Your Top European Cities

January 17, 2013

Hubby and I love short city breaks. Our first one was Prague. We had no plans to cache (newbies back then) but took the GPSs with us just in case. On the second day, we couldn't decide what to do next - it was a cold, damp, murky day so we decided to take the GPSs out, head for the castle and see if there were any caches along the way. We never got to the castle! We found some really cool places that we wouldn't have found otherwise and a great little place for lunch. And how good is it having a GPS?! You can't get lost (as long as you remember to set the hotel as a waypoint!)

We always cache now on city breaks and I'm trying to decide where to go next (hence the thread!) We prefer traditional caches over mystery and multi-caches. So far we've done Barcelona, Prague, Paris, Dublin, Berlin, and Amsterdam. We're considering Copenhagen (and the train to Sweden, for another country!) or perhaps Lisbon as we're looking at March and Lisbon will be warmer!

What are your favourite European Cities for a geocaching city break?

14k · January 18, 2013

What are your favourite European Cities for a geocaching city break?

Rome and Zurich. Rome doesn't have as many caches as, say, Prague but it's a wonderful city to walk in. It didn't spend that much time in Zurich but it has a nice varety. I've also cached in Amsterdam, Paris, and Barcelona and I don't even live in Europe. I'd loved to do Lisbon as well, and there's a conference there I've already been asked to attend, but not by someone that would pay for my travel expenses. There's also a slim chance I might visit Copenhagen this year.

2.6k · January 18, 2013

For me, Budapest. The things you loved about Prague are similar in Budapest. Visit some of the hot baths. You can also get into the countryside nearby easily. We took something called the children's railway and found caches near there. (It's a railway run by children...but adults are allowed!). Also if you have time take a train to Esztergom (about a 1 hour journey)which is also nice and you can walk across the bridge to Slovakia.

I have also cached in Lisbon and enjoyed that. To be fair; my Lisbon caching has been limited to a specific area where I was visiting on business, so I didn't have the full city break experience.

6.8k · January 18, 2013

It didn't spend that much time in Zurich but it has a nice varety.

This shows again that this is a very subjective matter. I was quite disappointed by the caching scene in Zurich. I need to admit, however, that my preferences are apparently very different from what the OP prefer. I like multi caches and those mystery caches where the puzzle and the location are connected to each other. While in mountain areas my preference of multi over traditional is not that strict, for urban caching caches with several stages with a route I would want to walk along also without a cache are my clear favourite.

Vienna has some nice multi caches, but to appreciate them one needs to like multi caches and in many cases understand German.

When I have been in Copenhagen, I found several nice geocaches, but that was back in 2003 when the caching scene there was completely different. Almost all descriptions were offered in English, English logs were common and most caches were hidden in a green spot. It was not yet the time of magnetic micros. Nowadays caching in Copenhagen (as well as in many other cities) does not offer any longer a real attraction to me. That might well be different for those for whom searching for and finding containers is a key component and something they enjoy.

Lisbon where I have never been so far, attracts my interest, but not necessarily for geocaching.

Cezanne

6.5k · January 18, 2013

I spent a nice day in Strasbourg. Good mix of urban micros in the old city and more traditional green space hides in Parc de L'Orangerie.

6.8k · January 18, 2013

I spent a nice day in Strasbourg. Good mix of urban micros in the old city and more traditional green space hides in Parc de L'Orangerie.

Oh I guess I should revisit Strasbourg. I have been there in the pre-geocaching times and I really liked that city (apart from the fact that I could not practice my bad spoken French there as people used to switch over to English or German, something that did not happy to me at any other place of France where I have been).

Cezanne

5.7k · January 18, 2013

When we lived in Wiesbaden and had easy access to the ICE line, Frankfurt Airport, and Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, we did little trips like this quite a bit. The Army was nice enough to give us 4-day weekends on a regular basis, and we took full advantage.

My first recommendation was going to be Prague. And my second was going to be Copenhagen -- we did the same thing you're thinking about, including the train ride to Malmo. You can do the same with a day trip to Talinn, Estonia, from Helsinki.

Florence was wonderful. Rome was nice as well but tons of tourists.

Malta was one of my favorites. (It's city-sized, it counts.)

Dubrovnik has more caches now than it did when we went, but the caching was a bonus, we would have enjoyed it thoroughly whether there were caches or not.

We went to Budapest before we were caching, but I wish we could go back and cache there. They've had two mega events, the caching scene there looks great.

I spent a day in Bratislava on a caching road trip, I wish I'd spent a little more time there. It's trying to draw people who would otherwise go to Prague. (Don't get me wrong, though -- it's no Prague.)

Lesser known: we really enjoyed Luxembourg City and Bruges. Sofia and Kiev were not filled with geocaches when we visited, but we still had fun. And while we were considering Lisbon or Porto, we ended up going to Faro, on Portugal's Algarve coast, and it was delightful. (March will be great weather. It was warm and sunny all but one day for us, and we went almost exactly five years ago in January 2008.

January 18, 2013

Budapest, a city I've been to 4 times, looks amazing on a map. Zoom out. The whole perimeter of the city limits is one long... I think what people like to call a power trail? A cache every 150m or so. I think one or two involve rock climbing or abseiling. City centre does not look too bad either - I can see 4 within 250m of the hotel we stayed in last summer.

2.6k · January 18, 2013

Budapest, a city I've been to 4 times, looks amazing on a map. Zoom out. The whole perimeter of the city limits is one long... I think what people like to call a power trail? A cache every 150m or so. I think one or two involve rock climbing or abseiling. City centre does not look too bad either - I can see 4 within 250m of the hotel we stayed in last summer.

Yes, there seems to be a new "Danube Promenade" series along the river. And a lot of new caches since I was there in 2010, including many in the woodlands where I cached before; look at caches near http://coord.info/GC1RX5K

January 19, 2013

When we lived in Wiesbaden and had easy access to the ICE line, Frankfurt Airport, and Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, we did little trips like this quite a bit. The Army was nice enough to give us 4-day weekends on a regular basis, and we took full advantage.

My first recommendation was going to be Prague. And my second was going to be Copenhagen -- we did the same thing you're thinking about, including the train ride to Malmo. You can do the same with a day trip to Talinn, Estonia, from Helsinki.

Florence was wonderful. Rome was nice as well but tons of tourists.

Malta was one of my favorites. (It's city-sized, it counts.)

Dubrovnik has more caches now than it did when we went, but the caching was a bonus, we would have enjoyed it thoroughly whether there were caches or not.

We went to Budapest before we were caching, but I wish we could go back and cache there. They've had two mega events, the caching scene there looks great.

I spent a day in Bratislava on a caching road trip, I wish I'd spent a little more time there. It's trying to draw people who would otherwise go to Prague. (Don't get me wrong, though -- it's no Prague.)

Lesser known: we really enjoyed Luxembourg City and Bruges. Sofia and Kiev were not filled with geocaches when we visited, but we still had fun. And while we were considering Lisbon or Porto, we ended up going to Faro, on Portugal's Algarve coast, and it was delightful. (March will be great weather. It was warm and sunny all but one day for us, and we went almost exactly five years ago in January 2008.

January 19, 2013

I was looking at Faro as your reply landed! It looks lovely and the thought of some warm sunshine is very appealing!

January 19, 2013

Some fantastic food for thought there, thank you everyone - it's much appreciated!

January 20, 2013

I'm glad to see so many people beat me to Budapest, as this is for sure the best city I've found for a geocaching weekend break type thing in Europe! I go there fairly often to visit relatives (brother lives in town, mom's side of the family two hours east) and so many great caches, plus several of those "right on the city line" caches can be grabbed from the airport if you find yourself stuck out there early.

Beyond that, it's interesting because while any big cities will have caches some are just better than others in terms of cache quality and English descriptions. I think my current home of Amsterdam is high up there- several nice multis you can use as a city guide, practically, and if the weather's good you can even rent a paddleboat and get this famous oldie that is high up my list of favorites! http://coord.info/GC921 Other nice one sorta in this part of the continent was Bruges, Belgium, there was a nice bicycling power trail from the city I did one afternoon, and did the caches in town itself the other day...

Edinburgh is also coming to mind, and since no one else has mentioned it I will here.

Oh and as a final note glad to see someone mentioned Lisbon as I'm heading there in two weekends actually one of those "nabbed a cheap ticket" deals. And thanks for starting this thread, I'll be keeping my eye on it!

January 20, 2013

I'm glad to see so many people beat me to Budapest, as this is for sure the best city I've found for a geocaching weekend break type thing in Europe! I go there fairly often to visit relatives (brother lives in town, mom's side of the family two hours east) and so many great caches, plus several of those "right on the city line" caches can be grabbed from the airport if you find yourself stuck out there early.

Beyond that, it's interesting because while any big cities will have caches some are just better than others in terms of cache quality and English descriptions. I think my current home of Amsterdam is high up there- several nice multis you can use as a city guide, practically, and if the weather's good you can even rent a paddleboat and get this famous oldie that is high up my list of favorites! http://coord.info/GC921 Other nice one sorta in this part of the continent was Bruges, Belgium, there was a nice bicycling power trail from the city I did one afternoon, and did the caches in town itself the other day...

Edinburgh is also coming to mind, and since no one else has mentioned it I will here.

Oh and as a final note glad to see someone mentioned Lisbon as I'm heading there in two weekends actually one of those "nabbed a cheap ticket" deals. And thanks for starting this thread, I'll be keeping my eye on it!

January 20, 2013

This is great thank you! I definitely want to get Budapest on my to-do list - trouble is flights are a bit pricey at the mo so I'll keep my eyes on that. It seems to fit our wish list perfectly.

We loved Amsterdam - I was very tempted with the paddleboat one but it was raining (and a bit chilly, no-one else on them either) when we were there. I am only just over 5ft so little shorty + slippery boat would probably have ended with a little soggy cacher so I wimped out of that one! I loved the secret door one, it was so cool! We went to Dordrecht - there was only one cache on our way to and from the station (to Noah's Ark) and I think we are the only cachers to DNF it! LOL

Edinburgh is also on our to-do list. Hubby has never been, I've been a couple of times but in pre-caching days so would like to go. Everytime I've priced up Edinburgh or London it's always been cheaper to go abroad and the warmer climate wins every time. Still on the to-do list tho.

Thank you, the replies so far have been really interesting.

January 21, 2013

Yeah Budapest can be tough these days because about a year ago the Hungarian national carrier went under, so routes are in a state of flux yet. Best bet is the increasing number of budget carriers!

Also because it's been mentioned briefly by others, I think one of the more interesting things a person can do if caching is a main point is pick up two countries at once in one weekend with minimal hassle- well it's fascinating if you're from the middle of the US originally like me. So maybe a quick list of cities where you can easily cache in two countries? (I'm defining easily as ~1 hour max here.)

Copenhagen- Denmark+ Sweden via train

Helsinki- Finland+ Estonia via ferry

Rome- Italy+ Vatican City

Rimini- Italy+ bus to San Marino

Rotterdam- Netherlands+ train to Antwerp, Brussels (I list this instead of Amsterdam bc from here it's more like 1.5 hours)

Dubrovnik- Croatia+ Bosnia and/or Montenegro

Bratislava- Slovakia+ Austria/Hungary (worth noting, Vienna too as Bratislava is like an hour away)

Basel- where Germany, France, and Switzerland intersect

Anyone have other suggestions? I think as a rule any cities you mention should have a decent airport, as the point here is to list places that are easy daytrips from others.

14k · January 21, 2013

It didn't spend that much time in Zurich but it has a nice varety.

This shows again that this is a very subjective matter. I was quite disappointed by the caching scene in Zurich. I need to admit, however, that my preferences are apparently very different from what the OP prefer. I like multi caches and those mystery caches where the puzzle and the location are connected to each other. While in mountain areas my preference of multi over traditional is not that strict, for urban caching caches with several stages with a route I would want to walk along also without a cache are my clear favourite.

Cezanne

Since I was only there for 22 hours and had to include getting some sleep in between two nine hour flights I wasn't looking for multi-caches or an elaborate puzzle that might take several hours to complete. If I had been able to spend more than 5 hours or so caching I might have tried to do the 5 stage multi in a large park that was close to my hotel.

1.1k · January 21, 2013

if you goto Copenhagen, note our geocacher name : OZ2CPU

feel free to put our name in your list of friendly and helpfull locals

with equipment and knowhow, so you can access hard to get stuff and live to tell about it

we are out EVERY day afterwork time, and weekends most likely all day long.

you can also get our phone number if you get lost or stuck.

we live 20km north-west of Copenhagen centre

6.8k · January 21, 2013

It didn't spend that much time in Zurich but it has a nice varety.

This shows again that this is a very subjective matter. I was quite disappointed by the caching scene in Zurich. I need to admit, however, that my preferences are apparently very different from what the OP prefer. I like multi caches and those mystery caches where the puzzle and the location are connected to each other. While in mountain areas my preference of multi over traditional is not that strict, for urban caching caches with several stages with a route I would want to walk along also without a cache are my clear favourite.

Cezanne

Since I was only there for 22 hours and had to include getting some sleep in between two nine hour flights I wasn't looking for multi-caches or an elaborate puzzle that might take several hours to complete. If I had been able to spend more than 5 hours or so caching I might have tried to do the 5 stage multi in a large park that was close to my hotel.

My comment did not refer to the caches you visited in Zurich, but to your comment that there is a nice variety of caches there something which does not correspond to my personal experience. I spent a few days in Zurich and wanted to select a few suitable caches already at home. I looked through many candidates. I accumulated quite a number of DNFs in Zurich or caches where I did not even start to search for them. The issue was not a language matter. My personal impression is that searching for containers plays a larger role in Zurich than showing nice locations and making the caches easy to find.

As I did not come for caching, it was no big deal that I did not enjoy caching in Zurich.

Cezanne

Edited January 21, 2013 by cezanne

6.8k · January 21, 2013

I think as a rule any cities you mention should have a decent airport, as the point here is to list places that are easy daytrips from others.

How do you define decent airport? Does it mean that there are many direct flights? There are so many examples in Europe where you can easily cache in 2 or more countries during a weekend if that's of importance to you.

If one takes the airport issue away, a combination that comes to my mind and which will probably not be mentioned by someone else here is Graz (Austria) and Maribor (Slovenia) even though 2012 is over now. The train ride takes about 1:20, but the journey by car is quicker. Both cities are worth to be visited regardless of geocaching. If your motivation is mainly geocaching, then other combinations will be more efficient.

Cezanne

February 1, 2013

After much head-scratching and date changing we have booked a 4 night break to Budapest! Got flights with Jet2, a bit pricey and couldn't do our usual 3 nights, had to be 2 or 4 but the hotel prices are much cheaper than elsewhere so we booked 4 nights. The map looks amazing! Check out the PUZZLE mystery caches.

I love the stats so I'm hoping we can break some records e.g. more than 32 caches in one day, more than 3 consecutive days, more different types of caches in a day (currently showing as a traditional and earthcache). I can see trad, premium, earth, virtual, multi, puzzles so that would be cool.

We are staying very close to the Danube so I think the 32 cache Danube prom circular will be one of the first on the list. I cannot wait - just got the three months to go!

Copenhagen, Lisbon, Faro are all on the to do list as well.

Thank you everyone for helping - you've come up with a cracker because we hadn't considered Budapest!

7.9k · February 1, 2013

The first European city I get to visit is my top European city.

5.7k · February 1, 2013

Copenhagen- Denmark+ Sweden via train

Helsinki- Finland+ Estonia via ferry

Rome- Italy+ Vatican City

Rimini- Italy+ bus to San Marino

Rotterdam- Netherlands+ train to Antwerp, Brussels (I list this instead of Amsterdam bc from here it's more like 1.5 hours)

Dubrovnik- Croatia+ Bosnia and/or Montenegro

Bratislava- Slovakia+ Austria/Hungary (worth noting, Vienna too as Bratislava is like an hour away)

Basel- where Germany, France, and Switzerland intersect

Anyone have other suggestions? I think as a rule any cities you mention should have a decent airport, as the point here is to list places that are easy daytrips from others.

We accomplished most of these on separate 4-day weekends.

For Dubrovnik, hopefully things have gotten better, but when we were planning our visit I didn't even bother planning a run to Montenegro because I heard that the delay at the border crossing was entirely arbitrary -- some folks got right across, others took hours (despite little traffic).

Always meant to get to Rimini and San Marino, never did.

For a slightly longer trip, you can add Lichtenstein to the Basel list -- we drove from the Frankfurt area through Basel and visited Lucerne, Lauterbrunnen, and Lichtenstein before looping back into Germany.

Some others:

- Barcelona and Andorra

- Berlin and western Poland

- Munich, Germany and Salzburg, Austria

- Faro and Andalusia, Spain (could stretch Gibraltar in there too)

- Normandy, France + Jersey and/or Guernsey via ferry from St. Malo

- Sofia + Serbia (we stuck to Sofia for our trip, but the distance looks doable)

- Nice + Monaco (like San Marino, this was on our list but never got to it)

Your Top European Cities

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