Best family European city break for October?

[difsa]

As the title suggests. Travelling with a 15 and a 12 year old. Looking for somewhere not too far (as only 3 nights), and not too major (don't want to take on a Rome or a Paris just for a couple of days). Just a nice city with some fun things to do and see, and nice food. Don't care much about weather - not sun seeking. Front runner so far is Copenhagen, but had a look on Expedia (admittedly quite briefly) and direct flights plus a nice-ish hotel was nearly two grand! So ideally somewhere a bit cheaper (or any tips for where to book cheaper last minute deals?). All ideas welcome, including less well known cities.

Last year at this time we went to Austria for a week - 4 days in Vienna and 3 in Salzburg. DD2 v into horses and Sound of Music. It was fantastic. The weather was very good: dry, sometimes cold/cooler but mostly dry with blue skies. We had an AirBnB in both cities.
That said, I then took DDs to Paris at Easter and it was tough. They were bored everywhere - the louvre, l'avenue des Champs Elysées, etc.
A dip-in, starter/short weekend for Paris or Rome might be just the thing for that age even if you and DH find it unsatisfying.
We cut our city-break teeth in Barcelona before the pandemic and that might fit the bill for you and DH - nice food, potentially better weather, good architecture and culture.

Florence and Rome are still warm and have beautiful boutiques for winter clothes shopping.
South of France also still be warm and very relaxing at this time of year, Monaco will be warmer still
Lisbon is fabulous, still beach weather and you can combine with history and culture.
Any Greek island for the last rays of warm sunshine and a touch of history, great prices that have just been slashed. Santorini - Oia - is our favourite, we came back with a great tan and some wonderful days out. Insta friendly with great views for the teens. My fav place in the autumn!

I second Paris being boring for teens apart from the Eiffel tower mine were bored as well.

We went to Naple in Oct 2019 with 2 of similar ages, was brilliant.

Rome is wonderful in the autumn - take teens to the colosseum. Pantheon and Vatican are incredible for that age group.

Lisbon ticks all your boxes. I’m not sure why another poster has ruled out Berlin - perfect for kids of that age. The Checkpoint Charlie museum is the best museum ever.

We went to Lisbon last October. It was fabulous and very cheap.
Have a look on the LuckyTrip app. You can set your budget, destination and swipe through the accommodation to get a higher grade of accommodation or then tap the LuckyTrip button to see the next option. It’s addictive!

Another vote for Seville - spent a week there with similar age kids this summer. It is just fab! Loads to do, it's cheap, has great food. We all loved it

Lisbon , Budapest , Istanbul , Naples ( for Pompeii and capri )

Krakow - beautiful, walkable, plenty to do, great food and relatively cheap! One of my absolute favourite city breaks!

DS is going to Berlin on a school trip, so that's out. I'd almost decided on Seville, but then found out they still have Covid restrictions in Spain, and the 12 year old's only half vaccinated, and I can't be arsed to faff about with tests. So Lisbon is current front runner I think. Other options still all interesting too though.

Following this as similar dilemma
think they would like Amsterdam but DH and I have been before

we are debating trying to find the northern lights in Norway but all the trips sound like hours on a minibus driving round the countryside in the dark and I’m pretty sure they would loathe that!

We’re going to Lisbon.

Dubrovnik? There's not a huge amount to see apart from walking the city walls and soaking up the atmosphere. Stay at Lapad and you could have a nice hotel with indoor swimming pool.

Or Budapest is a brilliant idea, I loved it and can't wait to go back.

Depends where you’re flying from but we booked from LGW for half term and many flights were hugely expensive unless you want to fly at 6am. We chose our destination based on flight prices.

Thanks. We looked again, and the prices were eye watering (our fault for leaving it so late, plus it's got to be over the weekend, which is much dearer). We've decided to take the Eurotunnel and drive to Belgium instead! It will save us at least a grand.

Riga, Tallinn, Warsaw or similar (depending on the budget airline destinations from your local airport) could be pretty low cost. You could try an air b&b rather than a hotel, which might help.

Helsinki is really lovely and there tend to be city wide deals in October to encourage eating out etc, which can mitigate the cost of everything. But, like Copenhagen, it probably won’t be cheap no matter what.

bruges

we loved Budapest, we talk about the zoo all the time.

The conditions seemed as good as any zoo we’ve been to, but there were few staff (not many visitors as went on a week day in late November) and it had a very Jurassic park feel… some of the lemurs and lizards were out and about. You weren’t quite sure what was meant to be in their enclosures of not.

It was very strange but we had the best time, I’m sure there were staff somewhere but it was very unnerving to be in the elephant house, with just us, in what seemed like an abandoned zoo.

Despite this we really enjoyed it and it made for a good story and we laugh about the craziness of the place all the time.

Segovia or Toledo in Spain. Grab a direct flight from Madrid, then a train there. Áurea Convento Capuchinos in Segovia is lovely. Loads of nice food options. A few big sites to seem a number of smaller sites.

Looks like you’ve made your decision but I came here to say Krakow- fantastic city!

Somewhere that should still be warm in the South of France, like Avignon, Arles, Nimes or Montpellier (all fairly close together, all with lots to see and do, plus the sea isn’t far away).

Lisbon, Palma, Malaga, Granada are all lovely compact cities and short flight times xx

ah so you can visit Bruges

Yes, that's the new plan. I'm going to come back to this thread in future though - so many good ideas. I did actually nearly go for Krakow - it was the one place where flights and hotels were still reasonable - but in the end the others in the family fancied Belgium/Bruges more. Perhaps we'd just spent too many hours searching flights by then!!