Suggestions for Euro citybreak in August

ToneControl

Dominic said:

This is a hard one ..............glad I'm not your travel agent !
Madrid / Toledo won't be very hot but it's not as exciting as Barcelona
If you did Lake Como both Milan and Verona are within 40 minutes drive and there is lots to do around the Lake -little towns,numerous boat rides/water Taxis to Cernobbio,Menaggio and Tremetto and Lecco.
You will be bored in Amsterdam after a day - it's very small and samey.
Paris I always find very Meh
Avignon is very easy by fast train ,superbly beautiful and close to Pont du Garde,Nimes,Arles and the Camargue although 3 days is enough. Palais de Papes and easy to jump on a boat for a day going up or down the Rhone.
Bizarrely.......if they like shops you will find that New York is as cheap as Europe in the height of summer and it really isn't such a long flight .

the uber cities - London, Paris. NY have so many historical things to do as well as just beach and shops:
so many museums and cultural stuff

I though NY in summer is 30C+ and high humidity?
the airfares I am looking at to Euro cities are less than £100 each btw
& they seem to just drag me round shops without actually buying anything

I had thought to go to California, and do a tour, but it seems a bit late to plan now

ToneControl

TTony said:

ToneControl said:

then I remembered Paris is good 

That's probably the best version of Paris - in your memories.

Today it's very visible armed police, and even more visible "temporary residents" (hopefully that's PC).


If it's for a few days, I'd want to minimise the travel time.  So direct flights from your local airport, or Eurotunnel (lot less hassle with check-in, etc).  Depends what you/they want to do with the time.  Scottish islands for some beautiful scenery (when the clouds lift).  Channel islands - Guernsey - for some peace.  Switzerland?  Krakow's supposed to be interesting?  Or Berlin?

I went to Paris for 2 weeks at 18, then again at 20, and found a lot to do, it seemed that in august, the locals are all away, so it was quite calm. I haven't been for years, my Mrs did a quick trip there for Euro disney and a few shops 3 years ago, but I hadn't considered all the people now living on the streets. Is that everywhere, would it really affect a holiday?

ToneControl

Dominic said:

HAL9000 said:

ToneControl said:

Switzerland was completely boring when I was there in 1990...
 

I was in Saas Fee last year. 'Boring' doesn't even begin to describe it.

my friend has a chalet in Saas Fee .....Have been to ski many times ....I would agree that it is very boring even in Winter.

I went round on the trains inter-railing, the countryside was amazing beautiful, I stayed in Zurich, visited Geneva and Interlaken. The cities were mostly like the dull parts of London I recall

ToneControl

EricTheWeary said:

I've never been to Dublin but I've been slightly put off by a) the high crime rate and b) people saying a lot of the tourist parts can be dominated by stag and hen parties.

We have still to get to Amsterdam, I've got a Discussion on here on what to do there with teenagers I'll try to dig up. There's a Dutch exchange student at my son's college and she says Delft is the place to go. Not sure there's loads to do, more sight seeing and art. 

Nantes seems to come out well on places to go with teenagers, very cyclist friendly with a Boris bikes type scheme and a tram system, the steampunk park thing is quite famous and it has wacky modern architecture alongside the old chateaus,etc. Would be quite hot I guess but you'd have a sea breeze. 

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89483/family-friendly-amsterdam#latest

Dublin is about the size of Liverpool, quite a bit smaller than Manchester
I used to go there every week for a few days for work, lived in the student area for 6 weeks, stayed in Temple Bar itself once: even there is not very lively compared to similar parts of Liverpool or Manchester. Not much in the way of museums or galleries, no more than Liverpool or Manchester.

The report I had last night was that Guinness is 5 euros even in suburban pubs
My brother in law took beer and wine with him in the car, since he already knew that even supermarket booze is more expensive

Drew_TNBD

TTony said:

ToneControl said:

then I remembered Paris is good 

That's probably the best version of Paris - in your memories.

Today it's very visible armed police, and even more visible "temporary residents" (hopefully that's PC).

Economic migrants you mean.

ToneControl

Dominic said:

This is a hard one ..............glad I'm not your travel agent !
Madrid / Toledo won't be very hot but it's not as exciting as Barcelona
If you did Lake Como both Milan and Verona are within 40 minutes drive and there is lots to do around the Lake -little towns,numerous boat rides/water Taxis to Cernobbio,Menaggio and Tremetto and Lecco.
You will be bored in Amsterdam after a day - it's very small and samey.
Paris I always find very Meh
Avignon is very easy by fast train ,superbly beautiful and close to Pont du Garde,Nimes,Arles and the Camargue although 3 days is enough. Palais de Papes and easy to jump on a boat for a day going up or down the Rhone.
Bizarrely.......if they like shops you will find that New York is as cheap as Europe in the height of summer and it really isn't such a long flight .

those Italian and French places all sound great for me. I have thought about driving over there when I can leave the kids at home in 3 years

trouble is for now: my Mrs can't really tolerate hot countries for serious medical reasons, so unless it's air-con'd she can't come, and is not very mobile, so we can't wing it as easily as we could touring round. In this case, the dog is not booked into kennels anyway, so it's me and 2 teenage girls with iphones and a bad youtube habit.

I keep thinking about taking them away from the towns though. I have 2 weeks off, so initial plan was a few day/overnight  trips to Edinburgh, London etc
But then I noticed that there are good prices to Euro cities at present

ToneControl

stimpsonslostson said:

If you can find accommodation, Edinburgh is brilliant in august. The fringe is on so you can the your pick of THOUSANDS of shows etc. 
I doubt the heat will be an issue. 

heh
Ironically, I have only been there once, for work, in mid-October 2015, for work, and there was a heatwave for 2 days, the meeting room was 30C+, since clearly this was not expected!
It looked lovely, I walked all round the centre, but was unable to visit any tourist stuff outside work hours 

I assumed it was unlikely to have any accom at a reasonable cost

Kebabkid

Copenhagen seems to be popular of late but pricey once there 

Dominic

Boston / Cape Cod - cooler and less humid than NY - slightly quicker flight but peak season there price-wise
Salcombe ,Devon ?
Norfolk Broads ?
Deauville/Honfleur
Prague /vltava

Roland

ToneControl said:

.... my Mrs can't really tolerate hot countries ...

Everywhere in southern Europe will be hot in August. Berlin has decent public transport, but can also reach 30C because it's so far inland. Amsterdam would be better because it's maritime. Transport is good, and local trains will take you to places like Delph. Tourist stuff gets very busy, but not if you get there at opening time. There's also Scandinavia.

rlw

Also, Paris will be, potentially, stinking hot in August.

What about London, while we are still in Europe.  Close, can be cheap, an awful lot to do too.  No foreigners either....

Or Edinburgh.

Jalapeno

Marrakesh would way too hot in August, but it's like going to another planet rather than another country, I loved it (4 days is plenty). Make sure you do a trip to the Atlas mountains.

Reykjavik - won't be too hot - went last July it never got above 12C !!!!

You kids sounds really hard to please btw, commiserations.

octatonic

scrumhalf

Bruges is great for a few days, and other places are a reasonably short train ride.

What are they interested in? Many of Europan cities are probably too dull for certain kids.

EricTheWeary

Steampunk place in Nantes. Not massive but I'd like it!

Bucket

Budapest?

Or another recommendation for Berlin.

Axe_meister

Munich. Culture , beer , live music video n the Olympic park, easy trip to lakes for swimming and easy trips alps for walking

mellowsun

Ljubljana in Slovenia is lovely. Not far from Lake Bled which is nice, lots of scenic walks in the area.

Stockholm won't be hot and lots to see and do there, particularly if you like boat trips.

DarnWeight

Helsinki and Tallinn...ferry trip between them takes about 2 hours and is fairly cheap, so a day trip to one or the other is totally doable.

benmurray85

Krakow. Can't recommend this enough! You can do the assorted WW2 based stuff if that's your things or alternatively the centre is stunning with plenty of other things as well such as the salt mines.