Good suggestion for first Europe trip. And plenty for 2 weeks. Great bases all of them not to mention tons to do within the cities.I suggest Florence, Venice, and Paris.
All are very romantic with lots of opportunity for walking, museums, restaurants, site seeing, and more.
You could take the train from Florence to Venice for the "land travel" part of your trip.
Have a wonderful time!
The young wife and I hired a car and driver to take us from Sorrento to Positano, Ravello, Amalfi, and then back -- just so I could enjoy the view instead of worrying about the road.
Agree with everyone else on picking one country. I would choose Italy if it were me.
But, if you do try for some of the others, try to fly out of anywhere but London. The fees are outrageous. We are flying into London in April and leaving from Dublin when we go for about three weeks coming up in April.
I totally agree with that. DH and I used to rush from place to place; now we have hotel rooms in one or two "bases" and decide every morning what we want to do. Some cities can be a good starting place for a lot of countries; it's an easy day trip from Brussels to Amsterdam, Aachen or Luxembourg, for example. Wherever you go, have a list of things you might want to do, but be flexible. If it's an ugly day, choose a museum. We can even be swayed by brochures in the hotel lobby or events/exhibits we read about in the paper. If you haven't been to Europe on your deployments, definitely check out trains as an alternative to planes within Europe. Sometimes they're slower, but they more than make up for that in comfort, scenery and the fact that you end up in the middle of the city instead of having to find your way in from the airport.
I've never run into an issue with this in Europe. The reservations are usually in my name, and my husband's name is different. Occasionally I'll add his name to the reservation, but often there is not a place to add the names of additional guests on the reservation.And one additional point: If your wife will be changing her name, make sure that it matches on the reservation and on whatever ID she uses to get on the plane. I've seen plenty of frantic posts on FlyerTalk from couples who made the reservations in the woman's post-marriage last name and then realized that her passport, driver's license, etc. would still be in her birth name when they left the day after the wedding. I think you can bridge the gap with the paperwork from the wedding, but it's easier to be consistent.
I've never run into an issue with this in Europe. The reservations are usually in my name, and my husband's name is different.
No, that's not the issue- DH and I also have different last names and it's been no problem at all.
The problem occurs when Jane Smith is marrying John Jones and they make their honeymoon flight reservations in the name of Jane Jones (because they're leaving the day after the wedding). Jane has an armload of IDs in the name of Jane Smith and a plane reservation for Jane Jones. Better to make them in the name of Jane Smith if she won't have time to get a new driver's license or passport in her married name.
Exactly! My wife's first name is hyphenated, and when she got her first passport, they had the second part of her first name as her middle name.Oh, right, the flight reservation has to be in the exact names on the passport.
Around $1800? Here is a July flight from DFW to the main international airports in Paris and northern Italy - just manipulate this google flights page: https://www.google.com/flights/#search;iti=DFW_CDG_2016-07-12*MXP_DFW_2016-07-26;tt=m
Yes, book your lodging ahead. You don't want to spend all your time scurrying about looking for lodging when you get there.
2 weeks sounds like a long time. But it's not, it's tight. Those cities are heavily traveled. You need decent hotels central to what you want to visit and to public transportation to and from airports and other cities.
Trip Advisor is a good way to choose hotels. I recommend making reservations 3 months in advance and the best options do tend to fill. You can always cancel a reservation.
Choosing and booking lodging, figuring out all the transportation, etc., is time consuming, but you want to have this worked out before you arrive.
Good spot for a gondola ride - Venice. That is one item you don't need to book ahead. Again, Trip Advisor likely has plenty of gondola ride reviews. As they have reviews about all the most popular activities in any given city. Here is some practical information about what to expect: Gondola Ride (Venice, Italy): Tickets & Tours, Attraction Reviews - TripAdvisor
3 Days in Venice: Travel Guide on TripAdvisor
Totally agree. Our last trips to Europe have involved a 3 city in two weeks approach. Our criteria for the 3 locations has been that they be within a max 5 hour direct train link between each. So one year we did Prague/Vienna/Budapest. Another year we did Venice/Verona/Florence. If you haven't been to Italy I'd adapt that to Venice/Florence/Rome or the reverse. We are contemplating Amsterdam/Brussels/Bruges, but that could be easily adapted to drop Bruges and add Paris. London and Paris would be great as well. For our honeymoon decades ago, we did Madrid/Lisbon/The Algarve. Congratulations and have a great trip. Just a warning though, it will be hot, crowded and expensive in July. You might consider delaying the trip until September or October which are cooler and less crowded not to mention less expensive but still great times to travel through Europe. Our DS is getting married in August this year and he and our DIL will be deferring their honeymoon for several months as they will take off at least a week prior to the wedding and don't feel that they can be away from work for three weeks or more at one time. According to DS this is increasingly the approach his friends choose when they get married. They aren't skipping it-just deferring it.
What's the best way to pay for everything while you're over? Cash or card or does it matter? I normally use my chase freedom card for all purchases for the cash rewards but it has a 3% foreign transaction fee.
Thanks so much for all the great tips! Keep them coming, I'm so glad we posted about this here! I wouldn't have thought about the name change, that would be important. Thanks for the links! We'll check those out. I'm sure it will fly by like you said. We'll go ahead and book most if not all of our lodging before we head out. We're thinking now of possibly waiting until fall to go. Maybe September or October when it's cooler and less people. I don't love huge crowds and lines. In the next few days we'll try to get the locations pinned down and I'll post them up. What's the best way to pay for everything while you're over? Cash or card or does it matter? I normally use my chase freedom card for all purchases for the cash rewards but it has a 3% foreign transaction fee.
What's the best way to pay for everything while you're over? Cash or card or does it matter? I normally use my chase freedom card for all purchases for the cash rewards but it has a 3% foreign transaction fee.
I've not done the water taxi or gondola. Very expensive.
Week pass for the vaporetti aren't cheap either but less than a single gondola or water taxi ride.