City break recommendations, please!

[polkadotdinosaur]

Looking to book one or two 3 night city breaks rather than a sunshine holiday next year.

We have already done Edinburgh, Rome, Venice, Berlin, Copenhagen. So none of these!

I do not fancy Paris as have researched and don’t think it’s overly safe. Also have a dairy intolerance so usually ask for vegan foods to be safe, or it’s good to go somewhere where English is widely spoken.

We’d be looking at going once in spring and once in autumn.

Would love to visit somewhere fascinating and/or beautiful, with good food, friendly locals and enough activities to do. Cheaper the better. Appreciate that’s a broad scope!

We are considering:
Munich
Amsterdam
Budapest
Prague
Vienna
Valencia
Lisbon
Krakow
Warsaw

Has anyone been to the above and can recommend?

Lots of Eastern Europe I think is better as winter or Christmas market type trips
With the exception of ski resorts such of Zakopane.i think E Europe is really lively in the summer months. Its great sitting out at cafes in old towns or by the rivers. Theres decent beaches and lakes in East Europe as well that are good for swimming or just relaxing. Hiking is lovely in the shoulder months when the main tourists have gone and the trails are quieter.

We went to Belfast recently and loved it.
Cheap flights and accommodation

In no order, my thoughts would be:
Barcelona
Bruges
Toulouse
Gothenburg
Berlin

Forgot Bucharest!

Belgium is underrated - Antwerp and Ghent are wonderful places.

Ljubljana is very chill. And you can do a day trip to Zagreb, lovely views on the train.

Vienna is just an hour down the Danube from Bratislava, so another "two for one" opportunity.

Paris seemed safe enough whenever we were there FWIW but Lyon is a smaller city with plenty of stuff to see.

Krakow is a good bet, beautiful, historic, and cheap - lots of Polish cities fall into that pot.

Lisbon is a fun autumn weekend.

With Google translate and HappyCow on your phone, finding vegan stuff is much less of an issue these days happily.

Porto is fabulous, I definitely recommend it. I like Lisbon too, but I prefer Porto. I really portugal in general - and it’s really well priced to eat out and enjoy yourself there too.

Another great option is Dubrovnik or Kotor, both lovely towns, although Dubrovnik is quite a bit more expensive than portugal or Montenegro.

I also really enjoy Montreux and Geneva. Loads to do in both towns and all along Lac Leman. Train travel in Switzerland is a dream so it would be easy to fly to GVA and get a train to stay in montreux. Switzerland is eye wateringly expensive to eat out / shop though!

I’d add Porto, Bordeaux, Bologna and Lucca to your list.

I loved Vienna (but we had friends there) and I have Salzburg on my to do list.

Hamburg and Berlin (even McDonalds has great chocolate cake in Berlin).

Bratislava?

Bologna is an interesting city. My daughter lived there for a year so been a few times.
Absolutely love Bruges
Warsaw is lovely, everywhere had to be rebuilt so it's an interesting city
Budapest..Absolutely loved it, far better and cheaper than Paris.
Vienna is on my list and it's a short train ride to Bratislava

Bologna also has the oldest University in the world with students from all over the world , so if your Italian isn't fantastic you can get by in English, but obviously courteous to try. It's also a reasonably short train ride to Florence if you wanted to go for the day.

I loved Tallin, the food is amazing. Very vegan and pescatarian friendly. Also Malaga makes a great city break.

They're all great cities. I think it's a shame to dismiss Paris though. It's a world city with the social problems that come with that and there's certainly some areas to avoid. I've traveled a lot and I found the hustlers around Montmartre a challenge. But with planning there's just so much to see. Rome is similar.

Palma is a great min break and really easy to get flights. It's like a smaller Barcelona with great food.

Porto is one of our favourite cities. Just stunning and great culture. I'd also agree with those extolling Bologna. Amazing foodie memories

There's also some wonderful and often overlooked cities in Northern Spain. San Sebastián. Bilbao. Santander. And the amazing Santiago de Compostela. One of the most perfect cities in Europe.

We went to Lisbon earlier this year and loved it. We arrived around lunchtime on a Thursday morning and our flight back was late evening on Saturday. Travel to the airport was easy so we went out on the Saturday and it didn't feel like half a day. We collected our bags from the hotel at about 6.30pm then took the metro, which was downstairs, to the airport. We stayed at the hotel Santa Apolonia and everything we wanted to see was on the same bus line, either just outside the door or just across the road depending on direction. We bought a travel pass for the metro and bus from a machine at the airport which lasted for the time we were there so we could just hop on and hop off whenever we felt like it.

For somewhere cheaper and closer, have you considered Dublin?

I know you've said no to Paris but I've been this year and I definitely felt very safe. I stayed central though so it was always busy and full of people even late at night.