Hellobee Boards

Italy is beautiful in May - we went around the first or second week of May pre kids. Great weather and food, so much to see, can fly in one city and take trains to the rest depending how much you want to do. We got a low points flight to Milan since it must have still counted as off season.

Iceland !!! It was the most amazing place I've been to

We are going to the Azores this summer and I am equally excited about that

Barcelona is great. Excellent weather, amazing food, tons to see and do.

Portugal was also nice. We arrived in Porto, stayed a few days, then drove to Lisbon with a few stops on the way. You could do that in a week.

@cake2017: That's exciting! So many places to discover. Dublin and London are both incredible cities, depending on the feel you're looking for - Dublin is smaller and felt more cozy, and London of course has a major city vibe. We stayed in the Westbury hotel in Dublin (about 4 years ago), which was very nice and a good central location.

Spain is a great choice too - we did a 10 day trip to Madrid and Seville (taking the train to Seville), which was so much fun. For Spain, I would choose Madrid or Barcelona as a jumping off point, and see another city as well (Seville, Granada, there are many possibilities). I agree with @Lamariniere: that Portugal would also be great - Lisbon and Porto are so nice (and the food is amazing), and you could easily do both cities in a week.

Lots of history and food to explore in all these places!

@cake2017: we did Airbnb’s with all of them. We did both trips with our LOs, who were pretty young at the time, so we wanted separate bedrooms.

@yoursilverlining: Wow, that's interesting! I guess we just had a different experience from your friends.

I'd suggest Switzerland. You can get the perfect blend of city and country, and depending upon where you go, you get the French feel or the German feel.

We were a little underwhelmed by Ireland and Dublin, but it seems to be just us that wasnt crazy about it. Everyone else seems to love it!
We LOVE London. It's one of our favorite cities, and we've been itching to go back. You could easily do London and Paris in 7-8 days flying into one and out of the other and taking the train in between.
I thought Barcelona was very nice and easy to get around. The Gaudi architecture is very interesting and I just loved sitting outdoors at the cafes and just people watching. If you start out in Madrid, you could also check out Toledo, Avila, or Salamanca, all very cute old towns.
Switzerland is super beautiful too, especially the Bernese Oberland area. We stayed in Wegnen, and it was just the cutest little town.
If you're looking for more "must see sites", I think London/Paris or Italy... Greece too, but that's a little long flight.
If you're more into natural beauties, Iceland, Switzerland,... and it may be stretching flight time, but Croatia is gorgeous.
Old history, pretty much any European town, but Croatia and surrounding, Italy, Greece.

I would definitely recommend Iceland. Stunning scenery, awesome hot springs, I also loved the horseback riding (not even a horse kind of person, but Icelandic horses are so sweet and the landscapes are amazing). Plus it's a short direct flight from the east coast. After that my favorite is probably the south of France, but slightly more annoying to get to.

@cake2017: Sorry, no recommendations for hotels, especially 4/5 star. We love to travel for sites/experiences/food, so hotel does not get much attention from me. We usually aim for 2/3 star - clean, private bath, and central location at roughly 100/night is our guideline. I'm sure Marriott would be lovely! And usually the 4/5 stars are very centrally located so you cant' go wrong.