European Destinations

After looking at all the fantastic options available to me I decided to book a trip to Newcastle as it’s somewhere I’ve been wanting to visit for quite a while. Newcastle is known for its lively nightlife, amazing bars and fantastic culinary scene, so I was quite looking forward to sampling some of this during my Newcastle city break.

We arrived at Carr Taylor Wines on a warm Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day, with hardly a cloud in the sky. After checking in for our vineyard tour and wine tasting at their cellar door we were shown to a sun-kissed terrace, where a handful of other people were sat around wooden picnic tables (the kind you would find in a traditional pub garden) happily chatting while waiting for the rest of the guests so the tour could commence. The terrace area was absolutely beautiful, an old rustic farm house to the side, the cellar door in front of us, and just fields of vines as far as the eye could see.

Italy is a country I find myself returning to time and time again, I don’t necessarily go back and visit the the same city every time though. Don’t get me wrong, I have been to both Rome and Venice more than once, but I do like to explore some of Italy’s other fantastic cities. For this trip I decided to visit a brand new city and found myself booking a Bologna City Break.

Spread across 219 square miles of beautiful Hampshire countryside is The New Forest National Park. The New Forest is about an hours drive from my home in Sussex, and even though I pass through here quite frequently it had been years since I had actually stopped to enjoy some of this stunning area of the country.

We have had a quite a warm spring, and the temperatures in southern England, and the whole of the UK are set to stay hot for most, if not all of summer 2015. I can hear your thinking "are we not told this every year?" Well, being as optimistic as I possibly can, I have made the decision to spend most of summer 2015 in the UK to explore and seek out some hidden treasures in the south of England.

One thing I have been thinking about more and more in recent days recently is my bucket list. My original bucket list was quite short and many of those things I have now managed to achieve, and this made me feel that I needed to set some new goals.

The next three months are going to be an exciting time for me. I have five city breaks planned over the next three months, I will be returning to a couple of my favourite European cities which I have visited over the past couple of years. I also plan to visit a few places for the very first time. Here are my next five city breaks which I have planned, and some of the things I plan to do.

While I was deciding on destinations for my Autumn 2016 city breaks I came across flights to Eindhoven with prices starting at £24 per person return. When you think of city breaks to the Netherlands, Amsterdam and Rotterdam usually spring to mind, but not Eindhoven. So I thought I would book an Eindhoven city break so that I could discover what Eindhoven has to offer as a city break destination.

Despite France being one of the closest countries to the UK, I realised that apart from travelling through France by road, I've not properly visited France in almost 8 years, and so I thought that this would be the year to change that.

This year I decided to visit two Christmas markets, one which I have visited before and also a brand new destination, Salzburg. Salzburg came highly recommended to me by a family member who had visited the Salzburg Christmas market a few years ago, and I thought a destination in the Alps would make a fantastic Christmas market location.

I first visited Madrid three years ago for a summer city break and I knew immediately that Madrid would be one of those cities that I would return to time and time again. After three years I felt it was time to return for another Madrid city break.

For this years Christmas market break I wanted to try somewhere completely different to the destinations that I've visited previously. One of my friends suggested Italy and after some research I concluded that the Turin Christmas markets were the ones which I wanted to visit.

I first touched down in Gdansk a mere six months ago and upon arrival I immediately fell in love with the beauty of this city, so much so that I couldn't resist returning here to enjoy a second Gdansk weekend break.

Earlier this year I spent the perfect weekend in Prague - a belated birthday present to myself as I have always wanted to visit Prague. By researching online before my trip, I ended up with a list of places I wanted to visit and things I wanted to see and do during my short stay in Prague. As always, my list was far too long for a mere two night stay, so some things had to be cut out for this trip or I just wouldn't have had time to stop, let alone sleep. So here is my list of 5 must-do things for a short stay in Prague - you won't be disappointed!

The typical British weather, especially during the long winter months, is enough to make anyone want to escape to warmer climates. Last winter I decided to book an impromptu weekend break to Barcelona to get away from the rain and cold. I had been to Barcelona many years before, but as this was such a long time ago I felt it was time to refresh my memories and review what this beautiful Catalan city has to offer.

With its grand tree lined avenues with many lavish villas and palaces to the aromas of fresh coffee and pastries from the abundance of coffee shops and cafes, Vienna is a city that will stir up your senses in many ways.

Reflecting on all the wonderful European city break destinations that I have visited in recent years, I was surprised that Berlin was one of the destinations that I hadn’t yet visited. Just over a year ago I decided to take a trip to Berlin to visit the annual ITB Berlin travel trade show.

Poland has always been somewhere I have wanted to visit, and after my failed attempt in getting to Wroclaw last year I've been longing to book another trip. Earlier this year I saw a great deal on flights to Gdansk with Wizz Air and I just could not resist booking a Gdansk city break.