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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Original poster

October half term, disaster!

35 replies

CakeNinja · 20/09/2017 18:04

If you are interested in the back story, i have a thread about a refused ESTA going in 30 days.
Dp and I are now looking to book a trip away in the October half term, but we have visited quite a lot of European cities and are hoping to do something a bit different to what we've done before (which I appreciate you don't know!).
Due to the previous thread, the budget isn't huge but we are prepared to maybe travel up to 5 hours for 5/6 days, leaving on Friday 20th October.
Weather isn't an issue and we don't want anything all inclusive.
On the no list include... France/Spain/Italy - we have spent the bulk of our holidays in various parts of these countries, both with and without kids. Lisbon/Berlin/Munich/Budapest/Prague/Edinburgh/Dublin are also out (sorry!).
Any suggestions you helpful bunch of MNers?!

OP posts:
PotteringAlong · 20/09/2017 18:07

Dubrovnik?
Belfast?

Original poster
CakeNinja · 20/09/2017 18:11

Do people still turn up at airports and just book flights to wherever there is one?

OP posts:
PantPlot · 20/09/2017 18:17

We've done Marrakech in Oct half term before.

About a 4 hour flight. Hot, sunny- hotel outside the city centre. Relaxing by the pool some of the time, a short (if terrifying) taxi ride into the city square and souks when we fancied it

PotteringAlong · 20/09/2017 18:19

Umm, don't know! I assume you can. Are you close enough to an airport that you could go and find out beforehand?

Drinaballerina · 20/09/2017 18:19

There was an article in the telegraph about lesser known European cities to visit. I'll try to find it to link to it.

Original poster
CakeNinja · 20/09/2017 18:24

Pant, dp doesn't really fancy Marrakech, his sister was caught up in the bombings there a few years ago and I think it's tainted it for him sadly.
Pottering, about 45 minutes from Gatwick. Im not sure our nerve would hold really!
Thanks Drina.

OP posts:
Lunde · 20/09/2017 18:31

Somewhere Scandi? Copenhagen, Reykjavik?

EveryoneTalkAboutPopMusic · 20/09/2017 18:32

How about Riga? Then you can come back and tell me what it's like Smile

Justmuddlingalong · 20/09/2017 18:35

We did Krakow last October and loved it. Bremen is lovely too. We're trying Bratislava next month.

MadeinBelfast · 20/09/2017 18:54

@Everyonetalkaboutpopmusic, Riga is lovely and has great cafes!

CardinalSin · 20/09/2017 18:56

What kind of holiday are you looking for?

I found Riga a bit of a dump, quite frankly, but Vilnius was lovely. Ljubljana? Athens?
I've always enjoyed Helsinki. Not the cheapest, but not as expensive as you might think.

cathyandclare · 20/09/2017 18:56

Was also coming on to say Krakow, great place, we did it in October half term

jennielou75 · 20/09/2017 18:58

I did Krakow last year in October half term. Was lovely.

OublietteBravo · 20/09/2017 18:59

I like Strasbourg, Insbruck, and Ljubljana. Or St Helier (and the rest of Jersey) is also nice.

hurrythefuckupgeorge · 20/09/2017 19:00

I saw your other thread, sorry you couldn't get it sorted.

I would totally recommended Iceland, we loved it! We did whale watching, Golden Circle Tour, Blue Lagoon and Northern lights tour. There is also other things like glacier tour and volcano tours depending on what you are into.

Reykjavik is a really cool city for just wandering around too.

Easyjet fly there and there is loads of Air BnBs

FrancisCrawford · 20/09/2017 19:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MummaGiles · 20/09/2017 19:02

Porto - you could fit in a river cruise along the Douro in that time too.

Istanbul? Baku (flight may be longer than you said though)? Dubrovnik? Stockholm? Rejkavik?

HainaultViaNewburyPark · 20/09/2017 19:09

You could do a Benelux odyssey. I'd recommend Utrecht and Rotterdam (NL), Bruges and Antwerp (BE), and (of course) Luxembourg.

Original poster
CakeNinja · 20/09/2017 19:13

Plenty of food for thought, Thankyou.
Any particular areas useful for transport links from airports in Reykjavik? No idea about there and not huge amounts of time to look into all options!
Would be happy to hear any other easy transfer options for any of your other recommendations too!
For the poster who asked, we like eating, drinking, walking about a little, nothing too strenuous, we aren't really into anything like hiking and sorry to say, we aren't particular culture vultures, we won't be visiting galleries or museums! Dp appreciates interesting architecture and sport, I like lively places near open water!

OP posts:
NC4now · 20/09/2017 19:15

I came in to say Porto. We went last year and fell in love with the city.

NC4now · 20/09/2017 19:17

Cross posted. Porto really fits your brief actually. There is a really nice, civilised but lively night life and interesting buildings, plus all the port cellars, and interesting, quirky shops.
We got cheap flights and airbnb.

Almostthere15 · 20/09/2017 19:19

Have you thought of a cruise? Either flting out to canaries for warm weather or doing northern Europe from here? If what you really want is to chill out this could be a good option

pieceofpurplesky · 20/09/2017 19:21

Kraków. Amazing city

CardinalSin · 20/09/2017 19:25

There's a regular bus from the airport to Helsinki, costing about €5, or the Finnair bus is slightly more, but quicker (and probably easier).

Wine is fairly expensive, but beer not much more than London prices. There are some superb restaurants, great bars etc., getting very lively at weekends. A market by the harbour on certain days, easy to use trams to get all the way around the city (and to sight-see!), and you can take a boat trip around, or even to Tallinn for a day.