[Closed] Long weekends abroad that aren't City Breaks - ideas please...

Lake garda

I've been looking on google maps and street view for somewhere to visit in south west Ireland.

Just book any Ryanair flight.

You're guaranteed to land at least an hour away from any major European city.

Luchon is nice. About a 2 hour drive from Toulouse. Small hire car is dirt cheap. Some great mountain walks, lake swimming, waterfalls, etc. Fantastic lift assisted biking if you like. Action stuff like rafting plus its a pleasant spa town with good eateries. Stunning scenery all around.

West coast of Ireland is great too. Wild Atlantic Way takes in some epic coastal sights. Some nice national parks. A bit of history. Easy to get away from it all (except for the odd tour bus full of Americans)

I’ve been looking on google maps and street view for somewhere to visit in south west Ireland.

Cross posted above. Ring of Kerry is nice. Can get a little busy but worth it.  Ballycarbery Castle is one of my favourite ruins, loads to explore. Further south Mizen Head is pretty good too. I quite like Tralee. Did some work on the visitor centre there so I'm a bit biased. To be honest the whole west coast is great. If you can stretch it out to get up to Galway and Cliffs of Moher both are well worth a visit

My plan for this is an AirBnB in Sweden.  Short flight, hire a car, drive out into the woods and lakes, spend a weekend chilling.  Best done in Winter IMO 🙂

Having a cabin in the woods is integral to Scandinavian culture and with so much land there are tons about.  And AirBnB is perfect to make a little extra cash from it, so there's plenty on offer.

Some great ideas already on this thread.  I was going to say Italian Lakes or the Dolomites.  Several towns in the south of France as have been mentioned.  You could do Reykjavik too (it's a city I guess but not really in the sense of a "city break") for a long-er long weekend.

Ryanair from Manc to Nuremberg for peanuts. Out to the frankenjura for world class pocket pulling or just a chilled out couple of days wandering round cute German villages, eating huge cheap food and drinking lots of local bier.

Fly to Bilbao and stay in Mundaka. 

Take the ferry across the river to Laida for great walks. Surfing and swimming also options.

Luxembourg's "Little Switzerland" would be on my list.

Or Vosges mountains in Alsace (fly to Basel-Mulhouse and get the train up).

EasyJet to Pisa and take a tour of the Chianti region visiting castles and vinyards. Make sure you drive by and visit Volterra.

Slovenia is amazing. Fly to Ljubljana, hire a car and go to Triglav national park.

Was going to suggest Ireland when I saw the thread title but I see it’s already been covered so won’t bother. But thanks to the OP for starting the thread - it’s given me some ideas for a long weekend away instead of the usual city breaks - mol’s Scandinavian cabin idea looks good.

If you want to get away from it all, quiet roads, French markets, walks, chateaux etc, try this. We built this cabin, in Singletrack style using our own trees. Pomme de Pin at http://www.bellessise.fr/cabin .

Ryan Air (others are available) fly into Limoges, cheap car hire from airport. I can’t post photos but there are more pics on that Facebook

/ and Airbnb -Pomme de Pin Airbnb

I was going to suggest an Air bnb in Tuscany from a Pisa flight too - as Dovebiker said, Volterra is fab but there's some other small but great towns nearby surrounded by acres of gorgeous countryside and space.  Lucca is larger but inside the walls you wouldn't know, Certaldo Alto worth a lunch, etc.

Just don't forget to dress appropriately so you can start your holiday in the airport.

Croatia?

Fly to Split, get the catamaran to Hvar, walk around the coast path to the Hula Hula bar and watch the sunset with a Mojito - sorted.

or

Fly to Dubrovnik airport, stay in Cavtat and do boat trips every day

I always feel very relaxed  in Tarifa. But then again I  go for the windsurfing.  Fly to Gibraltar  and hire a car.  Algeciras,  nearby is sort of like Wolverhampton on a nice day.

I'm heading to Ethiopia for 4 nights later in the year (overnight flights both ways so a total of 3 days off work) - gives 5 days, enough to see ancient churches, climb a lava-covered volcano, swim in some hot springs and hang round in a busy city. The food is excellent too.

If you like the sea it's bloody lovely on the cote d'azur, we stay in Sainte Maxime which is only 90 mins from Nice, you can get the 'ferry*' across to Saint Tropez and Azur bike park is just around the corner. The obvious bonus is that it's almost always sunny.

If you prefer mountains to the coast then there's loads of lovely places up past Grasse where you can climb a hill or just lounge on the sun terrace 😀

*it's a speed boat

Benidorm.

There were loads of adverts on the tube last year for active weekend breaks in Scandinavia kayaking fjords and camping - that sort of thing.

Not sure on the website, better adventures or something.

Greek islands are quite doable for long weekend if you stick to the ones close to Athens. Have done Aegina and Agistri for a bit of early or late season sunshine and souvlaki. Ferry timetables are available online so it's easy to work out transfers.

Come to Östersund

St Emilion.. flight to Bordeaux, car/taxi to the town, drink and fall over.. or go play on the beaches of Archachon..

I would also recommend Split. Easyjet flight and there’s a bus outside the tiny airport to take you to the port, which is pretty much city centre. From here you can take a boat to any of the islands dotted around Brac/Hvar etc. Been there a couple of times and love it

Thanks folks - some great ideas to work on!

Just to add, Split old town is worth a look too. If your flights don't work with boat times it's certainly no hardship to spend a day/evening there....

If you do decide to go to Tarifa, you can always hop on the ferry and nip over to Tangiers for the day.  Takes about 35 minutes.

Yes, I know they're both cities, but not City cities.