Europe in February

[elbert]

Thinking of heading to Europe from the Northeast for a week in February with DH and DD (16).

Was thinking the Andalucia region of Spain, but now wondering if there are other good options.

Knowing that weather is very unpredictable, we are looking for someplace where it's a reasonable bet that it will be at least in the 50s during the day. Possibly a mix of city/cities and small towns with character. Ideally using public transportation. We don't want to do museums all day, every day and like walking around and short hikes. No need (or expectation) of this being a beach or skiing vacation.

Any ideas?

[vludmilla]

We were planning to do exactly this with our younger daughter (8) while our teenager is on a school trip in Italy. Although I very much want to go, I soured on the idea because there were no nonstop flights from NY to Seville. I felt like we would spend too much time traveling and not enough time visiting.
If you do go, I'd love to hear how it goes!

[marinkitty]

We did a very nice trip in Andalucia a few years ago (in June, but I think February would be just fine as well; Granada might be chilly but the lower areas should be warm enough to comfortably walk around midday) - we had a car and I think having one would make exploring that region a much more enjoyable proposition. You could hit the bigger towns by train but getting into the countryside might be super time consuming/difficult. There are so many charming little villages. We stayed in Sevilla the first night (Alcazar, Cathedral, Plaza de Espana, carriage ride, flamanco), then rented a house in the hills above Malaga and used that as a home base to explore Granada (Alhambra - book ahead and the Jewish quarter), Cordoba (Alcazar, roman bridge, old town, mosque/cathedral) and the surrounding small villages. Some of our favorite more rural areas were the Alpujarras area (Pampaneira, great rugs, cool little waterways and mountains), Comares (hilltop village with great views), Montefrio (hilltop with fortress), Frigiliana (classic white village), Ronda (gorge), Antequera (cool castle). We didn't beach at all other than stopping for a quick swim a couple of evenings on the way back to the house even though it was June because we were so busy exploring. We didn't even scratch the surface and it's on our list for a return trip someday. It was a huge hit with all of us - the kids were ages 14, 12 and 10 at the time. We went with absolutely nothing planned at all, I'd done some basic research and we had maps and guide books and just decided each day what we felt like doing. The way we did it with one home base meant we traveled up to two hours one way so to cut down on that you could just base in/near the bigger towns and branch out from there.

ETA: We were there a week, but we drove to Sevilla from our place in Portugal that's a few hours away so we weren't dealing with long flights/jet lag, then drove back along the coast via the Algarve.

[ahisma]

Thinking of heading to Europe from the Northeast for a week in February with DH and DD (16).

Was thinking the Andalucia region of Spain, but now wondering if there are other good options.

Knowing that weather is very unpredictable, we are looking for someplace where it's a reasonable bet that it will be at least in the 50s during the day. Possibly a mix of city/cities and small towns with character. Ideally using public transportation. We don't want to do museums all day, every day and like walking around and short hikes. No need (or expectation) of this being a beach or skiing vacation.

Any ideas?

We were planning to do this exact trip (but with a rental car) this winter, but had to cancel due to teen school conflicts. I was really bummed, because it really looked like a fabulous trip. Like you, we were looking for somewhat temperate weather in the winter. Instead, we're headed to a quick getaway to NYC - a different sort of trip entirely.

[nfceagles]

We did a Barcelona/Madrid trip with day trips to Montserrat and Segovia in February 2020. It was a great trip. The magic fountain in Barcelona was closed but that was the only downside we encountered. Weather was exactly as you describe. Pleasant compared to a northeast winter, but not hot or beach weather. We flew into Barcelona, local train to/from Montserrat, AVE train to Madrid, local train to/from Segovia, flew home from Madrid.


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[elbert]

You are all so helpful and getting me excited about this again! I really appreciate it.


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[theriviera]

We did a Barcelona/Madrid trip with day trips to Montserrat and Segovia in February 2020. It was a great trip. The magic fountain in Barcelona was closed but that was the only downside we encountered. Weather was exactly as you describe. Pleasant compared to a northeast winter, but not hot or beach weather. We flew into Barcelona, local train to/from Montserrat, AVE train to Madrid, local train to/from Segovia, flew home from Madrid.


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We did a similar trip over Thanksgiving, but we stayed in Barcelona the whole time. We did day trips to Girona and Figures (Dali museum). We also did a day trip to montserrat and visited a small family producer of Cava (loved this!). The other 5 days were in Barcelona and I could have spent another day.