The £150 return city break is not dead. It has retreated from the obvious places — Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris and Berlin have all moved out of reach for most of the year — but ten or so European capitals still hit that threshold reliably if you book with a bit of flexibility and travel cabin-only. The list below is what we would actually book ourselves, with realistic fare ranges based on shoulder-season prices from London airports.
None of these ranges are guaranteed; airline pricing varies week to week and depends on how far ahead you book. Treat them as “what you should expect to find with normal planning”, not “what you will definitely pay tomorrow”.
1. Tirana, Albania
Indicative return fare: £80-£140 in shoulder season
Best airline from UK: Wizz Air from Luton, occasionally easyJet from Gatwick
When to go: Late April to early June, or mid-September to mid-October
The current best value capital in Europe for British travellers, full stop. Tirana itself is two days of walking around brutalist-meets-Ottoman streets, eating obscenely cheap and good food, and drinking espresso for less than a pound. The killer feature is that the country south of it — Berat, Gjirokastër, the Riviera — is reachable for a long weekend or stretched into a proper week. Our full Balkans guide covers routes, fares and arrival logistics.
2. Sofia, Bulgaria
Indicative return fare: £75-£130
Best airline from UK: Wizz Air from Luton, Ryanair from Stansted
When to go: May to early June, September to early November
Sofia is the underrated central European capital that everybody who visits tells everybody else about. The on-the-ground costs are roughly half of Prague’s, the metro is genuinely useful (£1 single fares), and Vitosha mountain is a tram-and-cable-car ride away if you want a half-day hike with views back over the city. Two-day stays work; four-day stays with a side trip to Plovdiv work better.
3. Bucharest, Romania
Indicative return fare: £70-£130
Best airline from UK: Wizz Air from Luton or Gatwick, Ryanair from Stansted
When to go: April to early June, September to October
Bucharest gets a lot of “rough around the edges” handwringing from travel writers that does not really hold up if you have spent any time in, say, Naples. The old town is genuinely pretty, the food scene has matured rapidly over the past decade, and the cost base is among the lowest in the EU. The train onward to Brașov in Transylvania takes around two and a half hours and turns a city break into something much more interesting.
4. Wrocław, Poland
Indicative return fare: £65-£120
Best airline from UK: Ryanair from Stansted, Wizz Air from Luton
When to go: May to mid-October
Krakow’s quieter, prettier neighbour. The market square is one of the largest in Europe, the bronze dwarves dotted around the old town are a genuinely charming city-wide art project, and the food is hearty Silesian-meets-Polish at prices that have not yet been Krakow-ified. Three days is plenty for the city itself.
5. Vilnius, Lithuania
Indicative return fare: £80-£140
Best airline from UK: Wizz Air or Ryanair from Luton/Stansted
When to go: Late May to September
The most underrated Baltic capital. The old town is small enough to cover in a day, but the genuine highlight is Užupis — a self-declared “republic” of artists across the river with its own constitution pinned to a wall in seven languages. Pair Vilnius with Trakai castle (half-day trip, easy bus) for the full effect.
6. Riga, Latvia
Indicative return fare: £75-£135
Best airline from UK: airBaltic from Gatwick, Ryanair from Stansted
When to go: Late May to early September
Riga’s Art Nouveau district is the densest concentration of the style anywhere in Europe and entirely unexpected on a first visit. The Central Market — five repurposed Zeppelin hangars from the 1920s — is one of the great urban markets of the continent. Add a beach afternoon at Jūrmala (40 minutes by suburban train) and you have a complete long weekend.
7. Porto, Portugal
Indicative return fare: £80-£150
Best airline from UK: Ryanair from Stansted, easyJet from multiple UK airports, TAP from Heathrow
When to go: April to June, September to early November
Porto has resisted the price spiral that swallowed Lisbon, at least for now. The fares are similar to Lisbon but the on-the-ground costs remain materially lower, the tile-fronted houses on the steep streets above the river are improbably photogenic, and a port-tasting at Graham’s or Taylor’s is a genuinely good £15-£25. Three nights covers the city; four nights gives you a day in the Douro valley.
8. Naples, Italy
Indicative return fare: £85-£150
Best airline from UK: easyJet from Gatwick or Luton, Ryanair from Stansted, Jet2 from Manchester
When to go: April to early June, September to October
Naples is chaos in three dimensions, and the people who hate it on a first visit usually love it on a second. The pizza is religious-experience grade for around £6 at the proper old places, the archaeological museum holds objects you have seen in textbooks since secondary school, and the Amalfi coast is a 90-minute train and ferry combination away. Best paired with a slow week rather than a rushed weekend.
9. Krakow, Poland
Indicative return fare: £70-£130
Best airline from UK: Ryanair from Stansted, Jet2 from northern hubs, easyJet from various
When to go: April to early June, September to October — avoid stag-do peak weekends
Krakow has been on every “underrated European city” list for so long it is no longer underrated, but the fares remain low and the old town remains one of the most photogenic in central Europe. The thing nobody tells you is to skip Wieliczka salt mine (overrated, queue-heavy) and instead day-trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau with a serious guide, or take the train onward to Zakopane for the Tatras.
10. Budapest, Hungary
Indicative return fare: £80-£140
Best airline from UK: Wizz Air from Luton or Gatwick, Ryanair from Stansted
When to go: April to June, September to October
Budapest is the most touristed city on this list, which means it is also the easiest sell to a sceptical travelling companion. The thermal baths (Széchenyi for the postcard, Rudas for the rooftop, Gellért for the architecture) make a winter visit genuinely viable. The ruin bars are still actually fun even after fifteen years of being on every listicle.
Booking tactics for sub-£150 fares
The common thread across all ten of these destinations: budget carrier (mostly Wizz or Ryanair), shoulder season, midweek departure, cabin-only baggage, booked roughly six to twelve weeks in advance. The combination is more important than any single element — last-minute Tirana in August will not be £100, and an eight-month-ahead Budapest in February will not be £70 either, because the airline has no reason to discount yet.
For the detailed mechanics — flexible-date searches, error-fare alerts, the airport-versus-city-code trick — our cheap flights playbook covers the lot. For the carrier-by-carrier breakdown of which budget airline to trust on which type of route, the UK budget airlines guide is the companion piece.