Well, in 2006 I spend about $5k on a month long back packing trip through Western Europe. I figure with $10k I could repeat a similar journey with my wife and bring her along. I'd visit a few of the cities I've already been too that I loved, and skip some of the ones I didn't really enjoy. Definitely travel by train. I'd definitely hit up Amsterdam, Nice, and Prague again, and probably spend some more time in Switzerland and try to make it to Budapest. You can really stretch dollars in Prague and Budapest. I would also say SE Asia, but my wife has never left the country outside of going to Canada, so I think she needs to ease into experiencing other cultures, and Europe is a good start. I would love to go to Thailand and Vietnam, but as others have mentioned, there's some tension going on in Thailand currently. That wouldn't scare me away, as I'm sure it's just local to parts of Bangkok, but I don't think I could ever get my wife to go there... not yet.
In my experience, Bangkok is not the most wife-friendly city in SE Asia, especially if one is on a budget. That is not to say that the whole city is the den of sin and iniquity that popular media tries to make it out to be (oh man, I really didn't like that installment of The Hangover . . . so white-man ridiculous). I was there in 2010 when the last political thingy was going on and honestly, I didn't even come into contact with that stuff while I was there. Anyway, a cool time to go might be for Songkran. Bangkok is ok for a few days, but it's not much on scenery. If you plan on ending up in Vietnam, you might as well go through Cambodia, especially since Siem Riep and Ankor Watt are fairly close to the Thai border. From there, you could hit Phnom Penh and then up to Kratie to see those pink river dolphins, if they're still around. From Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, bus is the cheapest and it takes about 8 hours or so. Just make sure not to bring Baht to Cambodia, since the exchange rate is really shit for anything except dollars, pounds or euros. Pham Ngu Lao street is where most of the backpackers stay in HCMC. District 1 is where most of the fun stuff is. SE Asia is good for jungle stuff and beach stuff on the wife-friendly and gentle travel side of things. You can get real gritty if you want though, very easily. Especially in Cambodia. Rent a dirt bike and start riding. In Northern Vietnam there are motorcycle tours through the mountains. These tours use these shitty old Minsk motorcycles that somehow do pretty well in that environment. A good wife friendly thing about SE Asia is that legitimate massages and spas are very, very cheap. In fact, I used to go to a place to get a sauna, a face massage and a full-body massage, which took about 3 hours all-told, for just about 30 bucks. Just say you want to take her on a spa holiday or something.
I wouldn't plan on spending much time in Bangkok, other than assuming a day or two since that's where I would probably fly in and out of. I have a mix of beach spots and buddhist temple spots on my future itinerary. I'd want to spend more time on the beach, seeing temples, or doing things like the motorbike tours you recommended in the mountains. That to me sounds like my ideal SE Asian vacation. I have little want to spend time in Bangkok or the bigger cities. Awesome advice though. The wife isn't affraid of not having anything to do, as we honestly enjoy the same types of activities and she's not really a spa girl. My wife really wants to go to Japan, but she admits the idea is a bit scary, being the outsider, not speaking the language, being in a place so different. With SE Asia being more "poor" in her eyes, and think that makes things even worse in her mind. Whereas in my mind that makes it more appealing and visceral of an adventure. I figure at least in Europe everyone looks the same and the food is similar everywhere you go, and culture is similar in many ways to the US, but different enough to get her outside of her comfort zone so she sees how awesome of a feeling and experience it is. She also hates flying, because she didn't do much of it when she was younger. I've been working on that with some smaller trips to Vegas and Phoenix a couple times a year. She's deathly affraid of flying the entire time she's on a plane. It didn't help that on our way back from Vegas recently we had to fly through a thunderstorm while landing, and had crosswinds of 40 knots, and gusts of 50. Those are more of my challenges to get over. She'd love to see all these same places, I just need to get her over the feeling of fear she has with traveling abroad, and the flying thing. Super jealous of your SE Asia travels though, I've seen you post about them before. That's kind of my next big travel goal to see. If and when I do get closer to booking I'm probably going to hit you up for some knowledge if you're still around. :)
I can understand a fear of flying. I don't have one personally, but you're right; it is something that needs exposure to (unless that fear has been induced by a plane crash or other accident). You know, I didn't think that I'd be into going to spas myself, but man oh man, a nice long massage after a long bike trip is so, so good. I have friends that really can't stand to be on crowded buses or trains, which are of course, usually the cheapest ways to travel. In Vietnam, it's no problem to get some medication to zonk out on a long ride, or a flight. A doctor in the U.S. might prescribe something for someone who has flight anxiety and it's definitely good to have on hand if that's the case. Anyway, best of luck with those challenges. Western Europe and SE Asia are so much fun to travel around and I really miss easy access to both of those regions. I traveled cheap, but I ate really well and I definitely think that it was a hugely important aspect to the good times I had traveling. I really wish that I were a better photographer, because there are such beautiful things to be seen. Yeah, by all means hit me up if you think I can help when the time comes!
You mention Prague and Amsterdam as two places you would like to you again visit. What are some of the cities that you would avoid upon return?
First, I'll state that my experiences were my own, and perhaps I just didn't "Go to the right places" or "do the right things", but we stayed in the following cities for 3 days/nights on average, and slept very little. I wasn't a huge fan of London. It was awesome to see of course, and be there, and see all of the things from movies and history. But it was expensive, busy, people weren't friendly, and other than seeing the sites and museums it was definitely a place I wouldn't want to go back to anytime soon. I was also not a huge fan of Berlin. Kind of bland, boring, and quiet. The people weren't unfriendly, but the entire town had this like "seriousness" to it that I just didn't enjoy. They were unfriendly, dry, and stern at every place we went to. When we were there, we are very much "off the beaten path" type people. We would meet up with locals, go to local bars and restaurants, and try to stay off the tourist path outside of the museums and main attractions. Just didn't have a good time there. I had the exact opposite experience in Munich though. Didn't really dig Barcelona either. It's beautiful, and on the med, and there are some unique things to see there, but overall it wasn't that exciting. Though, we were there during their time of year where they all apparently go on vacation and shut up shop for two weeks. Most of the stores and restaurants were all closed. It was so weird, it was a ghost town except for some of the more nightlife/bar related areas. I could barely find a place to buy a pack of smokes. So perhaps it would deserve another chance some day. Also, Paris, despite every teenage girls dreams of it being this super romantic and beautiful city, I found it dirty, too busy for my tastes, and kind of disappointing. Sure, the museums are great, seeing the sites are great and like living a movie, but as a city and culture I found it just kind of "meh" overall. But the Normandy country side, and the riveria were awesome and beautiful cities, just not Paris.
Strasbourg kicks the crap out of Paris in my opinion. Cheaper and the food's better, and the canals make the most beautiful sounds at night when it's quiet. I stayed in London by myself for ten days and came away knowing I would move there in a heartbeat -- but there's something really impersonal about it. It would be a lonely place without some friends. People do forget how many cool things are just a train ride away. Nice is a giant party I agree that anyone who has any money at all and is in Europe simply must go there.
Nice is just fun, it's the poor-mans Cannes. Lots of bars, lots of live music, lots of friendly people, the Med, it's all just perfect. And the town and architecture is just beautiful, and what I always dreamed about when it comes to cities on the riviera. And it wasn't nearly as expensive as I thought it would be. We had a hotel with a balcony right near the train station for pretty cheap. Was a pretty decent walk to the shore, but not bad enough to complain about. That's a good way to explain how I felt about London. Just something about it didn't really jive with me. It's an amazing town and a pillar in the world for obvious reasons, but yeah I couldn't live there. I was also there when it was going through it's record breaking heatwave in 2006, in mid July. It was pretty awful, though I like to think I looked past that.but there's something really impersonal about it.
I found Lyon and Montpelier much more enjoyable than Paris. I also enjoyed driving around Brittany, but you definitely need a car to see the interesting parts (such as the Corniche near Lannion).