Holiday types · Short breaks
Short breaks
Two or three nights, a short flight or a train, and back before the week starts. The trick is choosing a city that fits the time rather than one you'll rush.
Two or three nights, a short flight or a train, and back before the week starts. The trick is choosing a city that fits the time rather than one you'll rush.
Getting this wrong is why people come home from a weekend feeling they've seen an airport.
Venice, Dubrovnik, Bruges and Edinburgh are small enough to do properly in two nights. Rome, Berlin, Istanbul and Barcelona have more than a weekend can hold — you'll enjoy them and you'll leave with a list. And if you're within reach of St Pancras, the train changes the maths entirely: Paris in 2h 15m and Brussels in under two, city centre to city centre, with no airport at either end.
With the honest number of nights each actually needs.
Two nights is right. Stay overnight — the day trippers leave at six.
2h 15m by Eurostar, centre to centre. No airport at either end.
No flight, no passport, no jet lag. Two nights covers the Old Town.
1h 15m — one of the shortest flights we sell. Two nights is plenty.
Small, walled and walkable. Two nights, and walk the walls at eight.
Cheapest of the great European cities, and compact enough for three nights.
Three nights if you want the salt mine or Auschwitz as well.
Three nights, because the thermal baths deserve a morning of their own.
Three for the city, four if you want Sintra without rushing.
Amsterdam or Bruges for the short flight, Paris if you can take the train. All three work comfortably in two nights.
Venice, Dubrovnik, Bruges and Edinburgh, yes. Rome, Berlin, Istanbul and Barcelona will leave you with a list — which is fine, but know it going in.
Yes, where the train link is fast — Vienna and Budapest, Rome and Florence, Amsterdam and Bruges. Open-jaw flights usually cost the same as a return.
Late November and early December is the sweet spot: same markets, half the crowds, and flights at a fraction of mid-December prices.
Three nights or four, close enough that the flight isn't half the trip.
Official hotel, Extra Magic Time, and the train drops you at the gates.
Europe's largest medieval square, and the cheapest city break on this list.
Seven hills, tiled facades, and a food scene that's transformed.
The shortest flight here, and a city that's entirely walkable.
Thermal baths and prices that come as a relief after Western Europe.
No flight required from much of the UK, and no currency to change.
Four nights, because three is the number people regret in Rome.
Guide prices, per person, based on two sharing, including return flights, accommodation and transfers where stated. They indicate what a holiday of this type has typically cost and are not an offer or a quotation. Your price depends on dates, party, board basis, departure airport and availability, and is confirmed in writing before any payment is taken.
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