Our daughter will be in Europe in July & we're going to fly over to see her & travel around together a bit. Our main 'need' is warm weather and a direct flight from US to wherever & interesting things to see & do for about a week - right now we're torn between exploring southern Spain [Granada etc] versus parts of Eastern Europe [prob. not France/Italy/Germany this trip]. We probably would rent a car and I'll want to do some photography of course, but we're flexible & just want to try to absorb local color and culture. So, if you've done both [or have other thoughts of course], I'd love to hear of them.

Southern Spain is not warm, it will be very hot. However they take the afternoon off for a nap.

That time of year all the "touristy" areas will be crowded.

Otherwise, choose where you would like to hang out with you kid for awhile and enjoy.

Bon voyage.

That's helpful...next Q, is there a website that might make it easier to find where direct flights go to in Europe [esp EEurope?] - there are no direct Des Moines flights but we can get to some hubs and then want to have a 'straight shot' - I found one answer at a site for Spain, but didn't know if there was some sort of collected site with that info? How to avoid hopping thru London, DeGaulle, Madrid, Munich etc. without paying an arm and a leg?

Gracias.

Hello Victoria

Where about is your daughter going to be in Europe. Spain and Eastern Europe are about as far apart as you can get.

G

I know, but she's adaptable...actually she is going around with a friend so I'm not sure where..she will be at a wedding 7/4 in Poland then traveling with the friend and we are landing on the 12th somewhere to be determined and she'll meet us there [via train probably] - we mainly want to fly direct from US to Europe -- she will after we leave have to fly out from Vienna, but again, she can get there from anywhere...for various reasons we're skipping France, Germany and Italy, so I thought there might be less tourist traffic in E. Europe, which is why we're thinking of that....

Hello Victoria

I would suggest flying into Vienna, if possible directly from the USA.

Vienna is a great gateway into parts of Eastern Europe like Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Also you can easily slip down the coast and see Slovenia and/or Croatia, etc

or head further north into Poland,

or take a river cruise down the Danube river into Slovakia and/or Hungary

July especially the first part of the month will a great time to visit any of those areas.

For most of these places you wont even have to rent a car.

G

There are also the ferry lines linking Barcelona and the ports in Italy and Eastern Europe.

Delta and Malev operates a direct flight from JFK to Budapest, this may be an option, too. From Budapest you can fly to the neighbouring countries for 50-100 USD on low cost airlines or you can rent a car of course.

From Chicago, we fly directly and nonstop to Frankfurt, London, and Rome on American Airlines. You can also fly directly and nonstop from Chicago to Brussels, Madrid, Munich, Amsterdam and Zurich. Living near Chicago, we have enough choices here to avoid stopping in New York.
Remember too that you can use one of those small European airlines to find a base. For our September trip, we couldn't find a direct flight to Croatia from Chicago, but we will fly into Rome and take Air Croatia to Split from there.
If you only have a week, I'd keep it simple. One base with a car, or a city. Or a simple route with a quick return by train. I did like the eastern Europe idea a lot. But I wouldn't count on it being less crowded. It seems that everything will be in July! Your key to avoiding crowds is to get off the beaten track, with a base that isn't at the top of everyone's list.
Linda

Thanks much = we were about to find a flight from Des Moines to Atlanta to Prague CZ on Delta that was priced okay and certainly was easy [one stop]. We are now working on the issue of how much time to spend in Prague or elsewhere. I know one can easily spend a whole week anywhere if one is open to adventures and relaxed, but for various reasons, we will be going [perhaps] to NW Poland and working out those details is not so easy.

Victoria,

As I'm sure I mentioned somewhere here before, the express train from Prague to Warsaw is direct and pleasant, should you want to go to Poland from Prague. We did it two years ago. There's a regular train which leaves Prague about 10 am and arrives in Warsaw shortly before 7 pm. Both stations are centrally located.

Ann