heey what about DUBAI, UNITED ARAB OF EMIRATES ^_^

nice weather, nice things to see buy… your children will have extra fun … especially on blue shining beaches ^_^

thanks,

kemos, dubai, uae

Switzerland is good for outdoors and scenery. It also has castles from the 1200′s, etc.

Paris is a good size, beautiful city with great food. There are, unfortunately, beggers and scam artists around many of the attractions.

Mallorca, Spain has fantastic sea food, the best I’ve ever had, but not cheap and this is one place where you’ll need to know the local language.

Italy is has wonderful food and relatively cheap. Great beaches and service. We usually stay in a hotel on the beach with a full “pension” (all meals included in the price, even wine, around $100 a night).

Germany I haven’t explored much but English wont be a problem there. In the UK I’ve only been to London, which is an enormous city. The culture is closer to America’s so you’ll have to be more on your guard than some of the other places, watch where you eat, etc.

To give but one example: in the same way that the US consists of 52 states, that Canada consist of a number of provinces, and the united kingdom consists of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, Andorra consists of 7 parishes.

Seriously.

I’m a French person who has lived in the US for ten years and has an American wife, so I know what Americans like and dislike about Europe.

As Matt Doar points out, March will be rainy in the UK, and indeed a lot of Europe, especially Northern Europe. This will be a problem if you want to see the countryside. If you want to stick with relatively “safe” places for the sake of your wife, my advice would be to stay in London. At least there will always be something to do while it rains (museums, monuments, etc.)

If you’re willing to go to countries where English is not the first language, that opens up destinations that are more exotic, or where the weather is better, or more interesting (e.g. snow): the lakes of Northern Italy, Switzerland, Austria, are all prosperous and clean areas. Rome, Greece, slightly less so, but make up for it in sights or character.

For your second trip to Europe I recommend France, ideally in May, June or early September.

Oh, and IMHO the best guidebooks for Europe are Rick Steves’. The guy knows Western Europe like the back of his
hand, and knows what Americans like and dislike. Even for France I rely on his advice.

Then I would fly to a different place somewhere different, probably mediterranian or south East of Europe, e.g. Italy, Hungary…

Being a native German, I can also recommend visiting Germany, but that’s not that far off from Wales – well, depends whom you ask ;)

On the other hand, the new tastes to be gotten (Parisian macarons are one sure favourite! :)) can mitigate much of the issues. :)

As for the language I would say it’s no problem. Most people in the EU can speak some English.

I’m not sure if we’re looking for city or countryside either, really. Maybe a bit of both. We live in the countryside, so oddly enough going to a city has the “get away” factor for us.

I will point out, though, that if you want to do a big city, renting a car is almost certainly a bad idea. I realize that this will seem nonobvious to an American, but in big European cities you generally just use public transport, especially in touristy areas. Or walk, for that matter… I recently visited Budapest and hardly needed the subway pass I bought, there were 5 full days worth of attractions more or less within walking distance of the hostel where I stayed.

Have a great trip,

~Matt

if you want nice wheater consider sicily

Happy reading and planning…

if you like castles and such, you definitely shouldn’t miss the middle Rhine river. Best would be to get a rental car and to drive along from Bingen to Koblenz – you can stop anywhere you like and even visit some of those castles.

And since Bingen isn’t too far from our place (we live very close to Frankurt airport), you’re invited to come along and – if you want to – stay at our place.

Best to you alll,
Wolfgang

If you are more into cities then The Netherlands is a really good option. In NL everyone who was born after WW2 speaks English fluently (some of them criticise me for the way I speak). In Amsterdam they are so used to tourists that anyone who seems in any way confused or lost will be spoken to in English.

Amsterdam is about 6 hours train ride from London. The train in question goes through France and Belgium. You could stop off for a couple of days in either of those countries.

We do have serious historic and cultural heritage!

Rome is beautiful itself. You’ll find a lot of great buildings and architecture there, and quite good and nice hotels in-between. And weather at this time of year should be quite nice (I went there with my GF last year, in the middle of November, and it was like +14 – +18).

And Amsterdam – lets say it’s just cool :-)

http://wikitravel.org is a good free online resource.

Besides England and Wales I would add Ireland and Scotland to the list of possible destinations. I think I’d put Scotland on the top of the list actually, and I’m not even Scottish :-)

If you don’t mind being a bit adventurous, the Basque country of France and Spain is amazingly beautiful. Language will be a bit of a barrier, though. English is often the third language.