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!!

Would also recommend Avignon and/or Marseilles - both beautiful for mooching and both great for shopping.

Rovinj (Croatia) lovely itself but you can also ge the train very easily to Venice for the day or even an overnight.

Menton (on the French/Italian border) beautiful in itself but again you can go along the coast to other nearby places as you like)

Carcassonne. Atmosphere galore as long as you don’t go in high summer.

booking.com is expensive when looking at Palma.

Use trivago and you’ll find 2 rooms for those dates for much much cheaper. And then also check the hotel website directly
I stayed at Hotel Jaime III - great location and in peak July for £190 a night for a room for 2 adults and a child.

We have done Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Munich for weekend breaks and all have been lovely. I think my favourite was Stockholm followed by Copenhagen.

Mijas is very pretty but it’s not exactly a city.

I think that most places I would suggest have already been mentioned - but I understand what you say about Palma, OP. I think as a whole, Mallorca tends to be fairly pricy for accommodation. In comparison with mainland Spain and Eastern Europe anyway.

I think Tallin looks lovely. One for the warmer months, which is good for me as there are now few places I would want to visit before the end of September or after May.

Bordeaux has everything you are looking for and is a short hop.

Granada.

La Rochelle with maybe a day trip into ile de re. Easy flight and just a fab relaxed city

Bilbao!

Amsterdam, hands down. Just fabulous.
Second, Paris.

I’ve just met someone Dutch who said Amsterdam is way too busy now. Definitely not relaxing. She suggested Utrecht or Leiden.

We’re just back from 3 nights in Rovinj. It was fabulous- 40 mins from Pula airport. We just pottered about but there are day trips and boat trips you can do. The old town at night has a fantastic atmosphere. Lots of good restaurants and nice walks along the marinas and coastline.

Thanks for all the ideas! We have booked Palma - found decent Ryanair flights from a smaller regional airport and a reasonable deal on a lovely looking city centre hotel (booking direct with hotel saved us £100 so thanks to op who suggested that!) - very excited- and now have a lovely list of different places to explore in the future too!

@SingingGoldfinchIve frequently booked hotels with BA and they’ve been very good value. Ryanair - cheap flights and more expensive hotel deals maybe?

Bratislava
Gdańsk
Toulouse

would be my choices

If you haven't been to York we'll the vibe, restaurants,history etc lovely

We loved Athens, Malaga and Budapest. Jerez is lovely too and very doable for a short break.

Madrid! One of my favourite cities!

The weather will be perfect at end of September - still very warm.

There are bars and restaurants galore - museums, palace, gardens. Also shopping :)

It's a few years since I was last there (my local airport has stopped flights to Madrid :( ) but I always thought it felt inexpensive too - for a capital city.

Copenhagen or Llubjana!

Have you considered nearby to Marbella the marina area is lovely