You may have noticed lots of strange sounding new names on billboards and posters for low-cost airlines this week. Places like Poitiers, Murcia, Gerona, Esbjerg, Pescara and Gothenburg have suddenly popped up on airline summer schedules alongside old favourites such as Paris and Barcelona. But where are these newcomers - and why on earth would you want to visit them when the museums of Madrid or the restaurants of Rome (also featured by low-cost airlines) are beckoning you for the same price?
For a start, isn't it a bit passé to spend the weekend somewhere too well-trodden, too well-known? And wouldn't it be fun to hit a beach for the weekend rather than a city? Murcia, Nice, La Rochelle, Gerona, Pescara and Trieste are all near the sea. Poiters gets you close to the Futuroscope theme park; Cologne is perfect for a stag weekend of cheap pub crawls in civilised surroundings and Gothenburg is good if you want a weekend of seafood restaurants at their best.
With the strong pound, cheap flights from as little as £65 return and even several new routes from Bristol - which means that 'westerners' don't have to fork out for London hotels and expensive parking - what's stopping you?
1 La Rochelle
France, south-west Atlantic coast.
Airline: Buzz (London Stansted)
Why go there? An unpretentious alternative to Nice. La Rochelle is developing a reputation as a chic and lively port city with some great beaches. The restaurant and café-lined old port provides plenty of opportunity for people-watching and basking in the sun, but can get rather crowded in summer.
How much? From £70 to £340 return including taxes.
Top tip: Book your accommodation well in advance. There is a shortage of cheap hotels, particularly during July and August when most hotels are full before noon.
2 Poitiers
France, south-west of Paris
Airline: Buzz (London Stansted)
Why go there? It's worth spending a day visiting this hilltop town's Romanesque churches but Poitiers' main appeal is as a gateway to Futuroscope, the high-tech theme park 8km north of the city.
Futuroscope is full of gut-churning, virtual-reality rides, the park also hosts nightly laser and fireworks shows from April to August. How much? £70 - £340
Top tip: Futuroscope's rides are not for the faint-hearted. The park is not suitable for children younger than eight - they must also be taller than 124cm (about 4ft) for some rides.
3 Murcia
Spain, south-east Mediterranean coast
Airline: Buzz (London Stansted)
Why go there? This attractive university city is a good gateway to resorts along the nearby Costa Blanca such as the fast-growing Torrevieja where a large number of Brits have holiday homes. The new service also provides competition for British Airways, which operates flights to Murcia on behalf of Barwell Leisure, the UK agent for the five-star sports and leisure Hyatt La Manga resort which is a 20-minute drive from the airport.
How much? £120 -£340
Top tip: Buzz's lunchtime flights to Murcia may be a better bet than some UK charter flights to Alicante, the main gateway to the Costa Blanca, which often leave at night.
4 Gerona
Spain, north Catalonia
Airline: Buzz (London Stansted)
Why go there? More commonly associated as a gateway to the Costa Brava, this walled city is worthy of a stopover. Guidebooks lavish praise on the medieval old town's narrow streets and baroque cathedral. Avoid the night-time charter flights from the UK for which Gerona is renowned. All Buzz flights arrive before 8pm.
How much? £120 - £340
Top tip: Combine Gerona with a city break in Barcelona, only 90-minutes away by train.
5 Cologne
Germany, near the border with Belgium
Airline: Buzz (London Stansted)
Why go there? Despite Second World bombings, Cologne still retains a few quirky buildings in the old part of town, a stunning cathedral and a buzzing bar scene. The local beer, Kölsch, comes in test-tube size glasses which slip down in one gulp. Waiters flock round replacing test tubes as fast as you drink them, marking how many you have drunk on your beer mat before bringing the final bill. See how chocolate is made at the waterfront Chocolate Museum, take a trip on the Rhine and visit nearby Bonn where the bureaucrats lived before power moved to Berlin.
How much? £70 - £340
Top tip: Go to the Kaufhof department store in the centre, which has a fantastic foodhall and stock up on traditional German food such as Bavarian white sausages, pots of sweet mustard and deer salami.
6 Brussels
(Charleroi airport)
Airline: Ryanair (London Stansted)
Why go there? Brussels gets a bit of a bad press as a dull centre of commerce and diplomacy but it does have its own charm. You can gorge yourself on moules frites at the Rue des Bouchers near the fifteenth-century market square Grand Place and then walk it all off by exploring nearby sights. These include the Brewery Museum, where you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about beer as well as sample some. Ryanair has organised a coach to take passengers from the airport (37 miles south of Brussels) to the metro station at Maalbeek which costs £3.90 one-way. The same coach will pick up passengers for the return flight.
How much? £83 - £159
Top tip: Bruges, one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe is only an hour away by train.
7 Salzburg
Austria's second city
Airline: Ryanair (London Stansted)
Why go there? The Sound of Music has got a lot to answer for. Salzburg's setting for part of the film has spawned numerous tacky tours in the summer months. But this picturesque city still has much in its favour such as the old town, which is deservedly a Unesco World Heritage site. The cheap fares open up possibilities for skiing breaks, city breaks and lakes and mountain touring holidays in the summer months.
How much? £83 - £259
Top tip: Book skiing to the Austrian Alps now for next winter to get the lowest fares.
8 Esbjerg East coast of Denmark
Airline:
Ryanair (London Stansted)
Why go there? Esbjerg is nothing to write home about: a North Sea oil centre and Denmark's largest fishing harbour. Ryanair, therefore, is targeting the daily flights at business travellers. But the new service offers a stress-free and quicker way to get to Jutland in western Denmark for UK tourists. Currently many UK tourists going on self-drive holidays in Denmark use DFDS Seaways' ferry service between Harwich and Esbjerg which takes 22 hours.
How much? £33 - £259
Top tip: Take the kids for a short break to Legoland in nearby Billund. Car hire is available from Esbjerg airport.
9 Pescara
Italy's Adriatic coast
Airline: Ryanair (London Stansted)
Why go there? Pescara is a heavily developed beach resort and commercial centre. Its only attraction is the beach and that is nothing special. Hire a car and discover the beautiful mountain scenery and medieval towns of L'Aquila and Sulmona. The route is targeted at the UK's Italian ethnic population visiting friends and relatives in the region.
How much? £60 - £259
Top tip: Get out of Pescara as quickly as you can.
10 Trieste
Italy's Adriatic Coast
Airline: Ryanair (London Stansted)
Why go there? Situated between the Adriatic Coast and Slovenia, Trieste makes an ideal gateway to the Balkans. You can mix urban culture with nature and head for the beaches, northern ski slopes or try out the numerous forest walking tracks. Trieste itself is attractive but not big on specific tourist sights. However, the city's main museum, the Civico Museo Revoltella, houses some impressive art.
How much? £60 - £259
Top tip: Avoid August when Trieste's locals go on holiday and many restaurants and hotels close down
11 Stockholm
(Väster s airport)
Airline: Ryanair (London Stansted)
Why go there? Chuck out your chintz and head for the interior design shops of Stockholm. This capital city, which spawned Ikea, has become one of the trendiest in Europe. Hang out with the beautiful people in the city's bars and restaurants, which spill out on to the streets in the warm summer months. If that's not enough to keep you occupied there are 26,000 islands to explore.
How much? £44 - £259
Top tip: Buy a 24-hour Stockholm Card for entry into more than 70 attractions, as well as sightseeing by boat and public transport. It costs around £15.20 for adults and £4.10 for kids (aged seven to 17).
12 Gothenburg
(Save airport) East coast of Sweden
Airline: Ryanair (London Stansted)
Why go there? Don't let Gothenburg's reputation as the home of Scandinavia's biggest port put you off. It's a big city but manages to maintain quite an intimate atmosphere. All the tourist sights are within walking distance of the centre, where Sweden's top attraction, the Liseberg fun park, is based. It's also becoming a mecca for foodies who go there for the seafood restaurants. The southern archipelago has some great beaches, too. Save airport is actually closer to the city (12km) than the main airport, Landvetter. A taxi costs about £15 and an hourly coach service costs about £2.50.
How much? £46 - £259
Top tip: Save money by buying a Gothenburg Card which allows entry to six city museums, Liseberg and boat trips and public transport. Price per day: about £6.55 for adults, £3.45 for those under 17.
In need of a hotel?
All the low-cost carriers offer their own online accommodation booking services covering their destinations. But the choice can be very limited. Buzz, for example, only offers a two-star hotel in La Rochelle.
Short break specialists have also started to make hotel-only bookings. Cresta (0870 1610900), Travelscene (020 8424 9648) and Kirker Holidays (0207 231 3333) now offer the service for all the short break destinations they feature but do ask for a booking fee. Cresta charges £30 per transaction while Travelscene charges £15 per person to a maximum of £30. Kirker includes transfers with hotel bookings and charges a fee of seven per cent of the total price.
Other good bets are companies that don't charge a booking fee. The Hotel Directory (020 8770 0123) can book accommodation in more than 100 European cities including Murcia and Cologne. Go's accommodation booking company, HotelConnect (020 8381 2233), offers more than 600 hotels in more than 80 European cities and will go live with its own online bookable website at the beginning of May.
Twice as nice
If you've the inclination and stamina you could combine two cities in one weekend. EasyJet has hubs at Amsterdam and Geneva, which opens up a number of possibilities such as combining Amsterdam and Nice or Barcelona and Geneva. The flight timings tie in with this quite nicely. For example, you can fly from Luton to Amsterdam at 9.15am on Thursday, arriving at 11.25am. After two days of sightseeing and partying a 9.15am flight gets you into Nice at 11.10, just in time for lunch. You could flop out on the beach for the rest of the day or hit the chic boutiques. A late afternoon flight on Sunday gets you back to Luton at 5.55pm.
A combination of single fares comes to around £135 plus taxes if booked over the internet.
Other possible combinations include: Liverpool-Barcelona-Geneva-Liverpool or Luton-Nice-Geneva-Luton.
Tips for saving even more
Save money by booking your flight over the internet rather than ringing a call centre. All the low-cost airlines offer a discount for online bookings. EasyJet, for example, offers a £5 discount on its return fares.
If you can be flexible on dates, the cheapest flights are available between midday on Monday and midday on Wednesday.
The earlier you book, the lower the price will be. Go, EasyJet and Buzz currently have flights available until mid or late September. Ryanair is selling flights for departures up to January 2002.
Organise your hotel accommodation as soon as you buy your flight. Destinations such as Dublin, Amsterdam and Barcelona are big problem areas when it comes to finding hotels.
Check if the airline offers any discounted rail travel to the outbound airport. Passengers travelling with EasyJet, for example, can buy a return ticket from central London to Luton for £8 if they book more than eight weeks in advance.
Getting there
Buzz 0870 240 7070.
Established routes: London Stansted to Berlin, Bordeaux, Chambery (winter only), Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva (winter only), Gerona, Helsinki, Jerez, Lyons, Marseilles, Milan, Montpellier, Murcia, Paris, Toulouse and Vienna.
EasyJet 0870 6000 000.
Established routes: London Luton to Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Belfast International, Edinburgh, Geneva, Glasgow, Inverness, Liverpool, Madrid, Nice, Palma and Zurich. Liverpool to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belfast, Geneva, Luton, Madrid, Malaga, Palma and Nice. London Gatwick to Amsterdam and Geneva and London Stansted to Geneva.
Go 0845 605 4321.
Established routes: London Stansted to Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Prague, Munich, Venice, Bologna, Rome, Naples, Milan, Nice, Lyon, Barcelona, Palma, Ibiza, Alicante, Bilbao, Madrid, Malaga, Faro, Tenerife and Lisbon (to be dropped on 22 May).
Ryanair 0870 156 9569.
Established routes: London Stansted to Aarhus, Alghero Sardinia, Ancona, Biarritz, Carcassonne, City of Derry, Cork, Dinard, Dublin, Genoa, Glasgow Prestwick, Hahn Frankfurt, Hamburg Lübeck, Kerry, Knock, Kristianstad, Malmö Starup, Nimes, Marseilles, Oslo Torp, Perpignan, Pisa, Rimini, Shannon, St Etienne, Stockholm Skavsta, Turin, Venice, Treviso, Verona and Brescia. Glasgow Prestwick to Brussels Charleroi, Hahn Frankfurt, London Stansted and Paris Beauvais and flights to Dublin from London Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow Prestwick, Teesside and Liverpool.
