I thought it was an amazing place with amazing people. The media loves to blow things out of proportion. I don't agree with the government's politics in most cases, but the media goes way too far with them and people love to latch on and sensationalize it even more. Israel itself is an awesome place though.

My wife wants to go there at some point. I'm more the "let's go sail the Greek Isles" type but she wants to go see the "Holy Land".

Do both. Stay three days in Israel and take a boat out to Cyprus and Athens and Sicily and wherever else in the Med you want to go. You have a Mercedes and want another one, you can afford a Med cruise.

Just because I *want* another one doesn't mean I can *afford* another one. I *want* a Ferrari and a Aston-Martin but I can't *afford* them. :-)

And I want to sail the Isles, not be toruisted around in some over-bloated cruise ship. I'm a sailor. I love the canvas. I want to get out and do the sailing myself with a crew to take over when I want to relax. I'm thinking the Windjammer Bare-foot Cruises.

You could sail the Med on your own if you find someone to navigate. Take the Northern Path and it's only around 50 nautical miles off course to the southwest if I remember correctly to Cyprus, though it may be an odd time to stop by there. Crete is really pretty too. I don't know much about it.

Leaving from Tel Aviv is an easy option and turning around is easy at a number of places depending on where you want to go. You could probably turn around just about anywhere you want.

I could consider this... The smaller boats are under 150 guests. They have a Greek Isles to IStanbul and a Athens to Athens that includes the Holy Land.

http://www.windstarcruises.com/

Another possibility, especially if she decides to try Iberia (she has talked about Spain before).

http://www.seacloud.com/

If we really want privacy...

http://www.greekseas.com/

Mr. CF and I want to go to Europe in 2 years. Right now we're considering France, Spain and Germany. We'd probably only go to one of those. Norway is also on the list but only cause we have a really good friend who's living there atm.

We've been to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. We want to go further south and do the Med.

Germany's not high on my list. I'd rather go see Ireland/England but I've been vetoed.

I'm not a big fan of visiting Germany or England. I prefer Italy or France. Spain would be nice too.

If a sailor suggested a trip to the Greek Isles, I'd decline too.

Go to the southern parts in and around Munich and the black forest. If you stay in Lindau on the Bodensee, you can see the Swiss Alps across the lake. I highly recommend the Bayerischer Hof (http://www.bayerischerhof-lindau.de/bayerischerhof/index.html). Bet one of the rooms that overlook the lake and see those alps every morning when you wake up. Simply gorgeous. We went at Christmas time in 2005 and did a trip into Munich for the Christkindlmarkt as well as a visit to the Hofbrauhaus. A very short train ride up the lake is Friedrichshafen with the Zeppelin Museum (http://www.zeppelin-museum.de) as well as the Bodensee ferry which will take you to Meersburg (http://www.meersburg.de) or Romanshorn, Switzerland (http://www.romanshorn.ch/).

@THM - Very funny...

Draug, this might be too young for you, but my friends and I looked into this.

http://www.theyachtweek.com/#

And being as I just came from a month-long traipse around Europe, I would have to say where you go depends upon what type of vacation you want to have. So until you specify what you want to do in Europe, I can't really recommend...

Well, ours is almost exclusively Med reasonably private. No party boats or big cruise ships. We want smaller boats with older clientelle who want to see beauty and relax in luxury. As long as I can keep it under $5K per person then I can do the whole thing with airfare for under $15K. It is our 25th anniversary next year and I want to give my wife a cruise of a lifetime.

Check for cruises in the Adriatic along Croatia. They should give you options to stop in Venice as well as some Greek isles.

As long as it is a small vessel (under 200 passengers) and not a youthful "party boat", I'll consider most anything. But we want quite relaxation and a bit of snobbish exclusivity. I admit it, I like to be a bit snobbish. I drive a Benz and eat at some very nice restaurants. I make pretty good money and have no one to leave it to. So sue me. :-)

Check this out Draug

https://cruises.thomascook.com/travel/gateway.rvlx?action_route=1:CRUISE:0:SHIP&ship_id=106

That's decent enough. Not a sailing ship, but still a smaller "yacht" like cruise ship. I could do that.

The other thing she has talked about is an all inclusive for couple (like "Couples") to give us that "honeymoon we never had" feel. No kids around, real privacy...

@CF ... Germany has its sites but Paris would be much cooler if you want a fancy tourist city. Norway is amazing if you want a bit more adventure (similar feel to a Banff or Yosemite but a different setting obviously). I'd recommend the Swiss Alps as well. That's the extent of my knowledge of vacationing in Europe...

@Draug .. if you do check out Israel, you've gotta go to Jerusalem. Fuck the media, it's not a dangerous place.

Well the advantage of Norway is we wouldn't have to pay for a hotel. We'd most likely stay away from Paris actually. We wanna do less touristy things. I'm big into history so I wouldn't mind seeing more historic sights and by historic I mean like medieval or non 20th century.

St. Petersburg, Russia. Every Russian invasion ever put in a museum is there. You know where it is ;)

CF- Rome. Oh my god go to Rome. I was just there for 8 days and want to go back. I just saw the Colosseum and started laughing because I couldn't believe I was actually at the Colosseum in Rome. Paris is great for art, but Rome is better for history. Istanbul is another place you should look into as well. Its high up on my to do list.

Well Rome is on my list but not his. I also want to see Japan but I may have to do that one solo since he has no desire to go to Japan. I personally have no desire to see the Alps. Istanbul is another we both want to go to eventually. It's really picking where in Europe to go to.

Partial solution? I flew from London to Rome and flew over the Alps and they were beautiful to look at from above. That's all I saw of them.

Munich is a great place to go as well. Lots of history, close to the Swiss border (if he wants to see the Alps) but also a short ride away from Budapest, Vienna and Prague.

Rome has some lovely ice cream.

They have good gelato too.