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I haven't been to Europe in many years. Male looking to do a solo 2 week trip, maybe 3 weeks. Which of these 5 countries would you go to if you were me? Just looking to do the normal traveling stuff checking out cities and just general hanging out. My trip would be middle of March likely (could be late April or May possibly too). Thanks.
Well you could definitely see the south of France and then take the high speed train to northern Italy. On the southern French coast you can find Marseilles, Nice, Cannes, Monaco (a tiny country) and then take the train to Turin Italy. Turin, Italy in itself is a beautiful (overlooked) city. The architecture is phenomenal especially the Royal Palace, Palazzo Madama, Palazzo Carignano, the Italian film museum called Mole Antonelliana. From there you can head south to Genova or West (high speed rail again) and go to Milan. The major attractions of Milan are the center Duomo, Castello Sforzesco, and Quadrilatero shopping district (only takes a day). From Milan you can get on the train again and go to Lake Garda. Its BREATHTAKING especially Monte Baldo in Malcesine which overlooks the lake. They have a monorail which takes you thousands of feet up above the lake (you can parasail if you like) and if you turn around you see the Alps! Plus on the Lake Garda Bardolino, Lazise, Garda, Salò, and Peschiera del Garda are idyllic. Also, their are ferries which criss cross the lake and take you to all those towns.
Anyway, I'm clearly an italian buff but in all honestly all the 5 southern european countries are beautiful in their own right. Italy's one great advantage is the art granted you like art. For instance in France art is paintings hanging on a wall but those buildings I mentioned in Turin are Masterpieces in their own right as the interiors are covered in frescoes and gold. Also, I know that trip through southern France and Northern Italy seems long but Europe's high speed trains travel at 220 miles an hour so even a trip from Milan to Rome (in the center of Italy) is only 3 hrs by train and not even that expensive. For France use tgv.com and Italy use trenitalia.it and change the language on both sites to English.
Enjoy your trip. By the way with ryanair.com which is Europe's jet blue you can quite possibly see Spain, France, and Italy. For 2 weeks though I think the south of France north of Italy is awesome!
Thanks for the excellent suggestions. South of France and Northwest part of Italy sound like a good idea. And geographically fairly close. Ryan Air is an option too for other itineraries.
Is Portugal the least touristy of the 5 countries I mentioned? I tend to try and avoid the best I can tourist hordes. I know this is hard to do as many great areas and famous sites are unavoidably touristy. I think my timing (March, April or May) might help with avoiding tourists crowds somewhat as I imagine summer must be the worst time for tourist crowds.
Is Portugal the least touristy of the 5 countries I mentioned? I tend to try and avoid the best I can tourist hordes. I know this is hard to do as many great areas and famous sites are unavoidably touristy. I think my timing (March, April or May) might help with avoiding tourists crowds somewhat as I imagine summer must be the worst time for tourist crowds.
Like France, Italy and Spain may be too big to take as a whole, but indeed it may make sense to do a geographical pairing, like southern France and northern Italian, as mentioned, or southern/northern Portugal and southern/northern Spain respectively, while Greece could be in a class by itself or you could conceivably pair parts of it with southern Italy if you are adventurous.
Southwestern Algarve, Portugal, on the Atlantic, is quite touristy, especially in the winter, reminds me a bit of southern Florida; however, as you mention, the time period you are choosing may mitigate that wherever you go.
It may be helpful if you describe whether you have any particular historical and cultural or natural interests around which you could organize a tour (e.g. Peloponnesos and Sicily go together historically).
On the other hand if you just want to stay on the beaten path, you are interested in Renaissance art, for example, and you have not already been there, the "classic" triad of Rome, Florence and Venice may be ideal for the time period you are contemplating, especially March and early April before Easter week.
Is Portugal the least touristy of the 5 countries I mentioned? I tend to try and avoid the best I can tourist hordes. I know this is hard to do as many great areas and famous sites are unavoidably touristy. I think my timing (March, April or May) might help with avoiding tourists crowds somewhat as I imagine summer must be the worst time for tourist crowds.
All the countries you've mentioned have lot of tourist in the summer, and less in the spring so you'll be fine. I would worry more about the weather. I'd say at that time of the year it's the best in Portugal or the south of Spain.
Location: Near Tours, France about 47°10'N 0°25'E
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March, April and may can be quite humid in mediterranean areas and bit cool. It is ok for cultural tourism but if you want to go to the beach and sunbathing it is not the place.
If you like, two weeks in Italy to see Milan, Rome, Florence, Verona, Venice, Naples, a trip to Sicily as well. Then Spain for Madrid and Barcelona. Also Lisbon in Portugal, why not. The weather will be great I think, it's the right part of the year, not too hot.
Thanks again for all the terrific answers. I tend to like architecture, history, hiking, cafe's, pretty countryside & quaint small towns more then sitting at the beach. So I'm not worried about it not being beach weather yet in April I have to decide if I want to do 2 weeks, 3 weeks or a month. A lot of decisions to be made on where to go and itinerary. It's been so long since I've been to Europe it will be like the first time again (last time was 1996 in Greece).
I tend to really try hard to avoid tourist crowds, but sometimes to see certain sites for the first time you have no choice but to go to touristy areas. But I think going in April or May (vs. summer) may help mitigate tourists crowds as was mentioned. I think I will probably do Greece (and Turkey) separately another time (maybe October), so I will focus on deciding where to go between Portugal, South of France, Spain, Italy. Difficult decisions! Maybe I can do a multiple hop plan ticket and fly into Lisbon and then fly out of Rome. And make my way from Lisbon to Rome. Or I may decide to bite off a smaller chunk and stay in a smaller geographic proximity (South of France/Northern Italy or Portugal/Spain). I think in April the weather may be best in Portugal in South of Spain. I live in Seattle U.S.A so I would like to get out of these gray skies see some sunshine. Florence, Sienna, Lucca, and Rome are extremely enticing too having never been to Italy.
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I have to decide if I want to do 2 weeks, 3 weeks or a month. A lot of decisions to be made on where to go and itinerary. It's been so long since I've been to Europe it will be like the first time again (last time was 1996 in Greece). 
