Cheap and cheerful Ryanair breaks - Suggested places

Hey folks,


In either November or December there was a Bargain Alerts thread about cheap Ryanair flights. I rarely travel anywhere (have been on a few 'group' holidays to Salou and Lanzarote in Spain, but that's about the height of it).

So just for the sake of the sale, I randomly booked a couple of Days in Nice, France.

I went for two nights (Tuesday-Thursday) and booked a cheapo hotel (cos I had no intention to actually spend any time in it). Flights and accommodation worked out at about €70, which is practically free (I'd very easily pay more than twice that for a single night out over here), and then I spent €300, so the whole lot cost less than €400.

(the tues-thurs i went were this week, by the way, so I only got home last night).


Thing is, I really enjoyed it.

Now, I doubt I'll really get that kind of value again (unless I only ever fly in January!), but I figure there's no harm in trying.

I find two nights to be just enough time to let you cram a bit of wandering around in, have something different to eat, see some parts of a new place and leave you feeling a bit refreshed when you're heading home (instead of staying for a week and becoming a bit 'bored' of it all).


Nice was great because Ryanair dropped us at the Airport, which was about 20 minutes on a bus to the hotel. It was easy enough to navigate, there was very little confusion or messing about, and I didn't have to spend hours sitting on buses, trains and taxis trying to navigate from the Plane to the Hotel.


What I was wondering was, is there anywhere anyone else could recommend for a similar type of journey abroad? I enjoyed Nice, and would happily return to France, but would like to try somewhere a little different (and while I'd happily go to Spain again, I'd rather not go to a place that has a 90% population of Irish and English people holidaying!).


I'd like to book something for within the next 2-3 months to have something to look forward to. A group of friends are heading to Malaga in Spain, but it'd be just a drinking holiday and, to be honest, if I wanted to sit in a pub all day, I could as easily do that here.



Sorry if the thread is a bit long-winded. Just trying to give an idea of where I'm coming from with this, and as my Geography is absolutely dire (you can drive from France to Germany - who knew!? ) I just thought I'd ask here where ye guys would presumably have a much better idea of what's going on than I would. I'd like to chalk off a few random European trips throughout the year.


Cheers to anyone able to offer up any suggestions (or for reading the whole thread.. It's probably worded pretty badly.. )


Thanks

Halfbaker

Pick any reasonably large city in Europe and go for it!
Berlin, Budapest and Barcelona would probably be my 3 favourite cities in Europe, though Rome, Stockholm and Tallin are also great, just to pick 3 examples

krissovo

Check out Lodz in Poland, nice and cheap getaway. 90 mins from Warsaw so if you get board jump on a train for a change of scenery. Only 2 flights a week so you either fly Saturday or Wednesday or fly back from Warsaw.

Martha_Mae

Brussels is at €40 return at the moment... There are so many lovely cities around it 15' - 20' by train Antwerp, Ghent, Brugges

Scrag

If you can fly Ryanair in your time and on your terms the deals are incredible. They are what they say . A cheap no frills low cost airline. I remember what it cost to fly Dublin -London return thirty years ago. The best thing ever to happen Ireland was Ryanair. They will always have my support.

schemingbohemia

Deleted User wrote: »

Nice was great because Ryanair dropped us at the Airport

That was good of them!

Seriously though, Berlin is a great spot for a few days, tonnes to see and do and reasonable enough when you get there, lots of hostels too to keep prices down.

Meathlass

I know you don't want to go to Malaga as your mates are intent on just drinking but it's a lovely city, great architecture, nice shops, restaurants. Train into the city from the airport is excellent too. You could go with them and just do your own stuff during the day. Who knows, some of them might even be glad of an opportunity to see a bit of culture!

conor_ie

+1 for Berlin although you'd probably need 3 days to it! Very easy to get around, (a good pair of walking shoes is a must!) lots of history and loads of lovely places to eat

schemingbohemia

schemingbohemia wrote: »

That was good of them!

Well I'm not exactly a 'frequent flyer' myself, but I have heard that Ryanair have a habit of dropping you 'near' the airport? And you've more travelling to do to get to where you want to go, as a result? (they have their own terminals away from everyone else or such? )


Or is that nonsense?

spurious

Deleted User wrote: »

Well I'm not exactly a 'frequent flyer' myself, but I have heard that Ryanair have a habit of dropping you 'near' the airport? And you've more travelling to do to get to where you want to go, as a result? (they have their own terminals away from everyone else or such? )


Or is that nonsense?

There's an element of truth in it. Many Ryanair airports are a long way from the city they serve e.g. Memmingen for Munich (100+km), but there are generally fairly cheap ways to get to the actual city - not always the transport recommended by Ryanair. Always check out local transport to/from the airport.

On the other hand they also fly to main airports, such as Krakow - Balice, which I would suggest for a very cheap break, but with lots to do and see.

Duff

+1 for Berlin. Spent 3 days/nights in it last week and would go back in a heartbeat.

Munsterbhoy

Hi , for a cheap city break my choice would be the southern polish cities of Krakow or Wroclaw. Both are really great and easily to explore on foot. Bags of culture with beautiful squares in both. Krakow just shades it for me purely because of auschwitz which really is just amazing. Poland is realy cheap and steeped in culture and both cities are close to the airport.