Weekend in Europe > recommend me a city!!

kaimera

right, so atm I'm *thinking* of bringing herself away for a weekend sometime in July I'd say, second or third weekend of the month.
I'm also thinking of asking a mate and his woman along for company.

I'm not overly bothered about the weather :: so hot places I can do without.

I have family in England so thats a possibility.

I've been to Prague before and rate it very highly so thats on my list.

She has family in Germany so thats on the list.

I know Paris is expensive but it's Paris all the same

I'm thinkin some place ryanair flies due to the **** cheap flights

So...any ideas??

Draupnir

Barcelona, best city I have ever been too. Great food, great weather, cheap, lovely people and lots to see and do.

kaimera

solid. Taken into consideration.

I saw on RA.com, €500-ish will get the two if us to Rome. Be nice.

Tiriel

Draupnir wrote:

Barcelona, best city I have ever been too. Great food, great weather, cheap, lovely people and lots to see and do.

was there a few weeks ago and loved it!! Definitely going back, can't wait. There's lots to see, nice beach, great nite life, cheap drink, nice shops.. what more could you wish for!! I flew with Ryanair to Girona, then bus to Barcelona. Look out for the Ryanair special offers on at the moment..

Was in Rome a couple of years ago and it's also a lovely city, very historic and leaves a huge impression on you. Lovely for a weekend, you'd see all you need to really in that time. Not as cheap to eat out etc as Barcelona.. so could really effect the budget once you arrive..

Esel

I hear Dublin is cool this time of year. They take Euro there too. Was told to avoid Pimple Bar.

kaimera

thanks esel. heard the same myself.

kinda expensive tho

Drummer

Amsterdam - it's a must !

kaimera

lol. I'm aware of Amsterdams *attractions* but cba tbh.

The Free Man

c'mon, she'd luv amsterdam! :P

BuffyBot

I'd recommend Amsterdam - I'm just back - and there is a lot, lot more to it then the "attractions" (which I didn't go for in the first place). I was there for four days and only got to see half the stuff I had planned to do. The people are nice, weather is fairly like ours, good english spoken by all - certainly a place I'd recommend.

kaimera

cheers BB. will take it into consideration aswell.

Barca seems like the #1 atm...altho prague is a close #2.

possibly someplace in italy either.

Imposter

Budapest or Vienna.
Both are a bit like prague but not prague. Budapest is cheap (Vienna is cheap by dublin standards) and you also have the baths thing going for it.

Dades

Prague is the coolest city I've been to.
Keep that top o' your list.

I wasn't a huge fan of Budapest and I found Vienna to be very pricey BTW.

N'joy.

Lex_Diamonds

In the same boat myself Kaimera, did go to Barca last year, was great.

Anyone know anywhere in Scandinavia worth visiting during the summer months?

Ivan E

Def. put Rome down as an option if you can get the right deal. Great city and well worth a visit.

Culchie

Lex_Diamonds wrote:

In the same boat myself Kaimera, did go to Barca last year, was great.

Anyone know anywhere in Scandinavia worth visiting during the summer months?

Scandinavia is very expensive for typical Paddy, due to price of drink.

Copenhagen is the place to be this summer, Hans Christien Anderson festival for the whole year, lively town as well very nice.

Bergen in Norway is a lovely town, hard enough to get to directly though, fly to another nice place Stavanger and go from there.

Norwegian Coastal Cruise very rosemantic !!

drrnwbb

yeah, with scandinavia id recommend copenhagen/malmö/göteborg/stockholm. during the summer the weather is really good and its bright till really late (midnight-ish for the southernparts of scandinavia). oslo is pretty nice too (didnt see much of it) and bergen (as said before) is great but hard to get to (8ish hour train from oslo). i am here in helsinki and it is wonderfull during the summer but its a little hard to get to from the rest of the nordic region.

norway is the most expensive of the countries for drink. the other ones arent far behind though. but its really safe and hopefully weather will be nice this summer.

dw

Culchie

There's also a Baltic cruise that takes in Stockholm, Riga, St Petersburg I think and a couple of other ports....supposed to be really something else.

My next adventure methinks.

I'd recommend Vienna,its a city that got me back a second time.

Rome is lovely too,lots to do,go out eat drink etc.

Nice is the biz, that gets my top vote, been there 4 times and direct flights from Dublin.From your base there you can get to monaco, cannes and Italy all in less than an hour .
Absolutely beautifull in may, though it gets quite hot from June onwards.

vigos

For somewhere different I've heard Ljubljana in Slovenia is meant to be a fabulous city

missy me

look up brugges,its a lovely place, nice and small, very romantic and full of chocalate,prices r reasonable, and i think its one of the safest places iv been,

Coney Island

Stockholm or BCN

Third_Echelon

I was in Berlin over Easter. Great city... surprised nobody had mentioned it yet!

There's plenty to do and see. Cool bars and clubs. Whatever type of night or music you want you'll find it in Berlin. I was there for 3 days. First night i was in a techno club, second night a punk rock place... pretty wierd nights, but interesting all the same... great people as well.

Great city for the contrasts of east and west berlin and plenty of the historical things to see... the wall, checkpoint charlie, reichstag (parliament building), sony centre, brandenburg gate, alexander platz, karl-marx allee etc etc...

Anyway my vote goes for Berlin!

Caixa

I would highly recommend Barcelona or Venice - Venice is really great in the early summer. A bit on the expensive side if you don't look around for the cheaper prices. Some people seem to complain about it, but you'll generally find they were there at a bad time of the year (like March, when parts are flooded).

Rossonero

Barcelona is actually very cheap once you're there.

Dubrobvnik. Not really cheap but worth a visit. Very trendy

Ivan E

Having been to both Berlin and Venice, I have to say they are both worth a visit but personally I don't think they are a patch on Rome. Berlin has a lot but its also a huge city so it can be difficult to figure out exactly what you want to do. Also I found the culture to be one of the strangest I have ever come across which I suppose is an attraction within itself.

Venice for all its beauty, I found went very quiet and essentially closed down after 6. Fine if you're a couple and you're not looking to do much else. But if you are looking for a bit of life, it seemed to me it wasn't found in abundance here.

Rome had a lot in different areas. Essentially its a small city so its easy to get around. It also has an underground. The historical sites are obviously fantastic and so central its surprising at first. On top of that there is some good shopping and good nightlife. No problems with using English as well.

On top of that, there is the Vatican which is well worth a visit too. We actually were there to see the Pope give a blessing on the Sunday morning. Not that any of us were religious and all of us were dying with a hang over but it was still a magical experience to go there and see the square and cathedral as well as witness a Papal blessing.

Milan is also a good spot but I tend to find people can be split over it. I loved the place but I would also recommend Rome ahead of it for a weekend break.

Annika

Muenchen is also a nice city in germany esp in summer.

Third_Echelon

I dont know if you have been watching the show on RTE called 'How low can you go'???

Three guys are going to random cities for a few days and doing it as cheaply as possible. The website has some info on their previous trips. Good show and some of the cities they were in were pretty intresting...

http://www.rte.ie/tv/howlowcanyougo/

eclectichoney

annika good call. i adore munich, because it's not a massive capital like berlin it's nice, spacious picturesque, and the people were v cool and all spoke english perfectly pretty cheap there too - pints of funky german beer for 3 yo yo - beer which is much better than the rubbish here. lots to do, but not *too* much that you couldn't see in a weekend or so. loved at as much as paris... maybe more ??? and olympia tower for 3 quid was *better* than the eiffel tower if u ask me.

Drummer

kaimera wrote:

lol. I'm aware of Amsterdams *attractions* but cba tbh.

cba tbh ???

guest31

Ivan E wrote:

Having been to both Berlin and Venice, I have to say they are both worth a visit but personally I don't think they are a patch on Rome. Berlin has a lot but its also a huge city so it can be difficult to figure out exactly what you want to do. Also I found the culture to be one of the strangest I have ever come across which I suppose is an attraction within itself.


I agree totally Ivan, having visited all three cities too ... albeit Venice only for a day. Berlin is a truly unique place, great energy, and you could spend weeks in the museums and the KDW (Kaufhaus des Westens - Europe's largest store, I nearly got lost in the cheese section alone!) ..

but nothing compares to Rome ! In fact most places in Italy are pretty out of this world .. Taormina in Sicily, Sorrento .. but for a weekend, you can't top Rome. The lovely night time atmosphere, children, adults, all strolling round eating icecream ... I swear to God, Dublin it is not! You discover little gems around every corner .. and there's the well known tourist attractions.

German towns and cities don't get the coverage they deserve .. I especially love Trier, the oldest town in Germany, near the border of Luxembourg .. it's got the most beautiful square, you can sit a an eis cafe, with the Porta Nigra to view .. there's also an amphitheatre and great architecture .. it's on the mosel, so a boat trip is a lovely way to while away a couple of hours.

Hope you have a fun weekend!

whippet

Barca - great city for day and night life, just stay away from the Port at night, far to expensive and not worth it. Great to have the option of beach or city during the day, and for footie fans don't leave without a visit to the Camp Nou.

Riga, Latvia - perfect for a lads weekend, wouldn't say your lady friends would appriciate the nightlife which tends to boarder on the tacky to the downright sleazy. Good for day tours and walk-a-abouts. Cheap as chips

Budapest - great for a quite relaxing 'couples' weekend, the bath houses are fantastic. Not a great night life, but good choice for food. Nice and Cheap

New Forest, South England - for an alternative to city breaks, beautiful and quaint, great pubs, B&B's - hire a car for a few days and just explore. average enough pricing.

Jersey - AerLingus fly direct from dublin, beautiful island, great night life during the summer months, slightly cheaper than ireland, loads to do during the day and the weather is far better than here.



Just my two cents!!!!

Annika

Vienna/Wien (Austria)--- always worth a visit

Annika

if you are interested in literature i would recommend a visit to Weimar (goethe,schiller,etc lived there).