Short break, UK or abroad?

[BrusselsPate]

Trying to plan a 3-4 night long weekend break in November. I'm really torn between staying in the UK and booking a lodge with a hot tub (never had a hot tub break), getting a cheap deal to Portugal, southern Spain or the Canaries, or a European city break. The basic cost of each is roughly the same. We've had a couple of lovely holidays abroad already this year and we've got a week away at the end of September, to Devon.
We won't have an awful lot of spending money and I sometimes think that we spend the least when we're somewhere sunny, or maybe the sun just affects my memory 🤣!

It’s sun for me, plus depending on where you jet off to it is often cheaper than the UK. That said, if you stay in the UK you will probably max your time.

I don’t see the point of going on a beach holiday if it’s not warm enough to enjoy the beach (and I personally don’t think low 20s is warm enough to spend all day at the beach but I know others will disagree). So I’d say either European city break if you want museums, galleries, etc, or U.K. cottage if you fancy snuggling down with good books, some country walks and trips to the pub.

If you stay near a Spanish coastal city such as Malaga or Seville depending on which flights work, you can have a city break and also take a day trip by train to Cordoba from either city.

Malaga is on the coast or easily reachable by train from Seville, eg to Cadiz, which is worth a visit even if its not beach weather.

Eating/drinking out and attractions good value so is likely to be cheaper than a hot tub break in the UK.

How much of the weekend would you spend in a hot tub really?

Go somewhere warm.

November wouldn't be my first choice for a UK hot tub weekend. As a pp said, you're not going to spend 3 days in it. If I were staying here then, I'd choose a city break. So if the only thing you're considering in the UK is a hot tub break I'd rather go abroad.

If you go abroad, what would you plan to do? I ask because the Canaries will offer a completely mainstream beach holiday at the moment, whereas Portugal won't, and southern Spain maybe if you're hardy! But if you were looking at more of a wandering around holiday and just want to do that in the sun, both are probably cheaper than the Canaries and also the shorter flight makes more sense if you've only got 3-4 days.

I’ve been to Estepona and had dats out in Malaga and Puerto Banus at that time of year and that was a nice, sunny little break. I have also been to Tenerife and had a lovely time getting out and about and having nice scenic lunches.
Both times I hired a car.
I have also been to Granada which was really interesting but freezing in the evening and early morning.
Having said that I’ve also had really nice mini breaks in Devon and Dorset in November staying in spa hotels.
However my favourite area to go for a four night November break is the Middle East. Both Dubai and Doha were really good trips with so much to do as well as being super relaxing at the same time.

Thanks everyone. Lots of food for thought there. I think the idea of a city break somewhere a bit less cold than the UK such as southern Spain sound appealing and for 3-4 days is probably more doable than Canaries.
As @MinnieMountain pointed out, how much of our time would we actually spend in a hot tub!

Hot tubs get quite dull, quite quickly. They're basically a big bath. I wouldn't base a whole weekend around one compared to a city break!

I'd fly to somewhere easy to reach from your nearest airport - for us that's malaga, it's a great city, great food, the weather will still be t-shirts in the day (unless you are very unlucky). Bascially minimise your travelling time.

Alternatively head to Tallin and get crisp winter skies (and probably hot tubs).

We visited Valencia in early November a couple of years ago, but have also had winter breaks / holidays in Alicante, Malaga and Seville. I would recommend any one of them, and the coastal cities give the best of both worlds.

Completely differently, we did a short break to London last November and similarly went to York a few years back. I certainly wouldn’t do the UK lodge and hot tub break in November, but a UK city is also worth considering. It probably works out cheaper to go to Spain though.