European Travel: Where to Go and Why

There are many options for travel in Europe. Why you choose to go to Europe will help you determine where to go in Europe. Each of my European visits had its own reason including:

• A desire to see where my ancestors came from
• To visit a child interning overseas
• Scoping out potential areas for extended stays in retirement
• Experience the European lifestyle
• Learn more about art, cuisine, history or …

You’ll have your own reasons. Depending on what they are, you may want to immerse yourself in one European country or you may choose to ‘country hop’ and sample several.

Focus on One European Country

I’ve done both multi-country trips and single-country trips. Both have merit but some European countries are large enough and diverse enough to easily fill up 2-3 weeks and still leave you wanting more. For example, our trip to Germany included a focus on history in Berlin, romance and festivals on the Rhine River, learning about woodworking and rural life in the Black Forest, the charm of Rothenburg, and Oktoberfest in Munich. In addition, both Dave and I have German ancestry in our DNA making this trip even more meaningful.

Benefits of a one-country trip include:

• Only one language to learn
• Can be easier to fly round trip although ‘open jaw’ where you fly into one city and out of another can help optimize your time
• No additional rental car fees for picking up in one country and returning in another
• More economical rail travel with a single-country rail pass

Almost any European country can warrant its own dedicated trip with the larger countries worthy of multiple trips. Future blogs will focus on itineraries for trips I’ve taken (or will take) that are focused on one country including Italy, Ireland, Spain, France, and Germany.

European ‘Country Hopping’

It can be a lot of fun to see how many different passport stamps you can collect in one trip. My most ambitious European excursion covered five countries in ten days. We started in Germany, drove up the Rhine River to the Netherlands, came back south through Belgium, Luxembourg and the Alsace region of France back into Germany. This was our way to get a taste of many places in order to identify areas that we would want to return and explore more fully.

Because many European countries are relatively small and there are places where multiple borders are in close proximity, it’s not difficult to cover several in just a couple of weeks. Considerations to keep in mind when pursuing this approach include:

• The challenges of multiple languages
• In some cases, you may need to deal with multiple currencies – i.e., Scandinavian countries use the kroner and Switzerland is still on the Swiss franc
• Flying ‘open jaw’ may make more sense
• Additional rental car fees for picking up and returning in different countries
• Cost of multi-country rail passes

However, these kinds of trips can be real adventures and exceptionally rewarding so I would definitely consider it. In future posts, I will share my itineraries and stories from these kinds of trips which may help you decide if this strategy is for you.

If you have some idea of why you want to go and where you want to go, it’s time to start some research on what to do when you get there. My approach to research can help.