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City breaks are on the rise, why wait until the summer to take one long holiday when you can take multiple city breaks throughout the year. I don’t know about you guys, but where I live it’s boring. A small town in the Midlands, I want to go out and explore the world. Whether you want to explore different cities within the UK or spread your wings and visiting Europe there are plenty of choices out there. With some European countries being only a couple of hours worth of travel, yay! If you’re willing to take the risk in aid of getting a cheaper holiday; I would advise writing a list of places you want to visit and checking the cheapest destination a few days before you are due to travel and get your stay for a fraction of the price which also means more money for food, booze and more food! Going on a break earlier in the year is also cheaper due to occupancy levels for most places being down.
I love exploring England myself (that’s what I tell myself due to my lack of funds and the travel sickness I suffer on most forms of transport) and my travel bucket list this year is full of places within the UK, I started the year with Manchester for my birthday and Birmingham for a day trip and I’d love to go to them both again, as well as visiting places such as Bath, Liverpool and making more trips to London. There are so many quirky and fun places to stay in the UK. But if you fancy somewhere a little further afield somewhere in Europe may be more down your alley. Especially during the warmer months. It’s totally worth checking out Amsterdam as it’s so easy and cheap to get there, as well as Italy, Budapest and France as they’re within a small distance. I thought for this post as you have probably guessed by now, I love creating lists so I decided to create a list of my top tips for creating the perfect city break, simple easy and cheap!
Always look around first:
This is a pretty obvious one, but there so many sites out there that offer discounts and you can compare what is on offer. Sometimes you are able to get a 4-star hotel for a huge discount, this is dependant on when you book it and what types of places you like to stay in. Hostels are usually a much cheaper option, however, you can get apartments and hotels on the cheap too. It’s worth reading lots of reviews on the places you are going to stay, to make sure you don’t end up somewhere that looks like it should be Holidays from Hell (does anyone else remember that show?!). Places like Travel Supermarket and Trivago are good for finding the best deals quickly.
Get travel insurance:
Despite city breaks often being short, the worst can still happen. Travel Insurance Explained is an amazing resource for finding out what type of travel insurance you need for your mini-break and they even include great places to visit for the type of break you want to go on and they even explain what the small terms in your policy mean, I don’t know about you but I never understand my rights with that stuff. They have also created an amazing guide for Valentines Day, including the best places to visit and what insurance you may need including things such as theft which I wouldn’t even think of. Even for a short break, it’s worth getting yourself covered.
Make an itinerary:
Due to only being in your destination for such a short amount of time, it’s totally worth planning everything in advance, from how you will get from a to b, to different restaurants and attractions you want to visit during your stay and also mapping them out so you are able to locate them easily. When I visited Manchester I was shocked how many different things I could do in a little over 24 hours because I planned in advance. We went to a secret bar called The Washhouse (you may have heard me talk about it once or twice) but you have to book in advance and if we didn’t plan in advance we wouldn’t have been able to visit.
Pack light:
I am usually the worst at this, as I never know what I want to wear until the day we are on and even then I still change like 50 times (more like 3, but yano what I mean) so packing light isn’t something that comes easily to me. However, for a city break, it is often great to travel light, especially if you can’t check into your hotel until later. Who wants to lug around a huge bag for the majority of the day, no thanks! I mean for two days, nobody really needs 5 t-shirts, 4 pairs of underwear (yep, I am that person) and every item of makeup I own.
*This post is in collaboration with Travel Insurance Explained, however, these tips are all my own and I totally need the small terms of Insurance explained to me!
