4 night Europe Trip in February. Where would you suggest?

[MCOut]

I know there have been a few of these, but I’m going to be annoying and start another one. DP and I are looking to have a trip, just us in February. He was starting to talk about Iceland, but the story today put me off. Black Mumsnetters who have been, did you enjoy it? Where else have you been that you felt fairly comfortable?

No comments admonishing my paranoia please. I personally do not mind responses from posters with black/mixed family members but please only post if you’ve discussed their experience of the destination with them in a racialised context.

Hi

I have been to Greece and enjoyed Athens.

DP and I visited Barcelona a few years ago and loved it. It was the least (overtly) discriminatory European break we’ve been on and generally we had a lovely time there. I would definitely recommend.

I have found Spain generally safe. I would go to southern Spain if possible as you can't go later in the year.

Thank you for these suggestions.

It’s so crazy how everyone can have such a different experiences. In Athens I had a driver/ guide who had seemed lovely ask a friend and I what we though of the “migrant” crisis before he proceed to tell us he prescribed to the great replacement theory. To this day, I don’t know how he thought black women would be the best people to have this conversation with

Jheeze. I wonder if that was him passively aggressively telling you to “eff off back to Africa” or genuine ignorance and stupidity, thinking it doesn’t apply to you because you’re tourists. (My money’s on the former!)

@DrinkingMyWaterMindingMyBiz 😂 A combination of the two lol “ Ladies, you are great as tourists, but please do not overstay your welcome”. It really was an epic mind f. He said it like it was so reasonable.

😄 typical!

Please do let us know what destination you decide on and your experiences, because it really is a struggle!

I'm not black, but my husband who is has had no issues in Spain and Portugal. Appallingly, a friend of mine was asked to leave a restaurant in Budapest 😢 Disgusting.

Tbh any majority white ie European country will have this problem and as you have said there will be varying degrees of experience depending on the person.

@Krampers I agree that they won’t be a completely racism free area anywhere, but there do seem to be some places in which black people and people of colour more widely typically have bad experiences in. I remember we had a thread awhile back and it was full of repeat offenders. I think it stands to reason that there will also be places which most of us find fun too.

I think I’ll suggest Barcelona. I agree with previous posters that I found Spain good. I have friends there and previously when I visited Seville and Cordoba, I had a great time. There was just not much for me to eat and I’ve already been so I hoped there might be other suggestions.

Yes we did struggle for food in Barcelona - especially as DP doesn’t eat pork and practically every dish has pork in it! We ended up eating mostly street food and burgers! But other than that, it was great.

I know! Pork sneaks its way into everything! I had to resort to exclusively vegetarian restaurants. Cuba was like this too.

Bloody hell!!!

@Lookingatthesunset ?

@MCOut you didn't mention dietary requirements

Much as I’m bitching it doesn’t matter too much. In the cities, there’s usually vegetarian restaurants or Italian somewhere. We just end up going for dinner twice.

Madrid is a fantastic city. Much prefer it to Barcelona.

I second Madrid, also love Valencia and Granada. Vienna was lovely, shame about what PP said about Budapest as I had a great time there. Berlin was (surprisingly) welcoming.