City Breaks

[polymerpunkah]

Istanbul?

 

Was there last month for about 8 hours, and it looked like there was all sorts of things to do. Can't wait to go back for a longer visit.

 

Rome is a beautiful city, and you could probably do Florence as a day trip, depending on your interest in art history. I agree with M_B about peak season. I was there in April and both cities were already busy.

 

 

 

[Dr Nowt]

San Sebastián is superb.

 

Even though it pissed it down the whole time I was there.

[Remmie]

If you are heading anywhere before/after Florence, it should, no MUST be Cinqueterre. 2-3 hours by train. Wanted to propose there but was too much of a visa headache for my missus to get there (chose Cornwall instead!). 

[Dr Nowt]

Went there last summer for my 40th, Rem.

 

One of my favourite places of all time.

[Qwikage]

Another vote for Lisbon here. If you do decide to go there then stay in a little place called Sintra. Just outside central Lisbon and absolutely dripping with History: castle on the hill, cobbled streets , horsedrawn carraiges still form the local transport, loads of little shops (some selling tat but you get them everywhere). It sits atop the city centre miles up a hill and they have a little train which takes you down to a very small beach with a cafe which serves delicious seafood. Taxi's to city centre take about 15mins. The Tivoli Sintra is the best hotel in the town and the room i stayed in had it's own blacony. The bar also had a great selection of port which i just had to try.

[halewood pete]

Porto and lisbon tick all the boxes

 

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Nice is next on the list for me. 

 

Good weather all year round. Loads of coastline and beaches. Good food. Dead easy to get around. And some culture such as cathedrals, a bit of art etc. 

 

Plus, there are absolutely loads of nice, smaller towns etc to visit nearby, easily accessible by a bus or train journey costing about £2-3. The likes of Monaco, Eze, Cannes, Antibes, Menton, Grasse, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferret, or just across the border into Italy for Ventimiglia or San Remo etc. 

[A Red]

Ljubljana - Slovenia is the best country in europe. 

[Remmie]

3 minutes ago, A Red said:

Ljubljana - Slovenia is the best country in europe. 

Good shout. Very clean and green and scenic 

[Bjornebye]

Go to Cesky Kumlov. Its where they filmed Hostel. They pretended it was in Slovakia but it's actually in the Czech Rep. Looks friendly. 

[M_B]

Cesky Krumlov is a good call actually. Lovely place. Maybe a bit small for a long weekend though.

[Bjornebye]

1 minute ago, M_B said:

Cesky Krumlov is a good call actually. Lovely place. Maybe a bit small for a long weekend though.

Yeah and they might take an eyeball 

[Red_or_Dead]

Been to Porto and Lisbon this year - both very good.  Krakow is also very good - like a smaller Prague.

[Nunavut Patrick]

Bournemouth.

Lovely this time of year.

[magicrat]

Split is a good shout.  Some good Air bnb deals to be had near the centre . Lots of history , good bars and nice food.  Great place to swim too.

[aRdja]

On 12/27/2018 at 7:28 PM, Dr Nowt said:

I’ve very, very fortunately been gifted a European city break, all paid for (no Timothy Claypole with AIDS, this isn’t part of the Make A Wish Foundation). Weighing up where to go.

 

Been to the following, and don’t want to repeat on this trip:

 

Edinburgh

Glasgow

Dublin

Barcelona 

Sevilla 

Munich

Hamberg

Amsterdam

Bruges 

Venice 

Milan

Budapest

Sofia 

Prague 

Athens

Vienna

 

Ruling out Scandinavia, as don’t want to take the piss on price.

 

Ruling out Spain (really want to go to Madrid, Valencia and Córdoba), cos I went this year and have been there more than anywhere else.

 

Currently mulling over Florence/Rome/Porto. My partying days are over and I missed half a dozen opportunities to go to Berlin during them, so it always feels like the one that got away as I could never do that trip how I always wanted to. One day, but probably not for a while. On the other hand,  recently had two people tell me Kracow is sensational, so that’s in the back of my mind.

 

Anyone got any recommendations not mentioned/able to comment on good/bad experiences of the above few?

 

vlad, if you could make a witty yet cynical post about going abroad being for impressionable, naive people without any discernment/a fool and his money are soon parted, yadda yadda yadda, that would be hugely refreshing.

Berlin in the summer. Fantastic city. Obvs, billiant nightclubs, but some really cool bars too. Amazing place of history, so you could do loads of tours and visit plenty of museums too.. Definitely loads of things to see and do. I highly recommend sneaking into Spreepark; an abandoned amusement park in East Berlin. 

[VladimirIlyich]

Just now, magicrat said:

Split is a good shout.  Some good Air bnb deals to be had near the centre . Lots of history , good bars and nice food.  Great place to swim too.

Is it a nice place to swim in January?

[magicrat]

1 minute ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Is it a nice place to swim in January?

Not unless you have a death wish 

[Chip Butty]

Fly to Florence or Pisa, spend some time in both, but fall in love with Lucca. Italy's best town. Birth place of Puccini.

 

A great little 3 place trip. Pisa is shit to be honest, but has the leaning tower, so ye, do that photie then fuck off.

[Bjornebye]

24 minutes ago, aRdja said:

Berlin in the summer. Fantastic city. Obvs, billiant nightclubs, but some really cool bars too. Amazing place of history, so you could do loads of tours and visit plenty of museums too.. Definitely loads of things to see and do. I highly recommend sneaking into Spreepark; an abandoned amusement park in East Berlin. 

Jesus, I've just googled that. What are you recommending next? Chernobyl? 

[Bjornebye]

16 minutes ago, Chip Butty said:

Fly to Florence or Pisa, spend some time in both, but fall in love with Lucca. Italy's best town. Birth place of Puccini.

 

A great little 3 place trip. Pisa is shit to be honest, but has the leaning tower, so ye, do that photie then fuck off.

Have you been to Siena mate? 

[Chip Butty]

13 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Have you been to Siena mate? 

I haven't to be honest buddy, but I can bet it's sound. Don't want to sound like a pretentious twat, but Tuscany is an amazing area. Keep telling myself I'm going to go back again sometime soon and do San Gimignano...... and Siena, of course!

 

Sound like a middle class primrose hill melt, but Tuscany is a beautiful region and if by the slightest chance I inherited some of grand-momma's money, I'd well buy a gaff down there. And a massive bag of Peruvian flake, of course. 

 

 

[Bjornebye]

22 minutes ago, Chip Butty said:

I haven't to be honest buddy, but I can bet it's sound. Don't want to sound like a pretentious twat, but Tuscany is an amazing area. Keep telling myself I'm going to go back again sometime soon and do San Gimignano...... and Siena, of course!

 

Sound like a middle class primrose hill melt, but Tuscany is a beautiful region and if by the slightest chance I inherited some of grand-momma's money, I'd well buy a gaff down there. And a massive bag of Peruvian flake, of course. 

 

 

Mate nothing wrong with saying about Tuscany. It is fucking gorgeous. My mate lives in Florence and we had a drive to some village in the hills. Had dinner backing onto a huge vineyard. I'd love to live there. 

 

Siena is fab mate, only went there for 2 hours driving through but its lovely. Looks like Lucca but bigger. 

[Bob]

I’m off to Berlin in the 7th Jan with my missus for 3 nights and have fancied it for a while but as it gets closer and we’ve dne more reading and planning I’m now dead excited.

 

im more keen to see the socialist DDR side of things than anything and she’s found a free Cold War/soviet walking tour which looks boss.

 

staying near checkpoint Charlie in a district called Kreuzberg which seems to be where the bars are, too.

 

we picked it as a last minute swap out for Seville which we’d plsnned to go to, but the prices had shit up. 

[Bob]

8 hours ago, aRdja said:

Berlin in the summer. Fantastic city. Obvs, billiant nightclubs, but some really cool bars too. Amazing place of history, so you could do loads of tours and visit plenty of museums too.. Definitely loads of things to see and do. I highly recommend sneaking into Spreepark; an abandoned amusement park in East Berlin. 

My missus stumbled across something about this place but reading some posts online the council seem to have cut down the fun here by cutting back all the trees so it’s essier to spot trespassers and putting big fences round the best stuff.

 

when did you go?

 

seeing this is right up my ally.