Two centre European summer holiday ideas

[Quietvoiceplease]

Where would you go?
I feel stuck with just a couple of ideas (mostly Portugal) and would love to have some other suggestions.
The brief:
10 day break, family of 5, DC are aged 17-22.
Would like 2-3 nights in a city, and then a train ride to a beach area for a bit of swim and flop 6-7 nights.
We’d fly to and from the country, but like the idea of a train between the two destinations.
So hoping the brains of Mumsnet can help!
Thanks!

French Alps around Digne les Bains (not really a city but you have Nice) and then a (stunning) train to Nice and the Cote d’Azur? Or Seville/Grenada/Malaga then Med. Naples /Rome and the coast. Or Genoa (not so obvious) and Cinque Terre?

We had a good holiday last year in Greece. Athens then ferry to Aegina which is a lovely island. I'd just say, watch out for the heat. If you can go at the start or end of season rather than August that might help.

We did Barcelona ( 5 days) and got the train to Cambrils (6 nights) which worked really well. This year we are doing Lisbon and then going to porto but staying outside by the beach.

Thanks for your helpful ideas. I’ll look into them and report back in case it’s helpful to others.
Also happy to hear any other thoughts.
Does anyone know anything about this sort of break in Slovakia? I’m all ears!

We done Barcelona for a couple of nights then down to Salou which was fab. Portaventura theme parks are great of your into that sort of thing. This year we are doing salou again but train to go into Madrid for a few days. My boys love the football stadiums so we always try to do one of them. Barcelona stadium tour was great, looking forward to Real Madrid one this year. 😊

Do you mean Slovakia or Slovenia? I'm not an expert on Slovakia, but from what I hear Bratislava can be seen in a day and you are a long way from any real beaches once you've done the captial. Conversely Slovenia is beautiful, only seen Ljubljana, the Bled area and the caves, but would highly recommend a visit to this beautiful country. Bled area was great for walking, rowing, white water rafting, zipling etc. Ljubljana can be seen in a day, it's small. Piran seems to be the coastal destination of choice in Slovenia, the Istrian region generally lacks sand on it's beaches, but it's gorgeous. I've only been to the Croatian part of Istria, loved Rovinj and lots to do in the surrounding areas. I am not sure Slovenia fits your train requirements though, they have a train network but seems to terminate near Koper on the coast, and through trains to Ljubljana seem rare.

We are doing Loire Valley (base is Tours) for one week and then fly to Lisbon to stay in Cascais for another week this year.

Long time ago we did a self-drive in Andalucia (Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Ronda) and then stayed near Cadiz for another week.