Best shoulder season for Italy, France or Greece in early/ mid October

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  peterpeterpumpkin on 15/07/2018 - 11:38

  It's good you're going at the beginning of October since it starts to get cold in much of Europe by late October. If you were thinking of a "summer beach" holiday then you have to go pretty far south by mid-October to be guaranteed over 25 degrees celsius (think Canary Islands south). The inland Spanish mainland will of course be very hot in the south. Northern France (i.e. Paris) will already have what we would call winter, so you may as well exploit your "luck" of going in the warmish time of year this time around.

  I don't know how prices compare (in Europe if you're on a budget you basically avoid June to early September and like everywhere else, festivals, local holidays and school holidays) but if just doing the "sights" in October I would probably go to Italy only because the weather in Rome was so unpleasant for sight-seeing in summer.

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    voteoften on 15/07/2018 - 11:54

    +1

    Thanks, yes I am now focusing on Italy. Thanks again. 💐

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  try2bhelpful on 15/07/2018 - 12:15

  Paris is good even if the weather is low because you spend a lot of time in the art galleries and museums and the Metro is great. Also walking is not too bad if you rug up. If f you are thinking Italy then the top bit with Florence, cinqueterra, Verona, Venice, sienna is a good grouping or Sorrento, Capri, Pompei, Amalfi group more southern. We normally travel Europe in September / October and it is usually great.

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  therooftop on 15/07/2018 - 13:22

  We did Europe in October four years ago, started North and headed south.
  Depends on what you want to do

  Paris - gorgeous autumn weather, sunny with a cool breeze (early October)
  Venice - sunny days and cool nights (Mid October)
  Florence - was actually really warm during the day. Perfect shorts weather
  Rome - weather was very varied. Warm one day and cold the next day (Mid October)
  Naples/Capri (Late October) we had a heatwave so was summery 30 degrees but I think average temps would be 25 degrees

  Cant go wrong with any of those cities. If you do Paris that will eat up your whole week, and if you do those italian Cities can fit 2 cities in 1 week.

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  voteoften on 15/07/2018 - 18:04

  Thanks folks. I'm going to spend 5-6 days in Barcelona and 4-5 days in Rome/ Florence. This is on top of the time I have thatbis alreadybalooctaed elsewhere. I was watching some YouTube videos and a couple of young chats were saying the Rambla area is a bad area to stay. Does anyone have an idea of a good area to base myself in Barcelona? Thanks! 💐

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    peterpeterpumpkin on 15/07/2018 - 20:36

    When I stayed there years ago I stayed just north of Las Ramblas (the general area is called Eixample, and it's one of the areas often recommended). People say Las Ramblas would be too noisy to sleep at night but when I was there in May (years ago) it didn't seem that busy.

    As a male backpacker it can get tiresome being offered drugs non-stop so it's not the best scene to walk into. You'll also be travelling to what's probably number 1 and 2 world-wide for classical pickpocketing (Las Ramblas would be the winner, followed by Rome). If you went to Paris you'd have a trifecta!

    By the way, I was in Milan for a day a few months ago. I don't know what the rest of Italy is like these days but I've never seen so many hat beggars in my life. Outside almost every supermarket.

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      voteoften on 15/07/2018 - 22:03

      Gosh. Lots if things to consider. Thanks.

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      try2bhelpful on 16/07/2018 - 12:32

      On the plus side the supermarkets in Italy have a huge deli section. It is well worth going to the markets and making up your own Caprese salad, add some proscuitto and that was breakfast a lot of the time whilst we were travelling.