3-4 day weekend in Europe mid June?

[Waffles]

So, it will soon be a year since H and I have quit smoking and I want to celebrate with a long weekend away, spending some of the money saved.

I need to save my days off for a longer trip at the end of the year so I don't want to go too far. We're also planning to go to Norway in July, so I'd say Scandinavia is out.

Cheap flights include:
* Istanbul
* Porto
* Lisbon
* Lyon
* Valencia

Rome, Venice, Florence, Barcelona, Budapest, Prague, Paris and Scandinavia are out as is the UK in general.

We love wandering around, people watch and sit at terraces and like to keep museum visits to the point.

I would love recommendations of places to go to (somewhere I haven't thought of perhaps?) for 3 nights or so

[wanderlustfoodie]

I particularly loved Istanbul and Porto!

[Deleted]

We just did Ljubljana and lake bled over 4 days and it was amazing. That's now one of my favorites.

It's about a 2 hour flight from Gatwick.
The city itself is small and you can walk everywhere within 20 minutes max. There's lots of great food, wine, culture and not a ton of tourists compared to places like Prague.

We took the scenic route to lake bled which took about 3 hours because we kept stopping, but if you take the freeway it's about 40 minutes. The scenery is stunning and everything is super green and lush.

[ashap]

I would vote Istanbul

[mich1]

I love Istanbul, but there s too much to see in that little time. It isn't really an easy city to sit in a cafe and people watch IMO. Both Kas and Kucadasi are easier places to do that.

How about Morocco? That is on my short list.

[Deleted]

I think 4 days in Lisbon would be nice.

[lishie]

Another vote for Istanbul. DH and I absolutely loved it when we were there!

[iammalcolmx]

I would do Lisbon mainly because I am boycotting Istanbul for personal reasons. If I wasn't MAD at Turkey then Istanbul.

[lolo]

Lisbon and Istanbul would be my top choices. My concern with Istanbul, as others have said, is that I might need a bit more time, especially as I would like to get out of the city a bit.

[Waffles]

Thank you! I have provisionally booked a hotel in Lisbon - waiting to get my days off approved to get the flights!