No fly holiday in Europe

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Any bright ideas? Train ideally but open to ferry. We like a city break to somewhere with an old town we can wander round, no doubt a handsome castle, cathedral etc. Good art gallery wouldn't go amiss.

I'd love Lisbon but I think that's going to take too long and cost too much for us right now. Waiting to hear back from operators on that. Just been looking at Vienna, promising but I feel like there could be some really interesting cities that we're not thinking of.

Open to making two centre or having a stop off to break the journey.

There are some good ideas in this article:

We loved Strasbourg, found it beautiful and interesting. Good connections with Paris, into Gare de l'Est just round corner from Gare du Nord.
Whole trip was overnight ferry from Harwich, trains (2 German and delayed, last German one was lovely and on time) to Munich for 2 nights. On to Austria for 5 nights in Mayrhofen, not a city break. Final four nights in Strasbourg and home in the day via ICE, Eurostar and UK train to SYorks.

We enjoyed Cologne and Koblenz. Both have galleries and museums. Cologne had a museum of chocolate! - and a zoo. And both have very pleasant river cruises and cable cars across the rivers.

Catch the Eurostar, change at Brussels and get a Thalys train to Cologne rather a DB ICE if you can.

What about getting the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam? I don't have any specific recommendations in the Netherlands (though I do remember going on a lovely family holiday to Amsterdam and the Hague many years ago) but you'd cut off a big chunk of the long train journey down south.

Nice (south of France). Fairly straightforward by train, lovely city and loads to do.

Strasbourg also lovely and a very easy journey from Paris.

Have you seen how far apart they are?! That's like combining Cardiff and Edinburgh. Bruges isn't that easy even from Brussels, then it would be 3 trains down to Lyon via Paris. The Thalys TGV is slow outside France so it takes ages to get across. If you were going to do Bruges, you'd combine it with a Dutch city, Antwerp, Luxembourg, Paris, Lille or possibly Bonn or Cologne.

We start from Amsterdam, so I'm a bit geographically biased, but of course if you're starting from somewhere inaccessible in the UK it's hopeless, but I assume the OP is on a mainline otherwise I guess she wouldn't be asking. We rarely do multi stop trips outside France for short holidays (less than 2 week) because the trains are too unreliable and stressful elsewhere. If you're driving is a different matter.

It's worth checking where the TGV lines go. Anything off those lines is going to be a pain unless the train really is the highlight of your journey. They go to Barcelona, Frankfurt and Zürich/München, which opens up quite a lot of the continent. Night trains need booking as soon as they're released because they sell out fast, and expect to pay at least €200pp for a cabin.

@Patashby do you know how your friend geys to Palma without flying? Obviously a boat is involved, do you know where from though?

I just googled this out of curiosity, you can get a ferry from Valencia or Barcelona. It's 7-8 hours though. Palma is nice - but not that nice!

Oops, my mistake, I read it too fast and missed the “no fly” bit 🤷🏻‍♀️

I did a fab trip in August - London > Nimes (1 night) > Tarragona (3 nights) >Girona (1 night) > Paris (1 night) > London.

Booked through Byway travel, which is worth a look if only for the inspiration!

We didn’t hang about in Santander tbh OP but we did drive to Bilbao for lunch which was lovely. Guggenheim museum very impressive. Then towards the border there are many little towns with stunning beaches, then you’re in Basque Country which is very interesting, then Biarritz. So you could easily combine a couple of cities with a small town / very surfy beach vibes.

I now appreciate you would have to get to Plymouth first, sorry!

Are there any interesting sailings to Denmark or Scandinavia from Edinburgh?

We’ve had a couple of great holidays in The Netherlands. Harwich to Hook of Holland then stayed at Duinrell holiday park. Cycled to Leiden, The Hague and train station for Amsterdam. Close to the beach. Loads of attractive towns and cities accessible by bike or train. Added on a visit to the wonderful Efteling theme park.

Alternatively;

Eurostar to Lille, well worth a couple of days
TGV to Avignon, or Arles, or Marseille
TGV back to Paris for a night or 2
Eurostar back home

Prague ticks all of your boxes. Don’t just stay in the centre though, as there is so much more to it than the main sights.

@MotherOfCatBoy no intercontinental ferries from Scotland these days. There was talk of re-starting them at some point, maybe when there was some kind of blockade at Dover? But no dice. We have gone to Netherlands from Newcastle, overnight. The buffet is remembered in story and rhyme in this household. Stayed in a bargain Centerparcs and got a daypass for a better grade of Centerparcs, the tropical paradise blew DSs mind. We were just talking about that holiday a minute ago. Fond memories of the computer game museum en route back to ferry.

"Old Town and a handsome castle," said Ghent to me immediately. Eurostar to Burssels Midi, then about another hour to St Pieters. The city is very walkable, although also covered by a great tram network. Tram No 1 takes you right to the castle at the Gravensteen. There is a big art and design place to explore and plenty more. It may be too much out of season now for messing about on the river in boats, although the small boats should still be giving great views of the centre. It may be almost too much like Edinburgh though... 😉

How about Munich and a northern German city?

You should watch the recent celebrity series of 'race across the world' on BBC iplayer for inspiration!

Ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam or Hull to Rotterdam?

From Lille or Brussels you can get a direct train to Lyon, Avignon, Marseilles and then change if you want to get to cote d'azur or Languedoc. Italy is a pain at the mo as mentioned by pp due to landslide. But can be done say, Brussels to Munich and sleeper. Nightjet runs from Brussels to Vienna via Salzburg i think from next year. I would always avoid changing in Paris - so Lille or Brussels are good alternatives.

Look up the Nightjet trains but be aware you need to book months in advance to get a proper sleeping compartment to yourselves.

Northern Spain is east by train.

Belgium and the Netherlands also.

Ooohh ferry from Plymouth to Santander is overnight then could do Santander and Bilbao. Lush!

Oh sorry just seen the budget - if going peak season the ferry will take most of that!

Agree with the Hull to Rotterdam ferry. Then look at trains into Germany maybe? Cologne?

Op is it a flight phobia. I just ask as we are also Scotland albeit rural and my DH won't go on anything like train, ferry, plane.

You sound so well travelled.

We have Edinburgh as our nearest city but enjoyed York, a great deal.