'2nd tier' European city breaks

Doshwaster

"2nd tier" cities is a great idea. I'd add

Tallinn
Hamburg
Santander & Bilbao
Ghent
Lisbon

Looking forward to being add a few more to my list. 

bigfer

Porto & Lisbon deffo. Seville has to be done and for a wildcard weekend depending on flight availability Almeria is worth a few days.
I have recently been researching Sofia and Bucharest for when we are allowed free restrictions on travel, they seem worth a week too.

CKhalvashi

Riga, Vilnius, Katowice, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan, Lviv, Odesa, Kyiv, Zaporizhia (especially if you're into planes, chance to get on an old Antonov, Motor Sich museum in Zaporizhia, aviation museum for about £3 on the site of Zhulyany Airport at the other end)

When Georgia comes off the red list (not happy with this as I was supposed to be going home next month, but understand the need to be flexible at the moment) Batumi, Tbilisi and Yerevan, the last two likely in the same trip.

Eastern Europe is my thing, and I've come across most of these on business.

If you're into beaches, Ksamil in Albania had an amazing atmosphere, probably flying to Corfu instead of Tirana.

I've probably missed something off here, but these are the ones I can think of at 8am on Sunday

Edit: Chisinau, with a train over to Tiraspol for a day. Don't go for one of the pre-booked tours, find someone doing a 'free' walking tour when you get there (and give about 20 lei per person as a 'tip'), and make sure you register on arrival if you're in Transnistria, as you'll have problems getting out.

JGB1955

Nice (can visit Monaco) and Krakow would be my choices. 
Gibraltar too. 
Florence (can add Naples and Pisa as side trips). 
We enjoyed a January short break in Jerez - the locals were all bundled up in big coats but it felt (almost) tropical to us!

EDIT - Bratislava is a great city too!

Emmia

Split in Croatia is lovely as is Oslo or Bergen (very cosy in the summer) and for a weekend I'd recommend Haarlem, close to Amsterdam or Rotterdam or Delft. 

Verona allows you to get the train to Venice for the day too - I'd not spend much more there.

Malta is so much more than high rise hotels (don't stay in the St Julian's area), it's a melting point of cultures,  with great bus services to get about and food and drink - I'd recommend people stay in Valetta though... and September is a good month to go.

I'd second Seville and Lisbon - Seville in November was my last overseas holiday. The former residence of the Duchess of Alba is my highlight of that trip.

maman

We had a brilliant few days in Leiden.

 It's very walkable and interesting historically. We had 5 days there and took a train into Amsterdam one day as I wanted to visit the refurbished Rijksmuseum. 

Doshwaster

Emmia said:

Malta is so much more than high rise hotels (don't stay in the St Julian's area), it's a melting point of cultures,  with great bus services to get about and food and drink - I'd recommend people stay in Valetta though... and September is a good month to go.

Love Malta and like a day out in Valetta but find it a bit dead in the evenings so prefer to stop in St Julian's for a better choice of bars and restaurants - but the great thing about Malta is that it has something for all tastes for such a small island.

maman

Doshwaster said:

Emmia said:

Malta is so much more than high rise hotels (don't stay in the St Julian's area), it's a melting point of cultures,  with great bus services to get about and food and drink - I'd recommend people stay in Valetta though... and September is a good month to go.

Love Malta and like a day out in Valetta but find it a bit dead in the evenings so prefer to stop in St Julian's for a better choice of bars and restaurants - but the great thing about Malta is that it has something for all tastes for such a small island.

Each to his own. One day wouldn't have been enough in Valetta for me as there was so much to see. We stayed in a little place called Balluta Bay, tucked between Sliema and St Julian's so we had the option of bars and small Italian restaurants in the evenings. 

[Deleted User]

Heading to Porto next week.
Any suggestions for a few days in a decent beach resort not far from the city ?

bigfer

Deleted_User said:

Heading to Porto next week.
Any suggestions for a few days in a decent beach resort not far from the city ?

Vila Praia de Âncora. I had a week here June 2019. Had the beach to ourselves and good walks in either direction along the coast.