We decided, this year, like the prior two years, to spend our Thanksgiving holiday outside of the US. Last year we were in Mexico City and two years ago, our first year abroad for this truly American holiday, we were in Ireland. We love traveling abroad during this very busy domestic travel period. Airfares to Europe are much cheaper than other times of the year – business travel is down and planes are much more empty. I priced out a ticket to San Diego and it was only $125 more to go to Paris. Could there be any doubt on where we would go?

Paris – Champs-Élysées with Holiday Lights

We didn’t want to just do Paris again – we wanted to see something new. After a little more digging we found that we could fly into Paris and leave from Zurich for about $50 less – not that this would really impact our travel decision, but it gave us a direction in which to focus our search. Neither Mike nor I had spent any time in Burgundy before and since we love wine and food, we thought this would be a great place to spend our time. Friends had recommended Beaune, one of the larger Cities in the region.

We knew we had to make it to Zurich, but we knew we didn’t want to spend too much time in the City and the weather wasn’t conducive to long hikes in the mountains (I don’t want to freeze to death, that’s for sure). We ultimately decided to spend one night each in Paris, Bern and Zurich and three nights in Beaune.

While I know I am behind on Trip Reports (need to finish up Stockholm and start Quebec and Spain), I figured I’d power through this one while it is still fresh in my mind. Over the next several days/weeks you’ll be able to read about:

• UAL 987 ORD-CDG
• Prince de Galles Hotel – Paris
• Dinner and Shoes – Paris
• La Marché aux les Puces – Paris
• Abbaye Mizieres – Beaune
• Discover Burgundy Wine Tour – Beaune
• Cook’s Atalier – Beaune
• Holiday Inn – Bern
• Tour of Bern
• Sixt Car Rental
• Park Hyatt Zurich
• Tour of Zurich
• Dinner – Zurich
• UAL 937 ZRH-IAD / UAL 751 IAD-ORD

Do you flee the US during Thanksgiving or do you go the more traditional route and spend it with family?