heh
We were faced with an interesting take on this.

My son and his girlfriend (she was born and raised in Paris) are coming to the States for a wedding. The wedding is in a very cool town, but it’s not a huge city. We live in a very cool town, too, but the population is something like 12,000 people. It’s a resort area, but definitely on the sleepy side.

The kid’s girlfriend wants to visit a large American city. She enjoys the urban experience.
She’s not going to find that here. So after the wedding they are going to rent a car and drive through 5-6 hours of pine trees to Atlanta, spend a couple days there, then drive 4-5 hours to meet us in Savannah, a charming, historic, funky place. I’ve read less-than-flattering descriptions of the ATL, but that really is neither here nor there. For her, it will be a change from Paris, and that’s what she wants.

When you’re spending a lot of money to cross the Atlantic, and have a limited amount of time, you do the research, listen to the advice, but ultimately must choose which matters most to you.

I appreciate that smaller towns have a less frenetic atmosphere, and an opportunity to soak in local culture, but I’m not sure about doing a stickie. We already have a stickie up there that everyone seems to ignore.

We all have our own foibles and favorites, but I think most tourists want to see historic sites, scenery, great art and music, and want to stay in a place that has a touristic infrastructure (transportation, lodging, restaurants, and language) that will make it easier for them to stay. And the fact is that most of those things are in or near cities of some size. Being a capital city has nothing to do with it; I would bet that most American tourists don’t even know the capitals of Switzerland or the Netherlands, just to pick a couple.

Now if you want to sit around and watch the asparagus grow, surrounded by people who don’t speak your language, you can go to rural Netherlands or even Switzerland, and camp out. But why pay to go that far when you can have the same experience in California?

i agree, when most people come to australia, all they think about is melbourne, sydney, and brisbane or surfers paradise.

when i went to america last year, yes i did go to LA and Seattle, but LA was finishing spot so I could finally go to Disneyland, and Seattle is somewhere I have always wanted to go.

But on the way we went to Astoria, Klamath Falls, Monterey, Carmel, Cambria, Solvang along the way. Beautiful places. Except for Klamath Falls

Whereas when I was in the states in 2009, I did visit the major cities, but thats because I had limited money to actually travel outside the areas

I’ve been to Europe a number of times and rarely spend more than a day in the major capitals. It’s not because they aren’t great places, but because I’ve been there and done that already. For first timers, it is definitely worth going to Paris, Amsetrdam, Rome, etc., but rember to throw in an interesting place off the beaten track from time to time (i.e. La Roche en Ardenne, Belgium or Sintra, Portugal or Rondo, Spain, etc.)

Oh Regan, there are many obvious reasons why that is the case.

First of all, most people are more familiar with the major cities thanks to the countless pictures that they have seen, movies and TV shows that they have watched, books that they have read, history classes that they have slept in, etc. And for many of these Eurotrip virgins, it’s their chance to visit these places in person that they have dreamt about. Not a lot of them have heard of Carcassonne or Czesky Krumlov. Even then, the capitals themselves are fighting for attention. With only 2-3 weeks of vacation time for these virgins, it’s already difficult to weed out which big cities to visit, let alone even attempt to consider the small towns. If Lisbon and Madrid get cut out from people’s itineraries, what makes you think Salamanca and Coimbra have a fighting chance? Pfft… even Helsinki, a capital, gets often overlooked (poor Helsinki). And let’s not get started with the capitals in the east. Tirana anyone? I didn’t think so.

Also, maybe they are using these cities as home bases to check out nearby towns. Who is to say that just because they picked London, that they won’t visit Bath for a day? OK, maybe most won’t but after all, big cities often are the most accessible either by plane or train. And for a lot of independent travelers, that’s a big thing.

Or maybe they just like big cities. All that history and architecture depicting a faded power of a long lost empire. All that culture showcasing amazing works of art and theatre. All that nightlife with free-flowing booze in the hostel’s basement bar. And of course, all that potential sexual partners. Unless you discover a small town in France that gets turned on by your American accent that they would have an orgy with you just because you opened your mouth (for talking), then cities are usually the best place to get laid. And let’s face it — Eurotrip isn’t really TripAdvisor (no offense to the moderators). Most people here are college-aged kids looking to have a good time. Nothing wrong with that. And it’s usually these big cities that will help them do that.

After all, and I am sure everyone here can attest to, travel is addicting. For most of these virgins, this won’t be their last time. Once they have tasted it, most won’t stop. Soon, they will keep coming back and this time, they’ll most likely poke their heads in the small towns intimately penetrating the country and its culture deeper than they have the first time, hopefully causing an explosion of worldly curiosity and admiration for its history and culture away from the capital cities. Until then, please give these virgins some slack.

I did see some small towns on my very first eurotrips, but that was because I had my Let’s Go, did some reading, and became intrigued. Still, I did have a sort of agenda in my mind, there were so many places I’d read about in art history class, and of course Western Civilization 101.

LOL about Eurotrip vs Tripadvisor.

Don’t know who you are, but I like your style!

In addition to what’s already been said, I think its just sad that so many entire countries are left out, and often times they are left out on the second and third trip. While they might not be suitable for the 1st time virgins, countries like Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Morocco are all tourist-friendly and have more worthy sights and deeper culture than most western countries. Albania and Finland don’t quite have enough sites (in comparison to nearby counterparts) to pull a lot of travelers, and countries like Ukraine and Georgia are on the difficult side.

It would be really nice if people would stop focusing on the same 10-15 cities, or at least spend some time seeing whats in-between those cities, but, popularity is what it is.

[quote=rob_co2]While they might not be suitable for the 1st time virgins, countries like Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Morocco are all tourist-friendly and have more worthy sights and deeper culture than most western countries.[quote]

ill be hitting up romania when i finally get over there next year!
have wanted to go there ever since i heard of nadia comaneci and watched the movie, and her bar routine

friend went over last eyar and was looking through his photos and was absolutely drooling
turkey and morocco are also quite high on my list

my preferences for europe travel are more based on the eastern countries.
gotta get my savings going!

This has been a huge dilemma since Eurotrip started. The way I put it to newbies is this:

Hi!! I’m visiting the United States and Canada this summer! Here’s my itinerary! Montreal, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Minneapolis, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles!!

Reply: drop Calgary, Winnipeg, Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis, and Washington. If you have limited time, definitely include New York City as the one big city in the US to visit (with Boston as a possible sidetrip) and Montréal the one big city in Canada. If you have time to spare, and can travel long distances within the USA/Canada, definitely consider the Grand Canyon, the Oregon Coast, Key West and/or Miami’s South Beach, Charleston SC, Maine, Quebec City, New Orleans, Canada’s Maritimes, the Rockies near Denver, Utah’s national parks, and/or the Adirondacks.

Same concept applies to Europe.

One of my favourite states in AMerica, spent two months there woorking at a summer camp, and I loved it! wOuld go back in a heartbeat!!! 04040!

Visited Maine last summer for my first time. Loved it, will definitely go back. I’d like to drive all the way up Maine’s coast and then take the ferry across to Nova Scotia.

would love to get to nova scotia.
hoping to get back to the east coast next year, even if for less than two weeks, want to get back to boston (didnt spend enough time there), marthas vineyard, nantucket, the hamptons, new york (only to catch up with people from camp, was not a big fan of new york…..)

I grew up going to Nantucket during the summers, and inherited a house there.
We could not afford to keep it. Would have made a great meeting place for fests!