30th birthday European city break

Caraway90

I'm planning to go away for my 30th birthday next year, does anyone have any suggestions for a European city to visit?
We like history, especially exploring historal sites, not so much museums, we're more lookers and explores rather than a lot of reading. Somewhere with some green space, city centre parks etc would be good too. Generally lots to do as we like lots of activites. We'll be going in mid-October. We've been to Rome and Athens recently so not those two too.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Indout96

Gdansk Poland has a beautiful old town and lovely restaurants and is very cheap. We have just come back (Oct 24th - 28th) and we were eating outside each night (patio heaters on)
The only thing that was bad was the Galleon trip around the harbour area, avoid at all costs.
We paid £33 return each on Ryan Air from Leeds/Bradford and taxi from Airport to old town hotel was 78 Zloti - set amount to any hotel with the official taxi service at airport doors (100 Zloti is around £22)
The whole of the old town is walkable but is cobbled streets so decent footwear recommended.
It does not really have bars as such but once you have your table in a restaurant it is yours for as long as you want and many people just sit drinking all night.
if you want 18/30 style drinking its not for you

Dymphna60

Don’t know what part of the country you are from but if it is not Glasgow then Glasgow.
Great European city . Lots of history. Plenty of green spaces within the city centre.
More cafes bars and restaurants than you can shake a stick at .

jimbo6977

The continent is your oyster, so maybe it depends more on where you can get to from your local airport / station.

Further south might have better weather.

I can recommend Lisbon, Seville, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nice.

But then I liked Alicante, which is apparently the worst city destination in Europe, so what do I know?

Further north, most of the major German cities are very nice: Munich, Stuttgart, Hannover....

Caraway90

Sorry I should have included that we would be flying from Stansted.
A friend has been just to Seville and it looks beautiful so I think that's a contender. I've always fancied Poland too but would have to research the weather that time of year. We do like a warm climate so more southern may be better that time of year.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

badger09

Another vote for Gdansk, but I've only been in depths of winter & it was freezing. Likewise Warsaw & Krakow.

I absolutely love Krakow. Plenty of history and open spaces. A visit to Auschwitz/Birkenau is a must, salt mines fascinating and plenty of great bars and restaurants.

Husband took his son (70s & early 40s) in October this year and both really enjoyed it. Weather was warm enough to eat outside during the day and early evening.

Can also recommend Prague, Berlin & Lisbon - but more expensive than Poland

maman

I'd have said Krakow too. We did 3 days there and then took the train to Warsaw and 3 more days. It was brilliant, even in November with the right clothes!

If you want somewhere warmer then I'd suggest Malta. Loads to see there not just in Valletta but all around the island. We bought a travel pass and went everywhere by bus.

I'd agree that Seville and Lisbon are well worth going to. I love city breaks.

sazaccount

How long are you looking to go away for? I really like Tallinn (Estonia) and Rega (Latvia) beautiful old cities in the centre then the cities spread out both by water if you are there for a weekend I suggest picking one but if your going away for longer you can get a 6 hour bus to the other city.

Voyager2002

You have a vast choice, particularly if you don't mind cool weather.

As already posted, Krakow is fantastic. I was there at the end of October and it was on the chilly side but enjoyable. Nearby Lviv in the UKraine is every bit as interesting, cheaper and more fun (crowds of local young people having fun in the evenings) but significantly colder. Kyiv (Kiev) is larger and has too much to offer for a weekend, but is certainly a possibility.

If you want warmer weather, head for Spain. Sevilla (Seville) could well be the most beautiful great city in the world, with whole districts (such as the Barrio Santa Fe) where the past comes to life. Granada is smaller and justly famous, while people sometimes forget Cordoba. Come to that, Marrakech in Morocco is also feasible for a weekend city break

mark1959

Valencia.
Seville.
Granada.
Palermo.
Naples.
Florence.
Thessalonica.
Istanbul.
Bilbao.
Madrid.
Porto.
Lisbon.
Braga.
Barcelona.
Lyon.
As someone once said, the world's your lobster.

Shelldean

Dubrovnik just been, and it's seeped in history.
Weather was glorious too, shorts and t shirts at end of Oct.

Venice was lovely too, but we went in January and it was wet very wet. But did mean I go to see what they do when Venice floods, which I found fascinating.