One full week locations

Have you considered Paris?

Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam. Stockholm in the warmer months. Munich/Nuremburg but that would be a 4/3 split.

We have done many one week stays and some for two weeks. Here are some of our favorites of those one to two week stays where we stayed put and enjoyed the town/city.
In no particular order-
Bellagio, Lake Como( 1 and 2 week stays)
Spello, Umbria- 2 weeks
London- several one week trips
Leiden, The Netherlands -a week
Chania, Crete- 2 weeks
Lisbon-10 days
Barcelona- a week
Hondarribia, Spain- a week
Nice- 2 weeks

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson

Venice, Sienna, Bologna. We just spent 5 nights in each of those places, and could happily have stayed longer.

Paris, for sure. We spent 5 or so nights in Leiden in the Netherlands a few years ago and loved it.

Definitely Paris!
Also: Edinburgh, London, Vancouver.
I love Florence, so always take a good few days there and never run out of things to do.
I've also stayed two weeks twice in Venice.
I also spent 8 days in Copenhagen and wished I'd had longer there.

Besides those already mentioned -- Berlin, Dublin, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Florence, Amsterdam. I'd guess Istanbul though I haven't been there.

Some great ideas! I have visited Paris and London several times each for shorter visits, but I agree those could easily work for a week. Same for Seville, I’ve been twice and love it. I hadnt considered it for a week because it’s smaller than the other one-week cities but it’s a tempting thought! Many of the other suggestions I’ve either not visited or not spent much time in so they are great places to look into. Keep them coming!

Also I forgot to list Mexico City as one I’ve spent a week in. This is a Europe forum, but if anyone else is looking for ideas outside of Europe I’ll add that to the ones I listed in my OP

Just listing the places I don't think have been mentioned:

Budapest
Prague
Kyiv
Glasgow (you gotta love the architecture, though)
Madrid (better like art)
Lyon

I suspect Naples, Turin, Milan and Tallinn will be on my list within 2 years or so.

Mira, since you mentioned that you'd be open to a non-European destination, Sydney is an idea. I've been there twice for one week each time and really enjoyed it. I'm not sure what the status is as far as visiting from outside the country is right now, though.

I can’t figure out what Suki found to do in Hondarrbia for a week. The town isn’t that large, so maybe day trips were thrown in. Two nights there was plenty for me. I’ll throw Buenos Aires into the mix.

I’ve spent a week+ in these locations: Paris, Amboise, Murren, Bruges, Amsterdam, Oslo and London. Depends on the time of year and the kind of experiences you’re looking for.

I've done Paris for a week and it was nice. Going to Rome for 8 days later this year, and when I eventually make it to London I think I'd like about a week there if possible.

I spent a week in Berlin with one day trip to Potsdam, and a week in Budapest with one day trip to Szentendre. Both of them were fantastic and I'd love to go back to see more. I've spent a month in Paris - like London, you never run out of things to do in Paris. My other week long stays have been of the 'base for day trips' kind of places - small towns/villages in Provence and Brittany (with rental cars).

Venice if you do a day trip to any of the three listed here: Padua, Verona, and Murano / Burano.

I haven't been everywhere, but if I had to spend a week or more in one city, my first choice would be Florence.

Madrid is great for a week's stay. The city is full of smaller museums that are often overlooked, and the cultural calendar would likely offer something worth buying a ticket for. And a number of options for day trips or half-day trips.

Really good question, Mira. Big cities seem like an obvious choice because they require more time. But I am not especially a big city person. I do have a week each in Krakow and Budapest coming up, so we’ll see. I have done a week in Barcelona (done) and am pretty sure I could be happy with a week in Seville, even after 4 nights there already. So I have no suggestions but it is making me think.

London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Athens, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, York, Madrid, Barcelona.

So many to choose from

I'm an off-the-beaten-path sort of fella: Belfast, Brighton, Dudley, Bristol, Liverpool, Madrid, Charleroi, and anywhere in Moldova.

Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Verona, Bologna, Salzburg

Taking one day trip is fine but I’m not looking for “bases” where you go to explore different places on day trips each day.

Sounds like you favor big cities. I will add another vote for London. Spent 10 days there and could have done 7 more easily. Florence is a city worth a week.

Since most of my favorite weeks long stay large cities have already been mentioned, I’ll list some of my favorite smaller cities, 2-3 per country, where we’ve spent a considerable amount of time and would go back again for long stays.
Goslar
Überlingen
Freiburg a.B.

Aix en Provence
Strasbourg

Leiden
Den Haag

Lucca
Bellagio
Stressa

Salzburg

Almost every Swiss town with mountain or lake views

York

Emily, I've read that one can get the best bologna sandwiches in Bologna. Some day I'll have to try one. I know it's unhealthy, but one won't hurt me. I would enjoy being full of bologna, actually!

I think most any large city in Europe would fit the bill. To some extent it depends on what are fun activities for you. To some extent it also depends on the time of year. Spending that much time in one place allows you to delve more deeply into it, as I found on my 3rd visit to Budapest last year.

It was only after a 5-day visit to Barcelona, I went back for a full week repeating only one museum that I had rushed through the first time. I've spent a week or more in London and in Paris several times. I could see spending a week or more in Naples, albeit with day trips to Pompeii, Herculaneum, maybe Caserta.

I agree with Emily that Vienna is worth a week, not so sure about Salzburg. Istanbul has so many sights, you'd be hard pressed to see them all in a week and the food is very good too. As for Israel, I'm hard pressed to think what would fill a week in Tel Aviv, but Jerusalem is eternally fascinating with more layers of history and more religions (and thus interesting churches) that most of Europe.

Bangkok is another place I love, but it's too far for a one-week trip.

London.

Free museums. Gorgeous parks. Thames Path.
Parliament Square. History.

Day trips: Hampton Court, Bletchley Park, Rye, Cambridge, Oxford, Whitsable.

Tube to Richmond, wander about Richmond Park, have lunch at the White Cross pub and walk along the Thames Path.

Tube to Greenwich. Spend a day there seeing the Observatory, Maritime Museum, Greenwich Market,
Royal Naval College, bus to nearby Eltham Palace, bus to have a pub lunch at the Park Tavern on Passey Place…..

Tube to Tower Hill. Tour the Tower of London. Walk towards the Gherkin ( St Marys Axe) and explore the last glass covered market in London. Leadenhall Market. Appreciate the dichotomy of the old and modern architecture. Have lunch there or walk from there to Tower Bridge and cross over the Thames heading the London’s City Hall. Its referred to as the Beehive. Have a pint and lunch at the Anchor Tap. Or closer to the Tower of London, 15 minute walk to the Princess of Prussia. Good Thai food

Explore Spitalfields Market.

Dennis Sever’s House.

Brick Lane.

Walk the Thames Path.

Meander about London’s Olympic Park.

Never bored in London and I’ve been visiting for decades.

Seems that for a full week, you’d either want a big city or somewhere really small and relaxing (Tuscan village, Greek isle, etc). Two very different experiences. I don’t see mid-size cities fitting the bill.

I think there's lots of places to hang in Europe for 5 days with no more than a day trip, but I agree with others, if you step it up to 7 days, you're going to need population and distractions so as not to squander your holiday time.

On my last trip to Italy I did a tight cluster of cities - Pisa, Lucca, Pistoia, Prato, and Florence and I took 2-day trips. Total time was 21 nights, split between those 5 stops - travel distance between them was like 30 to 45 minutes on move day. Very relaxing pace and ample time to see eveything I wanted to see. That kind of scenario could be an option.

Krakow, Poland certainly has much in terms of sights and day trips to last a full week easily, from the largest medieval market square in Europe, to its various parks and greenspaces, lively Jewish Quarter, and world class art museums.

A potential daytrip from Krakow could be to Pszczyna, a nearby old baroque town. It's dominated by a large von Pless chateau. The interior is very well preserved and many of the original furnishings are all still there. It is also historically important as this is the place where Kaiser Wilhelm II had his HQ for the eastern front during WW1.

Outside of Krakow, one can also spend a day or two in the spa town of Zakopane and use it as a base to explore and hike the Tatra Mountains UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

Krakow is about the size of Sevilla in Spain.

Agree with Carlos. We spent 6 nights in Krakow and did not have any downtime.

Chani, with Salzburg I can think of 5 easy day trips off the top of my head. Add in 2 days for the city itself.

In Tel Aviv, also amazing day trips abound, plus I find the city endlessly fascinating (and the food and the beach!)

Sorrento, Italy could be a good possibility. It has beautiful views of the Bay of Naples and lovely sunsets on the Mediterranean as well as easy day trips to Capri or Pompeii.

Personally, most areas with a decent history or 80K plus population work for me. I will ignore large cities because they are an obvious base.

My first recommendation way ahead of the others would be Stockholm, because you have both small city in each island and large city as a whole, history and design, coast in both the large city, the small cities and the archipelago, and it is both urban and rural, many walks and parks, AND it is BEAUTIFUL. IMO.

My next choice would be Nice, FR: again larger city and small villages nearby, salt water body (fills my needs), art, views, food, French language.

Nancy, FR: we spent 10 days here, but had family obligations and had 2 day trips (over the Vosges for 1/2 timbered villages and wine and Verdun), art nouveau, a petite Paris, IMO, but you might be bored for 8 nights…not me but definitely low key.

Depends on what you like to do, of course. Venice, Paris, London, Florence, Rome and so many more great cities are easily entertaining for one or more weeks.

If you want more rural, we have spent up to 4 weeks in Lauterbrunnen after deciding 2 weeks was not enough. The Val Gardena in Italy is lovely as well. Both locations have plenty of easy mountain walks and amazing transportation.

A week in Trapani, Sicily, affords multiple day trips and amazing food.

We stayed in Haarlem outside of Amsterdam for a week and it was a lovely refuge away from the city yet we had easy access to the big city as well as many less urban locations.

My list would be
Amsterdam
Nice
Provence - I'd stay in either Arles or Vaison la Romaine
Copenhagen
St John USVI

Himeji, Tokyo, Akita, Singapore, Penang, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Hobart, Stanley, .........

London, Paris, Copenhagen, Prague, Lisbon, Munich, Oslo, Amsterdam, Rome, the Amalfi coast, Provence.

"Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing"

Now's probably not the time, nor in the foreseeable future.

Places worth one week?

I work it a little backwards. First go to Tripadvisor and look at a list of attractions. Decide what attractions are must see for you. Plan two big sights a day (one AM, one PM). Between breakfast, sight, lunch, sight, and dinner, you may have room for some minor sights. I keep a list of "good to see if I have time" sights for late afternoons/evenings when I still have energy. They also come in handy when your preferred sight is either closed or didn't take a half day to see. Keep in mind, some sights take more than a half day to see. Test each place you think might be a good option and see if it's worth a week for you. What's worth a week to me may not be for you, and vice versa.

That said, for me Rome, London, and Paris certainly have plenty of sights to keep almost anyone entertained for a week. So far, I've spent a week in London and Rome and felt like both needed significantly more than just one week. I've spent at least three weeks total in Paris (during eight visits) and still haven't seen everything I'm interested in.

Barcelona makes it if I add day trip sights from there. Without daytrips, I would want three full touring days to see the sights that interest me.

I have yet to visit Vienna. It seems to be a place where a week wouldn't be wasted. Salzburg is lovely but it wouldn't rate a week for me.

I have also not visited Lisbon.

Of the Scandinavian cities. I could spend a week in and around Copenhagen (Copenhagen Card includes area train travel and admissions).

Spanish cities of Seville and Grenada don't quite need a week for me. Both have a pretty good list of sights.

I love northern Italian cities like Venice, Siena and Florence (in fall). Florence comes the closest to having plenty of sights for a week.

London or Venice.

Places where I've done a stay from 6 to 14 consecutive nights: Paris, Vienna, and Berlin.

My suggestions for a full week's stay are: Paris, Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, London and Gdansk (incl. 2 day trips to small towns by bus in the lower Vistula area)

Sort of an academic questions. You can easily spend a week in any location that enjoy.

What you enjoy will not match to a great degree what anyone else enjoys.

But I guess one way to pick, if you dont know what you like, is to choose larger places with more tourist attractions ... of course that would drive me crazy.

Unless you are the type that enjoys the great outdoors then you would choose a place with that going for it and not so much tourist attractions.

I spend maybe 6 weeks a year in Budapest and have for nearly 20 years now, but most people I know would blow their brains out by week three.