We've had some lovely city breaks at that time of year. Of those we have done All of these would be good
& none should be overly busy at that time of year.
Prague
Tallinn
Krakow
Salzsburg

accomodation would be reasonably priced at the first 3 ( we have paid around £120- £140 for 3 nights at those & all served by ryanair/easyjet from london .

What about Rome or Florence?

luci

I take it the £400 is for two and includes the flights?

Salzburg city might be tight but I did find a deal of 4 nights B&B for €99 per person in a double at http://members.aon.at/hotel-dreikreuz/schnaepchen_e.htm - there are some better photos in their listing at http://www.hrs.com -they've only got a standard price of €69 for a double per night but it does get a good previous customer rating with them. I've stayed further up the street, it's only a few minutes walk from the historic centre and dead easy to reach by cheap bus from the airport.

Outside the city I found a place for €28 per person/night (inc breakfast) see http://www.hofwirt.de/ click the flag to change language and then click Dependance in the top border (although it's actually called Eva Maria). In Bad Reichenhall, Germany, halfway between Salzburg and Berchtesgarten, easy to reach either by train and also direct bus from Salzburg Airport without going via city (at normal bus prices).

Also in Bad Reichenhall is this place http://www.avalon-hotel-badreichenhall.com/default.aspx?lang=en HRS have it on some dates in February from €68 per double room/night inc breakfasts and top floor indoor pool with views of the mountains! Is that breathtaking enough??

Rome would be ideal and it'll be warm(ish) at that time of the year

thanks very much for all the tips guys and especially steve for the links and also pointing me to the HRS site which is great. Prague is looking a strong contestor but i'm not sure whch location to be in to be most central, again any pointers wouyld be great and thanks again

Right, i have narrowed down the hotel to the Red and Blue Design Hotel which sounds like it is a favourable location and has good reviews on trip advisor,just wondered if there are any thoughts on it ?

From what I can gather it's a tram ride or 15 mins walk or 2 tram stops from Charles Bridge so it depends what you want.

When we went I didn't want to take trams anywhere as we preffered to have everything close by. We stayed in the Cloister Inn which was very central to everything. http://www.cloister-inn.com/

I would say close to charles bridge would be a good starting point . We stayed here . It's a 10 minute walk to charles bridge , has lots of good priced restaurants bar's around and a tram stop right outside if you are feeling lazy . http://julian.cz/en/location.html
My daughter stayed at the cloister inn as suggested by glynis above and gave it top marks too.

Once you have booked your flights & narrowed down your choice of hotel do a price comparison search here as prices vary enormously from one bed booker to another . http://www.roomratecompare.com/

lyn

Another vote for the Cloister Inn. We walked everywhere from there - though if you're planning on walking up to St Vitus and Hradcany (the Loreta is well worth while a visit, especially as your wife likes museums), be warned it's uphill and steep!

The Cloister Inn itself is on a fairly quiet street, but there's plenty of restaurants and a few bars nearby. Our room was clean and really spacious. Staff are helpful and friendly and there's a lounge area in the lobby with free self service tea and coffee (assuming they've not changed this since Sept '08).

The following restaurant is just a stone's throw from the hotel:

http://stoleti.cz/stoleti_en.html

Some of the items on the menu seem to be a rather peculiar combination, but what we had was nice and the service is friendly and prices reasonable. If it's still there there's also a small, and reasonably priced Afghan restaurant around the corner. If you're looking for something a bit more special, there's no shortage of those either.

The hotel Leonardo is just round the corner from the Cloister Inn and also looks nice; http://www.hotelleonardo.cz/

seems a few thumbs up for the Cloister and its a bit cheaper than the other hotel i was looking at so thanks again guys. One thing ive just noticed, my passport expires mar11 will this be okay to use to prague in feb or do i need a new one?

we stayed at the Ibis near the Old town Square- we had a fantastic deal with Travel Republic last New year. we didn't need to take a tram anywhere as everywhere was within walking distance and we had a great breakfast there too. It's right next door to the new shopping palladium.

Re your passport, it seems to depend a little which website you look at what advice is given regarding this. It seems that UK passport holders only need their passport to be valid for the duration of their stay. However, it may be worth checking with the embassy if you're in doubt. It's often recommended to have a few months left to run on your passport, even if not technically required, in case of emergency situations delaying your return trip.

If you do renew your passport before your trip, you should get any months left to run added to your new passport. I renewed mine a couple of years back with 6 months left - it was done in January but the expiry is dated as June 10 years later.