Friends, Neighbors and Co-workers think I'm crazy, but I love to travel, and usually have only 4 days free. 4 days in Paris, Amsterdam or HK are better than 4 days at home even if most of the time is sitting in an airplane.

What great international long weekend trips have you taken?

Can one do Machu Piccu or Igua�u falls in a long weekend?

My favorite was to Amsterdam.

My wife and I went to Ecuador (3 nights) over this past Memorial Day weekend. Lacsa had a great deal, $99 each way from JFK.

I don't think I would do macchu piccu in a weekend. But I have been to Hong Kong and Paris on weekend trips. You basically just get a taste of the place and now I try to not overdo, just focus on a single area (such as kowloon/victoria peak in Hong Kong) otherwise it's overwhelming.

Analise - I don't know why I didn't like Amsterdam too well. Maybe because it was very cold when I was there. We did go around Delft to see the seashore, which looked gorgeous, but it was so cold when I was there I couldn't really enjoy it. I would love to go back in the summer. One of the most amazing waterparks I've ever seen was in some neighborhood of Amsterdam, also an incredibly beautiful sculpture garden that I have never forgotten. I think I will have to give it another try! I also loved the afternoon teas, which seemed expensive at the time, but maybe will seem reasonable after living in NY.

Jen, I went to Amsterdam on Memorial Day weekend a few years ago and had a great time. The weather was warm, the sunset wasn't until late, and I just had a ball. I have never been outside of the city and would love to see the seashore as you did.

I went to AMS in MARCH and a coworker decided he absolutely HAD to go to the shore (he had driven in from Germany).

Gorgeous seashore, even at night, and I almost froze. I did bring home a seashell & some sand to prove to my husband that I had been at the beach in AMS in the dead of winter

You all got me really excited, my wife and I are doing a long weekend in AMS on 13 January!!! Can't wait, just 1.5 more wks!!

I've never been there before, so it should be great. Maybe I will have to check out the sea-coast from what you all mention, sounds amazing!!

What's the best way to get there???

Oh yeah, and people think we are crazy to do a Long Weekend in AMS too, but hey, heck with 'em. It's more fun than staying around home. I'd prob. do something as crazy as a long weekend in Bali if the price were right!!!

-A

It seems like long weekend trips are all we take. We've done Europe and Asia on long weekends, but the time zone change kills my wife. She gets too tired. She has much better luck when we go to South America. It's an overnight flight (saving a day of VC) and the time zone change is only one or two hours.

We've been to LIM (2x), SCL and RIO (just this past labor day) on long weekends (three nights in a hotel). We did Machu Piccu on our second trip to Peru. A long weekend was plenty of time to take the train to Machu Piccu and a tour of the sacred valley(?) by van. We were on the go shortly after getting off the plane and checking into our hotel in Cuzco. That first day we both had a headache that wouldn't go away, no matter how much cocca we drank.

This February we will be going to HNL for seven nights. This is the longest vacation we've been on, that is actually a vacation and not visiting the grandson.

You say a long weekend at 4 nights!! I call that a full vacation. I've done 2 and 3 night long weekends (Presidents Day, MKL, Good Friday, Memorial day etc) to: SIN, HNL, AMS, LGW, BKK, OGG, WAW, PRG, HEL, EZE etc. To be honest, the longest trip I've ever taken was last Memorial Day when I took 4 nights and did: EWR-LGW-NAP (one night NAP), boat to Sorrento (2 nights), day trip to Capri and Amalfi Coast, back to LGW (one night). Granted, I'm a fairly active person, and I was travelling solo (my hubby wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes), but I truely enjoyed myself on these trips, met lots of interesting people (both FT'ers and 'civilians') and couldn't imagine what I would do with 7 (or heaven forbid) 10 to 14 days in one place

4 nights? You can go almost anywhere in Europe for that! No, it's not enough time to really SEE London or Paris, but it's great for seeing a bit of theater, ballet or opera, having a great meal or two, catching a special exhibition or revisiting a favorite museum, and wandering. (I frequently take 3-night trips to those cities and do just that). And there's a host of possibilities elsewhere--spend 2 days in Oslo and 2 in Bergen (I'd do that when you could take a fjord trip), go to Prague or Budapest or Venice or Florence or Madrid or Barcelona, do some combination of Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, or go to Berlin, or do a combination of Edinburgh and Innisfree (at the right time of year), or spend one night in London and grab a low-cost flight anywhere the fancy strikes.

I agree with everyone else that 4 days is a nice vacation as my long weekends usually are only 2 days. On my european weekends, I usually leave Fri night, arrive Sat. mornings and then leave on Monday morning to arrive on Monday morning.

Really enjoyed the following destinations so far:

Brussels
Amsterdam
London
Madrid

Next weekend have a weekend to Lisbon planned which seems like a good choice although no direct flights from NY.

Fly to Edmonton on a Friday, take the VIA Canadian passenger train through the Rockies via Jasper to Vancouver on Saturday (24-hour trip, wth a sleeper), bus on ferry over to Victoria on Sunday, fly home from Victoria on Monday.

A nice excursion, completed over Memorial Day weekend in 2004, costing just 1 day vacation.

A year ago next week my GF and I took an Icelandair package to Reykjavik for a long weekend: left Thursday evening, back Sunday. Despite hitting the worst winter weather the place has had in decades and too much cloud cover to see the Northern Lights, it was fantastic. Swimming in the Blue Lagoon, parts of which are too hot to stay in, while there's a 15 degree F blizzard going on around your head, must be experienced to be believed.

When we go back it will be in August, for longer.

This is typical of the way we vacation throughout the year. 4 day trips are fantastic, and as others have stated, I always get the "Are you crazy" routine from people.

I do this at least 2 times a year going to London, leave Thursday night return on Monday afternoon. I sometimes add a day trip to Paris, Edinburgh, Calais or Oostende. Or trips to the coast down south, Nottingham, anywhere! I always enjoy myself and consider the flights to be the relaxing part of the trip to make up for the go go go.

We do this lots in NA also.

You've got 4 days go weherver your heart tells you to. Find out your buget and enjoy. Paris is good and so is London.