recommend me a holiday

Since getting long COVID, holidays are somewhat of a trial. Previously, a holiday (just the 2 of us) would often be an airbnb in a pleasant European city, from which base we’d attempt to walk and photograph and eat and drink every interesting bit of the entire place.

Chronic fatigue rules that out. The best trip we’ve had since was Rovinj in Croatia: taxiable from the airport, a small place with plenty of cafes/ shops/restaurants within a 5 min walk, even sea swimming, nice views, not crazily expensive, no need for a car.

Where else is nice, easily accessible, and suitable for a 40 something with all the fitness of an overweight, heavily smoking octogenarian?

Soller in Mallorca, off season ideally, not far from Palma and connected by quaint narrow gauge train. Lovely location, tram takes you down to the beach at Port Soller.

Alghero, Sardinia – get a place in the old town

Malaga?

When are you going?

Fly to Andalucia, hire a car and drive around Cadiz, Jerez, El Puerto and various other spots?

When are you going?

Outside of the school holidays! Any time is fine really. We usually go June or Sept.

Fly to Andalucia, hire a car and drive around Cadiz, Jerez, El Puerto and various other spots?

That kind of thing is a bit much unfortunately – ideally it’d be all in one spot so I don’t have to pack and unpack, check in and out every few days. Also it puts a load of driving onto MrsDoris who doesn’t particularly enjoy it!

Soller and Alghero look great tho, thanks for those ideas…

A villa in the Algarve maybe?

We did menorca earlier this year, that was lovely. The villa was about a 20 minute walk outside the town cala n Bosch, which was a nice little place with plenty food/drink options and even in school holidays was previously deserted during the day. We had car hire included with that one and the driving about was very very easy (I’ve never driven abroad before, I guess this was a gentle introduction to it!) Plenty places to visit, or lounge in your villa, lovely stuff.

Longleat Center Parcs, hire e-bikes can now be taken off campus and the local lanes are great for road cyclists, was wonderful to ride the hills I used to before long covid back in September.

If it were me, I’d go to some quiet little Greek fishing village with a couple of tavernas on the seafront/pier and just while away my days watching the world go by.

Madrid in early June is nice, and the centre is pretty compact. Late June it can get very hot, though.

Where is your nearest airport and train station? If the travel exacerbates the fatigue then finding direct routes is going to be ‘easiest’ and thinking about smaller airports that Ryanair or Easyjet use might help.

Have you considered using Eurostar? If in the south it’s quick, less hassle than flight+ground transport as you get to a city centre, and you can get connecting tickets. e.g. Bruge or similar small city.

Also don’t discount UK.

I liked Nice as an easy to get to place with nice food, but in August it would be hell! Similarly cities like Florence, go in Feb/March and it’s pleasant, avoid through summer. For a beach break, most islands in the Med or Canaries will have somewhere near enough to an airport.

Naples. It’s grimy but cool. Great food everywhere, easy access to the Amalfi coast by bus, Pompeii by train, and Capri by boat.

+1 on looking at both UK and at where your local airports fly to, easing the travel burden.

Bristol is our nearest airport, so that gives us a reasonable selection of Ryanair’s finest.  Not as many options as from Stansted, but still decent. They usually involve a pre-4am alarm call though, which means at least the first day will be a write-off.  But still, worth it for a nice chilled break.

Open to ideas for UK spots too!  It can be tricky as we don’t want anything too remote, it should be at least taxiable from some nice cafes and restaurants. We’ve done South/West Wales a bit, but might have missed a few options…

If you liked Rovinj then Dubrovnik is further along the coast and everything is walkable inside the old town walls.

Cascais (up the coast from Lisbon) was very lovely too.

My wife went to see a friend in Malmo this year and had good things to say about it, she flew into Copenhagen and took a short train over ‘the bridge’.

Bristol is our nearest airport

It’s a short hop over to Ireland, if it’s Belfast then plenty to do in and around the city centre for a short break, or trips out to Derry and the north coast for Giant’s Causeway. Dublin is expensive these days, if Bristol do flights to Cork it’s a lovely city, again for a few days.

Alicante, short taxi or bus to the old city from the airport (Ryanair flies here).  In the city itself you can walk about the old town with plenty to see/eat etc.  The castle has an elevator built into the cliff’s so you can get to it without hiking up to it.  Sea/beach is also just by the old town and finally the train/tram system can also allow you to see different parts along the cost with minimal walking on foot