pparakh

Hi,
Me and my wife are travelling to London from India for 2 months (23-Aug-2012 to 20-Oct-2012) along with our 2 year old son. We have multiple entry UK and Schengen Visa.
We have been to Paris, Brussels, Switzerland, Scotland and Germany.
We want to know options we have for travelling on weekends (Sat+Sun, may be till some time late on Mon as well) outside UK.
We are planning to visit Amsterdam (possible in 2 days from London)
Where else can we go as we have 3-4 weekends... How about some place in Greece? or Portugal? or Nordic (if weather is fine to go).. We think that for Italy and Spain we would like to spare a week each.
Please advice.

Kind Regards

jamikins

Greece might be a bit far for a weekend as you lose two hours in the time change but you could maybe do it.

Pretty much anywhere in Europe is a two- three hour flight so anywhere really...for a weekend I would stick to places you can reach directly by train or flight - if you start getting into connecting flights etc too much time gets eaten up in transit to make it worth it to me

clausar

I don't think that Greece is doable, a flight to Athens takes 4 hours, plus the 2 hours of time difference...
( if your flight leaves at 9 am, you will arrive in Athens at 3 pm and then you will have to go to the city from the airport...)

Besides the time you will have at disposal will not allow you to see much of Athens.

Greece is a country that has very much to see and do, one week there won't even allow you to scratch the surface....

flanneruk

Flight times and time zone changes make weekend trips to Greece, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine or Russia impossible unless you're just going for a factory visit and a couple of meetings.

Otherwise, everywhere else in Europe (as well as Morocco) is within two hours' flying time and one hour's time zone change. In practice, few "weekend" destinations - except if you're in central London, the train to Paris, Brussels or Lille - make much sense unless you plan two (not one) overnights - and personally I much prefer three.

Leave Fri aft, come back Mon morning is really the only way to get two full days' quality time, except for the three places you can get to by train. Out on Sat, back Sun gives you little more than 24 hours in the destination concerned.

Heimdall

You seem to be interested primarily in places you have never been before. For weekend trips it would be best to limit yourself to destinations no more than 2 hrs flying time from London. That would include Dublin, Oslo, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. Be aware that Scandinavian countries are more expensive than most other European destinations.

You might want to check with some 'city breaks' specialists for ideas, e.g. http://www.lastminute.com/site/trave...ys/citybreaks/
http://www.expedia.co.uk/daily/holid...y-breaks.aspx/
http://www.travelsupermarket.com/c/h...s/city-breaks/

pparakh

Thanks @jamikins @clausar

So, I accept that Athen is not doable. How about Lisbon?
May be some place in Ireland ?

jamikins

Lisbon is on the same timezone as UK so its possible - like flanneruk says it's best to leave Friday night to make the flights worth it if you are flying somewhere. Ireland is definitely doable. Check out www.easyjet.com and www.ryanair.com for cheap flights but watch out for luggage charges and the airports they fly into so you don't spend hours getting from the airport to your destination.

alanRow

For most destinations in Ireland it's as easy to fly Aer Lingus from Heathrow.

Don't assume that a low costs airline like Ryanair or Easyjet will be cheaper than a traditional airline - especially as other people in London will have exactly the same idea as you about weekends away and so will drive up fares

BKP

I know you said Outside the UK -- but I don't want you to forget about Wales! It's a quick drive down the M4 and the countryside is lovely and there are some amazing castles!