October half term, disaster!

[CakeNinja]

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?!

Madeira
The Azores

Copenhagen!!! It's been my favourite city break by far. It will be a bit chilly but eating, drinking and mooching about? Tick tick tick!

I had a thread with loads of amazing suggestions. It's quite pricy when you're there relative to UK, but not more than London tourist prices and not ridiculous like Saint Mark's Square Venice sort of ridiculous. Flights are cheap and although we AirBnb'd there is an amazing youth hostel that is very highly rated. I'm not a youth hostel kinda gal (more boutique hotel) but I would stay there.

I'll dig out thread and hostel links. It's easy and cheap to get from airport to centre of city on the underground.

I can't find my old thread but recommendations included the marvellous Ruby cocktail bar. I'd skip Tivoli gardens personally but I recommend Host restaurant, trip to Paper Island/Papirøen which is a sort of hip street food place and Torvehallerne which is a food market where you can get good open sandwiches or coffee and cake. Other recommendations on the thread included Geranium but we didn't go there and Restaurant Malvern which we did but it was only ok because the service wasn't great and it was pricey on the day we went. I also really liked going for a look round the interiors shops.

generatorhostels.com/destinations/copenhagen?section=gallery is the hostel info.

Flights from Gatwick with EasyJet leaving on 20th are £255 for two adults.

I'm quite tempted to go myself..! Except I have to work :(

Stockholm if you like open water and good food. Bit pricey but worth it. Or Istanbul, though seeing your comments on Marrakech, that might not be ideal. But it would be cheaper and spectacular, and you'd be unlucky to be caught up in anything.

Or St Petersburg if you can face applying for another visa?! Might be able to go visa-free for three nights potentially if cruising but you'd need to look into it. It would definitely be different!

I also liked Tallinn, Helsinki, Riga, Kraków and Ljubljana (combined with a night at Lake Bled, which is stunning). The last two would be cheaper. You could combine Tallinn and Riga and fly into one and out of the other, bus in between.

Amsterdam is definitely lively and you could combine it with other destinations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg or Germany.

We also really liked Dresden, though not sure how easy it would be to fly there. There's lots to see around Dresden too.

Thanks Moving, Copenhagen sounds great. I'll float these ideas to dp over the weekend, a huge thanks to everyone and I hope to be back over the weekend with an update.

Hi all, just a quick update, I have reserved a room at a lovely spa hotel in Tallinn (dp loves steam and sauna, we both like jacuzzi and swimming and they offer massage treatments so suits us both), and just waiting to see if I can transfer my flights without paying too much more. The man who is dealing me seems to think it's not going to cause too much of a problem so fingers crossed I can get it firmed up tomorrow.
We are planning on visiting Lithuania for a day, and spending the rest of the trip sightseeing, eating and drinking.
Thanks to everyone for your recommendations, we have plans for Iceland with the children, and possibly Krakow next year at Easter already so they weren't up for consideration for this time, can't wait to get there and explore there though!

Great news. Remember and give us a trip report when you get back. (Tallinn's on my list) Have a fantastic time.

Sounds lovely and another request for a trip report here

Just to let you know, we have booked another holiday. Travel trolley wouldn’t let us transfer the flights after all so I lost all my money but we have booked to go to The Gambia for a week instead, all a bit impulsive but we were losing the will to even care in the end!