written by Diana Jarvis
updated 11.10.2023
City breaks can be hard to plan. You want it all – art, culture, quirky hotels, top restaurants – but also the chance to relax. Fortunately, there are enough cities in Europe where you can find it all. These city breaks in Europe don’t skimp on urban culture, and have nature on their doorstep for when you need a breath of fresh air.
The information in this article is inspired by The Rough Guides guidebooks — your essential guides for visiting the world.
Catch a ferry out to the islands of Viðey, Lundey or Akurey to see thousands of breeding puffins; hike up the "city mountain" Mount Esja; and explore the still-active Eyjafjallajökull volcano, just 90 minutes outside of town.
You can also use Reykjavík as your base before embarking on the famous Golden Circle. This route encompasses the geysers at Geysir and the roaring waterfalls at Gullfoss. There are also fantastic bathing opportunities in thermal pools such as Fluðir or Laugarvatn along the way.
Back in the city, make time for Reykjavík's growing number of innovative restaurants, many of which use locally sourced ingredients such as cloudberries or lamb. Try Michelin-starred DILL or the more affordable Sjávarbarinn for freshly caught seafood.
For a city break with rural escape, it's hard to beat Iceland © Diana Jarvis
You’ll find some of Germany's most beautiful architecture in Munich, Bavaria's historic capital. Start by exploring the fifteenth-century Gothic Frauenkirche, or climb the tower of St Peterskirche, the oldest church in the city, for unparalleled views over the rooftops.
Other worthwhile sights include the Pinakothek trio, three galleries each dedicated to a different era of art. Or take time to explore the futuristic BMW museum and Schloss Nymphenburg on the outskirts of the city.
Munich’s green heart is the Englischer Garten, one of Europe’s largest urban parks, designed by Sir Benjamin Thompson in 1789. If you’re looking to explore further afield, hire a bike and spend a day cycling south along the river Isar, detouring to the lakes of Sternbergersee or Ammersee for a spot of swimming.
Alternatively, head north and you’ll find yourself on more rugged trails through forested areas. All S-Bahn, underground and regional railways take bikes, so you don’t have to worry too much about the return journey.
Munich's picturesque city squares are delightful to explore on your city breaks in Europe ©/CC0
The best way to explore this island-studded channel is on a kayak tour, taking you close to lighthouses, nesting birds and small beaches from which you can swim or picnic before paddling back to the marina.
Off the water, make time for Oslo's world-class restaurants – Maaemo has three Michelin stars – and some excellent museums, including the fascinating Nobel Center and National Museum, home of Edvard Munch’s Scream. For a central location Scandic Grand Oslo puts you in the heart of it all. Oslo can hardly said to be a cheap city break (a glass of wine can set you back £15), but the setting more than makes up for it.
Oslo Opera house © trabantos/Shutterstock
You’ll always find something going on in the Hungarian capital. Keep an eye out for pop-up events, as there are a number of outdoor culinary and cultural festivals taking place throughout the year in the city’s public spaces. But beyond that, Budapest has a full programme of events gracing its auditoriums and quirky smaller venues, not to mention behind the crumbling walls of its ruin pubs and basement bars.
If you want to get out into nature there is no need to leave the city limits. The Buda Hills are popular for their hiking trails, residential areas filled with beautiful villas and for the unique Children’s Railway. The highest point of Budapest is János Hill (János-hegy), whose lookout tower can be seen in the far distance from most parts of the city.
This route includes a bit of hiking, plus some relaxing sightseeing that won’t require any walking.
Keen to explore three of Europe's capital cities but short on time? This tailor-made three-country trip to Danube capitals allows you to visit Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest, three remarkable capital cities with a wealth of history and culture at your fingertips.
Budapest from the Gellert hill © Resul Muslu/Shutterstock
Head north from the centre and in less than 45 minutes you’ll find yourself in the Serra de Collserola. The city’s "green lung" rises above the urban sprawl, offering long vistas out to sea from among the pinewoods. The park is easily navigated on foot, but for a more exhilarating experience saddle up to see it on horseback, or spend a night under the glittering skies on an astronomy tour.
During September and October, head to Margola Peak where you can watch thousands of birds of prey – including honey buzzards, goshawks, kestrels, marsh harriers and sparrow hawks – as they migrate south for the winter.
Serra de Collserola, Barcelona, Spain© Kiev.Victor/Shutterstock
Summer is one of the best times to visit, particularly if you plan to visit Nuuksio National Park, just 40 minutes away. Rock climb at Kolmoislammit and Romvuori; hike one of the many trails, keeping an eye out for nightjars, woodlarks and flying squirrels; and spot waterbirds from the Lake Matalajärvi observation tower.
Guided tours can teach you how to forage for bilberries, lingonberries and yellow foot chanterelle mushrooms, while at night you can stay at one of the designated campsites. Make sure you try a "tent sauna" (a real sauna in a tent, not just your own very hot tent), followed by a swim in the ice-cool freshwater lakes.
Helsinki enchants with its blend of modernity and nature, entertainment and tranquility accessible everywhere and all the time. Explore the Finnish capital with our tailor-made city hopping trip in Finland and Estonia.
Helsinki/CC0
The rest of Ljubljana is compact and easily explored on foot. The city was crowned Europe’s Green Capital in 2016, and is encircled by the 35km Path of Remembrance and Comradeship, built for walkers and runners. It's even possible to cross-country ski several sections on snowy winter days. Ljubljana might even be the best destination on our list of city breaks in Europe with rural escapes.
For adventure sports, a half-hour bus ride from the city centre takes you to the village of Tacen where there are adrenalin-inducing options aplenty, including whitewater rafting. Head an hour northwest and you'll reach Lake Bled — a popular for spot for watersports and hiking.
Ljubljana offers plenty of culture as well as adventure sports like whitewater rafting © Pixabay/CC0
Diocletian’s Palace remains the city’s central ingredient, having been gradually transformed into a warren of houses, tenements, churches and chapels by the various peoples who came to live here after his successors had departed.
Just a few kilometres outside Split, the Roman city of Salona and the medieval fortress of Klis are both worthwhile half-day excursions. Each is easily reached on local buses. The road to Split airport runs past the string of coastal villages known collectively as Kaštela – the botanical garden at Kaštel Lukšić is well worth a stop-off.
Split is famous for the vivacious outdoor life that takes over the streets in all but the coldest and wettest weather: as long as the sun is shining, the swish cafés of the waterfront Riva are never short of custom.
Split, Croatia © novak.elcic/Shutterstock
Delft boasts a clutch of handsome old buildings, most notably two fine churches – the Nieuwe Kerk and the Oude Kerk. Here you will also find a fascinating museum, the Prinsenhof, which holds an enjoyable collection of Golden Age paintings, and the imaginative Vermeercentrum, celebrating the life and times of Delft’s best-known son, Johannes Vermeer.
And then there is the Delftware, the blue and white ceramics for which the town is famous: more than anything else, it’s this that pulls in the day-trippers, who throng a battery of souvenir shops and a factory or two.
Delft city, Netherlands © Shutterstock
Set within the low amphitheatre that the wide River Adige has carved out of the hills, Verona conveys a sense of ease that you don’t find in the region’s other cities. Close to Santa Maria in Organo you’ll find one of the finest formal gardens in the country, the sixteenth-century Giardino Giusti.
After feuding between some of the heirs to the Giusti estate, the grounds and the splendid Palazzo Giusti (which is not open to the public) have been put up for sale, and rumour has it that it will become a luxury hotel. But for the time being the garden’s fountains and shaded corners continue to provide the city’s most pleasant refuge from the streets, as they have done for centuries.
Verona image during summer sunset © Rudy Balasko/Shutterstock
Some of the suburbs of Prague have a preponderance of dour modern apartment blocks to house the growing population. However, not all are so grim and there are a number of attractions that make a trip out on the metro or tram well worth the effort.
The Stromovka was for many centuries a royal hunting ground before being designated a public park in 1804. Today its woodland and lakes provide a pleasant alternative to the sometimes hot and dusty city streets.
Set on the banks of the Vltava opposite the Jewish Quarter, Letná Park (Letenské sady) is another open space within easy reach of the city. It offers superb views upriver and across the Old Town. Visitors are also drawn to a strange modern sculpture that sits on a concrete plinth overlooking the Vltava.
Also read our guide to where to stay in Prague and find more attractive accommodation options.
Prague @ Ihor Pasternak/Shutterstock
The impact of Augustus the Strong was felt far beyond the city limits. His pleasure palaces in the countryside include the huge hunting lodge of Schloss Moritzburg north west of Dresden. Rising from the middle of a great artificial lake on which lavish water pageants were held, it has an interior crammed with trophies of the chase.
Upstream from the city and best reached by pleasure steamer, the mock-Chinese extravaganza of Schloss Pillnitz the palace park open all year until dusk. Bergpalais stands among the vineyards rising from the riverbank. It makes a fine home for a superlative decorative arts collection.
The steamer continues upstream from Pillnitz to the historic town of Pirna, then passes beneath the most spectacular feature of the national park Sächsische Schweiz (Saxony’s ‘Little Switzerland’), the crags and pinnacles of the Bastei rock.
Zwinger Palace art gallery museum Dresden, Germany © Georgios Tsichlis/Shutterstock
Beyond the compact city centre, there’s a great deal to be discovered in Greater Edinburgh. The attractive coastal suburbs of Cramond, Newhaven and Portobello are all popular at weekends when the sun shines.
The pick of the historical destinations includes the imposing fifteenth-century Craigmillar Castle on the south side of the city. Or the sleepy medieval village of Duddingston, with its ancient pub, on the far side of Arthur’s Seat.
The Pentland Hills, a chain some eighteen miles long and five wide, dominate most views south of Edinburgh and offer walkers and mountain bikers a thrilling taste of wild Scottish countryside just beyond the suburbs.
The simplest way to get a taste of the scenery of the Pentlands is to set off from the car park by the ski centre at Hillend, at the northeast end of the range; take the path up the right-hand side of the dry ski slopes, turning left shortly after crossing a stile to reach a prominent point with outstanding views over Edinburgh and Fife.
Street view of the historic Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Scotland © f11photo/Shutterstock
Strung out over a series of hills facing the glistening waters of the broad Tejo estuary, Lisbon is one of Europe’s most handsome cities. Although its modern suburbs are ungainly, the historic centre is relatively compact and easy to explore in just a day or two.
The most popular excursions from the city are to the beach resorts west along the coast from Belém, which can be reached by train from Cais do Sodré. There are fine beaches at places such as Oeiras, though you only really reach the ocean proper at Estoril and Cascais.
For large, wild stretches of sand, head north to Guincho, or cross the Tejo by ferry to reach the Costa da Caparica, a 30km stretch of beach to the south of the capital. Further south still, there are good, clean beaches at Sesimbra and in the Parque Natural da Arrábida, a superb unspoilt craggy reserve, while the large town of Setúbal is noted for its Igreja de Jesus, Portugal’s oldest Manueline building.
This exciting short tailor-made city break to the Essential Portugal will take you to the exciting and stunningly beautiful Portuguese cities of Lisbon and Porto. This trip you will be taken through guided tours of the historic old towns, and on to the pearls of north Braga and Gamares.
Sao Jorge Castle, Alfama, Lisbon © Shutterstock
Bounded by sea on three sides, even in the most built-up parts of the city you’re never more than a glimpse away from a coruscating stretch of water. Glance up from a narrow alley in the bazaar and, rising imperiously from atop one of the old quarter’s seven hill tops, are the graceful domes of an imperial mosque.
Most visitors to Istanbul concentrate on the Historic Peninsula, the triangle of land at the confluence of the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara, separated from Thracian hinterland by the 5th-century Land Walls. Here it’s just about possible to forget about modernity and revel in a dream of ancient splendour.
Just a tram and funicular ride away the modern city waits to be discovered on frenetic İstiklal Caddesi. Here suddenly the average age of a passerby slumps to about 25, and virtually every vestige of the ancient past has given way to shops, clubs, restaurants and bars.
Explore two absolute highlights in Turkey - Istanbul, the former capital of the Ottoman Empire with its many landmarks on our tailor-made trip to Istanbul and Cappadocia. After a few days in the city, fly to Cappadocia and explore the surreal surroundings, either on day tours or from above in a hot air balloon.
Harem in Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, Turkey © AdobeStock
The vestiges of the ancient Classical Greek city, most famously represented by the Parthenon and other remains that top the Acropolis, are an inevitable focus. Along with the refurbished National Archeological Museum, the finest collection of Greek antiquities anywhere in the world.
The majority of the several million visitors who pass through each year do little more. Many never manage to escape the crowds and so see little of the Athens Athenians know. Take the time to explore some of the city’s neighbourhoods, and you’ll get far more out of it.
Wander this maze of charming streets, where the modern sits beautifully with the ancient; discover the Acropolis and the Parthenon, the crowning architectural achievements of the Classical Age. Indulge your sense with delicious Mediterranean food at local tavernas on this tailor-made trip to Athens: City of the Gods.
Acropolis, Athens © Shutterstock
The greater Florence area has a number of towns and attractions to entice you on a day trip from the city or even act as a base for exploring the region. City buses run up to the hill village of Fiesole, while inter-town services run south into the hills of Chianti, Italy’s premier wine region.
A long-established Florentine retreat from the summer heat and crowds, Fiesole spreads over a cluster of hilltops 8km northeast of the city. It predates Florence by several hundred years: the Etruscans held out so long up here that the Romans were forced to set up permanent camp in the valley below – thus creating the beginnings of the settlement that was to become Florence.
Florence. A mere mention of the name conjures up grand images of Renaissance romance, awe-inspiring art and astonishing architecture. Try our tailor-made trip to Florence and see for yourself.
Duomo Santa Maria Del Fiore in Florence Italy © Songquan Deng/Shutterstock
On the banks of the Liffey, just 3km (2 miles) from the bustle of O’Connell Street, lies Phoenix Park. Comprising some 709 hectares (1,750 acres) of landscaped gardens, woods, pastures, and playing fields, it is one of the biggest urban parks in Europe.
The park is a graceful and elegant expanse with fine views of the mountains, much loved by Dubliners since it was first opened to the public in 1747. Black plaques mark self-guided heritage walks and nature trails, while bikes can be hired at the gate lodge.
Bus tours will take you to the various destinations, and some are accessible by city bus. Visit Dublin at Palace Street has all the information, and can arrange tours. Car hire is available at the same site. It is worth hiring a car so you can go at your own pace. Driving in the city is difficult, but it is worth hiring a car to explore the surrounding countryside.
You will find more accommodation options in our guide to where to stay in Dublin.
Streets of Dublin, Ireland © massimofusaro/Shutterstock
If your visit gives you time for only one side-trip it should unquestionably be along the Danube Valley, in particular the magical area known as the Wachau between the historic towns of Melk and Krems.
About an hour west of Vienna, this is where the Danube Valley is at its most scenic, by turns both charming and verdant with vineyards, apricot orchards and rustic villages, then suddenly forbidding with ruined medieval castles and rocky cliffs half hidden in mist. This is a landscape whose atmosphere is heavy with myth.
Hofburg palace on St. Michael square (Michaelerplatz), Vienna, Austria © Mistervlad/Shutterstock
The capital’s traditional landmarks – Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London among them – continue to draw in millions of tourists every year. Things change fast, though, and the regular emergence of new attractions ensures that there’s plenty to do even for those who’ve visited before.
Most visitors are amazed at how green and pleasant so much of the city centre is, with three royal parks – St James’s Park, Green Park and Hyde Park – forming an almost continuous grassy belt that stretches for nearly three miles.
Hyde Park, together with its westerly extension, Kensington Gardens, is the largest of the trio, covering a distance of a mile and a half from Speakers’ Corner in the northeast to Kensington Palace in the southwest. You can jog, swim, fish, sunbathe or mess about in boats on the Serpentine, cross the park on horseback or bike, or view the latest in modern art at the Serpentine Gallery.
Find more accommodation options with our guide to where to stay in London.
River view of Big Ben and-Houses of parliament in London © S.Borisov/Shutterstock
For more inspirational travel tips for your future trips check our Rough Guide books.
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Top image: Ljubljana © Shutterstock
written by Diana Jarvis
updated 11.10.2023
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