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A favorite off the beaten path location, would be the Baltics. The Baltic countries are Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. All 3 are in NATO, all 3 are safe to travel too. Roundtrip airfare will probably be about $900 well spent. Hotels are cheap, and you can ride the train between all major cities.
Flights tend to be rather cheap into Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. Old Vilnius has amazing architecture, plenty of places to explore, and history around every corner. One could spend an entire week in Lithuania and still miss a lot of things.
(CC, Jurijus Azanovas) - Vilnius streetscape.
Another famous city in Lithuania is Kaunas, not more than a 40 minute train ride from Vilnius. It is also known for its beautiful architecture, old world charm, and interesting cultural venues.
Also in Lithuania is the famous Hill of Crosses, a hill where Christian pilgrims bring crosses, and once a protest against Soviet rule.
(CC, Marcin Szala)
One other fascinating place in Lithuania is the almost fairytale like village of Trakai, location of the Trakai Castle which is one of the largest Castles still intact in Europe.
I'm going to send you a link to my favorite European vacation website.
In April, I couldn't encourage you to go anywhere other than a southern European destination. However, take a look at some of the trips here. You can get a one week trip to places like Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Turkey for around $1,000 inclusive of air fare.
I'd personally recommend Portugal because I think its all within your budget of $1,750.00. You can pay for the trip and with what you have left over have plenty to spend on meals and even a few souvenirs. This website allows you to customize your trip. If you want to go for 7 days, 8 days, or 9 days, you simply type in what you want. These trips are not guided, but with a guidebook and some chutzpah you can find your way around any of these countries and have a good time.
Portugal is really wonderful - not as crowded as more popular destinations in Europe, far less expensive, and lots of interesting things to do. I went in April several years ago, and the weather was pleasant - mid-60's and sunny. It did get chilly at night, but I was comfortable in jeans and a light jacket. I found that fewer people spoke English than in Northern Europe, but I was able to get along quite well with a few Portuguese niceties, basic Spanish (mostly helpful for reading), and a good sense of humor. People were genuinely warm and helpful.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Portugal does look enticing, and that site from markg looks awesome. We may have a winner! Now just to play around with it and figure out how to split time (ie, all Lisbon or split between multiple spots).
I split my time between Lisbon and Porto, with 3 days in each. There are a lot of sites in Lisbon, so it's very busy, but very fun. Porto is more laid back - just a few must see sites, and most time was spent sitting at cafes drinking (AM - coffee, PM - sangria).
Nice. Guess I need to do some googling and figure out all the sites of interest in both spots and go from there to figure out my best mix of # of days in both places.
mpheels, do you have any thoughts on if a day in Minho and/or a day in the Douro Valley (the latter with a wine tasting) are worth it when in Porto? I can't get over how gorgeous that city looks. Maybe I just need to forget Lisbon and spent all my time up north!
We didn't leave the city during our few days, except to visit Gaia on the other side of the river for a port tasting and to tour the Serra do Pilar monastery. If you visit the monastery, it is worth the extra euro for the full tour (2 euros total, vs one euro to just see the cloisters). We did a port and wine tasting at one of the smaller port houses, without a cellar tour. The cellar tours are very expensive, but we had a private tasting with two glasses of wine and four glasses of port (shared by two people), plus chocolates for 35 euros total at the Kopke house/store.
Don't skip Lisbon altogether - there are some really amazing sites there, especially the Castelo Sao Jorge.
What about a cross country road trip? Make up the route as you go. I love spur of the moment decisions deciding which road on the map to take. You can see a lot of country in 9 days. I am biased to driving but just a suggestion.
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Some Europe trips are Reasonably Priced
