Europe Travel Answers

You can go to all sorts of places for the weekend if you wish. The easiest thing to do is simply to look at the excellent www.skyscanner.net and see what flights are available to where. Budget flights operate to lots and lots of places within a 2.5 hour journey....but you need to be booking now for best fares when you are visiting. Look at the 'where we fly' maps for e.g. www.easyjet.com www.ryanair.com www.wizzair.com Lufthansa does some cheap return fares too: www.lufthansa.com Amsterdam is a possibility by train as well as air...in fact, once you have factored in travel time to/from the airport and for check-in and baggage reclaim, train may well be faster. But you need to book well in advance to get the best fares. The booking 'window' is open 120 days before departure. Use the official www.eurostar.co site. You could perhaps think of: Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Athens, Ljubljana, Tallinn, Belfast, Krakow...the list is vast, so I'll stop there! Have a look at the VT pages about each place (use the searchbox top right of this page). My pages about them may be helpful too. You could easily visit Italian and Spanish cities for a weekend too: Madrid, Rome, Florence, Milan....

O..and I forgot Lisbon, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vienna....and more...:-))

Totally agree that your choice is vast. Add Brugge to that list a s well.From London you are within 1 hour of the airports (Stansted especially) for short and good priced trips to Europe.

Go to www.seat61.com. This website may give you plenty of ideas to see entire Europe. Also, don't miss out on weekend trips from London to nearby places. VTers advised me regarding Windsor Castle and believe me, we enjoyed it thoroughly. If you are lucky, like we were, the Queen may be in residence and your Sonny Boy may get to see the delightful Changing of the Guards up close at 10.45 am.

Yes, there are lots of places within the UK for a weekend visit too...Bath, York, North Wales, the Lake District, Exeter, Manchester, Liverpool... But Sunday rail servcies are not always brilliant in the UK. Hiring a car might be a bette option, and will certainly allow you to see much more (because not everywhere still has a railway station). www.nationalrail.co.uk for train times, details and fares. Long-distance buses are also a good way of exploring the UK cheaply. www.nationalexpress.com and www.megabus.com If you only have a weekend then exploring Europe by train is not really feasible, other than visiting places on or near the route served by the under-Channel Eurostar (I agree that Brugge would be a super choice). But if you have a bit longer then bahn.com/i/view/overseas/en/... will give you times and details for almost all European trains. More options for weekend trips by air Naples, Dublin, Barcelona, Kaunas or Vilnius, Porto, Seville, Venice.... :-)

I was going to say, that from London, the continent is your oyster, as it were. However, I have been beaten to it! There's from Ireland to Russia and points north and south. Two months of weekends won't be enough. However, don't forget that the UK has some terrific day and weekend destinations. I don't like to tempt providence but September/October can have some wonderful weather here.

One place that is so near and should not be missed would be DUBLIN and the countryside in the Irish Republic. Go there, you will not be disappointed.

you can get week-end packages also here http://www.lastminute.com imho traveling abroad may be cheaper London to Amsterdam |2 adults | 15 September 12 | 2 nights Avg. price per person £170.23 Total flight + hotel price £340.46 EasyJet flights Stansted Airport (STN) - Amsterdam (AMS) and viceversa

I would give Normandy a chance. Nice people and great food. I also think J's tip about Scandinavia sounds great. Brugge is a great idea very nice and it would be dead easy.

France is a great deal more than Paris. Provence is rightly, massively popular with British people for short breaks. As you get into September, the grape harvest is full swing and in late summer the region is just gorgeous. If you want a target place, than I'd start with Avignon. It contains quite a lot of semi-pedestrian areas which are safe for small people to run about. For cities, you can easily visit Barcelona for a short break. I'd agree that Spain really needs weeks (and weeks) to visit, but Barcelona is a fantasic short break. The tourist buses make it really easy to make the most of it in a short time. Our first visit was when DD was about 2, we all had a great time. So much so, we went back 2 years later and did it all again. My comments about Barcelona really go for Venice too. The really great thing about Venice is the absence of traffic. Lovely with small people as the noise level is that much less than most cities. If you can get good flight times, Istanbul should be a candidate too. For visiting, Istanbul is my favorite city in the world. Marakech might be an option. It's near enough, but you might have trouble getting direct flights. Indirect are OK, but for a short break they take up time. For all these citys, research where you're staying. You want to be right in the heart of the place to cut down lost time getting to and from your hotel to attractions - particularly if your son needs an afternoon sleep.

You've had some excellent suggestions already so I'll only add a little more. Eastern Europe is often overlooked yet there are good flight connections to places there. Cities like Krakow, Bratislava, Brno, Prague, Budapest etc. etc. are all excellent choices for a weekend and you will find many of them are less expensive than cities further West in Europe if budget is a consideration.

I vote for Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, Copenhagen and Stockholm (one of the most beautiful cities I have seen)! Have you considered the south of France? ;-) But do look at @anil's well-answered post for options out of London if all you have is 2 nights per weekend, to cut short the travelling time? :-)

@NR=Thank You!

Ryanair fly direct to Marrakesh from London Luton, and TAP from Heathrow, so that may well be feasible.# Istanbul is magnificent but, for me, it has simply too much to see for just a weekend trip..and it's a longer flight. But where you can actually manage to go for the weekend out of this massive list (and there are more places accessible by budget airline which have not been mentioned) depends entirely on actual flight timings.

A week-end is short, I would not spend too much for transfer, let's say at least 1 hour before at airport, about an other hour for transfer, this time is to considered twice, so I would not look for a flight more than 1h30m/2h

You need to be at UK airports (especially the London ones) 2 hours before a flight outside the UK, especially with a budget carrier. Check-in closes at least 40 minutes before departure and there are often long queues for check-in and for security. Allowing just one hour is cutting it far too fine, even for a flight within the UK.

You are most welcome, @anil! ;-)

Given the above answers, I would opt to go somewhere where I don't need to fly for just 1-2 nights stay.. I would opt to go where I can by train and enjoy the rail journey, too! :-) It's too much rushing around, otherwise, imho..

Hi I recomend Gdansk and Krakow - very interesting and beautiful old cities! Worth a visit in Europe!!