An online guide to city breaks in Europe, last minute breaks, cheap weekend breaks and short breaks in Europe's best cities
City Breaks Europe
City Breaks Europe for Short Breaks to European City Destinations
City Breaks Europe by Rail
Here are the highlights of four rail networks for city breaks in Europe
Rail Europe
Rail Europe consists of ten high speed trains. They are Eurostar, Thalys, TGV, Eurostar Italia, Lyria, AVE, Inter-City Express (ICE), Cisalpino, Artesia, and Talgo. Eurostar deals include travel through the Channel tunnel and connect you to major cities in under two and a half hours. For example, you can travel from: London to Brussels in 1 hour 51 minutes London to Lille in 1 hour 20 minutes London to Disneyland Paris in 2 hours 15 minutes
Thalys
The Thalys train provides direct links to 17 cities including Paris, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany in over 50 round-trips a day. It can even take you from Paris to Brussels in less than ninety minutes.
The TGV
The TGV is your choice when traveling to France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. Lyria – Gives you a spectacular view from the rolling French countryside to the majestic Swiss Alps. Artesia – This high-speed train takes you from the best of France to the best of Italy by day or night, via connecting city pairs of Paris and Rome, Dijon and Milan, Chambrey and Florence and 13 others.
Talgo
Talgo passes through brilliant coastal landscapes moving you from one port city to another in stress-free comfort, such as Montpellier, Narbonne and Perpignan in France, and Barcelona, Alicante, Cartegena, and Valencia in Spain.
BELGRADE CAPITAL CITY OF SERBIA
Financial Times has organized European cities and regions of the future for 2006/07 and, after winning the second round, Belgrade was awarded the name City of the future in Southern Europe.
The awards were also given to London (City of the Future in Northern Europe), Paris (City of the Future in Western Europe), Brno (City of the Future in Central Europe), and Baku (City of the Future in Eastern Europe). These five cities are competing for the final award of being named the European city of the future for 2006/07.
Belgrade-One of Europe’s oldest cities!!! Belgrade’s wider city area was the birthplace of the largest prehistoric culture of Europe.
The historic areas and buildings of Belgrade are among the city’s premier attractions. They include Skadarlija, the National Museum and adjacent National Theatre, Zemun, Nikola Paši? Square, Terazije, Students’ Square, the Kalemegdan Fortress, Prince Michael Street, the Parliament, the Temple of Saint Sava, and the Old Palace. On top of this, there are many parks, monuments, museums, cafés, restaurants and shops on both sides of the river. The hilltop Avala Monument offers views over the city.
There is also Beli Dvor or ‘White Palace’,house of Royal family Karadjordjevic ,open for visitors.The palace has many valuable works from Rembrandt, Nicolas Poussin, Sebastien Bourdon, Paolo Veronese, Antonio Canaletto, and others.
Ada Ciganlija is a former island on the Sava river, and Belgrade’s biggest sports and recreational complex. Today it is connected with the shore, creating an artificial lake on the river. It is the most popular destination for Belgraders during the city’s hot summers. There are 7 kilometres of long beaches and sports facilities for various sports including golf, football, basketball, volleyball, rugby union, baseball, and tennis.
]During summer there are between 200000 and 300000 bathers daily. Clubs work 24 hours a day,organising live music and overnight beach parties.Extreme sports are available, like bungee jumping, water skiing and paintballing.[99] There are numerous tracks on the island, where it is possible to ride a bike, go for a walk or go jogging.
Belgrade has a reputation for offering a vibrant nightlife, and many clubs that are open until dawn can be found throughout the city. The most recognizable nightlife features of Belgrade are the barges (splavovi) spread along the banks of the Sava and Danube Rivers.
Many weekend visitors—particularly from Greece,Montenegro,Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia—prefer Belgrade nightlife to that of their own capitals, due to a perceived friendly atmosphere, great clubs and bars, cheap drinks, the lack of language difficulties, and the lack of restrictive night life regulation.
A more traditional Serbian nightlife experience, accompanied by traditional music known as Starogradska (roughly translated as Old Town Music), typical of northern Serbia’s urban environments, is most prominent in Skadarlija, the city’s old bohemian neighbourhood where the poets and artists of Belgrade gathered in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Skadar Street (the centre of Skadarlija) and the surrounding neighbourhood are lined with some of Belgrade’s best and oldest traditional restaurants (called kafanas in Serbian), which date back to that period.
IVO ANDRIC-SERBIAN NOBEL PRIZE LAUREATE;
“…the greatest splendour of that sky above Belgrade, that are the sunsets. In autumn and in summer, they are broad and bright like desert mirages, and in winter they are smothered by murky clouds and dark red hazes. And in every time of year frequently come the days when the flame of that sun setting in the plain, between the rivers beneath Belgrade, gets reflected way up in the high celestial dome, and it breaks there and pours down over the scattered town. Then, for a moment, the reddish tint of the sun paints even the remotest corners of Belgrade and reflects into the windows, even of those houses it otherwise poorly illuminates.”…
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City Breaks in Europe?!?! Any Ideas?!?!?
Me and my boyfriend are wanting to book a city break in november for a long weekend .. any ideas?? x
To get reasonable weather in November its going to have to be Southern Europe. I’d recommend Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, Seville or Granada.
City Breaks Europe - eurostar deals
Check availabilty for the best Eurostar deals with high speed train and central hotel.
