City break ideas?

I've heard from several people who live in Spain that Seville is supposed to be beautiful for a weekend away. It was a contender for our wedding but there are no direct flights from Manc! I'd love to go myself!

Never been to either but can recommend Budapest if you've never been.

SW thanks for the idea. I have researched Seville and it might win over Valencia... The flights are a bit tricky but less tricky than Valencia and it is cheaper!

Budapest is really amazing and l enjoyed it a lot despite dying of a cold while l was there!

I wasn't keen on Valencia - it's many years when I was there so I understand it has had a major renovation since - but having travelled down to Valencia from Madrid I was glad we only stayed two nights. Compared to Barcelona or Madrid I found it a bit lacking as a city break. That might be different now though so interested if anyone has recently visited.

I love Granada. It has a real old Spanish feel to it. I was told whilst there that it is one of the few places in Spain that still follows the proper tradition of serving small free tapas with every drink (the tapas apparently started as in the Moorish religion you could only drink alcohol whilst eating food so having lots of small bites with each drink was tradition - enabled you to have lots of drinks!!). Not sure if they still do. Seville is also beautiful. Another city with a real Spanish traditional feel to it. I don't think you can go wrong with an old Spanish city as a break. I also rate Santiago.

Some places we have visited for cheapish weekend breaks which I wouldn't say are 'typical' -

Gdansk in Poland. Fabulous weekend destination. Cheap flights. Cheap when there. We really liked it and since then my mum has been and she loved it too.

Bruges in Brussels - not many flights though but easy to get to on the Eurostar if you are down south. I got engaged there so might be biased.

Florence in Italy. Just a beautiful old Italian city.

Tarragona (Spain) - can't remember where we flew to but taxi ride was about 40 minutes. another place that has lots of tradition to it. Famous for it's human tower festival. We were there when they had a mini competition of human towers (not the full on festival) and it was incredible to watch.

Bellagio (Italy) - we flew into Bergamo airport and hired a car but Bergamo itself was really nice too. Bellagio is a beautiful town on the side of Lake Como (Be careful who you hire from as they attempted to rip us off but that's another story). Saw George Clooney's house but sadly no GC (was in his bachelor days).

If anyone has any more thoughts for city breaks I would also like to hear as thinking of trips later this year...after Iceland and New York!

Thanks got your thoughts Cinnamon009, all good for thought. Bruges and Florence are definitely on the wish list as well for me!

Bruges is a wonderful place for a weekend - particularly beautiful around Christmas time.

Venice as another stunner for a weekend. Have you thought about non-city breaks? Country Lodge breaks with hot tubs are amazing as are snug country cottages especially coastal ones. There are some lovely ones on the North Yorks Coast like Whitby or Robin Hoods Bay. I can highly recommend a couple of really stunning B&Bs - one in Whitby called the Sandpiper - not cheap but stunning, and then one on Anglesey in Beaumaris called Cleifiog also not cheap but a really gorgeous place with the most amazing views. Again - there's a theme - but we've done all of these with shed loads of snow(inlcuding Bruges lol)

Ooh, another vote for Budapest here. I took H for his 30th in March last year and it was amazing

Another vote for Budapest, we went for my birthday a few years ago and it was gorgeous. We stayed on a 'boatel' on the river!

I also loved Granada, we had 4 days rather than a weekend and used Nerja as a base and drove to Granada, Cadiz and Gibraltar. I'd give Gibraltar a miss (although the monkeys were quite funny) but we really enjoyed our time in both Granada and Cadiz. Nerja itself was a lovely base too. Haven't been to Valencia for a comparison though.

I have already been to Venice. I like your thinking Pammy, later on in the year we are planning to have a weekend away with some friends. Funnily enough Whitby is one of the places that is in the running for that.

Another vote for Bruge its is very pretty and I actually like it more than Venice. We went in November and it was cold but beautiful. So many nice places to eat and we stayed in an amazing hotel which also had a spa. SO much chocolate too and you have your choice of chocolate shops to go in try! We loved just sitting out side the cafe with the heater and a blanket watching the world go by it was lovely!

I liked Venice but it was an awful lot of walking as we did only have 2 days and I was just exhusted by the end of it. I loved the food and loved seeing it all...maybe I just needed longer there! Agaia dont fo in the hight of summer as it is known to be very smelly! Saying that we went March and it flooded which was an experiance!

x

I vote Granada! We went there for a friend's wedding and it was brilliant. It was June so the weather was fab but you could still see the snow capped mountains in the background.

We did Granada and Seville on the same trip. It's doable if you hire a car.

Both places were beautiful! Interesting history too. Food was good and locals friendly.

I think I am the only person who does not like Budapest. I thought it was a bit meh to be honest... Can't put my finger on why though. Maybe we were unlucky and everyone had gone away for the weekend as it seemed pretty empty.

What about Vienna?

How about something a bit different like Stockholm or Helsinki? I've been to both in late May/June and had lovely weather. Granted, it's not the dizzy temperatures of further south, but still early - mid twenties, which is great for me! Sotckholm is a gorgeous city, with loads of islands, parks etc. Helsinki is lovely too, and pretty compact, so easy to get around and see everything.

Ljubljana in Sloevnia is stunning. Or Vienna?

How about Amsterdam? That's next on my list!

I haven't been to Amsterdam but Mr Erin has. I thought it would be nice to somewhere neither of us have been before

We have both been to Stockholm before, it's a great place. My brother lives there

Riga Latvia (my hubs home city) is beautiful not typical and therefore not too touristy . I'm going again in August. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaDOXx8rFUo

There's also a nice beach in Jurmala about a 30 min train ride out the city so you can do a beach and city break in one.

Its also easy to twin with Tallin Estonia which is also a beautiful city and from Tallin you can get a ferry to Helsinki (although i found Helsinki rather dull)

Sorry to hijack the thread but has anyone got any thoughts or tips on Iceland? I got for a weekend break with my two best friends in 4 weeks time and we are just planning our day trips. Any recommendations for accommodation also gratefully received!

I think you've probably settled on Spain but I second the above for a weekend break, and also Copenhagen (of course) ?

I went to Reykjavik for 3 nights in March 8 years ago. The highlights on the trips were the Blue Lagoon, Gullfoss waterfall and the Geysir. We booked our trips through Grayline who were very good.

One our trips was postponed to the following day due to bad weather, fortunately we'd booked this trip for the second day so this wasn't an issue.

Re Iceland, I agree with all of the above recommendations.

We went for 3 days before Christmas just gone on a "mini moon" and stayed at the Reyjkavik residence aparthotel.

We hired a car and drove ourselves to the Blue Lagoon on the first day. Day 2 we booked a Golden Circle trip to the Geysers, Gulfoss and a secret lagoon....this was AMAZING! A hot natural pool in the middle of nowhere, just stunning.

We also did a Northern lights tour but they just didn't want to come out that night unfortunately. All our trips were booked through Gateway to Iceland. We chose them as they had great reviews and drove little mini buses as opposed to big coaches which can be quite impersonal. There were only 5 of us on the Golden Circle trip which meant we had our guides full attention. Also when driving around we saw 2 big coaches which had been blown off the road! Scary.

As we didn't get the greatest view of the Northern lights, Gateway to Iceland said next time we go to Iceland we can go on a northern lights trip for free.

So envious of anyone going to Iceland. It's truly beautiful.

Sorrento in Italy is so lovely. I highly reccommend going here with a partner.

I also loved Bruges, went n Sept but would love to go back at Christmas time

Another vote for Budapest, it's my favourite place in the world and I'd love to live there one day ❤️