Long weekend from London
 

My daughter is doing a semester in London with one week off in March. No classes on Friday.
I was hoping to visit her in London, spend a few days there, and then travel with her to Italy for the week off.
I put off with the planning thinking that once she got to school she might decide to spend that week off with her new friends and not her mother.....
Guess what- I am now looking at plan b:
Visiting her in London for a few days and then going somewhere with her for a long weekend.
I know that the obvious place to go would be Paris, but as we have been there before , I am looking for other suggestions:
A 3 day mother /daughter weekend from London- could go March or April.
Thanks for any suggestions.

Amsterdam or Edinburgh would be great for along weekend and are quick flights from London. I'd choose Edinburgh myself -- but mostly depends on what sort of things interest you.

We would probably walk, shop, eat, see significant historical sights, museums, act like tourists!
Love nice and/or interesting hotels.

No need to leave England. Why not go to Bath or Leeds? Much closer and would give you more time at your destination.

Of course Bath would be great. But Edinburgh would actually be just about as quick. Train to Bath or plane to Edinburgh same-o/same-o

The weather might be nicer in Bath -- or not. Both are unique cities. Edinburgh has the amazing castle, medieval old city, Georgian new town, National Gallery, shopping and great restaurants all w/i walking distance of each other. Bath has the Roman Baths, Georgian architecture, shopping and great restaurants all w/i walking distance of each other.

And both have some really wonderful hotels right in the center ofthings. What is your budget?

Though, I am sure we could find new things to see , as it has been a while, we have had previous trips to London and have been to Bath, York, Oxford, Stonehedge,etc.
I can pay up to $250 a night for a hotel, but I would much prefer to keep it less, as we won't be spending much time in the hotel.
Would also welcome ideas for hotels near Regents University.
Thanks!

Do you mean Regents College? If so it is off Marylebone Rd and this is a nearby decent/moderately priced hotel http://www.capricornhotels.co.uk/hot...ford/index.php

Yes, I see that it is college (not university).
Thanks for the hotel suggestion-looks like it would be great!

any other suggestions for doable long weekends from London? Would Southern France make any sense?

Take your pick - Southern France is as good as anywhere in Western Europe as London doesn't suffer from a shortage of airports and airlines offering reasonably priced flights to almost anywhere. Most of Western Europe's relevant cities can be reached within approx. 1.5 - 2 hours of flying time.

With your pre-requisites I would have suggested Berlin - vibrant atmosphere, decent shopping options, historically significant, some good museums, rather beautiful parks and lakes, lots of very reasonably priced good hotels (Berlin offers very good value for money) and cheap restaurants.
The only downside may be that you cannot be guaranteed sunshine at that time of the year.

However, if the original plan was to go to Italy or Southern France I don't see any reason why you would need to change that. When checking flights, look into all the London airports (the low cost carriers mostly fly out of Stansted and Luton and offer some flights out of Gatwick. Personally I think with booking ahead 2 months, the incumbents (BA, Air France, BMI, Lufthansa, Lufthansa Italia, Swiss et al.) should offer very competitive rates if you account for all costs associated with the flight (factor in likely higher transport costs to Luton and Stansted than to Heathrow or City Airport) and transfer times.

Given you can get most places within Europe in about a 3-hour flight, just about anywhere should be accessible. I wouldn't worry about whether it's a 1-hour or a 3-hour flight, and would focus just on interest, cost, and exact flight schedules. For example, flights from a certain airport at a certain time might be most convenient.

Look at www.skyscanner.net and www.whichbudget.com for cheap flights.

In almost all cases, you'll have to be very careful with luggage restrictions, but given it's a 3-day trip, that should be easy.

For cheap flights also check http://matrix.itasoftware.com/.

There are three broad groups of answer:

a. Pretty/interesting towns within an hour of London (the area bounded by Brighton, Winchester, Oxford and Cambridge). Very frequent (at least every 30 mins) trains, cheap fares and no real advantage in prebooking.

b. Pretty/interesting towns within two hours by train of London. Essentially: Bath, Liverpool, York, Paris, Lille and Brussels. Fares can be high unless you buy several (up to 12) weeks ahead with non-refundable committments to specific trains

c. Virtually anywhere else in Western Europe. As far as journey times are concerned, there's no significant difference between:
- Central London to central Edinburgh by train
- Central London to central Edinburgh by plane
- Central London by plane to almost anywhere within the area bounded by Oslo, Warsaw, Catania, Malaga, Lisbon and Shannon. Prices can be surprisingly similar within this group too, though booking strategy is crucial.

For a list of directly served destinations (literally hundreds) go to the Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Stansted websites and scroll to "destinations". Or play with http://www.whichbudget.com/cheapflig...om-london.html (though realise that flights to many airports associated with beach resorts might not actually be running, or running at a time suitable to you, in March.)

Only you know the importance of factors like relatively warm weather, pleasant spring countryside (for which you need go no further than Oxford in March), snow, outdoor activities, shopping or medieval cities. So pointless for anyone here to tell you how nice their weekend in Budapest was.

All of Western Europe's your oyster.

Copenhagen is very well-connected to London, with flights from all the major airports, save maybe Luton. Significant LCC competition means flights can be had for very little, particularly booking in advance. Flight is relatively short, and CPH airport is very well connected to the city.

Expenses on the ground are a bit steep though, but you could easily find a decent hotel for much less than $250 per night (the very nice Marriott could likely be had for around $100-$125, via Priceline). Or you could splash out the full $250 and possibly get into something like the Skt Petri.

Other options are largely mentioned, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Southern France, Berlin. Barcelona or Madrid would be nice choices too, with good food and good value, IMO. One place that I don't see mentioned is Brugge, which would do nicely for a long weekend. Very pretty city, if not too pretty. Not sure of the travel time, though - you would need to go via Brussels, I would think.

Great advice from everyone- Thanks so much!
Can anyone tell me where it is most likely to be warmish at the end of March?

Well, you won't find guaranteed beach weather anywhere in Europe, but Southern Italy or Southern Spain might be your best bets for decent weather. Seville would be nice. Or Rome.

I've done long weekends in Amsterdam, Rome and Athens. Pretty much anywhere in W. Europe is a short flight away and makes a nice little trip.

Has anyone done Prague as a weekend trip from London?
I assume that it is doable, but is it practical? As in easy to get to, enough to see, etc.?
I have been told that it is an incredible place- but I know little about it-any thoughts?

Prague is a 2 hour flight from London and is as practical for a weekend trip as any other destination in Western and Central Europe (as outlined above). BA offers several flights per day, as do easyjet (out of LGW) and Wizz Air out of LTN.

As the capital of the Czech Republic, a former imperial capital of the Roman empire under Charles IV in the 14th century and as the home of the first German university it could be considered of cultural relevance and may offer enough opportunities to keep one entertained for a weekend. Whether it's your cup of tea only you can decide and you would have to look it up prior to a trip.
The climate in March is unlikely to be warm, though. Temperatures are rather likely to be around a reasonably mild 10 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Re: Prague. It is a very beautiful city, with very well-preserved historic areas. Some nice grand buildings and an impressive castle. Transit shouldn't be much of an issue, with BA and a couple of budget airlines serving it from London.

However, the weather is as likely to be bad as good (and almost no chance of great). It also is not the value that it once was - there was a time that beers were pennies, a flat could be had cheap, and you could have a full meal for next to nothing. Now, it is middling value, at best.

Still, it is a very nice city and cheap prices aren't coming back, and it would make a nice trip. Given the time of year, though, I'd probably be more inclined to go to somewhere like Seville or Rome. Food would be better too. I would also seriously consider Marrakesh.