A weekend away sounds good, right? Take the Friday and the Monday off work too and it’s practically a full-size holiday. However, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a long weekend doesn’t need as much planning as a holiday.
I recently went to Brussels – home of some of the best beers and chocolate in the world – and thought that to have a fabulous time it was just a matter of hopping on a train from London and then finding a nice bar. Sadly, this was not to be.
To help you avoid the same mistakes, I thought I’d come up with a few handy hints to assist with the planning.
Tip Number 1
If you’re venturing out of the country, look for your passport in advance
It may sound obvious but it is actually worth checking before you book. Is it still valid? Is it even where you thought it was? Mine certainly wasn’t and so I spent the night before our trip turning the house upside down only to find it still tucked inside the ‘handy’ notebook I took on holiday last summer that was filed, presumably because it had cameras on the cover, in the cupboard with the camera equipment! No, I don’t know why I did it either.
Tip number 2
Plan in advance
If you’re thinking of going somewhere because it’s easy to get to, you’ve not been there before and/or it sounds nice, it might be worth asking a few friends if they’d recommend it. If we’d asked around before booking our trip to Brussels, we might have discovered beforehand that one of our friends used to work there and reckons: “it's rubbish! Says a lot when all there is to see is a statue of a pissing boy”. Indeed.
Tip number 3
Book early to get the best deals
It might be only two hours away, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be cheap. If you don’t care where you end up, some great bargains can be grabbed on sites like lastminute.com but, if you have a specific destination in mind, you need to start thinking about it before you book the time off work. Mind you, although a bargain deal on Eurostar isn’t always easy to come by, it’s certainly a much more pleasant way to travel than budget airlines. Cost isn’t always the deciding factor.
Tip number 4
Buy a guide book!
That way, if you do end up in a city with very little that excites you, good food and drink can always be found. If you are ever unfortunate enough to find yourself in Brussels, I’d suggest heading to a bar called Poechenellekelder for friendliness with an outstanding selection of beers which will help brighten your day, before going for a meal at Brasserie Roue d'Or for amazing food plus truly outrageous portion sizes.
Tip number 5
Travel with someone fantastic
The way to make a good holiday even better is to have great company. The only way to make a mediocre city-break fun was to enjoy it with the most wonderful person I know. The public transport system may be tourist-unfriendly, the art galleries uninspiring and the main sites mostly so-so, but we still managed to have a great time and the laughs will definitely stay with us.