CIty Break on the cheap

[Naetha]

I really wanted to go to Rome for a weekend in September - this will be the first weekend DH and I will have had together for 4 years and we wanted it to be wonderful.

However, with flights from Leeds Bradford (our nearest airport) to Rome and back coming in at £320 return for both of us, and minimum hotel cost being about £250, this is looking to be a LOT more expensive than we were hoping, and not much more than the family holiday we've "sacrificed" to do this city break.

Anyone got any tips for doing it on the cheap? Realistically can we leave it til the last minute to get something cheap?

Would happily accept suggestions for other cities if you think it could be massively cheaper, although we've done London and Edinburgh.

food/drink when there likely to be cheaper in Lisbon or Prague IME.

Could you get a cheap train down to London and hop on the Eurostar to say, Brussels?

Have a look in the local paper - sometimes they do organised trips that are a lot cheaper?

Barcelona/Prague will be cheaper.

IME flight prices rarely go down.

Have you got any tesco vouchers you could convert into airmiles?

Tbh, £270pp is about average for a city break. Its the flights that screw you. I presume this was with Jet2.com? Have you tried playing about with the dates a bit - it can make all the difference if you can be flexible with dates.

Also expedia.com is good for organising trips. Cheap hotels can be found at alpharooms.com

Definitely package deals we've found to be much cheaper - we previously had a 3 night break in Prague, hotel & flights included for £89 each (although this was 2 years ago!), booked via teletext holidays website. Either there, or lastminute.com worth a look!