European break for couple 3-7 days - Go!!

[ToothFairy2023]

Help wanted we are fairly recent empty nesters (but we have done our time with little to no family support) and are looking to go away.

Europe - less than 3 1/2 hour flight.
Time of year - either mid April or early June.
Duration - 3 to 8 or 9 days
Departure Airport - Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool or Manchester (in order of preference).
We like good food, cafe culture, laid back, some nice scenery, nowhere too industrial not hiring a car.
We would like somewhere warmer than the UK if it was April or if June a temp of late teens or early twenties max.
Budget: for flights and hotel £800-£2000.
Hit me with your suggestions.

Ideally, not Dubrovnik, Florence or Paris as have been fairly recently.

Wondered about Budapest, Malaga, Rome, Vienna, Barcelona or anywhere I may have missed. Finding flights from the north, a nice looking hotel in a place we want to visit is proving very difficult.

Thanks 🙏

@texy could you message me details/recommendations.

I'd genuinely love to be proved wrong but think there's some misinformation here on where you can get to from Newcastle!

Jet2 are expensive as flight only option and only do the cities like Prague, Vienna, Berlin during winter. Ryanair go to a few Polish cities like Krakow but either the out or return flight seem to be at an awful time like 6am. Can't get to Budapest, Porto, Lisbon, Geneva, Madrid..

When I've researched similar before the best options seemed to be Ryanair to Milan and then on to Italian Lakes or other cities via train; or Zadar which looks lovely and option to explore Croatia.

Or if I was stretching budget further - in and out of Salzburg with TUI and exploring the area.

Went from Glasgow to Porto with DH last September. Was fantastic!
Great city for food, drink, culture. Took the train an hour down the coast to the beach one day too. Just loved it, and very reasonable too.
We stayed here, would recommend:

www.oportocollection.com/santacatarinapoolandfitness/en/

Another vote for Valencia - just back and loved it.

Thanks all I am more confused than ever now.

We can either go mid April or early June. Don’t want it to be too hot but would like it to be above UK temps if April and not much hotter than UK temps in early June.

I can recommend Rome or Berlin for short breaks :)

Budapest or Bruges.

What about Zadar in Croatia, very early June? Late June would be too hot - we had a lovely week in Hvar once, decent temperature until the last 2 days when I couldn't move for the heat, but that was late June, so you'd hopefully be OK very early June

Op you've inspired me!!! I started looking at Malaga yesterday. I can't figure out what area to look at

I’d go with April if you wanted to be sure of it not being too hot.

Valencia this week was low 20s in the afternoon but mornings & evenings were cooler.

We have booked Lisbon for the end of May & I am worried it will be too hot by then but hoping it will be ok as on the Atlantic. Have booked a room with air con & will just have to plan our days to have a midday siesta if necessary

@Decorhate - re the 20 degrees temperature in Valencia - I think there has been particularly warm weather in Spain this month with early 20s rather than the 17-18 degrees which is the seasonal average .

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea It may have been a one-off or maybe it’s more permanent because of climate change. Was in different parts of France in October 22 & 23 & also had “unusually” warm weather for that time of year.

Everyone, everyone I know raves about Berlin. I’ve never been so can’t say.

I had warm weather in Wales in October one year it was scorchio!

I'm going to throw Ljubljiana (Slovenia) into the mix. I've been twice and loved it. The city itself is quite small (so you'll probably finish exploring it in a couple of days), but Lake Bled is only an hour way on the bus, and other attractions (e.g. the caves at Postonja) are easily accessible on the train. I think you can fly from Manchester. Being mountainous the weather can be a bit hit and miss in April but by June should be lovely.

We flew from Glasgow or Edinburgh (can't remember which!) with Jet2.
Loved Budapest. Very walkable, though if you want to explore further afield, trains are cheap.
Barcelona was also good and very intetesting, but we went in August and it was far too hot! We did take the train to Girona one day, not sure I would spend 7 days there, so will be interested to read what others think.
We like K+K hotels, which are very central in both cities.

For those of you wondering where in Malaga (city) to choose, you can't go wrong with the Cathedral Quarter. Malaga is just great, and that area is close to the shops on Calle Larios and surrounding streets, near the beach area where there are chiringuitos (easy going restaurants) on the beach and the street facing the beach, near the new Marina area, and near the old town with its millions of tapas bars and a fab atmosphere all year round. There are many hotels to choose from, the higher end like AC and Molina Lario to budget options like the Carlos V which is fine, you only sleep and shower there really!

Options are a day trip to Granada, and/or Cordoba both of which are fantastic places. Or you could fly into Malaga, go to Granada and Cordoba and maybe the lovely Antequera and down to Seville for a couple of days and fly home from there, or do it in reverse.

You would need a minimum of 6 days preferably 7 or 8. Anyway loving the other suggestions above, and am dusting off my passport as we speak!