Weekend city break in Europe: good airport links in to destinatiom

[boatyardblues]

We are thinking of a short city break and are agnostic on destination so long as the flights and dates work. We want to keep costs down so want easy links from airport to the named city location. Which European airports are well-located or have good public transport into their city/named destination? Are there any we should avoid because they’re only tenuously located near their city or have awful links?

@boatyardblues we stayed at Lapad, there's either a bus or roughly £10 for an Uber to take you 10 minutes into town, or you can do the coastal walk but it's quite long.
It's better to stay there as the centre can be very busy with cruise trips during the day and means you can also go to the beach.

Thinking about it, I enjoyed Madrid and Dubrovnik but Dubrovnik is the one I'm going back to in Autumn as I wasn't feeling great last time I was there. I just loved the compact city and contrast with the beaches and boat trips. Madrid had more museums and places to visit though, so it depends what you enjoy most.

I've been to Barcelona, Brussels (the main airport not Charleroi), Amsterdam and Budapest and only used public transport to get from the airport to the city.

oh, and Frankfurt!

Stockholm, Oslo, Bergen and Milan all have easy and quick train connections from the airport to the city centre.

Pisa. Airport very close and for us worked out far cheaper than Florance.

@skilpadde
i agree with all of those. Pisa is easy too. Venice is also easy. Nice airport to city has a tram. Berlin has buses. Airport to
Amsterdam is also easy. Copenhagen airport has a good train service to the central station. Lisbon has a metro service and Seville has regular buses to city centre.

just make sure your airline uses a close airport and not one way out. Cheap airlines don’t always use the best airports: eg Venice.

Riga. Zurich. Helsinki.

Lyon. They have city beaches, or a beach certainly, on the banks of one of the rivers in summer. Easy train journey into the city from the airport and the city is a very attractive place with seriously good food. You might even take in an opera. I’d also recommend Copenhagen, but it’s quite pricey.

Thanks all. Some of these destinations are not available from the regional airport my friends want to fly from, but lots of them are. I’m busy making notes. The tips on costs once there are also handy.

I've been to Brussels, Madrid, Lisbon, Pisa, Verona, Rome and Florence over the last few years for city breaks and all are easy train rides from the airport.

Lapad is fine, fairly quiet, mostly hotels (many beachside) with a few small shops. There is a frequent, reliable bus service which takes about 10 minutes into Dubrovnik. IIRC you can buy booklets of tickets for not too many kuna to cover a few bus journeys. Be aware that the return bus can be pretty busy depending on the time of day, standing room only for the first part of the journey. Dubrovnik is lovely, would happily go back.

Great ideas here. I'll add Brussels by train right into the centre.

Rome Airport has its own train station that takes you into the city in 20 minutes.

budget airlines will fly to Charleroi though. And that’s a pain.

Verona. Absolutely gorgeous and very close to airport.

Prague - very easy bus ride into the city.
Amsterdam was quick and painless.
I actually found it a bit of a pin to get into Florence - a mix of bus and train via Pisa
Valetta is easy to get too - but the buses can be jam packed.

Malaga. You fly into Malaga airport.

Did you make a final decision op?

Yes, we did but posting our agreed destination could be outing. Your suggestions helped us narrow down a shortlist & then the budget and the convenience of the flights decided it. I’ve kept a note of your other destinations for next year. 😄

Wtaf?
You ask people for suggestions and then think somewhere like Paris or Oslo will out you?
Jesus Christ.

There are great deals for Madrid at the moment but the flight times weren’t any good for us.

I have found most are easy these days. Lisbon, Berlin, Krakow, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, to be honest everywhere we've been had cheaper options, if you investigate and book ahead - you book a minibus ahead of time for 15 euros instead of 50. Are you sure this should be a major factor in your decision making?

We’re all set thanks Oblomov.

And to answer PAFMO’s unnecessary snark, it’s a more unusual destination, not Paris, Oslo etc.

People offer their suggestions, PAFMO, no one owes anyone anything. No need to get sweary and foot stampy. It’s daft.