City break end of October - Budapest, Krakow, Avignon, Guernsey elsewhere?

[LikeGoldToAiryThinness]

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.

We were in Avignon a few weeks ago. We got the Eurostar to Lille and then TGV to Avignon. It was a longish journey, but worth it. Avignon was lovely, if rather hot, so I can only imagine it would be amazing in the autumn…

As you mentioned Salzburg, I went last year, at the end of October. Weather was good, quite mild and sunny, and it’s a beautiful place to explore.

thanks, good to know! I'm looking up lots of these ideas and costing them out

The most disappointing place I’ve been too.

Munich is beautiful and getting around it is so easy with the Ubahn. You're not far from Austria either if you want to hop over the border.

I would not go to Avignon unless you are basically just wanting somewhere to chill and shop after you’ve seen the sights, or you can combine with Marseille or somewhere else. You can see most of it in half a day unless you can visit other places in the locality.

Although 3 nights isn’t long enough for Berlin it’s enough to see lots of it and it’s absolutely unmissable (maybe one to see with a fellow history buff though). Budapest would also be on my list. Palermo is great if a bit rough round the edges.

Oh really? Tell me more…

York, Bath, Chester (not been but supposed to be good), Bristol? (Only been v briefly) Durham?

I had a fantastic weekend in jersey, late September last year. The restaurants are great, loads to see and do, honestly could have stayed a week. The museum, war tunnels and zoo are all fab. It was nice weather for walking too.

That's really good to know - this is the first recommendation I've had for Channel Islands, and I think my friend might be quite keen on it (even though I suspect it will end up more costly than going to mainland Europe with cheaper flights/hotels!!). Do you have any recommendations for accommodation? Did you fly into Jersey and just stay there, or did you take trips to other islands?

actually easyJet is coming up with some reasonable flights, if we can get to gatwick

Guernsey is gorgeous and three days is perfect. Gorgeous coastal walks, easy to get around, great food and lots of history. The Occupation and Underground museums are a real eye opener to life in the war.

Ah..Carcassonne - not a million miles from us and defo regarded as a bit marmite.

The main town itself is average.

The supposedly old bit, the Cite (forgive lack of accent) is very much a tourist trap/flamenco for foreigners, though some nice restaurants...gets busy as hell in summer/holidays, not great in wet weather.

It's OK for a daytrip, it's OK for a night as well if you get to stay at the posh hotel in the city itself..

TBF though there is an upside: the summer festival has attracted some cracking acts doing single night shows in the open air auditorium over the years, ( Bod Dylan, Elton John, etc etc)..if you can tie in a summer trip with one of those it's definitely worth a visit.

But Jersey accommodation is proving very much not cheap!! hmm. I'm still checking out all these options.

Would people who have been to both recommend Jersey over Guernsey or the other way around? Not sure we have time to combine both.

It was tacked on to the end of a work trip so we just stayed in the Premier Inn in St Helier where we'd been put up. There are some lovely looking hotels though and staying in St Helier was handy for the buses - which were excellent and cheap. We were there 3 full days and hired a car for £50 one day just to get to some places where it was easier to drive.

It's got such an interesting history - and felt quite different while being very familiar. Beautiful beaches. Honestly the food was great. Lots of seafood if that's your thing - and really reasonable for eating out.

Good shopping too.

I've been recommending it to everyone!

ETA - I've not been to Guernsey yet, but husband has for work and he really liked it, says it's more laid back than Jersey. But I think you'd have to look at ferry times closely to do both and flying between them is expensive. Think it's probably cheaper to fly to Guernsey direct and just do Guernsey.

thanks. both Jersey and Guernsey have Premier Inns, which are definitely cheaper than some of the other accommodation, if not exactly beautiful (or central, in the case of Guernsey, but it says 20 min walk which isn't bad!). I kind of like the idea of Guernsey because of the chance of a day/afternoon trip to Sark. But a lot of it might depend on good weather, which is probably less certain than going to mainland europe somewhere. But even there it could be variable, though perhaps more indoor sights in Budapest or Krakow, which are probably the other two top options so far. (But not finished googling!)

Thank you. I might stay in Toulouse instead and visit Carcassonne for the day then.

Re Guernsey. Probably the most disappointing place I’ve ever been!!

Oh! How come? What did you do there? It says there’s a castle, beach, museum of some sort about ww2 occupation, day trip to Sark, and pretty part of town to wander in, which sounded like it’d fill 3 days fairly well

She’s “done” Copenhagen?

Aside from the day trip to Sark, you could do the rest in one day very easily.

I just didn’t think there was much to do after that, although I do remember having a lovely crab sandwich.

There were lots of shops so if you like shopping it might suit you.

not big shoppers, no. Hmmm, might have to think about whether doing both Islands would work better, depending on transport between them, if we decided on that sort of trip

(and by "done" Copenhagen, I mean went on a relatively recent trip there where she spent a few days, and I have visited as well, albeit 20 years ago, so it was not top of the list for either of us at this point, though I'm sure there is plenty more to see)

And if she's really keen to just stay in mainland England, what about Newcastle? I've not been there (been to Durham though), but we could get the train there. Is there enough interesting things to do centrally, by public transport, etc. to fill three days - the weather could be very chancy at the end of October!! But it's somewhere neither of us has been. Liverpool would have been good, but I spent several days there couple of years ago. I've been to a lot of the smaller day-trip size cities/towns around the UK so they feel less like a 'trip' for me really, so thinking of somewhere a bit larger.

Poland would be my choice or Vienna

I’d like to visit Durham, the Cathedral is apparently worth a visit

lots to do by car around Newcastle but I don’t know how much in the center