my fave would be amsterdam though prague is lovely as well as latvia. it depends on what you want. Best advise is to look through all the forums on here... may take some time but it'll be worth it!

Why not look at Vilnius. I haven't been but have been researching it ( for property investment). It is going to be the European City of Culture 2009. Have a look here for some info.

Thanks for those replies guys.

I would love to hear from anyone else who has anything to add...I perhaps should have mentioned that we need to be able to fly from Scotland - Glasgow, Edinburgh or Prestwick.

Look forward to receiving some more inspiration soon!

MsH

Try Brugge in Belgium lovely medieval city untouched by both world wars, hour or so BA flights to Brussels then about 40 mins by train to Brugge, loads of great bars selling wicked Belgian beers, and good places to eat quite cheaply once you know where to go and what to have, I can reccomend a few really nice B&B's if you wish not expensive either, Brugge is perfectly placed to visit places by train like Ghent, Brussels, Oostende, Ypres, Antwerp and lots more, while Brugge itself is so compact and attractive it;s very easy to explore on foot and you can easily spend a couple of day just mooching around " The Venice of The North" as it is known.

Regards
Sliema2

Ryanair now flies from Prestwick to Krakow on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. We're going for a long weekend in September and reading the posts on here in the Eastern Europe forum it looks like eating out etc is going to be very cheap.

Barcelona is worth a visit. Globespan flies from Glasgow (also Edinburgh I think) to Barcelona and Ryanair flies to Gerona from Prestwick and it's then an hour transfer into Barcelona. We were there last summer with the children who were then 19 months and almost 5 so eating out usually ended up being fast food but we did see some great places to eat at reasonable prices.

Alternatively, rather than flying, go to Bruges from Rosyth on a mini cruise with Superfast Ferries (they often have packages on their website or through the Herald/Evening Times/Scotsman travel supplements). There's a bus that takes you from the terminal at Zeebrugge into Bruges. The ferry is fantastic (we've used it 3 times to go on holiday to France) and the sailing times are very civilised. The buffet restaurant on board is great and there is also an a la carte restaurant. We drove into Bruge on our way back to the ferry once and it looked well worth visiting.

What about Lisbon? I'm hearing good reports about it and am thinking of a trip there myself at Easter ( also a teacher!!)

Niceish places to eat, compact city I would have to say Amsterdam fits the bill perfectly.

Also good sightseeing, shopping etc.

Kind Regards
Stewart

thanks guys

Elaine80, thanks for your tips...i have spotted the ad for the ferry deal in the Scotsman and am giving it some thought...but am worried that a lot of our hol time we could be spending having fun would be spent on the ferry...that may be fun of course in a diff way...also, how big is your cabin? as i don't like being cramped...and how long does it actually take?

am tempted to try it for something that little bit different BUT have some reservations so any more info you can provide would be gratefully received

thanks again
MsH

The ferry leaves Rosyth at 5 pm and arrives in Zeebrugge at midday the next day so it's an 18 hour crossing. Coming back it leaves Zeebrugge at 6 pm and is into Rosyth at 11 am.
On board as well as the restaurants there is a big lounge with bar and entertainment and there are sauna and jacuzzi on board too. We use this ferry to avoid the haul to the south of England but also because we feel our holiday has started an hour after we leave home and it doesn't end when we get to the ferry terminal on the continent coming home.
We travel with our 2 daughters who are almost 3 and almost 6 and in the past have had a buggy in the cabin as well as all the other necessary clutter and it hasn't been a problem with space. All the cabins are en-suite. The bunks are comfortable (even with my bad back) and the cabins are pretty soundproof. My in-laws travelled with us one year and although there were only 2 of them they still had a 4 berth cabin, just without the top bunks pulled down. They booked a 2 berth on one of the cross channel routes previously and it was about 2 feet wider and longer than the bunks and horrendous.