Where In The World?

cson

Ok, the girlfriends b-day is coming up fairly sharpish. I'd like to bring her somewhere cool but being a fecking student, the oul budget is a bit tight. She brought me to Paris for mine for the Prix De L'Arc De Triomphe back in October, so thats what I'm kinda using as a guide.

So can any boardsies help me? I'm basically looking for a foreign holiday for maybe 2-4 nights anytime between February and April that won't break the bank. (About ~€800 but not more than that for the holiday itself).

Any help you could give me would be great

Merci beaucoup.

islander35

well my friends and i are goin to barcelona for 5 nights at the end of this month, flying with ryanair so its really cheap and heard its a lovely city!!

rossie1977

barcelona is a good bet for a student, its a beautiful city, easily up there with Paris for me and the nightlife is very good too

if you weren't a student i would also suggest venice and rome but there is basically zero nightlife in both those places

cson

Cheers lads for the replies, had Barca in mind actually. The holiday wouldn't really be for going out aa night, she'd rather a quieter relaxed holiday - a bit of sightseeing, a bit of sunbathing and a bit of sleeping. We wouldn't be going clubbing or anything.

It'd be only a 2/3 night stay too, preferably a 2 night stay, we've a good few commitments back home and money is tight too unfortunately.

But, yeah Barcelona sounds good. Might even persuade her to come to a match

rossie1977

yes a match at camp nou would be one of the main things i would recommend in barcelona, i had front row seats near the centre circle for the match against Betis in November and it was a great experience

cson

Another place I was considering was Marseille on the french med, anyone have any experience of it?

Creachadóir

If you're going to Barcelona, check the prices with clickair too as it can be as cheap if not cheaper than Ryanair and flies into the main airport. How about Budapest. Now that Ryanair fly there it's much cheaper to get there. The thermal baths are lovely and there's plenty to do for a weekend. A lot of people rent out an apartment when they're there, which is cheaper than a hotel, often just as nice, and you've option of making some meals/snacks there.

I haven't been to Marseille, but France is very romantic. However, it can be expensive.

Rome is very romantic too, and usually the flights are reasonable enough with Ryanair. Loads of fountains and fountains...

shrapnel222

cson wrote: »

Another place I was considering was Marseille on the french med, anyone have any experience of it?

Marseille is a bit of a peculiar one. You'll either love it or hate it. It's not a city with lots to see and do, it's a bit like Dublin in that regard, and like Dublin it's got an amazing feel to it. It's very alive, the harbour is great, the food is fantastic, but it's also rough and grimy. it's a great place but not for everyone.

If you fancy something a bit different, try seville or cordoba. They're amazing cities and great places for a long weekend, but not as big as barcelona.

craichoe

Barcelona and anywhere in france/hungary/belgium/holland/germany would be quite cold at the moment.

Some nice cities in Europe though.

Lille (France) - Expensive but nicer than paris, really beautiful city
Antwerp (Belgium) - Nice place - Small again but good enough nightlife and sights
Brugge (Belgium) Very nice, more of a country feel
Dusseldorf (Germany) Great nightlife, lots of stuff to see and do
Cologne (Germany) - Very like Dusseldorf
Prague (Czech Republic) - v.good
Vienna (Austria) Also good
Krakow (Poland) Really nice
Gdansk (Poland) Really nice beach town , also neighbouring Gdynia is lovely too

http://www.skyscanner.net for all your flight needs

cson

Cheers guys, appreciate all the advice.

I'm strongly leaning to Barcelona, mostly because of how easy it is to get there and the availibility of packages.

Can anyone tell me what the craic is with a few things;

• Flying: Is Girona far from Barca if we fly Ryanair and is it hard/expensive to get into the city
• Hotels: Wheres best to stay on budget?

I think I've kind of decided to go for a two night break between the end of Feb and all of March, it doesn't matter if its midweek or weekend and I've nailed a budget down of €600 for flights + Accomodation for the both of us (€300 each)

Any ideas?

rossie1977

girona is about an hour north of barcelona and a bus leaves outside the terminal door direct to barcelona city centre, the bus stop in the city is at the main bus station near the Arc de Triomf (yes barcelona has an arc de triomphe like paris) http://www.sagales.com/index.asp?docId=87&MenuID=87&seccio=2

its €12 one-way, not sure about return price because we only flew back from girona. You can also fly into Reus airport with ryanair, that is about 1 hour south of barcelona by bus (which also leaves outside the door of the terminal). Reus in itself offers alot, the town of Salou is only 3 miles from Reus airport (with some of europes best beaches) and probably the best theme park in europe (port Aventura) is just 2 miles from reus airport

as for accommodation anywhere in the city is good, the underground system is first rate, we stayed just north of La Rambla near the Picasso Museum in the middle of the city and it was really nice

cson

Ok, I've scaled down the budget to €600 and the stay to 3 nights. Flicking throught the links given in the sticky I came up with this package from Usit: A 3 night stay in Nice in a 3* hotel for €212 (I can only assume thats per person). It does however say it doesn't include the price of airport transfers or taxes.

Its attractive to me because both myself and the gf have a reasonable command of French, its over Valentines weekend (The dual bonus of killing two birds with the one stone - her birthday is 1st Feb) and its reasonably cheap.

Anybody been to Nice? Any opinions on the plan?

cson

Right after much travails and surfing the interweb I've decided to plump for Nice on a 2 night stay from 22nd-24th February. Decided I'd do everything myself seperately, feck the travel agents altogether and this is what I came up with;

Flights: Ryanair €206 for 2 people return. Would have gone with Aer Lingus but their arse raping €130 pp for the return flight on Sunday is ripping the piss.

Accommodation: Ibis Hotel Gare (I'm presuming its near the Train Station if my french serves me correct) is €100 in total for the two nights.

Had a look at google earth and the airport seems fairly close to the train station - It looks fairly easy to get to the hotel if its where I think it is.

The icing on the cake is OGC Nice are playing a match on the Sat if I can persuade the gf to come. I love my footy.

Edit: So basically its €300 in total for the both of us for a 2 night stay. Now comes the problem of trying to get her to have that weekend off work. It'd just be the thing after I went through this for ages to get it cheap that she had to work that weekend

cfitz

I've been to Nice just a few times. I've stayed in the Ibis near the airport (I don't think it's the one you're looking at) and I've stayed in one of the Mercures on the promenade (I think it's called the Marche Fleur). There was nothing wrong with the Ibis, but like most Ibis hotels I've seen, the room was quite basic and not somewhere you'd really relax in. If you're gonna be out and about sun-bathing, sight-seeing and dining all the time I suppose that doesn't really matter. The Mercure is a really pretty hotel and some of the rooms have balconies and upstairs beds. The first time I stayed in the Mercure it was cheap but the second time it was dear so it might or might not be a possibility for you.

I'd recommend a trip to Monte-Carlo if you have time. It's only about a fiver on the bus and it takes less than an hour to get there. The bus journey is really scenic and Monte-Carlo itself is very impressive if you haven't been there before.

Nice is a good spot, very picturesque. It's quite touristy though and expensive and the beach is pebble rather than sand. The sea is fantastically blue - if you get good weather, the promenade is a lovely place to spend a weekend. I don't know your girlfriend but are you sure she'd like being asked to a football match during her birthday present?! Have a great time!

An Citeog

Creachadóir wrote: »

If you're going to Barcelona, check the prices with clickair too as it can be as cheap if not cheaper than Ryanair and flies into the main airport.

Unfortunately Clickair are discontinuing this route as of February 1st. Not sure if it's indefinite or what the story is.

If you've got your heart set on Nice Cson, go for it. Not sure what it's like in the winter though. Just in case you're wondering, Barcelona can definitely be done on the cheap. Your best bet is to fly Ryanair to Reus or Girona, although I wouldn't normally recommend this, and find yourself some decent enough but reasonably priced accommodation. Try http://www.hostelworld.com/ for that, honestly! You could easily pick up a self-catering apartment for 2 for less than €60 a night. After that, you've got all the sights to enjoy: Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia, Parc de la Ciutadella, Montjuic, Camp Nou and a whole host of other things. As long as you stay away from the rip-off tourist trap places, you'd be surprised at how cheap it is. It's also like 15-20ºC over here at the moment, so it's far from cold!

cson

Nice is booked

€217 for Ryanair flights
€101 for Ibis Gare Hotel

Not too bad I guess, €318 for a 2 night weekend break. You'd nearly pay more than that for a 4* hotel in Ireland for the same type of break.

Anyways, I'll let you know how it goes.

CantGetNoSleep

A much better choice than Marseille anyway, couldn't have picked a worse city in France imo