When taking city breaks to some European capitals, it can be common to face a local population who are indifferent or even rude to visiting tourists. This cannot be said of city breaks in Madrid where the people are welcoming to visitors from different countries and cultures, and are very friendly to tourists.

The residents of Madrid are called Madrileños and they have a very simple yet infectious philosophy - “life is for living”. They love having a good time and they do it pretty much 24 hours a day. Weekend breaks in Madrid are made unique by the vitality and warmth of the Madrileños; this can be best seen the evening when the capital’s tapas bars begin to open their doors. It is the norm for Madrileños to visit many tapas bars in one night, sociably enjoying a wide selection of locally produced bar food washed down with a few glasses of red wine or provincial beer. The term nightlife doesn’t really apply to short breaks in Madrid as things don’t generally start to get going until well past midnight. Madrid offers some of Spain’s liveliest and most outrageous bars and clubs which won’t start winding down until past dawn. Should you fancy something a little less lively then there are plenty of relaxed restaurants and laid-back bars where you can kick back in a more chilled-out atmosphere.

City breaks in Madrid are a great way to realise your inner passion: just don’t expect any early nights!

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If you thought weekend breaks to Rome cost a fortune, think again! The good news is that many of the top sights are in public spaces, while many wonderful churches don’t charge to enter, although you may want to put a few coins in a slot to light up some of the works of art.

St Peter’s Square, for example, is free to wonder around, while the Pantheon – one of the most complete Roman buildings to be found anywhere, and an architectural marvel – is free.

Given that most of the main tourist attractions are in the Rome’s compact, historic centre, you can walk around most places really easily during weekend breaks to Rome. However, if you do get hot or tired, public transport is plentiful and inexpensive – you can travel for more than an hour for under £1, for example.

When it comes to food and drink, avoid the fancier squares with their inflated coffee prices. And of course there are lavish restaurants, but it’s still perfectly possible to have a fine meal at a great trattoria for under £25 a head.

At Golf Weekend Breaks, we have fantastic deals on city breaks to Rome, staying in comfortable three and four star hotels. Buy our weekend breaks to Rome as packages with flight and hotel, or just buy your hotel room through us.

See our website and see how we can help you enjoy the Eternal City in style – without breaking the bank.

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Madrid really is one of Europe’s truly great cities. It has a rich heritage, beautiful buildings, a vibrant population and is never dull. For these reasons and more, city breaks in Madrid are hugely enjoyable for everyone.

Madrid is blessed with some of Europe’s greatest museums as well as world-class galleries that contain many of history’s most celebrated paintings. Any short breaks in Madrid must include a visit to the Prado, the Thysssen-bornemisza and the Reina Sofia, which are the three most prestigious museums in the city. Some of Madrid’s beautiful architecture dates back to medieval times and buildings such as the Royal Palace and the Theatre Royal are just far too glorious to miss. Although not popular with all visitors, the largest bull ring in Spain is in Madrid. The impressive Plaza de Toros Monumental de las Ventas holds 25,000 people and is a uniquely Spanish experience.

Children are well catered for on weekend breaks in Madrid with an aquarium, safari park, waterpark and theme park to choose from as well as a zoo where the animals are separated by moats rather than bars. In the summertime, children (and adults) can be amused for hours by entertainers who congregate around the lake of Madrid’s largest park, the Parque de Buen Retiro.

City breaks in Madrid offer rewarding days and stimulating nights. Add to this the wonderful food and some of the friendliest residents in Europe and you have a destination that really has it all.

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If work or other pressures have meant you’ve spent less time with your partner recently than you would have liked, a weekend away could be just the ticket.

And if you’re looking for somewhere to whisk your partner off to on a romantic break, Prague, ‘the city of 100 spires’ is the perfect fairytale location. Stroll around and relax in ancient squares as you drink in the diverse and perfectly preserved architecture. Amble hand in hand down medieval cobbled streets and visit Charles Bridge. The city’s oldest stone bridge, it was constructed six centuries ago and is one of the Czech capital’s most romantic locations.

It leads to the Mala Strana, with its beautiful architecture and gardens which the two of you can enjoy free of charge.

If you think your peaceful time together could be ruined by rowdy stag parties roaming the streets, don’t be. In the main, these groups tend to stick to specialist bars and clubs, out of the way of a couple who want to enjoy quieter short breaks in Prague.

At Golf Weekend Breaks, we bring you some of the very best deals on city breaks to Prague the internet has to offer. Book just your accommodation, or flight as well for complete packages on city breaks in Prague.

Our hotels provide three or four star comfort, and our city breaks to Prague can be arranged at short notice, allowing you to jet off spontaneously. See our website for more information.

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St Patrick was a 5th Century missionary and is generally credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland and driving out all the snakes, among other things. March the 17th is St Patrick’s Day, which has become more about Ireland and the global contribution of the Irish than a religious holiday. It’s celebrated around the world, but there is no better place to celebrate St Patrick’s Day than in the beautiful city of Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland. It’s a popular time to take city breaks in Dublin and to holiday in the rest of the country. There is a lot more to it than drinking pints of Guinness although that is, of course, quite a drawcard.

Timing your short holidays or weekend breaks in Dublin to coincide with the great Irish national holiday means you can also enjoy all the entertainment of the St Patrick’s festival, which runs for a few days leading up to St Patrick’s Day. It’s much more than just a bit of fun and a lot of drinking. The festival is a celebration of Irish culture and brings in elements from film, music, comedy, and theatre, and art.

City breaks to Dublin are always full of adventure and interest, but nobody taking short breaks in Dublin at this time of year will be short of things to see and do. Whatever aspect of Irish culture captures your attention the most, St Patrick’s Day is a great time to explore it more. And the best thing about the St Patrick’s Day Festival is that it’s free!

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The city of Athens is one of the oldest in the world and wherever you go there are signs of past glories. It has a recorded history of more than 3000 years and has probably been occupied for far longer than that. Even the shortest of weekend breaks in Athenswill give you time to soak up the history. In fact, you can hardly take city breaks in Athens without being awed by the architecture of millennia.

On a weekend breaks in Athens, you’ll find that it’s one of the leading cities of the modern world. While ancient monuments dominate the city, keen observers will also be interested in the strong Bauhaus and Art Deco influences of the more recent city buildings. Athens is also an architectural stronghold for the famed International Style. The variety of buildings are stunning, and Athens deserves credit for many more buildings than those we’re accustomed to seeing in travel brochures.

With a population of more than four million, Athens is a bustling city that is as rich in culture and cuisine as it is in history. The scenery in and around the city is spectacular. The parks are worth a look, particularly for British visitors. With their tall, shapely palm trees and miniature pine forests, they provide an interesting contrast to the broadleaved trees and manicured lawns we are used to. You can even take a cable car up into the mountains outside the city and soak up the view over Greece. There is a great deal to see on short breaks to Athens.

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Food and drink are vital parts of any holiday, and weekend breaks to Rome are no exception. Eating and drinking in the Italian capital are exquisite experiences. With any major European city, there are expensive restaurants, but eating out on short breaks to Rome doesn’t have to mean forking out a fortune.

You’ll want a coffee stop after sightseeing, but try and go for local cafes rather than the pricy tourist coffee shops which line the more popular squares. Another tip for city breaks in Rome is that many places charge less if you drink your coffee at the bar rather than a table.

If you stick to pizza and pasta, you can eat cheaply and well, paying under a fiver for a great thin-crust margherita. Or there are places offering cannelloni, a tomato salad and a quarter litre of house wine for less than a tenner. Even a good three-course meal with wine can set you back less than £25.

And, of course, the Italian language gave us the phrase ‘al fresco’ – so why not enjoy your meals and drinks outside as you soak up the amazing architecture?

At Golf Weekend Breaks, we’ve some of the best city breaks to Rome you’re likely to find anywhere online, whether you want flight and hotel or just accommodation. (Though booking both through us saves you money.) See our website for more details. You could be enjoying the Eternal City within days.

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For golf, for shopping, sight seeing, and for history, city breaks in New York are wonderful, but there is even more than that on offer in this amazing place. New York is home to many of the world’s most interesting collections of art both modern and classical, and outstanding museums of science and natural history.

There is more to see than anyone could hope to experience on short weekend breaks in New York, so it’s best to choose the museums and galleries that interest you most and make sure you devote enough time to really enjoy them without rushing through. If your short breaks in New York have to be really short, you can always choose one of the many smaller art galleries in the Chelsea district, for example.

If you do have time on your city breaks in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the best to visit. It’s host to important collections from around the world, from classical Greece to the islands of the South Pacific, and plenty from closer to home as well. And don’t forget the Guggenheim too!

The American Museum of Natural History is also in New York. It’s a great place to take kids, with a host of special activities and exhibits designed to be fun and informative for the whole family. If you have a boy or a girl who likes dinosaurs, for example, then this may be the very best the place to go on short breaks in New York.

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Dubai is one of the great cities of the modern world. For British visitors it offers a stunning window into the Arab world at its most decadent. The warm weather and blue skies are also an undeniable draw for those usually confined to the cold, wet United Kingdom, where any given weekend may prove rainy and grey even at the height of summer. One of the best reasons to take short breaks in Dubai is that you are virtually guaranteed to have sunny weather every day. In the warmer months, hotel swimming pools are often cooled for the comfort of guests rather than needing to be heated.

Golf often plays a big part in weekend breaks in Dubai. The weather is overwhelmingly clear and sunny, and the golf courses are undeniably world class and the best in the Middle East. The city is host to more than half a dozen golf clubs - if you only come for a couple of days at a time it will take you several short breaks in Dubai to play them all.

But there is also more to city breaks in Dubai than sporting opportunities. The shopping is incredible - and then of course there is the swimming, all the relaxing in the sun you can handle, and the exotic and interesting culture of the United Arab Emirates to explore. The food and hotels are among the finest anywhere on the globe - in fact, the world’s most luxurious hotel finds its home there - and there is plenty to do for golfers and non-golfers alike.

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Cutting edge and quirky, Berlin has none of the arrogance you might expect to find in such a place. And the start of the summer is a great time to discover the German capital on city breaks to Berlin.

You can pack a lot in, even during weekend breaks in Berlin. From the starkness of the structures on the city’s eastern side to eighteenth century and ‘new modernist’ buildings, from Bauhaus to the new edifices to be found in the Mitte district, and the high constructions and glass of Potsdamme Platz, Berlin really is an architectural lover’s delight.

There’s evidence of culture, a long history and creativity everywhere you go. Berlin doesn’t try and hide its heritage, and there are many memorials to the holocaust across the city.

You can enjoy city breaks in Berlin with a relative, a partner, one friend or a whole group of you. When you’ve had your fill of museums and galleries, you can enjoy some fantastic shopping. Kurfürstendamm and Friedrichstrasse are popular places, with some great restaurants and cafes here too, or Schönhauser Allee, which showcases new designers. On weekend breaks in Berlin, check out the local flea markets.

At Golf Weekend Breaks, we have a great selection of weekend breaks to Berlin, and we can sort out your flight and accommodation for you, or just accommodation, at a range of fantastically located three and four-star hotels.

This wonderful city is just a few clicks away.

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