Hey everyone, i'm new, i'm going over to Europe backpacking for my second time next year but it will be from the middle of august onwards, prob til november. last time i went i was freezing my ass off through a European winter. this time i want heat, heat and sun! i know i'm going towards the end of their summer, so i was wondering where it stays hottest the longest. i'm hitting up the greek islands first...any ideas after that? i was thinking french riviera, then to spain.

so, if anyone knows cities in western europe where it stays hottest the longest, hit me up!

thanks,

soph

Spain, Portugal, southern France, Italy, Greece, Croatia... pretty much anywhere south. :)

thank you!

any particular cities which are good?

i know from my own experiences even in winter that the weather in spain and italy varies a lot...

also, does croatia have much of a beach coast or is it more ports etc? i haven't given croatia much thought before but it's sounding really nice.

First, welcome to the boards.

You can probably rely on some sun anywhere in Europe in August/September, after that it becomes more of an art. If you plan to visit anywhere in northern Europe, definitely do that when you first arrive, and then work your way south. Or, as SV suggested, you could just do a meander along the south coast - I would probably start at the Croatia/Greece end of things, working my way west. Places like Venice can get rather grey and rainy by October/November, so I'd assume Croatia would too. Malta has decent weather in October (it's taunting me now, we'd planned to go next week and can't), and then you could work your way back through southern Spain and into Portugal. Tunisia and Morocco are also good autumn destinations, if you're feeling intrepid. Hungary is probably decent in early fall - we were there in August and it was stifling. Also, Romania and Bulgaria have beach resorts on the Black Sea, but I don't know if the season extends into the fall. Check a guide book for average temps to get an idea. Also, Turkey would still be pleasant, and Cyprus.

And yes, the weather becomes increasingly unreliable as the year goes on, you'll definitely need a rain jacket and a fleece sweater or something even just for evenings.

Croatia has a fairly rocky coast, but it is popular for swimming/sunning, even so.

Are you interested in seeing cities/cultural/art/historical stuff, or more interested in relaxing on beaches and checking out the clubs scene, or ? Obviously some places have it all, but if you give us an idea of what interests you, we can probably make more useful suggestions.

:tumbleweed:

thank you very much for the reply! everyone's so cheery and helpful on these forums :) i want to be the best informed traveller ever, i'm such a planner...embarrassing.

i did so much of the 'sightseeing' etc last time i exhausted myself. i am really interested in historical sites, etc but would love to combine that with some relaxing time, leaving the trip more flexible. beach is definitely a priority for me - i'm going to miss most of my summer working so i can go over to europe...it would be nice to have a good tradeoff so i'm not the pastiest person in australia!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(soph @ Oct 3 2006, 01:28 AM) [snapback]141504[/snapback]</div>guess you have no other choice than travelling arround greek islands and maybe some turkey. currently its 23 in marseille (south france) and 18 in brest (northwest france) and its very unlikely that its getting warmer during november :)