26-05-2025
10 of the most romantic city breaks in Europe
What are the key ingredients for a romantic city break? Perhaps it's a profusion of cute canals and medieval architecture, or maybe the secret to a loved-up weekend is top-drawer food and wine paired with strollable quarters. Whatever your criteria, you should find some European weekender inspiration here. This list includes the classics — we couldn't leave out Paris, of course — as well as some lesser-visited options. We've limited it to one per country in the spirit of fairness, and included the southerly likes of Seville and Valletta for couples seeking early-spring or late-autumn warmth. These are the European cities you'll fall in love with.
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Who can resist the glorious, fairytale absurdity of a floating city? Relentlessly attractive, Venice is best admired from the water — but swerve a gondola. Instead of the fabricated 'culture' of a costumed man quavering out O Sole Mio for £70, board a vaporetto boat-bus early at Piazzale Roma, ensuring you're one of the first aboard in order to bag front-row seats, and relish box-office views of the Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge for about £8. Later, as lamplight dances on canals, wavelets wash against 15th-century palazzos and footsteps echo on dinky bridges, stroll hand in hand towards some top-notch tiramisu in the waterside Osteria Fanal del Codega restaurant. And don't forget to raise a glass to your beloved at the lauded Harry's Bar, home of the OG bellini.
On the Grand Canal and largely populated by couples, Hotel L'Orologio Venice has a chic bar with sink-in leather armchairs.
Fancy seeing more? Princess Cruises' ten-day Mediterranean with Greek Isles & Adriatic cruise stops at Trieste for excursions to Venice during its circuit of the eastern Mediterranean.
• More great hotels in Venice• Best affordable hotels in Venice
Sure, you could aim to ascend Montmartre's steps to the Sacré-Coeur, scale the Eiffel Tower, cruise the Seine, attend the Moulin Rouge and gaze at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. All have their merits. But a far better tack for City of Love-bound couples involves ditching the overambitious to-do list and simply sauntering, aimlessly, around one of its more villagey districts. The artsy Latin Quarter and snug, boutique-filled Marais fit the bill. Perhaps you'll pause to peruse markets for cheese, or to share some frites at a pavement café. Dinner à deux in Paris, meanwhile, should be in a vintage bistro — the sort where garlic strings hang down above a zinc-topped bar as everyone chatters noisily.
Up in well-to-do Montmartre, the longstanding Terrass Hôtel is named after its headline attraction: a seventh-floor roof terrace offering wonderful views.
The flight-free specialist Byway can arrange trips to Paris on Eurostar, stopping in Lille on the return leg.
• More great hotels in Paris• Insider's guide to the best neighbourhoods in Paris
Two things enhance the warm limestone of Malta's compact capital: a profusion of pastel-painted gallariji (closed wooden balconies) along many narrow lanes, and the regular lashings of sunshine that this southerly part of the Mediterranean enjoys from March to November. Mostly pedestrianised, Valletta is pleasingly easy to walk around; setting off from a trendy design hotel, partners might catch a recital at the Manoel theatre, one of Europe's oldest, visit a snug wine bar or watch sunset fall over the glinting Grand Harbour from a shaded, spritz-serving kiosk in the Upper Barrakka Gardens.
An old merchant's residence turned hip, 20-room haunt, the Saint John is one of those cool boutique hotels you'll want to keep all to yourself.
On a ship designed to tickle Brits' taste buds, P&O Cruises' Mediterranean circuit starts and finishes in Valletta.
• More great hotels in Valletta• The best of MaltaThe City of a Hundred Spires seduces in all seasons: open-air beer bars line the Vltava River's banks in summer, while autumn is the ideal time to wander along the waterway as the trees of Prague turn auburn shades. Winter's crisp light and occasional white coat renders sights like the astronomical clock especially spellbinding before spring sees bursts of flowers transform the Vltava — not least on the Czech Republic's well-celebrated Love Day (May 1). There are ample parks, gardens and green spaces to roam, including Petrin Hill, whose namesake, Eiffel-imitating tower comes with fine vistas over Prague Castle, Charles Bridge — itself best experienced at dawn, if possible, ahead of the hordes — and a riot of red-roofed buildings.
Check in to BoHo Hotel, a stylish stay with a moody spa housed in an old post office a quick stroll from the old town.
Read our full review of BoHo Hotel
The upmarket Avalon Waterways has Danube River cruises with a two-night Prague extension — including special wine-themed versions.
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Should Vienna's arcade-lined courtyards, imperial palaces and gothic churches fail to spark a sense of romance (it's unlikely), then head for its Upper Belvedere museum and ogle Gustav Klimt's The Kiss, one of the most amorous paintings around. Also liable to precipitate passion are stops in opulent coffee houses such as Café Sacher for calorific slices of chocolatey sachertorte, and evening opera performances in the home of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Cooler cats may prefer Vienna's raft of rooftop bars or, when there's a full moon, to drift along the meandering Danube in a lantern-lit canoe (see
There's a rooftop bar with far-reaching views and yoga kits in every bedroom at Jaz in the City.
Budapest, Prague and, yes, Vienna, with a full day here, are the subject of Travelsphere's regular, culture-focused Imperial Capitals group tour.
• Best affordable hotels in Vienna• Europe's best cities for art lovers
Andalusia's main city is especially irresistible in spring, when fruiting orange trees produce a heady citrus scent and temperatures linger in the 20s. It's lovely in autumn too, when the summer heat starts to wane. Seville's standout sight is the jewel-lined Alcazar palace complex, including a series of glorious walled gardens; meander around those in the morning, before other tourists arrive. Afternoons might be devoted to wandering around ancient Santa Cruz, a central barrio where the whitewashed houses are festooned with flowers, ahead of atmospheric flamenco shows at the intimate Casa de la Memoria, whose dancers and singers tell passionate tales of lifelong loves. Finish with an evening tapas-bar crawl, clinking glasses of fino sherry and trying some nutty, thinly sliced jamon.
Fifteen minutes from the centre by bus, the Doña Carmela is affordable and lays on an outdoor pool with loungers.
Seville, with a guided tapas tasting, features in Riviera Travel's Classical Spain group tour, which also visits the Andalusian cities of Granada, Cordoba and Ronda.
• Best hotels in Seville• Discover our full guide to Seville
Inside the Arctic Circle, and under four hours from London or Manchester on direct flights, island-set Tromso is, admittedly, freezing in winter: January typically sees averages of minus 4C. But it's also bewitching. A permanent backdrop of snowy mountains and glassy straits helps with that, as does the chance to undertake tandem, self-drive dogsled safaris or join killer and humpback whale-watching cruises along epic fjords. Northern lights displays peak at this time in the 'Paris of the North' too; it's often possible to see the aurora borealis from the 421m (1,381ft) mountain ledge Storsteinen. The Fjellheisen cable car goes up to its café, which serves excellent cinnamon buns.
Along with funky modern design, the city-centre Moxy Tromso hotel has a buzzy rooftop bar delivering more glorious views.
The Aurora Zone can arrange private, northern lights-themed city breaks here with activities added on as you please.
• Read our full guide to Norway• Best Norwegian fjords cruises
Bruges might be the go-to Belgian city for romantic breaks, but Ghent is the savvier bet. It has an equally well-preserved historic centre, and a similar bevy of medieval waterways that enchant when illuminated at night. You'll also find the same boat tours, gables, gothic guildhalls, horse-and-cart rides and chocolate shops, plus a still-taller belfry that offers tremendous panoramas. But Ghent is additionally a little bit cooler than Bruges, possesses a stronger food scene and is far, far less crowded with tourists — enabling lovers to more easily enjoy private moments, including ones that might involve the lowering of a knee.
As central as it gets, the luxurious 1898 The Post hotel occupies a former sorting office; its cocktail den is superb.
Byway will tailor-make the rail-based trip you want, but suggests a jaunt to Ghent via Belgium's smaller, art-obsessed city of Kortrijk.
• Best underrated cities to visit in Europe
Dainty, blue-white azulejo tiles pepper Porto's hilly, small-sized centre, even decorating the fortress-like Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady's handsome cloisters. Below, a clump of colourful, 18th-century townhouses and small bars — serving classic Portuguese petiscos (small plates) such as grilled sardines or codfish cakes — announce Ribeira, a district whose narrow streets zigzag down to the Douro River. If you've got time, sail off up the river on a day cruise to idyllic terraced vineyards; if not, cross over to Cockburn's port cellars for tastings of the city's namesake fortified wine. Try also to inspect the beaux arts Sao Bento, one of Europe's saintliest train stations.
Conveniently located in Porto's Boavista district, the HF Tuela hotel includes a restaurant serving regional cuisine.
Riviera Travel has a river cruise that follows the Douro all the way to the Spanish border and back; three-day Porto extensions can also be booked.
• More great hotels in Porto• The best of Portugal
In most capitals, a statue on the main square depicts a military or political hero. Not so Ljubljana; here the love-declaring, sonnet-writing poet France Preseren is honoured. This adequately summarises the Slovenian city's soulful nature, one further seen in a series of picturesque bridges and embankments along its leafy Ljubljanica River — busy with bars and boats in summer — and via the Disneyesque castle towering grandly above. A funicular sends glass-walled carriages up to that. Adding to the mesmerism is a largely car-free centre replete with baroque façades and, if time allows, excursions to visit mountain-hugged Lake Bled and its photogenic island church.
Announced by its bold, bird's-nest style, the boutiquey Nox is one of Ljubljana's leading design hotels.
You'll be shown around Ljubljana on Titan's Stunning Slovenia group tour, as well as seeing spectacular mountain passes and gorgeous coastal towns.
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