EUROPEAN VACATION DEALS

In London, you’ll wish that time would freeze - so you can get lost in discovering its many delights and sights, vistas of green, excitement and splendor. The city beckons you with its great museums, royal pageantry, some of the most impressive Gothic architecture of all times, metropolitan excitement, and the most saucy nightlife in perhaps all of the world.

Traditionally, London has been divided into east - where the commercial center and financial districts lie - and west, or Westminster, which contains the magnificent buildings of the seat of government and the royal courts.

Portugal’s most modern city and political capital, is an ideal blend of antiquity and cosmopolitan atmosphere. Since its stint as European City of Culture in 1994, Lisbon has gained international attention. The erstwhile Expo site and its surrounding areas – including riverside restaurants, concert halls, pavement cafes, and the Lisbon Oceanarium. Within the city’s central area, is also located the imperial Arch Triomphe, for a taste of history. Lisbon’s city limits merge with a coastal, wooden environs to add to the city’s attraction.

The narrow, cobbled streets of Oporto – another major metropolis of the nation – leading to the famed port wine vineyards of this region are worth your time too. Check out the university town of Coimbra in Northern Portugal. This town is very popular with the younger generation and the city’s charming outdoor cafes are a swinging place to be in the evenings.

This city is one of the cultural capitals of Europe. Its incredibly rich history punctuated by megalomaniacal kings, haughty queens and bloody revolutions, its contemporary mix of haute couture and haute cuisine, its self-professed intellectuals and guardians of high culture colonizing street cafes, its Seine river playing host to serenading lovers, its heady bohemian festivals and its quintessentially cosmopolitan sensibility – make Paris one of the most exciting cities to be in anywhere in the world.

As far as world-famous landmarks go, Paris has one of the largest collections, so if you choose your paths with foresight, they will be littered with architectural gems. From Marais in the east to the Eiffel Tower in the west, from the Pantheon to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, from the Sacre Couer to the Obelisque, Paris extends itself to every traveller, whether a first timer or an old hand.

Nikaia, as Nice was known when the Greeks founded it, has lived through so many civilizations that it is now a merry mix of Greek, Italian, British and French styles. Nice offers the visitor a view of an old town with serpentine alleys, an opera house, museums and markets thriving on local and tourist trade. Nice sparkles as the undisputed unofficial capital of the Cote d’Azur, with a population of 350,000 and its own university.

Even though Nice lacks even a beach worth its name, the palm-lined boulevards and soothing sea breezes coupled with the irresistible affability of Nicois (Nice dwellers) more than compensate. In the second half of February, the locals and tourists alike welcome the arrival of spring with wild revelry in a Carnaval. If visiting at this time, prepare to let your hair down!