Weekend in Europe - where would you go?

[CatDogGuineaPig]

Looking for inspiration - going away for wedding anniversary, 2 nights in Europe early April and for some reason I'm stuck for ideas!

I’m off to Porto at the beginning of April. I’d recommend Budapest, Lisbon, Valencia and Malaga to name a few.

Loved Malaga so much, and Porto. Both very easy and plenty to do/see. I'm going to Munich next, looks fab!

Seville or Malaga, or Valencia, or San Sebastian/Donostia, or Santander, or Madrid, or Barcelona. Well you did say you liked Spain! Donostia might be cool although you can be lucky. It cannot be beaten for a two night break, fab hotels, great beach, and a food scene to die for around the old town area. Shopping in the new part. It's just a little different and can be off many people's radar.

Obviously the other cities might be a tad warmer although not guaranteed either at that time of year yet.

Italy - for two nights have a look at Padua, a transferring by bus from Treviso. A totally charming small city with great food, lively scene, plenty of cultural things and an amazing world renowned chapel with the Scrovegni frescoes + museums. Plenty more too including St. Anthony's cathedral where (if you do) you can pay back all that money you owe him for things found lol! You can get a quick train from Padua to Venice for the day, takes 30 minutes and costs buttons. Highly recommend.

Brilliant responses, thank you all!! I'm doing a flight time search now and favourites are Venice, Prague and Florence ... we have quite recently been to Porto and Malaga

Salzburg

Nice
Amsterdam
Barcelona
Malaga

Budapest is fantastic.
Someone upthread mentioned Riga. I'd second that. Interesting architecture. Smallish city so everything walkable. Short bus ride from the airport.
Vienna or Salzburg.

I’d love some thoughts on Madrid?!

Bit late to the game, but how about Seville? Lots to do, short flight and a small, walkable centre. Easy jet do an early morning flight out, so you would have 2 full days.

Rome every time

Dubrovnik is lovely and very compact so you don’t need long there.

A PP asked about Madrid. It’s a lovely city. I didn’t enjoy my trip as much as Barcelona but definitely worth a visit and you only need a couple of days.

Also loved Florence as others have mentioned.

Have a fab time wherever you go!

Dubrovnik is too far to go in my view

Palma - Majorca is not just for the beach! The cathedral and the castle are stunning and the weather should be getting really nice by April.

Bergamo - Lots of flight offers as it is Ryanair's main hub in Europe. People complain because it's "too far from Milan" but the point is not to go to Milan.

Strasbourg - Fabulous city centre and lots to see, plus delicious (filling) food.

Avignon. It’s a beautiful old city. I went last April. It was warm. The food was really good.

I;ve done Budapest and Prague in April with lovely weather. Seville would be fabulous - Semana Santa celebrations round Easter might make it pricey though. Lisbon or Granada? Strasbourg as mentioned by pp is surprisingly lovely - along with Colmar - really nicely decorated for Easter.

I'd go to Sicily or Puglia - it will be warm but not hot (unlike the summer) and nice & quiet out of season. Amazing food, too.

Oh - also Palma. Wonderful city.

Antwerp
Krakow
Vienna
Rome

As you are going on a weekend I would avoid Prague, Amsterdam and Budapest (because they are popular destination for stag/hen parties). Now if you were going Monday to Friday (amazing cities, that I would highly recommend).

Venice and Florence are both beautiful cities but very touristy (again best visited mid-week for this reason). For a weekend in Italy I would recommend Verona, which is slightly less busy at weekends, romantic with its Shakespeare associations, great restaurants and has direct flights from the UK.

It’s absolutely great. Fantastic food, the prado is one of the best and most memorable galleries I’ve ever been to, fantastic history and architecture Highly recommended (and I’ve been to every single EU capital city!)

Oooh great!
what else would you recommend?

Loved Lisbon, Luxembourg, Vilnius, Tallinn, Vienna, Sofia. (trying to think of the non standards like Paris and Rome).

Oh sorry did you mean other things to do in Madrid?

Yes please

Out of those, if you're wanting a bit of heat in April, I would go with Florence as it's unbearably hot in summer.

I haven't been to Prague for years , but found it a bit underwhelming one big castle and that was about it. Venice is good if you like wandering round streets, but not very relaxing.