To be going bonkers over trying to book a holiday?!

[peachAAAY]

I think I'm going out of my mind. My husband and I have unexpectedly found ourselves child free for a weekend later in June and since I've been dreaming of a weekend away for what seems like forever, we've decided to treat ourselves to a weekend away (Hoorah!)

HOWEVER, I've been trawling the internet looking for cheapish flights and hotel and it all seems to be insanely expensive and the cheaper options then have extra costs like having to pay extra money for flights that don't last 10 hours etc etc etc. I just want two nights in a nice european location (heart set on paris really) - why does it have to be so hard?

I was so excited and this is taking all the fun out of it!

Those of you who are good at this kind of thing, please could you recommend me some websites to hunt on? Or other destinations that might be a little cheaper? Would massively appreciate any help.

Also, to help me justify the price to DH, please tell me all about your incredible (?!) experiences in Paris and which things are unmissable?

The British Airways web site often has reasonably priced city breaks.
You'll need to sort your transport from the airport to the hotel.
When are you planning on going?

Eurostar? Lille is also lovely and closet and cheaper on Eurostar. Nice? Are you set on France? Have you searched sky scanner saying you want to go everywhere? Then it will show you the best flight prices

Dates? And which airport?

Try the app WeekenGO - they have really good deals for weekends away!

Hopefully 22-24th June. I know we've left it very late and we wanted to be impulsive and just do it but all the crazy prices are really putting me off!

Are you dead set on Paris? Budapest is beautiful and cheaper, Lisbon has lots to do and again cheaper than Paris. The most popular weekend break destinations will be quite pricey this near to going, especially Paris as you can do it by Eurostar etc

Do you have a budget in mind ?

We have booked three days in Budapest for three of us for £600 in August.

Milan £230 each
Madrid £250
Paris £244

You can find cheap flights through Skyscanner. It allows you to select your airport, dates and select 'Everywhere' as the destination it'll tell you prices for lots of destinations, from lowest cost onwards.

For hotels and accommodation SecretEscapes is good. The focus on 4 and 5 star hotels. VoyagePrive are similar with prices with and without flights.

I also use websites such are HolidayPirates. All these websites are good places to start with research.

Last minute have a few good city break deals too for that weekend

Have a look at Oporto - 2 hr flight, TAP airline normally cheap, Carlton hotel on the Ribeira waterfront does good deals on its website. Beautiful small city, fabulous restaurants, easy to navigate.

This close a package will probably be cheaper as the cheap flights will be long gone, Jet2 city breaks are generally good value or Superbreak

Sounds like a lovely idea, but do you really want to spend a lot of the time travelling? Have you considered spending that sort of money on a lovely hotel within a few hours travel? Something really luxurious, with lovely meals and no one having to drive?

That is what i would do, if you tell us roughly where you are, or where you might get to, we might have some ideas for lovely places to stay without the stress of busy airports.

BA do great breaks. Must it be Paris? Florence is lovely, so are Rome and Barcelona.

I can second Budapest, beautiful city, fab laid back vibe and lots cheaper than most cities. Paris is nice but I find it a bit overrated.

What's your budget?

You are all amazing! Loads of different options thank you, thank you, thank you!

Currently looking a jet2 holiday packages and they're all lots cheaper than things I was finding before.

Also looking at Budapest as it comes so highly recommended!

We were hoping to find somewhere about 500-600 all in, not sure if I'm being too stingy when we have so little time but we don't go away very often (if at all) so it's quite hard to know what's reasonable.

That's more than do able especially for Budapest!

Voyage Prive is worth a look - they do some really nice deals

Travelzoo is great for weekend breaks too

Have you thought about Amsterdam? Fabulous city, a very quick flight, lots to do.

Easy and cheap to get from the airport to the centre, as the railway station is right under the airport.
Not sure where you are in the U.K., but for your dates you can get flights from London and decent hotel just outside Amsterdam from £200pp, or about £280pp in the centre of the city.

We went recently, and I can’t wait to go back. Really convenient for a quick break as the travel is so easy.

We went to Berlin recently and it was great.

Krakow is a lovely city to explore. Lots of fab restaurants and cafes.