City Breaks

Weekend City Breaks

Two nights, one bag and back at work on Monday — weekend city breaks work best where the airport sits close to the centre, and they sit alongside our wider weekend breaks range.

• Amsterdam: Schiphol to Centraal takes fifteen minutes by train, which is why a Friday evening flight still leaves time for dinner on the canals. The Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank House both run timed entry and sell out weeks ahead, so those slots want booking before the restaurant does. Two nights covers the canal ring on foot without hurrying.
• Dublin: Flights from most UK airports land in under ninety minutes, and the airport bus reaches the centre in about half an hour. Trinity College, the Book of Kells and the Guinness Storehouse sit within a twenty-five minute walk of one another, and the coastal DART line out to Howth fills a half-day. Weekend rooms go early, so we book them early.
• Paris: The RER B runs from Charles de Gaulle to the centre in thirty-five minutes, so an early flight buys a full first day. France's biggest draws are also its busiest: the Louvre has around 35,000 works on display, and two wings done properly beat eight done at speed. The Marais and Canal Saint-Martin are where we send returning visitors.
• Bergamo: The airport sits ten minutes from Città Alta, the walled upper town reached by a funicular that has run since 1887. Sixteenth-century ramparts, a Romanesque basilica and a handful of proper trattorias make two full days without a train journey. It is the calmest arrival of any short trip we sell in the Alpine foothills.
• Malmö: Copenhagen Airport is twenty-five minutes away by train across the Øresund bridge, which makes this the easiest Scandinavian city to reach for two nights. The medieval core, the Turning Torso tower and the reclaimed Västra Hamnen waterfront are all walkable. Sweden's cafe culture does the rest, and rates drop noticeably outside July.