Where to go? Europe beach/city/history

[Fleecy]

I'd be grateful for suggestions for our family holiday. Last year we went to a small beach town in the south of Estonia for a week then spent a few days in the capital, Tallinn. The mix worked well - a week of pottering around the town, swimming in the sea and relaxing, followed by a couple of days exploring the city. It was also reasonably priced. Where else can we have a good sandy beach with a town to explore, then a city close by (couple of hours) with plenty of history?

Just to be awkward, we'd prefer not to hire a car. Public transport is fine, with the odd taxi. We took coach transfers in Estonia.

Any ideas welcome! We'd be going in early July, so I know a lot of places will be busy.

Thanks in advance.

Palermo & Mondello
Palermo & Cefalu
Catania & Siracusa

Albania: beaches, Unesco World Heritage sites, historic towns and villages. I haven't actually been there yet but we're going next year.

You can combine it with Corfu, just get the ferry across.

There are so many ideas here - this is great!

It was indeed Parnu that we went to last year. My sister spent a year there in the late 1990s and it was quite different then as Estonia hadn't long been independent. Very interesting going back last summer. Far more expensive but still very safe and charming. And the beach is wonderful!

Sitges. Beautiful town and beaches public transport into Barcelona very easy and frequent

Would also recommend Rugen. Train access to a number of places on the island and lots to do. Binz is a larger resort and Sellin a smaller one close to each other. As mentioned could be combined with Berlin or potentially Hamburg depending on trains.

I’m also looking for a destination with a balance of beach and interesting city/history and hoping to go early July.

I’d considered Lisbon/Cascais but on researching on here, some posters suggested the sea would be too cold.

Absolutely nuts! Do you have children? Or any desire to leave a habitable planet behind for the next generation? I presume not. 😡

Obviously a few people on this thread that consider short haul holidays and using public transport to be there sin of the year!

Actually it's just the same one twice. ..

Dubrovnik is incredible. Exceeded expectations. Lots of lovely apartments to rent (booking.com). Reasonable flights. Gorgeous city full of history. Boat trips easy and fun from the harbour. Ice cream INCREDIBLE! Worth the cable car ride to top of mountain - great museum on the history/war. Lots of cats around the city! Food amazing and friendly people.

Lido di Jesolo in Italy. Easy access to Venice and Verona and has a sandy beach etc.

F

There are lovely sandy beaches in Denmark eg near Aarhus or on the North Sea side. We did a few days in Copenhagen then house by a beach when DC were small. We did a similar thing in Sweden but the beaches were rocky either on the Baltic or by lakes.

Second Lisbon, Dubrovnik and Cefalu.

Can I add Kos Town.

Ostia. Beach resort, train into Rome in about 50mins for sightseeing. Also the Scavi at Ostia Antica are amazing - Pompeii without the crowds.

One short haul holiday a year is not the end of the world. Calm yourself sweetheart.

Re Dubrovnik I only meant the 10 minute boat ride to Lokrum. Swimming in the small salt water lake, aswell as the sea.
Kolacep is 45 minute boat ride away.

Malaga ?

Puglia? Fly into Bari or Brindisi, you can do many of the main towns by public transport including a trip to Matera (for any history or James Bond fans). Went in Sept, busy in some places but absolutely manageable, we found Dubrovnik at the same time of year too busy to enjoy although it was lovely.

Split is also an option if you fancy Croatia, with day trips to islands or to Mostar.

Vienna + Austrian Lakes?

Crete and Sicily would only work if you're happy staying around the same area for the whole holiday.

For Crete you need to be in Heraklion for Knossos as public transport from Rethymnon, Chania or Elounda is brutal. I tried for weeks to put together a workable schedule for seeing Knossos from Chania and gave up in the end in favour of a different Greek island. I'm all for pushing myself in terms of travel to see what I want to see but my kids are four and seven months so there's only so far they can go really.

For Sicily you'd need to choose which half of the island suits you better as it's too big to see it all in one go (unless you were happy to do a big train trip in the middle of the holiday to get to the other side). We picked Palermo as a base and did some side trips on the train and via taxi. I was not a fan of Palermo 😅

Do you have kids OP? If so, how old are they?

Agree with Sicily - it’s a big island with poor transport networks between the main locations you will likely want to see. We did

I did like Palermo however.

Gdansk/Sopot with a daytrip to Malbork would be nice. Although I’m eyeing the Slovenia suggestions!

That’s just it tho, we shouldn’t be flying anywhere. You are aware that we are in the middle of a climate crisis with temperatures rising exponentially aren’t you?
This is not the time to be calm. Yes, it all makes a difference, no I haven’t flown anywhere for 9 years and I don’t intend to either.
I suggest you do some proper research before telling anyone to calm down.
I also note that you don’t say if you have children. This is their future that you are helping to destroy. Remember how clear the skies were during Covid? Yes of course it makes a difference.

I also suggest you think about the inhabitants of low lying islands who have already become climate refugees. This is not going away and we all have to do our best to reduce our carbon footprint. 3C is going to render the planet uninhabitable. We have already passed 1.6C 15 years ahead of the predicted date. How long before 2C? Scientists are saying 2027. That’s two years away.

Can you tan through a hair shirt?