Tourist Advice - Historic/Romantic European Cities/Towns?

Florence would be great as a hub to go to siena, Montalcino, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Monteriggioni, or any wine tour in Tuscany.

Personally I would recommend Capri or Positano on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. Most beautiful thing I have seen in my life was on top of Anacapri and you are in the clouds on an island looking over the entire Italian coast.

 

Go to Germany and make Yung-T Breh show you around town and buy you food and stuff.

 

I was going to recommend Lucca, which is in that same area.

 

Heidelberg, Germany

You can spend a couple of days exploring the Altstadt (Old Town), Heidelberg Castle, the Alte Brucke (Old Bridge) and the Church of the Holy Spirit. You can take a funicular railway up to the top of the Konigstuhl. Cross the river and you can stroll the Philosophers Walk.

And just up the Neckar River is Neckarsteinach which is home to 4 separate castles.

These two towns are situated very near the western end of Germany's Castle Road which stretches all the way to Prague, so if you want to do some exploring you can load up on castles.

 

I second this. Don't know anything about Germany.

 

Since you only have 3-4 nights, I would recommend a small town that's close to a large hub that you can fly to direct from Houston (assuming you live in Houston).

Lufthansa: direct to Frankfurt

British Airways: direct to London

Air France: direct to Paris

KLM: direct to Amsterdam

SAS: direct to Stavanger, Norway (weird, but cool that there's a direct flight there)

Singapore: direct to Moscow

Turkish: direct to Istanbul

United: direct to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, and Munich

 

Good advice, generally. Beware on flights to Russia though. Given the tensions between the US and Russia, Russia is slow-rolling their visa process for American travelers. I have a friend who did succeed in getting her visa approved to travel, but she was quite worried it wouldn't come in time.

 

Lisbon is amazing and romantic city and fairly cheap. There are amazing beaches also nearby.

 

Agree with this. Portugal gets overlooked so much during trip planning to Europe. Really good bang for the buck in Lisbon.

 

It is not small, but really, if you stay in the heart of Paris, 3-4 days is great for strolling around. You will not need transportation, or if you do, the metro system is awesome.

Paris sounds cliche' but it really is the most romantic place my wife and I have ever been to. We love it.

 

I'm headed to Porto, Portugal in 2 weeks for a wedding. Looking forward to it.

 

I live in Munich for now, and it's quite a nice city for a weeklong vacation, but weather in Germany is starting to get consistently yucky. Else, that region and further east has a lot to offer (Salzburg, Prague, Budapest, Vienna). I'd seriously check weather/climate for those time tables.

Something mediterranean like Italy, Spain or Portugal is still nice.

I don't like recommending French cities because they're full of dicks.

 

No love for the Balkans? Montenegro and Croatian coast (Dubrovnik, etc) are incredible

 

Lucerne (Luzern) Switzerland or the Northern Italian lakes (Como)

but you've got to pay to play in both places...expensive but worth it

 

Kotor, Montenegro is perfect for a long weekend.

Stay in the old town, which is all stone and dates to like the 13th century. Walk the walls of Kotor for incredible views of the bay. Visit Lovcen for more views from above the clouds. Take a boat to the Church of Our Lady of the Rock (tiny church in the middle of a fjord). Eat your weight in grilled meats. I recommend renting a car for at least one day.

 

May want to avoid areas that are currently wrestling with the refugee crisis. Would hate to deny them tourism dollars, and I feel for the refugees, but it doesn't make for a very romantic trip.

 

No worries, there'll be more Asians in the touristy spots than brown people no matter where he goes.

Refugee centers are usually hidden away beyond the city centers.

 

Grindelwald, above Interlaken in Switzerland, is a beautiful village with the Eiger looming above, made famous in films like Eastwood's The Eiger Sanction. There's a blue glacier at the head of the high valley, or is if it hasn't melted, and you can take a remarkable rail trip up to the highest train station in Europe at the Jungfrau from there. Great food, stunning vistas, romantic hikes in the forested mountain slopes. I love the place. Interlaken is also beautiful. One of my kids flew over the town in a hang glider, taking off from the side of a mountain, riding with a pilot hundreds of feet above it. They film the trip with cameras installed in the glider and give you a copy after the flight, which lands in Interlaken. Interlaken and Grindelwald together would make a very nice short trip. You can get to Interlaken from Germany by rail, of course.

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