city breaks

What's your budget?

Tbh i'm not sure as i don't really know what it will cost

i suspose up to £300 / £400 for both of us max

of course the cheaper the better but don't want cheap and nasty if you know what i mean

I think for £300/400 for 2 people you'd struggle to get much for 5 days. You could find some cheap flights to a European destination for under £100 each but that would only leave you £100-200 for a hotel. This could be do-able for 3 nights though, depending on where you go.

Outside of the eurozone, I love Krakow. A beautiful city with lots to do. Barcelona, Rome, Berlin, Dublin and Paris are all very nice too. We've been looking at going to some cities further east (Riga, Tallinn, Sofia) but it depends what you're looking for? Art, architecture, walking? Drinking and good food? Shopping?

Skyscanner is a good start for cheap flights. http://www.skyscanner.net/

The Tripadvisor forums are also really useful. Let me know what kind of break you want and I'll see if I can advise anything more details.

I would like to book a package deal really so that i know everything is covered under one price

3 nights is fine

i was thinking of paris, prague etc

looking for good food, shopping and a bit of sight seeing

i know it sounds vague but i really do'nt know where to start

would i be better off going into a travel agents?

thanks for the advice so far though

Karen

I love Barcelona and it would still be a nice climate in October. Another place I love is Copenhagen but it is pretty pricey.

We did the Lastminute secret hotel thing when went to Prague & Paris - you book the hotel knowing the star rating & where it is then you find out the name of the hotel when you have booked. Some sort of elaborate promotion. Anyway we got a 4 star hotel in Prague for about £50 a night - it was a tram ride into the center though. We did this in Paris & again had a 4 star place but it was a bit grotty. I enjoyed Prague but just don't get the attraction with Paris.

I was going to suggest the only 3 european cities I've been to - Prague, Budapest and Vienna. But I have no idea how good they are for shopping, they are not famous for their food, however excellent for sightseeing.

We booked all the flights and accommodation separately so I think it was reasonably cheap. But we spend ages searching on line for somewhere to stay.

I'm looking forward to my summer holiday this year to the south of France, a wee village near Montpellier.

I'd also like to go to somewhere in Spain (not sure where) to drink loads of Tempranillo wine and gorge myself on tapas.

We have been to:

New York- it roughly cost us £500 each for 4 nights, fab and the dollar was good then 2-1.

Dublin- Great, but very expensive, talking 10-12 euros for two pints in temple bar.

Barcelona- Roughly cost us £300 each for 4 nights, fab city, one of our favs.

Paris- For our minimoon which cost us £300 each, quite expensive there too, but we did find it romantic.

Galway- lovely little city.

Venice- £400 each I think, we got engaged there, most romantic place in our opinion, but again very expensive.

I would reccommend looking on the Easy Jet/cheap airlines websites, seeing how much and where they fly too, and look at Octpussy hotel websites for hotels, or Fleetway travel.

I always find it cheaper to book flights and hotels seperate.

Good luck!

I've done quite a few city breaks: Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Bruges, Dublin, Edinburgh and they were all good for sightseeing, a bit of casual shopping, good food and cafe culture. I always book a separate flight (or Eurostar) direct either with Easyjet or BA then check out www.tripadvisor.com for hotel reviews and book that direct to via e-mail - all continental hotel owners/managers speak english and it's easy to confirm everything in one e-mail and usually give a debit card number as deposit.

Our of those I've been to probably only Rome would be a bit pricey as the hotels aren't cheap and flights more as it's further away.

Bruges I went to in July and it was lovely - less than 2 hours Eurostar to Brussels and then local train to Bruges included in your Eurostar ticket which was £59 return. Hotel was around £50 a night B&B each (2 sharing) and was central.

You can book via a travel agent for piece of mind but you def pay more.

Thankyou for all your replys and advice so far

think i will keep looking around for now, see what i can come up with on the internet and compear prices with a travel agent.

so far what i have looked at online has all been package deals so will look and see what differnce it makes doing some seperate etc

Thanks again

Karen

On a small-ish budget you will probably get more for your money heading east, and going to some where like Poland or Hungary, then spain/italy/france etc. Don't bother with Geneva - it's very dull!

We did Paris at the beginning of July with an Easyjet package - it was £200 each for flights / accommodation for 4 nights, Im sure for Oct - as long as its not half term week you should get something relatively cheap

Has anyone suggested Budapest yet? We ❤️ it. Similar to Prague before it became 90% English speaking and full of stag dos.

I think sleazyjet fly there (?) and you get way more for your money than in Western Europe.

Second/third the advice to book flights and accomodation separately.