A Month in Europe - Summer 2026

Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum
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Next summer (June 2026), I am fortunate to take advantage of a paid sabbatical through my employer. My wife and I are just starting to brainstorm and have some initial thoughts/parameters scoped out, but thought it would be fun to hear perspectives from the group.

Again, this is very preliminary, but early thinking as follows:
-entire month of June 2026
-ideally 3 main “home base” destinations/hubs from which to take short day trips (this is, after all, intended to be rest and recharge, so trying to limit all the moving around)
-No more than 10-11 days in any one hub; no less than 7 days
-Mix of water/beach and scenic countryside
-Wine destinations a bonus, although we’ll have our teenagers with us

Some early regions on our list:
-French Riviera (wife and I visited 15 years ago and have always wanted to return)
-Tuscany
-Lake Como/southern Switzerland
-Croatia (never been; always wanted to)
-Greece (mainly the isles)

I used AI to assist and it put together a pretty good first cut - Here is what Gemini spit out:

1) French Riviera (9 nights). Relaxing on the beaches of Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer; day trips to Monaco, Eze, and Antibes

2) Tuscan Villa Stay (10 nights). Rent a villa in the heart of Tuscany (Siena, Montepulciano, or Montalcino); explore local villages, markets and vineyards; relaxing poolside at your villa and enjoying the slow pace of rural Tuscan life (sounds like a dream)

3) Greek Isles (7 nights). Explore Santorini’s caldera views and villages (Oia, Fira); relaxing on Naxos’ beaches (Agios Prokopios, Plaka); enjoying boat trips around the islands

Logistics:
-Fly into NCE for leg 1
-Fly NCE to PSA or FLR for leg 2
-Fly PSA/FLR to JTR (Santorini) or Naxos (JNX) for leg 3
-Depart JTR or ATH for return home

Curious to hear any feedback on the first pass above. How do the durations in each destination sound? Any other regions you’d suggest we add to our list of considerations?

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So much of this depends on personal preferences. I encourage you not to take anyone’s ‘advice’ too seriously, because there’s no right/wrong way to do things as long as you’re having fun!

We typically prefer to have one home base for the summer, and then branch out trips from there. It provides more stability. I would find your itinerary a bit hectic. Plus, for my teenager, we need to anchor him with friends/family or he’ll get tired of just following us! But you know your family and yourselves and if the varied stimulation works better, all good.

Obviously your locations all sound great, hard to go wrong. Except for crowds. Depending on where exactly you go. And the heat. You might be ok during June (as opposed to July/August), but depending on your aversion to heat, my wife has slowly convinced me of the virtues of Scandinavia in the summer. Gorgeous. Although not wine country.

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I wouldn’t plan, too far ahead. Just sayin.

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Trieste or something around there — then you have 2 hours and sometimes less to Croatia, Austria, Slovenia and Venice.
French Riviera sure you can do a quick trip to Torino too.
Maybe San Sebastian or somewhere around there. Then you’re still close to Portugal and France.

You could also do Naples, Barri, Durres and then up around the Croatian coast, but with a rental car I’m not sure how easy it is.

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Just a note, there is little “relaxing” on the stones in Nice. Greece is much better for relaxing on the beach. Cannes maybe, but definitely want to seek out real sand if you want to relax. That being said, the French Riviera is amazing.

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Nice is my #1 recommendation especially if shared with a real beach elsewhere. Just so much to do in that area, especially with 9 days. Nice is a blast plus Monte Carlo, le grand corniche, Grasse, etc.

Nice is France that used to be Italy. Its cuisine is the love child of those cultures.

I loved Santorini the time I was there. However, a board member I know has stopped going because of the crowds. (Cruise ships plus those staying there). I’m planning to go back to Crete next year, loved it.

You could easily spend all 9 days in Crete (I would).

Cruising the island is great if you have a strong sea stomach, without it, stick to hydrofoils. Santorini to Crete is easy by hydrofoil

I love Tuscany and it’s fabulous and doable. But check the flights to Greece for logistics.

As an alternative, either the Lake District or Piemonte or Turin would make the logistics easier to get from Nice to the Islands (due to their proximity to Nice and easy access to Milan for flights ).

Sound like a great trip! Enjoy!

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Sienna is a great base camp, it’s easy to rent a car to day trip and big enough to just hang

Lake Como is too small for me for an extended stay, Lake Garda has much more to see and do.

A quick search in this forum will bring up lots of information

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+1 on Crete vs Santorini

been there, done that, Crete is a large Island, Santorini (Naxos, Paros, Ios) are small. Unless you only want beach for the week, Crete will give you more choices. Couple of years ago we did a Speed-Boat day trip from Crete to Santorin which was a fun tour.

French Riviera, nice place, June will be a good time IMO. Day trips to the Rhone wine area and i.e. the Alpes, Gorges de Verdon etc gives you plenty of things to do besides beaches and the already mentioned famous cities.

Tuscany, same thing, great area and June is a good time - I just love Florence, with Chianti & Montalcino near by the wine affinity is also taken care off nicely.

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We just spent six weeks in France: Paris (nine days) → Loire (four days) → Nice (ten days) → Saint Paul de Vence (five days) → Lyon (five days) → Paris (seven days), I will get around to a write up at some point.

The weather in Nice was perfect in January, not sure about the crowds and heat in the summer though. The area around Saint Paul de Vence/Tourettes-sur-Loup was really intriguing, the only downside being quite a few of the better restaurants were closed due to the off season.

There are just so many options in the south of France: Mausanne, Aix, Antibes, Cassis, etc, it is hard not to want to stay a bit at each of them.

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Exciting trip! June is more calm from holiday perspective, then July and main peak happens in August.

A lot of possibilities. Most place that you’re considering will kind of require, or it will at least make things easier if you have a car. The flights are relatively short for most places you mentioned with the exception of Greece.

Fly into NCE, NCE to PSA/ FLR then to either Croatia or Greece, get a car at each place, thats a lot of time spent on being on time at the airport incl. security, flight, wait for luggage and then get a car…

French Riviera seems to be the most important, and if that’s the start point (flying in to Milano is also a good option), then you have a 4-5 hours drive to Milano or northern Tuscany. Perhaps 4-5 hours to Friuli (day trips to small Slovenia is easily so done) or Istria in Croatia by car.

When you are thinking of Croatia, is that to see any specific place?

If you’re consider the car option then you could see a few places in Istria, and go the Island Cres and Mali Losinj.

If you are more in to the UNESCO sites, then I’d suggest to fly in to Split and rent a car there. You wouldn’t need to stay in Split itself, there are a lot of nice areas nearby that could be a base to see about four nice old cities within an hour drive for most of them. Krka waterfall is a must. You could take ferries to an island or two, or do a sailing tour seeing a few of the island. The ones I enjoyed the most are Vis and Korcula.

For Croatia I can give you a few more suggestions or thoughts depending on what your focus is.

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Hard “pass” on Santorini. Small, crowded, baselessly expensive, with limited beach options. Crete, on the other hand, is far larger, far less crowded, less expensive with lots of travel, beach, dining, wine tourism options.

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French Riviera is a bit of a mess in June/July/August imo, everything is expensive and overcrowded…
With 3 bases, I would do:

  • Barcelona (fun for your teens)
  • Montpellier
  • Some nice location after the French/Italian border (Menton), I know there are lots of options.

If you’re willing to drive, it’s about 8-10h from Barcelona to Italy, depending on traffic.

Alain

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Gonna get a little granular here:

Santorini and the surrounding islands are mobbed in the summer. If they are where you want to go, make them at the very beginning of June. The later you go, the more you will be jostled and swamped with tourists.

Very strong recommendation to do Crete for your entire stay in Greece (with a night in Athens and see the Acropolis and the Areopagus).
Your OP didn’t mention mountains, but unless you are total heat-seekers, they are great in June to get away from it.
Crete offers both.
This September or October, I plan to go back to the Agrotourism at Milia, in the mountains of Crete. Farm-to-table has become a cliche, but they do it to perfection. The rooms are renovated with all mod cons, but still look and feel like you’re living in the 15th century originals.

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Santorini is wonderful in the beginning of June. If you go, take the mules from the port up to Fira. (my wife says it was the best €3 she ever spent on vacation, but that was 20 years ago). A stone gas. Not too much to do, but it’s beautiful.

Usually off the European tour route, but Istanbul is a gas. Really crowded without tourists (18 million residents), but a ton of stuff to do. And lots of cats

If you decide on Spain, Mallorca is wonderful

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Great to know, thank you!

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Noplace really specific within Croatia; just have always heard of it as sort of an unknown gem of eastern Europe. TBH I haven’t done much research on cities yet, so your post is very helpful - thanks

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Agreed, we took our kids about 5 years ago and it was great. Looking to try something new this trip

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Maybe also consider the other South of France.
Perpignan, Canet-Plage, Collioure, Banyuls…
Lots of art, amazing food, Rugby, wine, and beach to Pyrenees in an hour. Canigou should still have snow in early June.

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Plus 1 on this (except for rugby?).

I know the area pretty well, having imported the wines for 30+ years and until a couple of months ago I owned a vineyard there. Please feel free to PM me if you would like some reccos.

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