Romantic city break, not a massive budget

[Allthegoodusernamesareused]

DH and I have a milestone anniversary next year, as well as DH having a milestone birthday. We hope to have a city break early June, it will be our first holiday alone ever as we didn't have a honeymoon even, but the maximum childcare I can arrange for DD13 is three or four nights.

Budget is also not huge, maximum £400pp for flights and hotel, preferably b&b. Will have spending money in addition.

I'm hoping the MN hive mind can come up with affordable but nice recommendations for a romantic city break... please 😊

We enjoyed Madrid for a 3 day citybreak for my 40th. Not too expensive and easy to get to. Central area is walkable and has endless nice places for food & drink.

DH and I did Rome for my 40th. Two nights, B&B in this super cute & very quirky hotel, plus flights. Was less than £400 pp. It was incredible!
https://andreotti.italyromehotels.net/en/#main

Which airport would you be flying from?

Some initial ideas:

Budapest
Prague
Porto
Lisbon
Seville
Barcelona
Valencia
Nice

Ljubljana
Prague
Lisbon
Budapest

We just got back from Puerto banus, Marbella

4 nights inc hotel and flights was less than £800 between us

I was actually surprised at how lovely it was

Following. We recently did a cheapy Eurostar 1 nighter, hotel next to Grand Place, Brussels. It was really lovely, loads of nice things to look at eat and drink.

Sorry, that would be useful information! Nearest is Luton, but realistically any London airport is doable.

Ooh, Eurostar - I hadn't thought of that!

Malaga would come into your price bracket, an interesting city to visit, Easy jet holidays.

I went to Krakow for my 10th anniversary. Super nice city. very cheap. Lots to do. We got a super nice hotel for about £80 for two nights. It was so cheap we extended for another two nights!

What about Bruges. It's gorgeous.

Oh yes, Eurostar is much nicer than flying. Will take you to Bruges too.

I loved Lisbon but Iceland was also fantastic

Riga is really pretty. I think Brussels is also a good destination.

Iceland is so expensive though.

I would definitely think about Eurostar as you’re near to London.

Lille is super easy to do on Eurostar, Paris is amazing if you’ve not done it.

Most of the Belgian cities are very easy to do - Brussels, Bruges, Ghent (probably my favourite)

Amsterdam is also fab, although not cheap. Great atmosphere though.

You can get some good deals with Eurostar’s train + hotel packages - might be worth a look!

@janicegarvey one of my favourite quick breaks- love old Marbella too

We're just back from Porto. Very reasonable and absolutely loved it!

@Allthegoodusernamesareused I like Palma (Majorca) or Malaga for quick short reasonable breaks - lots of flights to both so you can usually get a cheapish one if you don't mind non peak time flights.

@weebarra I have heard Porto is fantastic and that is on my list!

Budapest is a good option whizz air is cheap (like Ryan air you pay for cabin baggage apart from a small bag) and under £150/night gets you 4* b&b

Gadansk was also fantastic - with walking tours were really interesting, easy to get to from the airport and really beautiful setting.

The advantage of Eurostar is no hideous security etc. it was lovely and smooth. We went to Kracow earlier this year, lovely but the flight thing is a PITA