A friend from abroad is visiting UK as part of a longer trip to Spain and Portugal towards the end of October. She's going to Scotland afterwards, but has about 5 days in between, and has suggested we go somewhere. I think she was assuming somewhere in the UK, by train, but she wants to go somewhere new for me (and for her, she knows the UK moderately well), and most of the places I can think of are either more like day/overnight trips, not easy without a car, not great weather then, or just generally likely to be quite expensive with UK train/hotel/food prices. So I was thinking maybe of a city break somewhere that might be cheaper, as long as it doesn't involve a lot more travelling for her - so somewhere fairly near an airport/easy public transport once we get there.
She's already done Copenhagen, lots of Croatia, lots of Italy, lots of Switzerland, Dublin, and some other cities, I'm not totally sure where. I've done some places in Italy, Paris, Prague, Athens, Helsinki, Stockholm, Belfast and a few others. Spain and Portugal would be lovely but she'll have just been there.
So my short list at the moment are places like Budapest, Berlin, Krakow, Avignon, or maybe the Channel Islands, but I'm open to other suggestions.
(Or indeed cities in England that might be worth looking at - I have been to quite a bit, so it's less exciting for me).
Where would you choose? I"m more into history/museums than I think she is, but she'd like some of it, and she'd enjoy architecture too, and nice scenery. She'd enjoy things like a cookery class, walking, local culture. Somewhere that would be easy to get to from Stansted would be best, but we could get to other London airports - most likely looking at budget airlines. Ideally somewhere that transport is easy/quick on the other end. Any hotel recommendations that anyone has would be welcome too, and/or package deals that you have done that have worked. I"m aware that it's half term week and that will make things more expensive/less available though.
I'm thinking maybe 3 nights away, depending on cost, could maybe just do 2. I"m not sure it's really long enough for Berlin! We don't need fancy hotels, just nice location, reasonable quality, twin room, maybe breakfast.
Thanks for any ideas or specific recommendations, links, hotels etc., and/or itineraries! I think most of the planning will fall to me, which I find quite stressful, having to make decisions on behalf of someone else (and their money). Do you think I"d be able to get flights/hotel for less than £300 each? That might be too tight, I don't really know.