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.

We stayed on Lopud in Croatia and did 2 day trips by boat to Dubrovnik. Using the boat as a bus was lovely. Nice sandy beaches on Lopud and other islands to visit.

Marseille and Genova are both beautiful, fascinating cities with both city beaches and easy public transport access to stunning national nature reserves (Calanques National Park and the Portofino peninsula, respectively. Although the Calanques National Park closes in high summer to reduce fire risk).

And you can get to both of them (especially Marseille) very easily by train- PPs are right about flying!

There’s always one 🙄

We went in the summer and it was a great and varied holiday

@Buzyizzy21 Why are you picking on this OP in particular though? I agree that everyone should fly less often and use public transport/walk more often but it's not like she's said she wants to take a private jet to multiple countries across the globe 🤷🏻‍♀️

Nerja in Spain? Close to Malaga, regular buses back and forth.

Tavira is lovely in Portugal and is on the train line from Faro. It is a decent sized town in its own right with an old town/new town and you catch a water taxi to the beach which is fabulous (it also has some beach bars and restaurants along it)

As a child we went by train to Genoa and took day trips by train to surrounding resorts eg Portofino. We did similar in the Costa Brava and the South of France but sandy beaches aren't always available.