European City Break ideas - Not too expensive

[LadyDanburysHat]

DH and I are wanting to take a weekend city break somewhere in Europe in September. We don't want to spend too much as we are having a family holiday in October too.

Pretty open to most places, but not too long a flight as it will only be 2 nights. Don't mind about temperatures at all.

The Netherlands. Very short flight to Amsterdam. We preferred Den Hague to Amsterdam, but Rotterdam and Utrecht are great cities too. Public transport is so efficient too.

Thank you @LacieLane we had definitely thought of Netherlands as so close. Had just though of Amsterdam, but will look at the other cities.

Amsterdam is great if you've not visited before, not so much so if you have. . Anne Frank house ( book well in advance on line - like now!) otherwise the queues are awful. Canal cruise. The big galleries and museums, great parks, shopping and indie cafes in Jordaan.
We have just re- visited for a day and rather than repeating the above, enjoyed taking the free ferry across to the north side, quite industrial, tap rooms, restaurants in ‘units’.

Flying into Amsterdam, from the UK, is rather like getting the bus...😉

Bruges and Ghent.

Thanks @LacieLane neither of us have been to Amsterdam before, so will take a look.

@JodyMitchell I appreciate more options thanks. Will take a look at those.

We've done Brussels/Bruges on the Eurostar if that's an option? If it's flights only we really enjoyed Berlin.

G'dansk was lovely. We got super cheap Ryanair flights as it's the zloty our money went far. Eating out and bars are very good value for money and there's lots of variety.

Paris! Or another city in France. Eurostar is so convenient. I went to Bordeaux recently and it was lovely :-)

I've been looking too. I think we will go to Ljubljana in Slovenia.
I visited many years ago when it was Jugoslavia, but really want to go back to visit Slovenia specifically.
There are the amazing Postojna Caves and Prejama Castle. The rest we plan on exploring/chilling in the small city. It's really affordable too.

Athens - its a longer flight but once you're there everything is pretty concentrated in the middle of town. There are a lot of hotels at all budget levels and eating out is pretty cheap if you avoid the obvious tourist traps.

Couldn’t recommend Lisbon highly enough! ☀️🇵🇹
You can get the metro from the airport into the city for less than €2
One dayTravel cards include scenic tram rides and eating out is pretty cheap too.

Lisbon or Copenhagen

You can also take a Eurostar to Amsterdam.

Budapest is very budget friendly (not on euro) and lovely for a couple trip . Ryanair or wizzair for flights.

depending on when in Sept you're planning, you may want to avoid Paris and other French cities as France is hosting the Rugby World cup so hotels and Transport are expensive

Copenhagen is really expensive.

Thanks all. We are in Scotland so Eurostar a bit too far. Could fancy Lisbon. Always wanted to go to Copenhagen, but will give it a miss if expensive.

I ruled Copenhagen out as whilst I could get reasonable flights accommodation was extortionate.

I found this helpful.
https://lisbonlisboaportugal.com/

If you go further east your money will go further. We loved Zagreb and Llubjlanna.

Krakow is beautiful and also very reasonably priced.

Agree with Krakow: fascinating, beautiful and cheap!

Or look at Kotor, Montenegro. Stay in the Old Town and do a trip to Lovcen National Park, see the amazing Njegos Mausoleum. It's absolutely stunning there.
Nearest airport is Tivat.

Have done many city breaks.
Seville ❤️

You could stay in Malmo and catch the train over to Copenhagen. Accommodation is much cheaper.

So many great ideas, thanks everyone.