European travel

Peeps, in the UK with the Mrs. Rather timely as it means I'm missing this Nix season, though the timezone is balls for watching.

Anyway, anyone recommend anywhere in Europe as a bit of an unexpected gem? Been over for a few months, seen a few countries, and will get to a heap more, but anywhere you've been that you loved, or would love to go to?

I'd have a look at Slovenia - it's definitely more Western European than East as you may expect, Llublijana is great and you can drive round the whole thing really quickly and it's cheaper than Italy which is just across the border, probably by about 30% I'd say

I'm going to Germany in a few months on a working holiday visa. Going to be over there for at least 12 months.

Anywhere you would recommend personally bigtobz from the places you have visited? I'm keen to see as much as i can whilst over there.

Biarritz for the sun and the surf & the glitz - but stay in Bayonne for value & history. Sifnos if you fancy lying about on a Greek island (see www.sifnostravel.com). Barcelona for food & football & people-watching (but you probably know that).

+1 Slovenia is great. Loved my time there.

 I reckon Portugal is worth a look.

People are great and lots to see.

 Rome - Truly amazing and so small you can pretty much walk everywhere. If you are into history you have to go.

Copenhagan - Another little gem, stunning babes, smoked herring and no obesity.Lots of people who ride bikes but not many cyclists.

Istanbul. One of my favourite cities in the world.

Izhmir's pretty good too. Sea breezes. Kaimoana to die for. Lots of old Yank cars patrolling the waterfront. ChCh boy racers eat yr heart out. And just down the road you've got Ephesus, cradle of post-Hellenic civilisation.

 Don't forget the old favourite  ---  Paris.

If you are in London always recommend a day trip to Basildon !!!!

Coventry, defo Coventry.

There aren't many places in Europe I've been to that I've disliked. This time of the year though things aren't as good for travelling due to it being f*cking freezing (on the whole), but a couple of my favourite places that haven't been mentioned yet which are suitable for this time of year:

-Ghent: sit inside and drink Belgian beer, fantastic little place close to all the other cities/towns of the country.

-Berlin: rave, seriously this is the best place to party in Europe for me. 

I also second recommendations for Paris, Copenhagen, Ljubljana and Lisbon.

Berlin is a good call, but I way preferred Munich (although that might have had more to do with being in Berlin in Jan and in Munich in July).  Other places that I've really enjoyed were Reykjavik and (really surprisingly) Vienna.  I still genuinely have no idea why we went to Vienna (think the wife was listening to Ultravox when she booked it) but the whole weekend was ridiculously fun.  One of the few places I've been on a weekend break where I left thinking I'd missed out on quite a few things to do.

It is worth mentioning that short trips like these are really down to luck, so it is very common for some people to love places that other people hate.  When you only have 60 hours in a city with so much to offer, the right/wrong part of town or hotel to stay in, restaurant, brothel, bar, etc can have a massive influence on the enjoyment of a place.

Yeah spot on, cheers for the ideas guys.

Slovenia, interesting. Good to have the positive feedback on that, it's somewhere the Mrs has mentioned a couple of times, and cheap always = good. Portugal/Berlin are also on the list for a weekend break, and Vienna sounds like a goer as well. It's funny how the quieter sounding places can be such a goer.

Was looking into Greece last night but it's surprisingly expensive to get over to at the moment, but will hit it in summer.

Keep'em coming, they're being fed through Mrs BT who can smash through all the finer details.