October half term - city break, where?

[dottygamekeeper]

DS will be 18 in October and I am thinking of a short city break as a present. Where would you recommend - he really likes art galleries, architecture/interiors, fashion, shopping and people watching. We have done Paris already.

What about Prague, seems to fit all your US's interests? I love it.

DS not US, obviously.

Barcelona?

Nice, or Barcelona. Weather is likely to be reasonable too.

He's done Nice already, though he loved it and I'm sure would like to be going back there. I am keen on the idea of Barcelona, and was hoping there might be a chance of some reasonable weather too. Another thought I had was Rome. Any other suggestions?

Berlin is supposed to be very cool/lots going on. Not as warm as Barcelona though I love Seville and Granada - but not for the shopping - Barcelona has that in droves. Or Madrid? Shops/art museums/football - nice tapas eating in the old town? Prague and Budapest are lovely cities but I wouldn't associate them with fashion and shopping especially - beautiful architecture yes.

Milan?

Gaudi buildings in Barcelona. Picasso museum in Barcelona. Boqueria and las Ramblas in Barcelona. Shops in Barcelona. Nice weather, cable car, tapas, you NEED to go to Barcelona. He will love it.

Istanbul is lovely and it should still be warm in October. There is so much to see there.

Florence or Venice?

We did a two centre holiday one October to both these cities. Florence was lovely and warm, but not too warm for sightseeing. Venice can be wet in October (it was on one of the days we were there)

oh my god, ROme hands down! covers all bases! I am insanely jealous of you having a strapping 18 yr old, willing to go on holiday with his mother and with that list of interests... what a dream. I may need to put my daughter down for him ;-)

Is Rome warm in October?

I wondered about Rome too, as I haven't been there for a long time, but i think Barcelona may be winning at the moment - I would love somewhere warmer than here at that time of year, and ideally sunny, but realise that will be down to luck really...

We did Rome one October half term, perfect weather for sightseeing. We've also been to Istanbul which was very good, Tokyo & Washington DC. It's a great time of the year to travel.

Rome will be a perfect temperature in late October - we went first week in Nov a couple of years ago and it was t-shirt weather and just perfect for walking around everywhere.
Just be warned though that places like Venice can get an awful lot of rain in the Autumn - we originally fancies going there, but were told that November (and presumably late Oct) is one of the worse time for flooding.

How about Stuttgart? It's not everyone's first choice but the Staatsgalerie www.staatsgalerie.de/index_e.php is good and there are plenty of places to shop, eat and drink.