Long weekends abroad

[FattyAirways]

I've always thought that long weekends abroad, ie three nights is a waste once you've got there, but I am seriously considering it for my next break!

It would be great to know where you went for your short break away, for how many nights and did you feel it was worth it for the time spent in the airport and flying to your destination for just a few nights.

We do this when we go somewhere for a Christmas market. In the summer we sometimes go to Cannes for a long weekend. City breaks can be good for that long too - Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen. I've found it worked well for all of these although generally I like to go to places for longer and travel around more.

As you’re only going for a few nights, you’ll be able to just take hand luggage which significantly reduces time at the airport.
Also, make sure your hotel isn’t too far from the airport.
Look up where you can fly to direct from your nearest airport.
Our favourites have been Biarritz, Jersey, Paris (via Eurostar) and Dublin.

Porto. Three nights is perfect, great combination of eating, walking, beaches and shopping.

Barcelona- ditto!

Amsterdam - 3 nights.
Barcelona - 4 nights.

Loved both. Hoping to do similar in Berlin and Paris in the next year or two. As others have said, hand luggage only reduces waiting times in airport, if possible pay extra to guarantee it will be in the cabin and not moved to hold. Sadly we don't get to join the fast immigration queue in EU countries anymore, so that's slower than it used to be. It's worth having at least a vague outline of what you want to do each day, there isn't loads of time to waste figuring out what you want to do and finding your feet. On a similar note it's also worth booking in advance main attractions, short breaks are often busy cities where popular places book out on the weekends.

I always do 3 night city breaks, we prefer lots of them to one big holiday.
Since 2020 we've done:
Madrid
Toledo
Brussels
Rome
Florence
Salamanca
Lisbon.

A long weekend is perfect for a city break.

I always try and go Friday morning and come back Monday afternoon. Then you arrive Friday in time for dinner and drinks, have all day Saturday and Sunday to explore, before going back Monday after a lie in/hotel breakfast etc.

For a short break I would usually choose a smaller city, or aim to just to a neighbourhood of a bigger city. You can’t explore all of say Paris in a weekend but if you’ve been before and done a lot of the big tourist sights you could have a lovely weekend just based in one neighbourhood getting to know it.

Also for a short break I look at somewhere that’s easy distance from the airport - you don’t want to add another hour or two travelling. Or if you’re able to get Eurostar that helps as you end up in a city centre train station.

My favourite cities for a short break:

Amsterdam
Stockholm
Tallinn
Porto
Lisbon
Prague
Bruges
Budapest
Bratislava
Krakov
Galway

We do a lot of UK weekend breaks as well, so many lovely towns and cities to visit in the UK.

I love to do little city breaks - Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Dublin, Amsterdam, Vienna just to name a few! Tend to fly Friday afternoon (we both have an early finish on Friday) then just take Monday off and get back Monday evening. Works as three full days and four nights - can normally fly, check in and go for a nice meal on the Friday too!

Before DS, dh and I did a lot of city breaks where we went Friday morning and came home Sunday night. We lived near Heathrow so worked well. We went to:

Stockholm
Verona
Venice
Bologna
Madrid
Munich
Berlin
Paris
Basel
Lisbon
Malaga
Amsterdam
Porto
Madrid
Florence
Genoa
Brussels
Edinburgh
Vienna
Hamburg
Gibraltar
Valencia
Copenhagen

I've done Portugal, Rome, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris & Amsterdam in 1 or 2 nights. I live near an airport and pick places no further than 3hrs flight away. Portugal was lovely for a little sun & r&r, the others were all great for a city break. Rome is the only place, I felt needed longer

I find the really big capital cities too busy for a weekend, but the smaller capitals and smaller cities elsewhere fit the bill for a weekend:

Scandinavia - Copenhagen/Malmo, Aarhus, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Helsinki
Elsewhere - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Warsaw, Krakov, Brussels, Lyon, Strassburg ...

Can I please add Dubrovnik to this

We did wed evening to Sunday lunch time
Perfect amount of time (Ps beautiful temp in sept )
Fab place to visit

Came here to say this, was there last week. Simply beautiful.

i’d recommend staying in Cavtat, wonderful town with some fantastic restaurants (check out Ludo More and Restaurant Leut in particular) and then getting the bus/boat into the Dubrovnik.

They are absolutely worth it. Like a PP said, if you get an early flight out & a later flight back, then you can really make the most of your time. Off the top of my head I’ve been to:

Seville
Barcelona
Lisbon
Paris
Nice
Rome
Milan
Florence
Venice
Krakow
Munich
Geneva

all for 3 nights and had a wonderful time.

Longer haul I have visited NYC & Dubai for 4/5 nights. Still worth it!!

We had a fabulous weekend in Majorca - flew 6pm Friday - was having cocktails at a beach bar several hours later. We came back Monday, flying 8pm, and it honestly felt like we’d been away for a week. We plan to do it again as it was super relaxing.

My craziest were three nights in Cape Town and four nights in Barbados and Dubai! I’ve also visited Paris, Disneyland Paris, Budapest, Tenerife, Dublin, Stockholm, Prague, Berlin, Algarve (for a wedding), Sienna (for a wedding) as mini breaks and had a great time.

I've often felt the same as you, buy inside 3 nights in Iceland thus summer and it was great. He did a small group tour and packed loads in to 4 days. Plus as PP says just having handluggage at the airport is a revelation.

I'm off to Palma this weekend to run their half marathon and drink lots of beer with friends.

Budapest was great as so close to the airport.

We have just done a short break with hand luggage You still have to queue for security and get your passport snd documents checked at bag drop. At Heathrow anyway. No time is saved at all. And we went business.

Any city in Europe is a great place for a city break. When we go further, we tend to go for 5 nights plus. There is so much to see in some cities we want to do as much as possible and not leave major sights unseen.

Did a weekend in LA in August. 3 nights.

currently on a 3 night break to Malaga.

also done short breaks to San Francisco, Brussels, Rome, Amsterdam, Berlin, Osnabruck, Budapest, Oslo, Dublin.

the LA trip was a slightly Mad one arrived Friday left Monday.

There is no bag drop with hand luggage @TizerorFizz!

If you check in online before you fly, it really does save time. We've flown twice through Gatwick in recent months, and they're trialling a new system where you don't need to take anything out of your bags - even liquids stay in there - so we were through security in around 10 minutes.

We've been doing weekend breaks for years now - usually the last bank holiday in May, to take advantage of the extra day's holiday - and have had some really lovely trips:

Prague
Amsterdam
Copenhagen
Seville
Lisbon
Porto
Bruges
Budapest
Positano
Rome
Ravello
Venice
Cassis
Paris
Lille
San Sebastian
Bordeaux
Le Touquet (although we drove for this one)

Agree with PP that the timing of the flight is key - you want to make sure you're arriving at your destination ideally around lunchtime, with a late afternoon return trip so you can enjoy a good lunch

Iceland was lovely for a 4 night break. We'll be heading back next year.

We once did Bali for a week. I absolutely DO NOT recommend this. Took me flipping weeks to get over the jet lag.

Bruges
Amsterdam
Paris
Dublin
Belfast
Prague
Krakow
Barcelona
Stiges
Jerez
La Rochelle
Carcassonne
Bordeaux
Venice
Rome
Istanbul
Tel Aviv

Literally so many, haven't done it since kids unfortunately

Prague, Seville, Barcelona, Bruges Krakow are all wonderful long weekend places.

We have been to Alicante and to Palma for Friday - Monday weekend breaks - and yes I thought it was worth it . We live about 45 mins taxi ride from our local airport and got a taxi on arrival to both destinations - think both were around 15/20 mins . We went fairly early on the Friday morning and came back after breakfast on the Monday .

Great thread. We do loads of European city breaks, usually three or four nights.
Any thoughts on Basel for two nights. Seen some cheap flights. Going early Friday morning and coming back late evening Sunday. Worth doing?