Recommend a cheap European city for a holiday for two

engstrom0304 · 7 May 2013 at 20:12

Hey guys,
I want to go on holiday with my girlfriend in June to somewhere in Europe. I'm thinking self catering to save money. What destinations would you guys recommend?

I like the sea

twist3d0n3 · 7 May 2013 at 20:14

The Hague

craptakular · 7 May 2013 at 20:29

Canaries or balerics?

yer_averagejoe · 7 May 2013 at 20:47

Dubrovnik

dowie · 7 May 2013 at 20:55

Budapest

some pics grabbed from t'interweb:

Went there last year... great cty - big outdoor thermal baths, lots of architecture, some great 'ruin pubs' basically bars that started out in abandoned buildings.... nightclubs with open air dancefloors (my mate was wondering why it was raining indoors in one club

)... fantastic looking local women (though I guess less of a factor if you're taking your girlfriend). Weather is awesome too.. its only ever clod a couple of months of the year over there... even in late September it was like equivalent to the hottest day of a UK summer.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 7 May 2013 at 20:59

We are part of Europe,so Canterbury(its a city).

Conscript · 7 May 2013 at 21:03

+1 for Budapest.

Rome is also a must, although perhaps not that cheap. Barcelona was great too, plenty to see and do.

I'd love to see some Scandinavian cities too - Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo. Although again, not sure if they are cheap.

[TW]Fox · 7 May 2013 at 21:03

Budapest and Prague are both fantastic and reasonably low cost.

mjt · 7 May 2013 at 21:34

Conscript said:
I'd love to see some Scandinavian cities too - Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo. Although again, not sure if they are cheap.

Scandinavia is exceedingly expensive.
A hostel room in CPH is £60 a night.

[TW]Fox;24241419 said:
Budapest and Prague are both fantastic and reasonably low cost.

This.

jimjamuk · 7 May 2013 at 22:06

Bristol....

AdladUK · 7 May 2013 at 22:36

From my experience all European cities are pretty boring. I've heard Krakow in Poland is nice though

G18241 · 7 May 2013 at 22:39

AdladUK said:
From my experience all European cities are pretty boring. I've heard Krakow in Poland is nice though

Went last year, right at the end of November and its an awesome place

Food and drink is stupidly cheap and the people there are really friendly.

[TW]Fox · 7 May 2013 at 22:59

AdladUK said:
From my experience all European cities are pretty boring.

Errrr....

What sort of experience is that, then? Seems a particularly unique opinion you have there.

AdladUK · 7 May 2013 at 23:15

[TW]Fox;24242171 said:
What sort of experience is that, then? Seems a particularly unique opinion you have there.

Not really. Most people I speak to agree European cities are a bit boring overall. Unless you're into architecture or museums, then there's not an awful lot of exciting things to do. Sure you can find good restaurants and bars, but that's the same in pretty much any place.

Maybe it's a personal preference... I just know when I've been to more exotic cities (non-European) I've had a lot more fun

jbloggs · 7 May 2013 at 23:25

AdladUK said:
...Krakow in Poland is nice...

Your money goes pretty far here, a very lovely place as well and plenty to see and do...

[TW]Fox · 7 May 2013 at 23:27

AdladUK said:
Not really. Most people I speak to agree European cities are a bit boring overall.

Why?

If you think all European cities except Krakow are 'boring' is your idea of 'not boring' somewhere you can get totally hamered or something?

There are some fantastic cities in Europe - Alpine cities nestling between huge mountain peaks, arcitectural wonders on the banks of huge rivers, cities full of culture, cities full of fantastic places to eat and drink, cities full of history, the list is almost endless?!

AdladUK · 7 May 2013 at 23:45

[TW]Fox;24242342 said:
There are some fantastic cities in Europe - Alpine cities nestling between huge mountain peaks, arcitectural wonders on the banks of huge rivers, cities full of culture, cities full of fantastic places to eat and drink, cities full of history, the list is almost endless?!

I've never been to Krakow so I can't say what it's like, I've just heard it's nice (and cheap). And no I don't judge a place based on how "hammered" I can get. You'd never need to leave the UK if that was the case.

Your list isn't endless. It's mainly about "culture" and "history" which is essentially architecture and museums, just like I said. Which are fine for a couple of days, but to me get boring pretty fast. And like I said most cities in the World have great places to eat and drink, you can't be suggesting Europe is unique in that sense

yer_averagejoe · 8 May 2013 at 00:31

AdladUK said:
I've never been to Krakow so I can't say what it's like, I've just heard it's nice (and cheap). And no I don't judge a place based on how "hammered" I can get. You'd never need to leave the UK if that was the case.

Your list isn't endless. It's mainly about "culture" and "history" which is essentially architecture and museums, just like I said. Which are fine for a couple of days, but to me get boring pretty fast. And like I said most cities in the World have great places to eat and drink, you can't be suggesting Europe is unique in that sense

It might seem like I'm jumping on the bandwagon and/or getting defensive here but I'm not, I'm genuinely interested to hear from you what qualities a city must have for it to be not "boring". I've been to a great many European cities and each one is so vastly different from the next it's hard to imaging blanketing them all under the single term: "boring".

I was about to say I've never been to a boring city but that would be a lie. Apart from the night-life, Bratislava is a pretty boring city.

The_Abyss · 8 May 2013 at 00:34

Another vote for Budapest - great city for all different tastes.

yer_averagejoe · 8 May 2013 at 00:39

With everybody suggesting Budapest, I have to ask:

How important is the sea? While Budapest IS great, there isn't much sea there

Barcelona is next to the sea and you can get pretty cheap self catering accommodation there. It's also cheap to get to.