[Closed] Short European city break - summer holidays

I would recommend Malaga in Spain. It's a lovely city easy to get around and to get to, plus it's quite cheap. It will be very warm in August but there is a beach too.

Seville is a cheap train ride away too, two days in each would be really nice but warm!

I can absolutely reccomend Budapest. It will be very hot that time of year though. It's cheap and easy to get to, things are fairly cheap there, and there are loads of things to see/do.

Krakow is a good shout but don’t expect to completely avoid the crowds. 5 days might but just about the limit but certainly 3-4 wouldn’t be a problem. I’ve also done Gdańsk in summer but overall probably slightly less beautiful and things to do than Krakow.

Could city hop a couple of northern Italy cities? Combine Amsterdam and Antwerp for Belgium and Netherlands in one? Lisbon for somewhere slightly different? Not sure where you're from and it seems less exciting but Edinburgh is always good and loads to do.

Rome and Barcelona are obvious choices. Verona is also lovely and you can get to the lakes easily if you wish.

We have done

Fly into Krakow 2 to 3 days ( allow a day to visit aushwitz) the train to Vienna 2 to 3 days

Or

Fly to Karkow 2 to 3 days overnight triangle to Budapest couple of days

Or

Budapest two to three days and the train to Prague

Plenty other combinations,  easy travel and different way to see a couple of cities.

Thanks all for suggestions so far, Combining replies randomly :

I'm down south in Salisbury. I lived on the west coast of scotland for 4 years in the '80s and have been up there several times since due to work (Inverness, Benbecula).  I was climbing in Glencoe in 1985? when they were filming the clan battle scene from Highlander - that was a bit surreal. I do intend to drag my daughter up there sometime 🙂

My daughter would love some northern Italian cities. I think Rome might be a bit warm in August and the lakes will be mobbed (both of these are on a to do list sometime though).

We had also thought of Eurostar towards  somewhere like Ghent or Bruges.

Keep them coming 🙂

Seville is a cheap train ride away too, two days in each would be really nice but warm!

Really, don't even consider Seville in summer. It's not nice during the day, and most of the fun is in the nightlife after dark - not something you can really do with a 13yr old! Same for Madrid, which I'd normally recommend for a weekend. If Spain is an option I'd do Barcelona + Girona, nicer climate (in August) and loads of stuff to see.

Slightly different suggestion: at 13 you can do a Junior Padi diving course, if you're interested I can recommend a great dive school in Murcia (SE Spain), with Cartagena and its wonderful Roman ruins just down the road...

vondally - you posted whist I was typing. Good suggestions!

Fly to Munich, Innsbruck, Salzburg and fly home. Use trains between.

Italy - Como and/or Lucca both have enough to do in their centres + environs

Portugal - Lisbon - the city and then head to Estoril or Cascais

Maybe something a bit different but how about going to the Azores? I must confess I've never been there but in true STW style I'm recommending what I'd like. Decent flights from Gatwick and so much to do, not even a 13-year-old could be bored 🙂 Fairly inexpensive when you are there too.

Split will be suitable. Plenty to see and do with easy island hopping adventures.

Bratislava is nice for a couple of days.

It's also a good base to see other cities as Vienna is only 45 minutes on the train and Budapest about 90 minutes.

In summer Europe is really your oyster. There are the Mediterranean cities like Barcelona, Rome and Venice. You also have the southern French cities like Montpellier or Nice, Cannes, The mddle European cities like Geneva, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Luzern and Munich. North European cities like Berlin, Copenhagen, Bergen and Helsinki or Eastern European cities like Prague, Budapest, Warsaw and Bucharest. It really depends on what kind of climate you want and what you want to do.

Personally I’d be looking at Tuscany. Florence is beautiful but can be excruciatingly hot in summer or some of the coastal cities like Livorno or Pisa (a bit further away) or Siena.

Funny how people who live in the sunny south of Europe think Brits are mad wanting to holiday in 40°C. People from Madrid flee the capital for the north coast where it's 10°C cooler. Rome is miserable in Summer, Barcelona isn't much better. I'd rather be in Berlin on a rainy day than Malaga in a heat wave.

Tallin sounds good, Krakow too.

Funny how people who live in the sunny south of Europe think Brits are mad wanting to holiday in 40°C

Not that funny really, it's grim at 40C unless you're used to it. I ride my bike and do ultra marathons in central Spain in summer, but then I live here and I know how to deal with it. There's nothing super-human about it, you just need time to adjust. Which you obviously don't have getting off a plane at those temperatures and expecting to enjoy it for a long weekend.

I meant funny as in stange or bizarre. It usually reaches 40°C here too for a few days so I'm used to it and coping means doing everything outside before midday. Why go on holiday in a place where it's best to stay indoors between 12:00 and 18:00? Mad dogs and... .

Amsterdam

Flights from SOU, which is convenient for you, and a great city. Apart from the seedy couple of streets, it's a sublime place.

Hope all's well, old chap!

i'd second the idea of bratislava - spent couple of days there last summer - cheap and as already mentioned a short train ride to vienna. Would like to go back.

I've just got back from 5 days in lisbon which was pretty great (and again cheap) - but lots of hills, but public transport cheap and plentiful.

Paris is worth a trip in August as it will be quiet with the locals all being away.  I can be hot and stuffy but a good time to visit none-the-less

I travel a lot with work and one place surprised me was Kiev.  No visa needed for EU citizens... It feels a lot more European than say St. Petersburg but less like being at home than say Krakow in that it's still a bit backwards compared to say Poland but in a "charming" way.

At 13 it would be cool to do a few places on borders .. where you can get a train and see a bit of 1-2 other countries all in a weekend.

Jersey. Coast, castles, beer, history, chilled bike rides on country lanes, lovely place.

Rome can certainly be hot in August. They all escape to the seaside or the hills. If you do go there, then you have to visit the hilly bits inland (Frascati, Nemi, etc. - The Pope has a summer residence there) where it's much cooler, and there's a view of the smog lingering over Rome. Think it was Lago di Albano we went to one evening, and felt cold, but it was actually so warm the ice cream was melting and running up my arm quicker than I could eat it!

Jersey's a good choice. Lots to do, what with the zoo, the underground hospital, the castle...

Didn't like Vienna. Nice buildings. Heaving with people. So I got the train to Bratislava.

Will prolly do Lake Constance again this year. 4 countries in a day. Good if you like hiking up hills and stuff. To a zoo on top of a mountain.

We have done recently

Bologna/Florence

Florence/Venice(Lido)

Rome/Bologna

Lille/Ghent/Brugges

Trains are easy to book as are hotels (often book in the lobby via expedia)

prefer 2/3 cities as more to do - we are an up early bed early kinda couple though

one small rucksack each

Verona

Day trip to Venice and a bus up to Lake Garda.

Go during opera season. My two boys loved it, including the Romeo and Juliet opera.

We used to have a site in Verona, so I'd been a couple of times. Properly Italian without the crowds of Florence.