where to go, lads trip (late 20s / early 30s)

whatyadoinsucka

I've been looking around for some cheap flights under £100 return, from either leeds, east mids, manchester, liverpool, doncaster into europe..

I'm running out of ideas, we like to have a drink, eat and do some activities or go to the local footy game. prefer to avoid hostile touts demanding we see dancing girls. :A

already been to madrid, barcelona, tallinn, milan, munchen, berlin, prague in the last few years..

anyone any good ideas, we usually stay in cheap hotels, hostels for 2 or 3 nights

Just been considering interlaken (via geneva or basel but pricey for trains) or bremen, or poland

looking to go between July and October (not sept)


what about benidorm, we just want to avoid little teeny bopper 18 year olds on the first trip without the parents, money is not really an issue.

any ideas appreciated

icedgemma

I would recommend Krakow (Poland) or Lisbon (Portugal). Both satisfy the criteria of being able to drink and do some activities too!
Recommended hostel in Krakow - Greg & Tom's hostel
Recommended hostel in Lisbon - Living Lounge hostel
I have stayed in both with groups of mates (girls and guys) and had an excellent time. I can give more information on what there is to do if you're interested.

whatyadoinsucka

Thanks Gemma yeah lisbon has been considered .. Massive h&m shop too. It has been shortlisted although I went last year with missus. Poland krakow is defo on the agenda what activities did you get upto

icedgemma

Well Krakow:
We stayed here: http://www.gregtomhostel.com/start.html it's excellent and I would highly recommend it. They took us out on a pub crawl one night (think it cost about £5 and that included shots in various bars). They have activities going on each night (but also let you do your own thing if you want!), it's clean, friendly and pretty cheap. Oh and it has been awarded several different awards as a great hostel.
As for things to do, there's a massive market square (biggest in Europe or something) which is interesting to walk around, there's a tower you can walk up the stairs to have a look at the view. There's an awesome castle you can go inside (Wawel castle) and next to that there's a river you can walk along, get a boat, etc. There's other stuff to wander around: Jewish Quarter, medieval streets, etc. It's one of the places in Poland that wasn't really bombed during the wars, so it's quite old and characterful.
Nightlife is great, drinks are about £1 each, maybe £2 in a prime location or for a cocktail. Food was cheap and very tasty. There's a 24 hour perogi (pasta dumplings kind of thing) place that we went each night on the way back from a night out - better than a kebab
The other thing we did was we took a coach trip to Auschwitz concentration camp & museum. It's not for everyone, but it's something we felt it was important to see. The group of 6 of us hardly spoke to each other all day, just kept our thoughts to ourselves, not something really to enjoy but again we felt it was important to see it. There are many companies organising day trips by coach from Krakow to here.

And Lisbon well if you've already been there then there's no need for me to tell you how awesome it is then

malkie76

Are you desperate to go abroad ? Edinburgh (for example) is a fantastic weekend away with sporting options, excellent food and nightlife and a few historic landmarks to see.

jhe

benidorm not all youngsters there when we went, magaluf, ayai napa. been to these places early july and september{i know you cant go september}we tend to go when colleges and uni are back open, it avoids the youngsters,
should have added benalmadena if you are looking for nightlife. they have 24hr square.

whatyadoinsucka

malkie76 wrote: »

Are you desperate to go abroad ? Edinburgh (for example) is a fantastic weekend away with sporting options, excellent food and nightlife and a few historic landmarks to see.

good point, no not desperate to go abroad, we should really be supporting the UK in this recession

its just we normally find such reasonable airfairs that when matched up alongside with 2-3 nights in a hostel at 15-30 euros a night its around the £70-£130 mark, which is pretty reasonable, the missus is going on a hen do to liverpool and its costing her over £220 without food and drink factored in.

we also try and fit in top league footy games (as huddersfield although entertaining i couldn't go every week)

we do stay at home and plan to walk up snowdon and stay overnight (either camp or B&B) in the summer, as well as camping in the lakes. but the Wags are included for that :0)

bluenoseam

avoid Edinburgh like the plague, it's EXPENSIVE - i'm from the west coast of Scotland and it was going to cost more for 5 nights + travel to Edinburgh than it was for 6 nights in New York!

whatyadoinsucka

looks like we've found it.. Easyjet to gothenburg Fri morning (£31), train to copenhagen sun (aprox £30-£50), one night copenhagen and fly home monday 9pm (£25) hostels aprox 20-30 euros a night

so in total aprox £150, and we won't have to drive home the next day like we would if we did it in the UK

and beer in gothenburg is £4-£6 (friday afterwork till 9pm half price)
gothenburg has regular cheap airport buses , easy tram network, beaches, parks

out the usual other 6 i've had 4 yes, one check with the wife/toddler, 1 check with work..

I think its booked...
:beer:

will definately consider lisbon / krakow in the coming years

Moomin21

would recommend krakov or budapest...great nightlife in both and lots to see! cheapest places would be ones that aren't in the euro maybe? i found barcelona quite expensive, probably no more than britain tho! think you can fly from leeds to krakov quite cheap! also, check out the travel zoo website for their city break deals, always look very tempting to me!