Help! Stuck planning DH 40th birthday trip

[Luckybe40]

DH is 40 in July, have promised to take him away for 5 days over weekend, but where?? Looking for 1-3 hours travel by plane, from London, somewhere "off the beaten track" not too expensive, a bit unique...any ideas? All the close countries weve been too, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Scotland, Poland are out as we've already travelled. Anybody have any ideas of a cool place I can take him?

Morocco is meant to be nice?

Croatia? Very beautiful. Or Sardinia, some stunning beaches there and amazing food.

What about Scandinavia? I've been to Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland. It depends on what your definition of "not too expensive" is though.

Jersey or Guernsey

Lisbon is nice.

City or beach?

Morocco is great if you fancy warmer weather.

Or how about Iceland? You could see a lot of the major sites in a 5 day trip.

Amazing, thanks for all the suggestions! City and beach ideally, maybe 2 nights in city and head out to beach or countryside, off to google!!

Budapest?, Slovenia, lake bled?

Not too expensive is a budget of about £200 a day including hotel...I'm not keen on cheap and cheerful, but he is, and I've been instructed to not book a 5 star hotel so hopefully that should be enough?!

You probably need to rule out Scandinavia then.

Yep, shame as I've always wanted to go.

Why not Scandinavia doesn't have to be expensive. We found it's only booze that was expensive eating out, hotels and travel where similar to Other places I've been. We flew in August to Copenhagen stayed two nights in Copenhagen, had two weeks self catering in Sweden, hired a car and cost us a grand for 4.

We have previous stayed a radisson in Gothenburg for 60.00 a night bed and breakfast.

I found the states to be scarcely expensive especially booze.

lovely the op said she doesn't want cheap and cheerful. I've just been to Iceland and it was very hard to find hotels for under £100 a night. Lunch (coffee and panini in standard cafe) was usually about £15. Booze horrendously expensive (£10 bottle of beer). £200 a day including hotel for a special getaway would be tricky there. Prices were similar in Norway and Denmark.

I might have misjudged what the op was looking for.

I'd love to go to Morocco but we got hassled almost to death in Egypt (and robbed) and I fear the same for Morocco although I know I could be wrong. Anyone have any experience with Morocco? I'm also thinking Moldova, Bulgaria...although it's so expensive to fly there...Sardinia looks gorgeous!!! I have these romantic notions of boarding Eurostar Thursday night after work and waking up somewhere amazing...so many choices! Does anyone know I you can reach Portugal by train without it taking eleventy million days?

4 star hotel I would class as cheap and cheerful. But good value. You have to look and can get great value that's not cheap.

Currently in a 5 star hotel in Portugal that has cost me 400 for seven nights. Advertised room rate for our is £2100.

Oh my bloody word! Where are you if you don't mind me asking? Just been drooling over Vila Monte farmhouse, it's got me written all over it, under strict instructions to not book somewhere really expensive as he'd rather spend the money on food,( wine) etc... But surely he wants a nice hotel??

Vialmura on the algarve

But where does HE want to go? It's his birthday!! Does he want you to plan it or does he want to be involved at all?

We take the train to the south of France and Spain for our summer hols then hire a villa when we get there.

Check out timetables at www.eurail.com/plan-your-trip/eurail-timetable

Says it takes 25 hourts to get to Lisbon from London...

He wants me to surprise him, no imput from him at all...we travelled A LOT in our 20's & 30's and have been to SO many incredible places, I'm feeling the pressure to come up with something amazing! All he wants is to go somewhere new, unique, and relatively cheap. I'm so easy to please as anywhere fancy with great food and wine is good for me but he doesn't really go for the whole 5 star thing, it's more about the place rather than the hotel for him.

I know you said not Spain - but Cadiz, Jerez, Valencia all brilliant for a weekend away.

We loved Berlin recently. Munich also great and you could get the train to the Bavarian Alps to stay.

Lots of people recommend Krakow and there's mountains near there too.

My best weekend away somewhere a bit off the beaten track was Zagreb.

Oh and Ljubljana was fab too - and interesting places to get out and visit.

Certainly off the beaten path - I visited Kosovo a few years ago and loved it! The food is great. We went to Pristina the capital and then on to the two cities of Peja and Prizren. Very very cheap and interesting. You could combine with a visit to Montenegro or Lake Orid (sp?) in Macedonia for beach time...

Formentera

My husband and I had an amazing holiday there