Recommendations cities that suit a 48-hour break

[ginforall]

We’ve just returned from Porto where we went for 48 hours. It was brilliant, just the right size for a short break, very walkable, great food, lovely atmosphere in the evening by the river. We felt like 48 hours was the perfect amount of time there (I know we could have spent longer and explored outside the city more but loved the convenience of the small city).

Any recommendations for other small, walkable, cities where 48 hours is a sensible amount of time to spend there?

Thanks for more suggestions. I’ll spend some time seeing how do-able some of them are in terms of flights/eurostar.

I’m particularly interested in the smaller cities, lots of walking and stopping for coffee/good food without feeling like I’m missing out by not seeing every sight is ideal. Also not having to do lots of public transport and being close to the airport are draws too.

Barcelona, Rome, Nice

Lille in France.

San Sebastián, and Gothenburg are two we’ve done recently.

Florence, Nice, Palma

Dubrovnik

Nuremberg

Ljubljana is beautiful, walkable, really friendly. Lovely riverside restaurants and walks, good cafe culture and amazing architecture.
Aarhus in Denmark is also small and very walkable, pretty, om the sea, and has a fab modern art gallery (Aros).

Vienna.

Rome is very walkable, you can do the major sights in one day.

Girona

Bologna

Zadar in Croatia

Aachen.

I love Porto and would recommend Seville, Toulouse, Warsaw and Salzburg.

i was disappointed by Budapest and Vienna.

Riga (Latvia) - small city very walkable. Get a good hotel in the old town area. The best things to do in Riga include exploring the UNESCO-listed Old Town and the Art Nouveau architecture, tasting local foods at the massive central market and the Corner House (previously the KGB headquarters).

Riga is fabulous, isn't it? Astonishingly beautiful. The Central Market buildings blew my mind.
Also loved the river that runs right through the city with green space on either side that you can walk along.

I’d say Bruges is a lovely one for 48 hours. It’s compact enough to walk around easily, and there’s plenty to see without feeling like you’re rushing from place to place. We actually rented a car through QEEQ for the trip, mainly so we could drive around a bit outside the centre as well, but most of our time in Bruges was spent walking.

Norwich

You really can't! Rome takes several trips of many days - and you're still only scratching the surface.

I think maybe get out of the mindset of where can i go that 2 days in enough to where can i go and have an amazing 2 days. We've just got back from 2 days in Paris and had an amazing time. We've been before and will go again, it doesnt need to be a case of we're here 2 days and have to cram every single sight in. Obviously there is so much more to see but we planned well what we wanted to do and it was perfect. We've also had a great couple of days in Rome, Barcelona and Madrid. If you'd prefer much smaller cities then Id recommend Prague, Budapest, Valencia, Toulouse, Nice, Bordeaux, Vienna, Venice, Bologna. We also went to Porto and loved it. We went during the annual Sao Joao festival which was huge fun and will definitely go back for that.

Trogir in Croatia. Like a smaller Dubrovnik. Closer than Split is to Split airport.

Rome is a city entirely made up of historic ,interesting and unique features. Every street, every building has a story.
Literally the thing that makes it so perfect for one or two days.

You really can’t, if you want to go into things and look at them properly, not just wander round and see the outside! We easily filled 5 days there.

Not if you want to go inside them! You would want to spend half a day in the Vatican alone, just for starters.