Heading away in early October any suggestions??

testtech05

Hi guys, looking to head away somewhere in early October and looking for any suggestions. Not too fussy about where I end up just wanna get away for a few days, could be a package holiday or just a week in some city in europe anything really! Just looking for peoples experiences and where they found good at that time of year.

Cheers

CorkMan

I was in Madrid last year and it was a great place. It is a big city (3rd in Europe after London and Brussels) but still has the vibe of a holiday place.

I travelled from Dublin airport to Barajas Airport (the main one of Madrid). Madrid has a huge metro system, bigger than London through it is still very easy to get around. The Puerto Del Sol is bang in the middle of Madrid, there are not a lot of cars that pass through, its a big circle where there are many stands on the street and every main road comes from there.

I went from Sept 15-Sept 18 and the weather was still good, better than anything you would expect in a year in Ireland. I visited the Royal Palace, the Bernabeu, walked around all the city. (I went mainly for Real Madrid, the soccer team, but I never planned as much as I wanted to for the sights). Madrid is funny in that you walk around the city centre and it is all flat, but when you pass the Royal Palace is starts to go downhill and loads of people are on rollerskates, its a bit like San Francisco. Then at the end of the hills, (that is more appropraite than "hill" by itself") it is all flat again!

It has a charm alright, the architechture is really different from Ireland. The people of Madrid go out late aswell! Literally it is from 10-11PM that things start to happen. The clubs/bars out there stay open until 6-7 in the morning! Plus there is Toledo, which is a world heritage site, and is only 30 minutes from Madrid. It is massive.

I would suggest heading out for 4 days, see all of Madrid for the first 2 days, then Toledo for the 3rd. Take in what you hadn't seen of Madrid on the 4th day.

testtech05

Wow Madrid sounds like a good option, this might be a stupid question but do many people speak english out there or was the language barrier a bit of a problem??

CorkMan

Many of the older peope (55-60+) wouldn't but most younger people would. I was looking for a street, and asked a men for help in my limited spanish and he replied back in english! It definitely wouldn't be a barrier.