Help me day dream, please (Europe-related)

[Deleted]

We want to go somewhere for a long weekend next fall.  My best friend and her husband will meet us.  This will maybe be over Labor Day (at the very least, September or October), and we'd probably want to take a Thursday night redeye and come back on Tuesday.  So we'd have 3.5 days there. 

Our parameters:
- Direct flight from both NY (any airport) and London
- Relatively easy to get to from the airport (I'm envisioning a city)
- The shorter the flight the better, but we're flexible on that
- None of the following places: Amsterdam, Paris, London, Madrid, Seville, Rome, Florence, Prague, Dublin, Luxembourg, [ETA: Iceland]

If you were us, where would you go?

Thanks!

[sunshinedaydreams]

Not sure if it's a direct flight to NY, but have you been to Brussels? Beer, chocolate, fries and waffles. (Need I say more? :-) ) It's a nice, walkable city. Not a ton to do and see, so you could definitely do it leisurely in 3.5 days. And even get in a day trip to Bruges.

[alleinesein]

Does it have to be a Non-stop?

Berlin
Dresden (JFK-DUS-DRS)
Zagreb

[greenmonster]

Edinburgh! Such an awesome city!

[Deleted]

Jul 9, 2014 19:59:05 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

Does it have to be a Non-stop?

Yes, must be non-stop since it will be a long flight for a short trip either way... I don't want to make the travel time any longer!  (For the same reason, btw, we also want to stay in one place... so we're looking for one city where one could happily waste 3.5 days without getting bored).

Not that there aren't many wonderful places that require stops -- but they will be visited when we have more time! 

[alleinesein]

Vienna
Warsaw
Kiev
Moscow
Oslo
Copenhagen

[lolo]

Barcelona definitely gets my vote too.

[lolo]

Jul 9, 2014 22:45:12 GMT -5 lolo said:

Barcelona definitely gets my vote too.

Eta: Budapest? Not sure if it's non stop for you though.

[GilliC]

Reykjavik would be a good meet-in-the-middle option.

I like the Belgium suggestion. Delta and Brussels Airways both have direct flights to Brussels from JFK.

I was in Berlin for a weekend last October, and it was gorgeous at that time of year.

What about Lisbon? Zurich? Vienna?

[wise_rita]

Totes Edinburgh. It's so doable in a weekend.

There might not be a direct flight, though, because London is so close/well connected.

How about you tell us what your options are with your preferred airport/airlines and we can recommend from there.

[pittpurple]

Edinburgh!
There's a direct flight from Newark so assuming that's included in your 'any NY airport'
(I'm a wee bit biased of course...)

[Deleted]

Jul 10, 2014 6:28:08 GMT -5 pittpurple said:

Edinburgh!
There's a direct flight from Newark so assuming that's included in your 'any NY airport'
(I'm a wee bit biased of course...)

Yup!  JFK and EWR are both equally easy for us to get to (LGA as well, but it is probably n/a for Europe flights)

[osumelissa]

Edinburgh would be my first suggestion, although the Brussels and Reykjavik suggestions are also really good.

[pittpurple]

Jul 10, 2014 6:37:27 GMT -5 v said:

Jul 10, 2014 6:28:08 GMT -5 pittpurple said:

Edinburgh!
There's a direct flight from Newark so assuming that's included in your 'any NY airport'
(I'm a wee bit biased of course...)

Yup!  JFK and EWR are both equally easy for us to get to (LGA as well, but it is probably n/a for Europe flights)

It's United who flies direct, terrible plane but it's not a long flight. Obviously it's one of the first places you hit from NY so it will be on the shorter side for any European destination. Super easy for your friend by plane or train and easy from the airport (there's a tram and buses and it's about a 20 minute drive).

[Deleted]

i was going to suggest Iceland. i don't think the flight is that long, relatively, from NYC.

[rupertpenny]

Jul 10, 2014 8:24:52 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

My first thought was Lisbon.

This or Porto. I think there are a few direct flights to Porto from DC, so there must be some from NYC too.

[mdgirl]

Milan or Barcelona.

[Deleted]

Another vote for Iceland.

If there are direct flights to either Stockholm or Ljubljana I loved both cities.

You could easily do Ljubljana and Lake Bled in 3.5 days.

[Deleted]

Jul 10, 2014 8:33:00 GMT -5 melmaria said:

You've done Reykjavik/Iceland fairly recently, right?

I LOVE Barcelona, but I know you've also done Spain recently too (though Barcelona is my favorite city in Spain and I'd be willing to do two Spain trips close together).

I also like the Brussels/Bruges, Vienna, and Edinburgh ideas.

Yes, should have added it to the no list.  Wasn't really thinking of it as Europe!

[emilyinchile]

Lisbon or Berlin were the first two that came to mind, since you were in Spain pretty recently (otherwise I would have added Barcelona).

Looking at PPs' suggestions, Moscow would be a good option in terms of time on the ground - I saw a fair amount in 3 days - but you might not want to deal with getting a visa for such a short trip. Istanbul sounds like a good one to me that I hadn't thought of.

[mrsukyankee]

I loved Edinburgh for a long weekend - perfect city for it.

[lg28]

Munich! That's a good amount of time there.

[phillyrunner]

Lisbon!

[msamyfarrahfowler]

Oslo or Bergen

[anna7602]

I vote for Lisbon. Super easy flight from the US and is on the EasyJet/Ryan Air circuit from London.

[Deleted]

My choices: Lisbon, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm.

[Deleted]

Another vote for Lisbon. We had a direct flight from JFK. We were there for a week and didn't get bored, it was amazing and so beautiful.

[Deleted]

Guys, thanks so much for all the ideas. I think my front runners are Edinburgh, Lisbon, Vienna, and Copenhagen. Will run them by the traveling group when we're ready to plan!

My parents went to Lisbon in April and did not like it at all (they said it was dirty) but I'll trust the consensus here over their opinion   Also, we'd (hopefully) be able to use up my husband's United miles and then hopefully never fly United again!

(They also said that Madrid was shockingly clean. I went the month after them and while I didn't find it to be a particularly dirty city, I found it to be at normal city levels of dirtiness).

[wanderlustmom]

You have great suggestions!

I agree with so many posters. Lisbon, Edinburgh, Istanbul and Barcelona are all amazing cities with their own character that easily lend themselves to a short trip. If I really had to choose further--I would pick Edinburgh or Barcelona. Istanbul and Lisbon have too many fantastic places close by that warrant longer to linger. And actually as I think, San Sebastian is a slice of heaven and needs longer--so go to Edinburgh! The rest of Scotland is fine, I loved Isle of Skye--but it's far away.