Originally Posted by
BostonGuy
I don't think I want to spend the whole time in England. I was thinking about doing quick hops to 1-2 other countries. Or maybe just one, that's very different from England.
What would you recommend? Traveling the last ten days of April.
I've been to Italy and Amsterdam and loved them. Been to Paris and had an okay experience. I was in Prague 15 years ago but I bet it's changed a bunch!
Anything special happening weather wise or event wise on the continent that I should consider? I love good food and wine, beautiful scenery (obviously it's not really beach season.)
My goodness, it all depends what you're interested in! Do you like cities, culture, nightlife, outdoors activities?
I personally would avoid Ryanair and Easyjet like the plague, they really are unpleasant operations and when it goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong. Flybe is better, and BA does occasionally have quite good deals if you're traveling at unconventional times (like the middle of the day or very late in the evening).
I have been to Ireland several times and have never, ever been impresed by it. Dublin is just a dump in my opinion - but others' opinions may differ. Personally I wouldn't waste my time.
You may wish to purchase an open-jaw ticket (flying to one destination and returning to another) as two round trips in ten days doesn't give you much time to enjoy London at all, and you'd be spending your entire vacation in airports.
For instance, you may wish to fly into Prague, spend a couple of nights there, take the train down to Vienna (about four hours), spend a few days there and then return to the UK. Whilst in Vienna you could even nip over to Bratislava for a day, it's under an hour by train. Prague has changed a lot in the past fifteen years, but is still quite timeless in many respects. Vienna is a wonderful, grand wedding cake of a city which the O/H and I just love.
You could also consider taking the Eurostar to Brussels (less than two hours from St Pancras station in London), spending a couple of nights there (that's more than enough) and then visiting somewhere like Bruges, or even Amsterdam or Luxembourg just to see them. You could then make your way back to Brussels and take the Eurostar back into the UK.
As posters above have mentioned, there is plenty to do without leaving the UK. Yorkshire (Harrogate, Skipton) are glorious this time of year, as is Cumbria (Windermere is a good place to start). Scotland is lovely, too, but a bit on the chilly side. Edinburgh is glorious and a green, glowing gem. If you're feeling adventurous, you could go as high as Skye. but transport links are tricky if you're not driving yourself.
Happy to answer any specific questions; I've been to every single city mentioned above, most several times.
Best of luck to you.