Best long weekend break in Europe?

[MamboGoddessHere]

I want to go for a long weekend to Europe.
Where's fun? Beautiful? Relaxing?

Thinking Eurostar from St Pancras....

Eurostar limits your options to Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam. Of the three, I’d recommend Paris, especially if you’ve never been.

If you’re willing to fly, I’d recommend Venice, Rome, or Barcelona.

Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels are all really nice cities. I actually prefer Amsterdam over Paris but all are worth it - but Amsterdam and Paris can both be very busy.

Lille is en route between London and Paris, 1h30 from St Pancras, has some nice architecture and musuems. Much much quieter than Paris!

If you’re happy doing a change, it opens up more places:

Bruges (c.3h25, change in Brussels) - such a pretty city, perfect size for a weekend break.

Ghent (c.3h, change in Brussels) - great food and galleries, fab atmosphere.

Antwerp (c.3h30) - more good food and art! Really good for shopping / window browsing.

Rotterdam (c.3h30 direct, c.4h change in Brussels) - modern art, fantastic central market, great architecture.

Maybe not Paris right now!

Brugge is lovely. Lots of chocolate shops, hand smocked baby girl dresses/boy rompers, DH loved the beer, horse drawn carriage rides, beautiful very old buildings. I loved it and found it very romantic.

Saint-Cyr-Sur-Mere, La Madraque area. Train to Marseille, then 30 minutes on a local train. We had a family holiday there this year, I plan on going for a long weekend by myself next year.

Lyon is lovely with great food. Change at Lille for a direct train.

All really good options. Rotterdam is surprisingly nice and you can get to the coast easily. Lots of beach bars.

Don’t go to Paris or Marseille right now. Just got a hunch things are unsettled there.

Yes to Ghent, Brugge - both beautiful towns with lots of culture

I loved Bruges too.
Hoping to return.
You could combine Brussels and Bruges.

Depends what you want. Berlin, Bruges, Dubrovnik, Krakow, Lisbon, Ljubljana, were our favourites.

ManInSest61 website has great ideas https://www.seat61.com/. Friends got the train to Nice from London and loved the whole trip.

Krakow - literally amazing!

Great point about Paris!
Thanks for all the suggestions

I would recommend Alicante city, so much to do, gorgeous architecture, beach, marina, great restaurants and shopping. Clean trains that can take you to the shopping outlets, a chocolate factory etc. English isnt widely spoken, so communicating can sometimes be a little difficult, but we found the locals lovely and very helpful, even when they didn’t have a clue what we were on about! We had a great 3 night stay. It’s such a shame most people travelling to the costas don’t spend some time in Alicante city.

We found this little place last year. It's lovely.

Budapest. Amazing place. You'd probably want to fly though!!

Krakow 🤍