Travel Filter: Ideas for last-minute vaca - walking city, photographic, great eats, direct flight from NYC

March 18, 2009 2:52 PM

Travel Filter: Ideas for last-minute vaca - walking city, photographic, great eats, direct flight from NYC

Would go first week of April. Warm weather location preferred, but not required. Want to practice my photography with interesting subjects, spend most of the budget on great restaurants, and walk a fun city. Ideas, hive?

posted by VeniceGlass to Travel & Transportation (16 answers total)

And your budget would be ...?

Try Kayak Buzz. Put in NYC as origin and off you go.
posted by nitsuj at 2:54 PM on March 18, 2009

Response by poster: Ah, money. Right. Figure $2500 for 4 days.
posted by VeniceGlass at 2:58 PM on March 18, 2009

Kayak Buzz is how I too, answer questions like this.

Considering that it'll only be four days, and you don't want to spend half your trip on planes, i'd recommend Montreal. Its beautiful, interesting, feels very 'foreign' because of the french, has great architecture that is fairly unique in North America, in that it feels very 'European'.

And with $2400 bucks for such a short time, you'll be able to live it up!

Or, for something more exotic: Mexico city? Panama City?
posted by Kololo at 3:08 PM on March 18, 2009

Barcelona, Antwerp, Sevilla, Lisbon would meet your criteria.
posted by NekulturnY at 3:22 PM on March 18, 2009

If you want to save some of that money and go *historical*, fly to Richmond, VA (cheap), spend a day in Williamsburg, and hang out in Richmond. Pretty, good food, but not so much to walk and see to round out a four-day weekend.
posted by teg4rvn at 3:25 PM on March 18, 2009

my bad, didn't read the "direct flight" closely enough. Barcelona probably still qualifies, Lisbon would too, and Antwerp kind of (Brussels Airport is only about 20 miles from greater Antwerp). Sevilla probably not.
posted by NekulturnY at 3:25 PM on March 18, 2009

Montreal.
posted by docgonzo at 3:44 PM on March 18, 2009

Response by poster: Europe would be great, but don't think the spouse wants to leave the continental US for 4 days.
posted by VeniceGlass at 3:57 PM on March 18, 2009

Not sure about direct flights, but I imagine you can fly to Brussels, which is a short train ride away - so I'll put in a vote for Bruges. If you're interested in night photography, this is a great city for that as well. Touristy, but nice. Now that I recommend it though, I'm not sure about the food thing. I was going cheap, but there are probably some decent foods to be had, and the chocolate is excellent.

Prague is great too. Again, touristy.
posted by backwards guitar at 4:00 PM on March 18, 2009

I'd do Montreal unless you've been there 100 times. It really nails your whole wishlist.
posted by jeb at 4:07 PM on March 18, 2009

Montreal also came to mind when I read your post, Quebec City is also lovely!
posted by Weaslegirl at 4:15 PM on March 18, 2009

San Francisco has everything you are looking for and there was even an earlier post about cheap eats in the city on AskMe not too long ago - maybe even today.
posted by HeyAllie at 4:49 PM on March 18, 2009

Mexico City is pretty empty of crazy traffic the week before Easter, is plenty safe enough for a week's vacation, gets no cruise ships, and won't murder your wallet. The Metro is insanely efficient if occasionally a bit cramped, there's nine zillion things to photograph, and it's not snowy. And it's the biggest city in North America!
posted by mdonley at 5:52 PM on March 18, 2009

Rome.
posted by Zambrano at 6:27 PM on March 18, 2009

New Orleans. The weather is nice this time of year, the food is the best in the country, and lots of great history to view/photograph.
posted by tryniti at 7:18 PM on March 18, 2009

I second New Orleans. The food is amazing, as is the history. And there are tons of things to photograph!

My other favorite US city is San Diego... so beautiful!
posted by uvaleg at 9:56 AM on March 19, 2009