Relaxed weekend city break - ideas please!

[SingingGoldfinch]

Hello - looking to book a 3 night city break to celebrate a significant birthday - dh and I and our 2 friends. We’re after a relaxed city vibe - soaking up the atmosphere, mooching, eating/drinking, shopping rather than full on sightseeing so looking at smaller less obvious cities. Flight time 2-2.5 hours from Gatwick and flight times are quite important. We’re going last weekend in Sept and thinking some late summer sunshine would be lovely, but not essential. We’ve been looking at Palma, Mallorca but it’s super expensive so looking for other ideas. We have already done Seville, Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Prague, Paris. I would be very grateful for any ideas!!

@samarrangeI’ve just been doing a general search for Palma hotels on Booking.com at this stage - prices do seem to be coming down a bit but most of the city centre hotels are at least £2.5k for two rooms for 3 nights - lots are way more!! Dates are 26-29 September

We stayed JS palma plaza hotel...that's nowhere near those prices....about £1400 for 2 rooms

Another huge vote for Malaga city. Perfect for a 3 night stay. It has absolutely everything on your list + it's not expensive to eat out or drink. The shopping on Calle Larios and surrounding streets is fab. The tapas scene is buzzing in the Cathedral area every night of the week. The marina is a nice walk and it has (had) a Skechers outlet somewhere on the way - I bought too many but hey ho!! There's a Picasso Museum and the Moorish castle up the big hill if you're into that.

I've been many times and it never gets stale. I like Cadiz, Seville and the best of all (but quite pricey) San Sebastian, weather not guaranteed there though, but it will be gorgeous in Malaga in September.

Look, you have had some great suggestions, select one that suits the tastes of all your group and go for it. Have a lovely time.

Bordeaux. The Netherlands is hugely underrated (its more than Amsterdam). Bruges/Belgium. Avignon, France. Stockholm.

Helsinki is around £500 on last minute.com for those dates. Temperature wise it will be getting cooler but the saunas can soon warm you up also a day trip to Tallinn was £38 on the ferry and was lovely

Salzburg, Munich, Bologna, Milan

Ouch, that's €500/room/night.

Have a look on the west side of the city, for example https://www.islamallorca.com, which is showing me half that price for your dates. I've stayed there, about 3 years ago. The spa is pretty good (it's a small upsell, €10 or something). The walk into town is not far, and if you walk south there are various ethnic eateries nearby.

Siena

Another vote for Porto.

Another vote for Malaga city!

I already commented and made recommendation for Malaga.

I've also been to Palma, Mallorca, albeit 10yrs ago. We stayed at the BQ Augusta Hotel which had great views and a pool. It was on a hill near Palma, but not in the city centre. We walked into Palma from there though several times and there were steps down to Porti Pi shopping area. There was a Carrefour shop there which was amazing! The largest I've ever seen with an entire pork section, souvenir section, great food/wine options and even staff members wearing roller skates! I would never, normally rave about a supermarket but we returned several times to buy all sorts.

Casa Jacinta was a short taxi ride away and the hotel had discount cards at reception. The food was amazing!

My highlight from Mallorca was the small gauge train from Palma to Port de Soller.
https://trendesoller.com/eng/index

Gdansk in Poland. Lovely city and has Amsterdam vibes to it in places. It is close to Sopot which is known as the polish riviera. Also rather cheap.

Luxembourg seems to be popular at the moment- not very large, but perfect for a mooch around

I’ve just got back from Alicante city. We stayed near the castle walking distance to the beach, loads up f flights from Gatwick and it’s 2.5 hrs then 30 mins airport bus 6c at around 4.5 e. We got the 6:50 flight and were at our hotel by 11am their time. Big shopping mall, old town, cheap and some lovely restaurants. Very very Spanish.

Has anyone mentioned Lucca (or Florence?) yet? Super easy train ride from Pisa, often cheap flights.

But I also thought of Malaga, Bordeaux also excellent. And Toulouse and Avignon. Munich is a great city too. So many places!!

I loved Lisbon, Porto a close second

I love Lisbon. As much or as little sightseeing as you fancy, lots of opportunity for nice food and drink.

Second Malaga and Budapest

Have you looked at Alicante or Gdansk??

Wroclaw in Poland, absolutely a hidden gem! Fantastic food and a beautiful city and actually I absolutely loved Sarajevo and San Sebastián (flying into Bilbao )

Porto

Seville is amazing

Bordeaux is lovely too

Copenhagen is by far my favourite city break I’ve ever done

We did three nights in Palma through an Easyjet "holiday" package. Stayed in Palma Suites (which was gorgeous). Not that expensive.