European multi-centre itineraries

lea2012

Evening all,
We're starting to consider where to go for the October half term at the end of October. We both work in education so have to go at this time but this year we get slightly longer and have 10 days off. We may have my 13 year old in tow but it's looking like it could be just me and my husband as they will be away with their dad on a different holiday.

I'm thinking about doing a multi stop holiday and trying to fit 2 or 3 destinations in but unsure as to where?
Originally thought of Seville, Ronda and then onto Malaga for a few days by the beach and still open to this but then thought about Eastern Europe maybe but no idea where to begin!

I quite fancy Krakow, Budapest or Prague but getting between these by train is 6-8 hours and don't want to waste a full day travelling if we can help it. Would also like to visit Berlin one day but not sure where we could go from there and have never done the Italian lakes or Lisbon / Porto either so has anyone done a multi city break and has some suggestions that don't include long train journeys?

Thanks

maman

I've enjoyed very similar holidays. We used a tour company as it proved very good value but you could easily do it DIY.

We flew into Malaga then did Ronda, Cordoba, Seville and Granada. That was by coach so maybe not so easy DIY unless you fancy fly drive.

We've also done Prague/Budapest with the train in between and the same for Krakow and Warsaw. Also Venice /Milan although I don't think Venice is a good bet at the moment.

I found the train journeys interesting but obviously they do take a bit of time although not massive out of a potential 10 days. We fitted in loads of things in 1 week holidays.

richardw

Seville-Jerez-Cadiz is an easy one.

lea2012

Thanks for the replies, we don't mind fly drive for Spain as we drive a lot in Spain and would feel fairly confident. Hadn't thought about Jerez, Cadiz or the Cordoba and Granada route so that could be an option too.

I had thought of the Krakow - Warsaw route but don't know a great deal about Warsaw so may need to look at that a bit further too.

I do like train journeys but feel I'd get a bit frustrated if it was anymore than 3-4 hours as I'd get fed up and feel like I could better spend the time so would like to keep that as the max.

bigadaj

We've done a few of these over the years.

Malaga, Cordoba and Seville over 10 days by train with flights in and out in ryanair, really impressed with Cordoba and Seville was also very good.

We also did bratislava, boat to vienna, train to Budapest and flight back. Not a huge amount to do in Bratislava but liked vienna a lot and Budapest was good as well.

One thing is where are you travelling from as this may guide or limit flight options.

Italy has many options, Veneto is really good with venice, padua, Vicenza and verona; florence, pisa, lucca, Siena all doable from one base.

Doshwaster

I love multi-centre European trips. What with budget airlines and good train connections it's easy to hop around the continent even if you don't plan it in advance. The options are limitless.

lea2012

Thanks again for the replies. We can fly out of Manchester, leeds or Liverpool really so we have a number of airlines available to us.

Bratislava to Vienna sounds good, from there maybe on to Budapest or maybe Salzburg in the other direction. Bratislava I believe is still relatively cheap but I'm guessing Vienna not so much? Or Salzburg either.

I suppose we need to consider whether we want a bit of October sun or prefer to take a chance on the weather in the east too.