Two Centre European City Breaks
Train from Bratislava to Vienna or Bus from Seville to Cordoba?
Book a cheap flight, then combine Milan and Turin, Marseille and Avignon or Cologne and Bonn. Or maybe Copenhagen and Malmo or Luxembourg and Trier?
Most of the time, when travellers book themselves a European city break, they aim straight for one city in particular. The obvious ones are Paris, Amsterdam, Prague and Rome but an interesting alternative is to take a two centre city break. This basically means dividing the time between two nearby cities, taking a train, bus or ferry between them and experiencing a bit of both.
Two centre European city breaks in Germany
The obvious way to go about this is to get a cheap flight to one country, go to one city and then make the short rail or bus journey to the other. An excellent example of this would be in Germany – get a flight with a budget airline to Cologne/ Bonn airport, stay in a Cologne hotel for two nights, and then get the train to all the historical and cultural attractions in Bonn.
City Breaks in Spain, Italy and France
However, the same theory can be applied to other countries. In Andalucia, Spain, a great combination is the nightlife and energy of Seville, followed by the history of Cordoba. There are plenty of cheap flights to Seville, while the bus from Seville to Cordoba only takes a couple of hours. In France, Metz and Nancy or Marseille and Avignon make good, contrasting combinations, while Milan and Turin, Florence and Siena or Venice and Verona are fine choices in Italy.
Two centre city breaks in two countries
However, a far more interesting way of going about things is to do a two centre city break based in two separate countries, experiencing the lifestyle and culture of both. Often travellers will not realise how close another great city is, automatically assuming that it is too far away simply because it is over the border. In these days of Schengen border regulations, meaning no border checks between many European countries, this is not the case – it’s simply a short trip on a train, bus or, sometimes, ferry.
Train from Bratislava to Vienna
The classic examples are the capital cities of Slovakia and Austria. The train from Bratislava to Vienna takes under an hour, so why not combine the bargain prices and nightlife of the former with the culture and style of the latter? Other two country city break options that are surprisingly close include Luxembourg City and Trier in Germany, Geneva in Switzerland and Lyon in France or Brussels in Belgium and Maastricht in The Netherlands.
Ferry from Finland to Estonia or Denmark to Sweden
An even more intriguing method is combining two cities by sea. For example, the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn connects Finland to Estonia in less than two hours. It’s even shorter from Copenhagen in Denmark to Malmo in Sweden (although most now drive or get the train across the spectacular Oresund Bridge).
With so many interesting combinations on offer, why settle for just one?
