We are planing a cruise on a small ship along the Croatian coast to celebrate my best friend’s 60th birthday in July 2022. Will likely spend 3 nights in Venice before the cruise. We are trying to decide what to add on to this.
We were originally thinking of starting in Rome and exploring the Amalfi coast first, but now I’m hesitant for two reasons. First, we’ve been to Cinque Terre, and after researching the Amalfi coast, it looks like a much more crowded and touristy version of Cinque Terre. High end shopping and fancy restaurants aren’t really our thing. Secondly, if we do want to explore the Amalfi coast, I’ve read that July is a bad time as it’s one of the most crowded months. What do you think - is a trip to Amalfi Coast really that different than Cinque Terre, other than being larger with more variety of shops and restaurants?
If we don’t do the Rome/Amalfi Coast, another option is Corfu, Crete, and the Western coast of Greece. We went to Athens and several Greek islands in 2018 and loved it. We found that each island (Milos, Naxos , Skopelos, Rhodes and Santorini) was sufficiently different from the others visited such that we never felt we were seeing the same old thing even after six weeks. Santorini was beautiful but was our least favorite island due to the tourist mobs.
We like beautiful natural scenery, good authentic food and wine (love local tavernas and trattorias more than Michelin starred restaurants), nice beaches, and some culture/historical attractions. We have seen enough duomos and medieval walled cities after two weeks in Tuscany to last us the rest of our lives.
We were originally thinking of starting in Rome and exploring the Amalfi coast first, but now I’m hesitant for two reasons. First, we’ve been to Cinque Terre, and after researching the Amalfi coast, it looks like a much more crowded and touristy version of Cinque Terre. High end shopping and fancy restaurants aren’t really our thing. Secondly, if we do want to explore the Amalfi coast, I’ve read that July is a bad time as it’s one of the most crowded months. What do you think - is a trip to Amalfi Coast really that different than Cinque Terre, other than being larger with more variety of shops and restaurants?
If we don’t do the Rome/Amalfi Coast, another option is Corfu, Crete, and the Western coast of Greece. We went to Athens and several Greek islands in 2018 and loved it. We found that each island (Milos, Naxos , Skopelos, Rhodes and Santorini) was sufficiently different from the others visited such that we never felt we were seeing the same old thing even after six weeks. Santorini was beautiful but was our least favorite island due to the tourist mobs.
We like beautiful natural scenery, good authentic food and wine (love local tavernas and trattorias more than Michelin starred restaurants), nice beaches, and some culture/historical attractions. We have seen enough duomos and medieval walled cities after two weeks in Tuscany to last us the rest of our lives.