As title really, 20th anniversary this year so want to mark the occasion with a few days away sans offspring. Obvious ones are Prague or Venice; ‘er indoors likes a bit of the historical stuff to mooch round, neither of us bothered about lots of nightlife. Prefer somewhere in Europe within say a couple of hours flight time: So, any other suggestions?

Amsterdam. Avoid the trashy couple of blocks in the middle and it’s a superb city!
Stockholm – Stunning place, lots of nice things to look at (Pack Black Iridium lenses!) but not cheap
Barcelona – Grand city!

Just had a weekend with Mrs S in Lisbon. Havent been for 11 yrs. Still a great city. The old town alley-ways late of an evening are great fun. Have a siesta first – nothing happens until 10:30pm!

Lots of walking. Get a train out to Cascais for lunch.

Krakow

I like nice for a short break

Tallin. It’s amazing.

Ljubljana

Bratislava

Budapest

Or go to Vienna, and take the boat down to Bratislava and Budapest. only a short journey, perhaps a night in each place. All on the Danube

Berlin, Dortmund, Hamburg, Barcelona, Prague (just avoid the stag/hen do’s), Granada, Brussels.

oohQ Forgot all about Cadiz! Go to Cadiz!

Girona

Much prefer it to Barca, cheap flights with ryanshite, great little hotels in the old quarter

Not a fan of Barcelona, underwhelmed. Sorry.

Brugges. A place that I’d never like or go to normally. Drove through and stopped over for the night. Ended up staying for 3. Just really chilled and slowed me right down.

Berlin. Nuff said.

I also don’t really like Paris but strangely quite liked Amsterdam for Amsterdam not the other ‘parts’ which really aren’t that much of Amsterdam as such.

Budapest is lovely – also benefits from being outside of the Eurozone making things a little better on the wallet.

Another vote for Budapest.

Madrid. Barcelona’s older, not so pretty but much nicer sister. Great food, excellent friendly people, fantastic art, great bars – ok you’re not into nightlife, but a bit of sloping around the fun areas in the evening is a must. Can be cold at this time of year tho’, it is at altitude.

Another vote for Lisbon, had a great weekend there.

Sintra (a few miles away) is also a fabulous place to go, some amazing buildings and Moorish history.

I was working in Budapest a couple of weeks ago and it is a very fiendly city and feels safe, it is about 20% cheaper than other cities to eat & drink etc. It was pretty quiet but plenty of tourist around even at this time of year.

I stayed in the Hotel Gelert and the turkish baths underneath are amazing however on the downside Men & Women have to swim in seperate pools (except on a Sunday), on the plus side it doesn’t matter if you forget your Dookers 🙂

A couple of ladies (ahem) were a bit over friendly for my liking but I was a man walking in the evening on my own down a quiet street.

Prague, Krakow are great but for something a bit different try Budapest – we loved it!

budapest is nice. Gelert baths were superb – bit daunting to start though.

Brisk walk up on to the hill is nice.

Rome. Stunning place, lots of history, great food, very romantic. What more could you want?

Madrid.

great bars – ok you’re not into nightlife,

Not all the bars are for disco dollies. Some of the bars in Recoletos are perfect for a late evening drink and to watch the world go fly by.
Plenty of museums and historical stuff. A short train ride and you could be in Toledo, Aranjuez, or even San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

I quite like Athens

Easy to get from the airport to the city centre by underground

Berlin. Awesome place with stunning architecture and great nightlife. People are friendly too.

helsinki – loads of friendly fun people, funky bars.

Berlin. Particularly good if you have an interest in WW2 or Cold War history, Also good museums, art galleries and some of the nightclubs in Europe

Don’t bother with Prague, Budapest is much better (IMO)

Loads of places i’d like to see a lot of have already been mentioned on here

Istanbul hasn’t but sounds good

Reykjavik. Incredible place.

Blimey! Thanks for all the suggestions, Budapest is a good (and popular…) shout, but not the only one I like the look of.

+1 for Stockholm – very interesting and atmospheric city with lots of great bars and restaurants. Pricy though!

Have you been to Venice ? Fantastic in the off-season.

Assuming this is a summer weekend I’d also recommend Stockholm. I spend half my working life there and love the place (in summer). I’m taking the wife and kids for a family weekend in June and would love to go back sans offspring for a weekend too.

Also worth considering (in summer) is St Petersburg – stunning.

I fancy trying Stockholm; would also like to go to Vienna & possiblt Florence, but Rome & Venice don’t appeal

been to the ‘dam, many years ago. got quietly stoned in one bar without even taking anything other than beer. Passive smoking, eh?

Paris is like London, only French 🙁

Barca is great, Girona too

a bit beyond the 2 hour flight limit, Vancouver is nice

Nice, Biarritz, Portofino, Seville, Marrakesh, North Berwick [ :oops:]

Ghent, like Brugges but not as sterile, has a night life too.

I went to Venice in mid January and loved it. Not busy as far as tourists which might be an issue in spring/summer. I’d definatelly go back!

Going to amsterdam in 4 weeks time so im hoping that will be amazing too.

Berlin is a great city. Considering I live only two hours away from there I really should go there more often and it’s pretty cheap compared to other capital cities in Europe. Prague is better in winter IMO. It has to be grey and cold to get the real atmosphere of the city and in summer it gets absolutely over-run with tourists. I actually liked Barcelona when I was last there but I am a big Gaudi fan. Other not so obvious choices could be Munich or Dresden. Both have some nice historical buildings. And if you are going this time of year Venice has the beautiful snow capped Alps as a backdrop, but be prepared to get ripped off for absolutely everything!

Amsterdam or Rome

Just back from Amsterdam our 3rd visit, Went out to kukkenhof (tulip/garden place.. was very nice!)
Mooched round the city, had Fondue at Cafe Bern (a must do, but you need to book!)Picnic in Vondlepark. Ann Frank house, Van Gogh Museum, and a quick bike ride round the city. Dutch are brilliant, really helpful and friendly, whats not to like

Rome. A bonkers busy Italian city with a monument you recognize on every corner. VERY expensive. Collusium has a real atmosphere about it.

I’m going to Amsterdam for Queens Day at the end of April 🙂

On a stag do 🙁

With a bunch of late thirties/early forties blokes 🙁

I feel like I’m part of the biggest cliché ever. Meh.

Hopefully I’ll be able to shneak away for a bit of it – I don’t fancy the evening entertainment that’s being lined up.

I know what you mean DD.

10 yrs ago I was on a european tour with American clients. Last city was Amsterdam and they hadnt been before and wanted to experience the “cliches”.

Nurse-maiding 3 stoned yanks and then having to sit through the freakiest of sex shows with them…. 🙄

About as much fun as a novocaine w_nk.

Venice is amazing, avoid San Marco etc and head for the real Venice that lies behind it. Don’t watch ‘ Don’t Look Now’ before you go.

Seville and Cordoba would be Spanish choices with Madrid over Barcelona if you can only get a flight to either of those.

If it’s France then my choice would be Nimes and Arles. Great climate at this time of year and an abundance of Roman antiquities. The nearby medieavel spice town of Uzes is well worth a visit too.

Ewww…I can imagine. I guess you had no choice. Thing is, this will be my first time in Amsterdam. It was the last city my mum and dad visited together and I was always looking forward to visiting – goodness knows why I haven’t got round to it yet…duh.

While I am big and ugly enough to do my own thing – there’s a fine balance between going along with the group and putting one’s foot down…and coming across as a coq.

****’ wedding’s costing me a fortune.

Better do a cash job 🙄