Romantic weekend in winter for marriage proposal

sinlessgunner

Hi all,

I'm going to propose to my OH in the coming months really excited about it!

I want to take her to a nice town/city in the cold and snow and propose there, so would preferably be sometime round xmas or in January (have to save for the ring ) It will only be for a weekend unfortunately so I don't want to be train and plane hopping. As little travel as possible.

I was looking at Salzburg but looks like the only way to get there is with Ryanair and they only fly Saturday and Sunday so that's out of the question. Can anyone recommend something similar? I don't want to go to a big city, I would prefer somewhere idyllic and historical with nice architecture and atmosphere.

If anyone has a recommendation I would really appreciate it. Also if you know of a hotel in the area that would suitably match the occasion that would be an added bonus. Thanks all!

schemingbohemia

Krakow?
You could fly to Memmingen with Ryanair and get bus from there to Salzburg or Munich, or pick a smaller city in southern germany, i think they fly most days.
Tallinn in Estonia? Very nice city centre.

Best of luck with it.

Edinburgh could be a closer option, lovely old fashioned streets in parts.

Toast4532

London, its amazing there.

sinlessgunner

Thanks guys. My biggest problem with London/Edinburgh is the very strong possibility of wet miserable weather, as opposed to clear crisp winter days or snow in central Europe. SchemingBohemia gave me hope for Salzburg but in December and January they can have as little as 2 hours of sunshine and temps as low as -20. Don't want to lose her to frostbite before I pop the question

Tallin may be a good bet, or even Vienna maybe. Its only going to be for 2-3 nights and I want it to be as perfect as possible. Thanks for the suggestions all, please keep them coming.

ProudDUB

Bruges is a wonderfully romantic spot. The old, medieval buildings, the ice rink in the main town square beside the old belfry, the Xmas market & the chocolate & lace shops all really add to the atmosphere. It is an hours train journey from Brussels. Trains depart every 30 mins or so, so no major journey planning is required.

Aer Lingus fly into the main Brussels International airport. The city centre is a 20 minute train journey away. Ryanair fly into Charleroi. It is a 50 minute bus ride to the city centre train station. Buses depart every 20-30 minutes, so again, no major planning or hanging around is involved. I had heard that Charleroi was one of those 'out in the middle of no where' Ryanair airports that are a real pain to commute to/from the major cities that they are near. However, I didn't think that a 50 minute bus ride versus a 20 minute train journey was all that big of a deal. As Ryanair charged 40 quid a head to fly into Charleroi & Aer Lingus wanted 120 euros to fly into Brussels International, it was a bit of no brainer for me.

CuppaCocoa

The old city in Stockholm.

lubie76

Prague is a beautiful city especially that time of year. The architecture is breath taking. It's almost guaranteed snow and v cold but walking the streets and lane through Christmas markets is amazing!

zagmund

*If* they have finished the roadworks then Augsburg, near(ish) Munich. There are trains direct from Memmingen.

We were there in the Summer and it was a great city - very compact, a lot of history, easy to get around and a lovely pedestrian area. A fraction of the price of Munich. The only problem was that they were in the middle of putting down tram tracks in the city centre so a whole load of streets were dug up.

z

p.s. snowy, winter, weekend . . . flights will be busy with people off on ski holidays, so they will be more expensive than other times.

old hippy

Toast4532 wrote: »

London, its amazing there.

Not when the frikkin' airport closes in the snow, it isn't. Almost missed my own damn wedding as a result!

Someone mentioned Bruges, it is such a beautiful city. That would be my choice.

Evenstevens

Salzburg really is beautiful. We flew to Salzburg before with Ryanair and then got the train to Vienna. You could do the reverse. Had the most beautiful train journey to Vienna in the snow. You could alternatively consider flying to somewhere in England and getting a direct flight to Salzburg from there although you said as little travel as possible.
The Sheraton in Salzburg was v. nice. I think we were upgraded by mistake though. Amazing breakfast.

Vienna itself is beautiful too and reasonable.


Heidelberg is lovely too. About 80km from Frankfurt airport.

Tiriel

Bruges or the old city in Stockholm - both beautiful, non-commercial and nice winter places to visit. Both do Christmas markets and have cobblestone streets, lots of candles and just really beautiful.

irish_goat

Tallinn has a lovely town centre and is cheap once you're there.

Sleepy

Paris in the snow has to be one of the most romantic places in the world. Spoiled for choice in places to get down on one knee too: whether you go for the cliché of the top of the Eifel Tower to something more offbeat like at Jim Morrison's grave / outside the Moulin Rouge / the Haagen Daaz bar on the Champs Elysee etc.

ardmacha

Tallinn is a nice small city.
Another option is Bremen, not too big and nice in the centre.

whiskeyman

Look up the German Christmas markets.
Regensberg, Nuremberg amongst others.

sinlessgunner

Thanks for all the great responses everyone, very much appreciated. Torn between so many of these places now but I'm thinking Bruges is the place. Mightn't be as harsh as Salzburg but still is picturesque, would suit my needs and the travel time is pretty short. Looking at 29th December to 1st January with a New Year's Eve proposal

Going to leave it another day or two to mull it over so feel free to suggest more or to change my mind. Really appreciate the responses everyone.

old hippy

sinlessgunner wrote: »

Thanks for all the great responses everyone, very much appreciated. Torn between so many of these places now but I'm thinking Bruges is the place. Mightn't be as harsh as Salzburg but still is picturesque, would suit my needs and the travel time is pretty short. Looking at 29th December to 1st January with a New Year's Eve proposal

Going to leave it another day or two to mull it over so feel free to suggest more or to change my mind. Really appreciate the responses everyone.

Oooh, I forgot. Sicily. So much history and so beautiful and relatively cheap compared to the rest of Italy.

ProudDUB

sinlessgunner wrote: »

Thanks for all the great responses everyone, very much appreciated. Torn between so many of these places now but I'm thinking Bruges is the place. Mightn't be as harsh as Salzburg but still is picturesque, would suit my needs and the travel time is pretty short. Looking at 29th December to 1st January with a New Year's Eve proposal

Going to leave it another day or two to mull it over so feel free to suggest more or to change my mind. Really appreciate the responses everyone.

Ding, ding, ding... we have a winner. What do I win?

Just a note on the weather thing. In your opening post, you mentioned that you wanted proper winter snow and not wet, miserable weather. I was there for 3 days last December, and wet and miserable weather (Irish style) is what we got for all 3 days. I am no geography expert, but I don't think that Bruges is far enough south, or mountainy enough to get the kind of intense, heavy snow that you are looking for. We loved wandering around the old parts of town, but to be honest, we spent more time indoors in the pubs, cafes, chocolate shops etc etc than we did outdoors.

Also, Bruges most famous touristy thing to do is take a boat trip on the canals and look at all the old medieval buildings, the way you take a gondola trip in Venice. However, the boat trips don't run in the winter, so if that is where you were planning on popping the question, you may want to have a Plan B in place, or arrange something privately.

Feel free to holler if you have any more questions.

flahers

Enjoy Bruges, it's absolutely beautiful at that time of year

sinlessgunner

ProudDUB wrote: »

I was there for 3 days last December, and wet and miserable weather (Irish style) is what we got for all 3 days...

We loved wandering around the old parts of town, but to be honest, we spent more time indoors in the pubs, cafes, chocolate shops etc etc than we did outdoors.

Well I think the setting and the atmosphere has to be more important than the weather. Ideally it would be snowy and/or frosty, but if the place is a great as everyone says it is then it really is a non-issue. Booking the flights today not putting it off any longer.

Thanks to all, wish me luck

Tiriel

sinlessgunner wrote: »

Well I think the setting and the atmosphere has to be more important than the weather. Ideally it would be snowy and/or frosty, but if the place is a great as everyone says it is then it really is a non-issue. Booking the flights today not putting it off any longer.

Thanks to all, wish me luck

Go for it Sir

sarkozy

All good proposals. I think there's two ways to go: 'traditional' or slightly less traditional.

It's true what they say: Paris is a very romantic city in which to propose, but there's a risk the weather might be 'blah' (dull, drizzle). Then you've got your central and northern European cities, most notably Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Stockholm. Talinn old city is very rustic and you've near-guaranteed snow. Vienna is visually magnificent as is much of Prague. Personally, of those, I would opt for Stockholm. I've only spent a few hours there, having spent some time in Helsinki, which I wouldn't recommend.

Food is important to us, and I'd be more inclined to pick cities with good food, such as Paris or Stockholm. An alternative might be Copenhagen (the port area is quite atmospheric). Much of Amsterdam (the Jordaan area), Utrecht and, as mentioned, Brugge can be quite atmospheric also.

So that's the c-c-c-cold Christmas proposal destinations.

As for warm ones ... Rome could be nice, but I didn't get much Rome love when we were there and there's always the risk of some strike or some nonsense getting in the way, but it could work.

Personally, I proposed in Granada in February. In the south of Spain, the weather is good, oranges still grow on the trees. Down the coast, it's warm and delicious, and in higher-altitude Granada the air is fresh and crisp. The old city barrios are beautiful, and during Catholic festivals, there are often great festivals. We flew into Málaga, stayed there for a couple of nights and wended our way to Granada where, under an orange tree in the Jewish quarter, proposed. We walked to the Alhambra and there, she accepted.

Since then, Málaga and Andalucia has meant a lot to us. We went there for our honeymoon and babymoon. On honeymoon, we flew to Málaga and got a bus to Tarifa for new year's eve celebrations and, from there, got a ferry to Morocco and had a wonderful time. For babymoon, we flew into Málaga and travelled to Seville and Cádiz.

These places are easy peasy to get to - direct flights to Málaga (the airport is literally 7 minutes from the city centre by train) and from there you can get a bus or train to anywhere, really.

Seville is also very atmospheric.

So you can go either way - crisp, cold and snowy, or blue skies, sunny and warm!

Good luck on your choice and pro forma congratulations!

sarkozy

I see you've made your decision. I also thought Barcelona could be nice.

Well, enjoy!

Pretzill

sinlessgunner wrote: »

Thanks for all the great responses everyone, very much appreciated. Torn between so many of these places now but I'm thinking Bruges is the place. Mightn't be as harsh as Salzburg but still is picturesque, would suit my needs and the travel time is pretty short. Looking at 29th December to 1st January with a New Year's Eve proposal

Going to leave it another day or two to mull it over so feel free to suggest more or to change my mind. Really appreciate the responses everyone.

Bruges is lovely - if you like quirky accomodation the hotel salvador just beside an old cathedral is a real.quirky place. Each room has something special and unique about it. Its not posh now - just unusual high ceilings big open fire in their breakfast room. And the rooms are more like small.apartments. Also even if it's cold a boat ride through the city is very rosmantic!