couple of times but i'm not sure what it would be like in October? Would there be enough day light to fit in hike of glaciers, geizers etc? and i've heard how expensive it is over there so don't know if it will push it out of budget?

6. Very similar to option 2 but with added cities however it is only Amsterdam and Prague which neither of us have visited before so maybe for that reason i can cut it off the list.

Main thing i'm after as said before is to visit new cities and make it a very memorable trip for the right reasons

woodchuck · 05-11-2018 2:24pm

1. Maybe i could limit it to Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik?

I still think your original plan is doable, you'll just need to look into how to get from Zagreb to Split and how long that will take. If you're going over land I'd still try to fit in Plitvice lakes - that's the main reason I wanted to go to Croatia

You don't have to stay overnight though, maybe you can fit it in en route from Zagreb to Split? I'm not sure of the logistics though! And if you're going to Split, you can do a day trip to Hvar without moving accommodation, that's what we did. I think trip #1 could definitely be a runner.

2. Amsterdam is a a place we want to go but i think a couple of days here would be loads? He's been to bruge before and highly recommends it and i've been to Berlin and loved it too but would really love to visit all new places.

If he's been to Bruge and you've been to Berlin, I'd cross this one off the list. A couple of days would be enough for Amsterdam, but maybe just make a weekend of it some time instead of trying to fit a week long trip around it?

4. Considering i'm not overly pushed on doing Rome again and have also been to Budapest. I could make this less full on by just doing 2 days in Venice 2 days in Ljubljana and lake bled 2 days Vienna and maybe 2 days in Budapest or extra day in one of the other cities.

If you're not too pushed on doing Rome and Budapest again, I'd cross #4 off the list. Another option could be:
Venice -> Lake Garda -> Cinque Terre -> fly back through Pisa (checking out the leaning tower of course!)
I did this last year except we started in Verona instead of Venice, as we'd both been to Venice before. It depends on how keen you are to visit Italy though... personally I love Italy and can see myself going back time and time again to different cities!

5. He has mentioned going to Iceland a couple of times but i'm not sure what it would be like in October? Would there be enough day light to fit in hike of glaciers, geizers etc? and i've heard how expensive it is over there so don't know if it will push it out of budget?

It was actually October that I went! On the downside, you have less daylight and there is more risk of poor weather (cold and wet). However you have a much higher chance of seeing the northern lights - obviously there's no chance in the summer! And there is still enough daylight to do activities during the day (I don't think whale watching is an option outside the summer months though). But like I said, it's very expensive - will you be covering everything or expecting him to help cover meals while over there? If paying for everything yourself, I think it's too expensive. But if he contributes to meals, the "present" may come as a bit of a shock to his bank account

OffalyMedic · 05-11-2018 4:21pm

Bit more research and i've narrowed it down to 3 trips - croatia, iceland and amsterdam,prague, berlin, bruges.

have a detailed plan made for croatia and i can get all the following for 2000 for both of us. Accomodation in 4* hotel with b+b and free cancellation
Direct Flight dublin to zagreb
D1. land @ 14.05 Transfer to Hotel
D2: Plitvice Lakes and Rastoke Full-Day Tour from Zagreb
D3: Zagreb Free Walking Tour.
D4: Internal Flight to Split, 1.5-Hour Split Evening Walking Tour
D5: Five Island Speedboat Tour Featuring the Blue Cave and Hvar
D6: 5hr Bus trip to Dubrovnik
D7: Dubrovnik Sea Kayak Tour
D8: Home @ 12.25

Should mean only need money for food and drink out there which seems to be very cheap so i'm sure himself will chip in for that

Holiday can be made cheaper with different accommodation, transport and trips but for the minute i really like the idea of the above and its definitely a strong contender.

woodchuck · 05-11-2018 4:56pm

That's all sounding good OffalyMedic

Could you add an extra day in Dubrovnik though? It really is a lovely place. I'd recommend walking around the walls of the city, visiting the island lokrum and taking the cable car up the hill for the views.

Also have you looked into travelling from Zagreb to Split by bus/car and visiting Plitvice lakes in between on the same day? I'm just asking because you'll be almost half way to Split when you're in Plitvice, so it might be easier to continue on than backtracking to Zagreb and taking a flight.

OffalyMedic · 05-11-2018 5:14pm

Thanks @woodchuck I'll look into both of these suggestions

OffalyMedic · 03-01-2019 4:08pm

So done another bit of thinking over the break and try to get some information out of himself of where he'd like to go and I've came up with the final shortlist

1. America (fly and drive or stay and cruise)
2. Iceland
3. Brussels, Bruges and Amsterdam

Have set budget of 1500pp for flights and accommodation for 10days or so. Leaning towards Orlando/Florida drive or Orlando and cruise but also west coast and route 66

Caranica · 04-01-2019 12:45am

OffalyMedic wrote: »

So done another bit of thinking over the break and try to get some information out of himself of where he'd like to go and I've came up with the final shortlist

1. America (fly and drive or stay and cruise)
2. Iceland
3. Brussels, Bruges and Amsterdam

Have set budget of 1500pp for flights and accommodation for 10days or so. Leaning towards Orlando/Florida drive or Orlando and cruise but also west coast and route 66

Realistically I think only option 3 is doable for certain within that budget. Iceland is doable for flights and accommodation but ten days would be excessively expensive for food and drink. I don't think it's enough for the US trip, certainly not with a cruise.

OffalyMedic · 04-01-2019 6:08am

Caranica wrote:

Realistically I think only option 3 is doable for certain within that budget. Iceland is doable for flights and accommodation but ten days would be excessively expensive for food and drink. I don't think it's enough for the US trip, certainly not with a cruise.

I've found a few deals on American Sky and American Holidays websites for the America trip around 1500.

Iceland would only by 4/5 days sorry

Europe and America 7-10days

woodchuck · 04-01-2019 6:14pm

Iceland would get my vote too. It's an amazing country and 4/5 days would be about right to enjoy the highlights.

I know it's been said before, but be warned that even if you get a good deal on accommodation and flights, it's very very expensive once you're over there. Whatever you normally have set aside for food, transport etc, literally double it when considering your budget!

OffalyMedic · 17-05-2019 1:11pm

Just a quick update. Have setteled on Iceland. Have heard nothing but good reports and think its a very memorable present and somewhere he has expressed alot of interest in. I'm only going to pay for flights and some accommodation (he knows im getting him a hoilday) so we'll share costs of rest of accommodation and spending money. looking at a week to 10 days and doing the entire coast route. Rough plan is
Planning a trip for myself and my boyfriend to Iceland for mid-October. Looking at seeing as much of the island we can in a week or so. Is the following plan realistic or would people recommend spending same time just doing northwest, west and south? Any must see's i've missed or anything on list you wouldnt recommend?

Day 1: The Golden Circle - Thingvellir National Park, Geysir and Gullfoss waterfall.
Day 2: Chasing waterfalls - Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss Fimmvörðuháls trail. Stay in Vik
Day 3: Black sand beach to Jokulsarlon - Reynisfjara shore Skaftafell National Park and hike to Svartifoss waterfall or visit an ice cave. Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon and find a place to stay in Hofn
Day 4: East Fjords – Drive to Egilsstaði - Northern Lights.
Day 5: Lake Myvatn - Dettifoss. Myvatn, Akureyri,
Day 6: Whale watching - Akureyri . After hit the road again and head to Snaefellsnes Peninsula
Day 7: Snaefellsnes Peninsula – explore then back to Reykjavik

Would do Reykjavik and blue lagoon on either day 1 or day 8 depending on flight times

will try use air b+b as much as possible to keep costs down. dont think he'd be a fan of a campervan holiday

Surprise European Trip for 30th Birthday

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