Young couple looking for inspiration for our first holiday together

dannyw_2

I'm looking for some inspiration and ideas for a 1 or 2 week holiday with my girlfriend in October this year. Were in our early twenties, and are ideally looking for a mixture of relaxation and culture! I'd like it to be warm, preferably with a beach. Somewhere nice and quiet to relax some days but then interesting places to go/see on others. It would be nice to not be surrounded by Brits (no offence )constantly, and get a feel for how the locals live. My o/h would like "to walk around old towns" but this is about all the input she has given me haha.

I wouldn't mind being surrounded by tourists while at the hotel obviously, but definitely want somewhere where there is ample oppertunity to leave that behind and feel like were seeing the real country without travelling too far!

Our budget is really undecided at the moment, but the cheaper the better. I'm seeing some great deals for as little as £150pp for 2 weeks in places like Marmaris but worry about going somewhere like that and feeling like im in england with better weather!

I wonder how easy/cheap it would be to do a combination such as a week in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria, followed by a week in the capital Sofia to get a variation of culture and beach? What would be the best way to book something like this?

Danny

sharloid

I might be mistaken but I've never associated a beach holiday with culture. I'd choose one or the other. The OH and I are in our early twenties, our first holiday was to Budapest, Hungary which was lovely. Last year we went to Stockholm, Sweden. This year we went to the Algarve, Portugal and in September we're off to Tallinn, Estonia.

Budapest and Stockholm were beautiful cities with lots to do. Portugal was a beach holiday that neither of us liked as much as a the cities.
If you're after culture for 2 weeks, I'd probably just visit a couple of cities along the Danube as I think you'd be hard pressed to find enough museums etc to visit!

dannyw_2

Hi, thanks for the reply!

Its certainly not easy to find a beach/culture mix, thats why i'm asking for help. Rome would fit the bill sort of, with plenty to see and half hour drive from city center to beach but i don't think its within budget sadly!

Which of the two, budapest and stockholm were cheaper all things considered?

If we settle on going to a city not close to the coast then we'd certainly only go for a week, yes.

Oldernotwiser

For a beach/culture mix, Barcelona would be your ideal destination,

cubegame

Turkey is great if you avoid Marmais etc.

Is one of you able to hire a car? ie. over 25 and held a licence for 1 (maybe 2) years?

dannyw_2

Oldernotwiser - Thanks for the suggestion, its a nice idea! I have been to Barcelona for a day once before and it was lovely, but hadn't occurred to me.

cubegame - Unfortunately we don't have licences, no. Why do you say avoid Marmaris, and could you recommend anywhere else in Turkey?

Kedi_Yavrusu

Marmaris is the biggest tourist beach resort in Turey and it really does cater for Brits big time so if you don't want to be surrounded by Brits then it sin't the place to go, you wont get a feel for how the locals live and you wont get to see the real Turkey.

If you want to find a more Turkish resort then I would recommend looking at the Bodrum Peninsula, there are some lovely resorts there. Turgutreis, Bitez and Yalikavak are nice or if you want a more Turkish feel they try Ortakent, Gumusluk or Gonodgan. You probably wont get anything for £150 but you can still find some good prices and if you found cheap flights to Bodrum accomodation is very reasonable.

The good thing about the Bodrum Peninsula is that all the resorts are within half an hour of Bodrum town, which is a lovely old town, and the transport system is excellent. They have small buses called domuses, which run very frequently and cheaply to all the resorts and villages so you easily explore without havgin to drive yourself.

You can also find cultral things to do, there is a good castle and underwater museum and you have one of the ancient wonders of the world in Bodrum - the Mausoleum of Halikarnassus - although there isn't much left of it. You can also visit another ancient wonder at Ephesus.

blueideas

Got back from Calella in Spain a month ago, there's a train station there that goes straight to Barcelona, train tickets are not expensive either.
Calella is not full of British (hardly any) lots of Dutch and Spanish. Calella is a beach town however the sand is a bit pebbly. We managed to get half board at a 3* hotel and flights for £224 pp.
We're a couple in our twenties and enjoyed the holiday.

daggy

Turkey is far from your typical 'England awya from home' type resort, Yedi hit the nail on the head so far as Bodrom etc, however, Marmaris is not as bad as he made out.

You still get a feel for turkey whilst in Marmaris and there is culture to be had if you look for it; Marmaris can be whatever you want it to be. I stay away from the typical spanis and greek resorts, but Marmaris strikes a hapy balance IMO.

Barcelona is also worth a look.