To ask for recommendations on city breaks and how to do this on a budget

[Springsummer222]

Have a wee bit of time off before next job
Can anyone recommend a city break for , say 4 or 5 days ,and how to keep things cheap?

Following with interest

Fly at unsociable hours for cheaper tickets, look for cheaper hotels, sign up to hotels.com member prices. Eurostar also has cheap tickets about £40 each way to several destinations, again not at the greatest times of the day but...

Was going to say book well in advance but obviously not.

I'd fiddle around with Ryanair and EasyJet to see when the cheapest flight combinations are. Then onto Booking.com and sort according to price, lowest first.

I've managed to do 3 nights in Rome last year and 4 nights in Florence this year each time for £500 in total for four people, flights and accommodation.

Choose a cheap destination? I'd suggest krakow. A lot to see (some bleak of course) with accommodation, food and activities all extremely reasonable.

Whiteroseredrose- where did you stay in Rome ?
Thanks so far 👍

I recommend Vienna or Prague for cheap(er) food and drink. Fly from a little airport rather than Gatwick/Heathrow/Manchester. Roll outfits in a carry on (check airline baggage before booking).

I stay in hostels, you can find hostels with single rooms. Often en suite. And often lovely, buildings with great communal areas.

Barcelona is my favourite city for a city break. Loads to see and do.

Barcelona, Rome, Milan and Florence are my favourite short-haul places for weekend breaks. All reasonably cheap with pretty decent hotels for reasonable prices, all with plenty to see and do without breaking the bank.

In Barcelona there's a restaurant called Buenos Aires Grill that serves the very best steak I've ever eaten . Please, please go there if you venture to Barca, and take the open top bus tour, too, as it's cheap and fabulous. You can go and see Mount Tibidabo (the one from the sex story in Friends) on the bus tour and the views are incredible. The Gaudi buildings are worth a tour all of their own and the Sagrada Familia is well worth the queues and tourists.

Nico - can you recommend any specific hostels ( nice buildings ) etc Only not Barcelona as I’ve been a few times Thanks

Krakow. Cheap as chips and one of the places I absolutely love going to. Loads to do and food is fab.

Great accommodation at dirt cheap prices.

Another vote here for Krakow; I went in February and it's just stunning

Very compact so you can make the best of your time, wonderful things to see and yes, the food, drink and entertainment is almost embarrassingly cheap

Flights are also very reasonable and the city's big on renting out apartments rather than being full of multinational hotels - so you can get a whole place to yourself for much less than a room in a mediocre hotel elsewhere

Prague, loads to do; you can usually get cheap flight/hotel deals; food and drink is cheap if you stay away from the centre and English bars.

How annoying, I read an article this week entitled "top ten cheap city breaks" but can't remember where. Seem to recall places in Poland/Eastern Europe were top of the list. Anywhere obvious like Rome were near the bottom for good value!

The hostel I normally used has closed so no recommendation for Barcelona but look at hostel world.com.

Go midweek Monday to Thursday or Sunday to Wednesday, fly one airline there and another back, if in London even different airports, hand luggage only obviously. In some cities hotels are cheap without needing to look at hostels and in others the hostels are as nice as hotels but cheaper. Do lots of research and utilise trip advisor forums. Cat hire can often be cheaper than transport friending where you are going. I'd highly recommend Krakow, very cheap, nice bars and restaurants, so much history -auschwitz, salt mines (honestly incredible) , museums , some are free on certain days, vodka is about 70p for a large flavoured measure and much nicer than here.

Oh, you said not Barcelona anyway!

Once flights are sorted you can always enjoy yourself on a budget by avoiding tourist traps.
Walking is free, cycling is cheap - use the equivalent of Boris Bikes rather than hire - you see amazing things.
Second cities are often nicer and cheaper than capitals. Valencia is nicer and cheaper than Barcelona.
Try somewhere different. Bucharest was fascinating and cheap. We could have stayed longer there was plenty to see and do - although we did splash out on a trip to Transylvania. Fascinating contrast of cultures.
Budapest has masses to see and do. We use daily a 48 hour hop on hop off to see most sights. We bought lunch in local bakeries and ate street food in a Jewish festival. We even got invited to join a special celebration of a sort of Jewish harvest festival. Sukkot, I think it was but that may be Hungarian term. It was a fabulous evening and completely free.
We are a bit stingy and plan well after years of not having the money for admissions. Our children didn’t realise for years they’d been cheated at the Cadbury’s factory by buying chocolate and using the playground. Much cheaper. In Paris we didn’t climb the Eiffel Tower. We ate croissants at the bottom then went to the roof of Gallery Lafayette for the skyline view.

Would be best if you gave us a budget and some idea of destinations!

Boom an apartment instead of a hotel.

Ello - budget as cheap as poss - £500 tops if at all possible. Cities - any in Europe..

For 2 people, 4-5 days? Which months approx?

Also which airports can you fly from?

Vienna hands down. Not massively touristy but stunningly lovely, close by and flights reasonable.

Go to the schnapps museum! Free schnapps! 😊 And see the palace. And ride the tram.

I've been looking into this at the moment for may bank hol so it's going to be more spendy but the cheapest is Budapest then Milan. The best websites apps I've found are lastminute or Expedia x