Last minute travel - where in Europe that is not $500+/per night for family of 4?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Prague or Dubrovnik?

In August?! Are you nuts?!

Prague looks pleasant in August.

[Anonymous]

How many times have y’all been to Europe OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What the title says -

My husband suddenly realized he cannot carry over some vacation days and wants to go somewhere in early August. I'm a sub teacher so our vacation schedule depends more on his schedule.

Where to go? We were planning for a trip to Switzerland next Spring so I had some vague itinerary but all those places - especially the Berner Oberland, have hotel prices through the roof for August.

I looked into Alsace region in France but that doesn't take up more than 3 to 4 days - Colmar, Strasbourg and the wine tour. Colmar is very reasonable at $200+/night.

Where else could we go and where to fly into? We have 10 days.

Just checking you realise that many of the trails and attractions will be closed in the Bernese Oberland in April and hiking can be a mix of mud, slush and snow at higher altitudes. That’s why the prices are much lower than in August.

[Anonymous]

Colmar is SO close to Switzerland. I would do those together next year.

Portugal - Porto?

Iceland?

[Anonymous]

My neighbors just went to Iceland- direct flight from IAD ( Dulles Airport) for a week. If you want to go to Easter Europe, ffor example, keep in mind that there are no direct flights to Poland from Washington area. I would just go where you can take direct flight from Dulles Airport to Europe for an easier trip. August is probably the worst month to be in Europe, tons of tourists everywhere.

[Anonymous]

E Europe best for budgets of course but beyond that esp in summer month of Aug I just would not target Europe. June is fine but damn the heat in Aug!

I would look at the off the beaten path stuff. There's small towns in Italy and France even UK. It's a lot of research of course. Trains are so convenient around the world and you will find what a difference that mean when traveling whether Europe or Asia. My teens love going away out of the US specifically because it's just a simpler way of travel!

I would take the approach of giving yourself maybe in another trip opportunity plenty of time to uncover the beautiful smaller towns. It's also dependent on what you want to see and do of course but I'm not sure you get away if paying less than market to see a treasure if a place you know? There's no free stuff and all that in life. It is what it is but the truck is to mix it up. Often, I may splurge in a city because in a town that's less, $200 can get me a great deal still or there's less to really see and do so a pit stop for much less money of 1 night helps even out budget wise. If you're strategic, that can help.

Again - it's a lot of work to budget I think. It's one thing to simply go to a destination cheaper than another but good stuff will always cost you. Just a matter of comparisons but between $500 v $400 over 1-2 nights isn't that big a deal if it's value added for the former.

I always shake my head about wanting to travel to high market places to find budget accommodations - that kind of stuff is really far and few in between. You are so much better off looking at the big picture if balancing your budget with the priorities of what you want to see and do. You just can't have it both ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Prague or Dubrovnik?

In August?! Are you nuts?!

Prague looks pleasant in August.

August is one of the busiest months!

[Anonymous]

I would figure out where you can fly to cheaply or with points first and dates and then come here to crowdsource lodging.

Switzerland if you like to hike.
Portugal if you like wine, beach, culture. (Rebello Hotel; Octant Evora; The Lisboans; Sao Lourenco do Barrocal)
Parts of Spain (so many ideas in the south near Cadiz)
Northern Greece (the Ionian parts near Albania) that you can fly to from London or Athens
Corsica, France (you'll need to ferry or fly from Paris or Nice) - La Signoria

[Anonymous]

Just got back from Aix-en-Provence with the kids and it was amazing. Highly recommend!

[Anonymous]

You should be able to do this easily in Eastern Europe. Albania, Montenegro, Bulgaria. I'm not familiar with Romania, but others have given you recs for there upthread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neighbors just went to Iceland- direct flight from IAD ( Dulles Airport) for a week. If you want to go to Easter Europe, ffor example, keep in mind that there are no direct flights to Poland from Washington area. I would just go where you can take direct flight from Dulles Airport to Europe for an easier trip. August is probably the worst month to be in Europe, tons of tourists everywhere.

And Icelandair lets you do a few days stopover before continuing onto somewhere else in Europe. https://www.icelandair.com/flights/stopover/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Prague or Dubrovnik?

In August?! Are you nuts?!

Prague looks pleasant in August.

DP. I haven't been in summer, but there are some really lovely towns in Czechia that you can reach by public transport from Prague. You could put together a really managble 10-day itinerary just in Czechia alone, or into Prague and out of Krakow with a stop somewhere in the middle.

Poland is also great, Krakow and Gdansk especially. Summer weather is variable- there are heat waves but it's not persistent, all summer heat like in southern Europe. But you'll still probably want somewhere with AC.

[Anonymous]

Agreeing with the Iceland suggestion and then tack on another location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would figure out where you can fly to cheaply or with points first and dates and then come here to crowdsource lodging.

Switzerland if you like to hike.
Portugal if you like wine, beach, culture. (Rebello Hotel; Octant Evora; The Lisboans; Sao Lourenco do Barrocal)
Parts of Spain (so many ideas in the south near Cadiz)
Northern Greece (the Ionian parts near Albania) that you can fly to from London or Athens
Corsica, France (you'll need to ferry or fly from Paris or Nice) - La Signoria

This hotel is $500/night. Probably too much.
But looks AMAZING! Im saving this.....

https://www.hotel-la-signoria.com/en/