Staying in little towns near big cities

What city do you have in mind?

I think she is asking for a small suburban town to stay in while visiting the large city since she made reference to Haarlem and Amsterdam. Bath is not a convenient city to stay in while visiting London, Bruge is little far from Brussles or some of the other recommendations. Maybe good for day trips but less useful for overnight stays.

Thank you Frank, that's exactly what I meant! I don't know if there are any other options like Haarlem, I just thought that since I don't know much, I could have been missing something out!

I think that maybe the question was not well understood. I'm not expecting to stay only in towns and avoid big cities. What I wanted to know was if there is any other town like Haarlem that, for any reason, is specially convenient to stay in while visiting a near major city. I hope I explained myself this time!

I would recommend these places near big cities: Marburg an der Lahn for FRANKFURT aM, Colmar or Obernai for STRASBOURG, Augsburg for MUNICH, Jena for BERLIN (both are very historical)

Amiens, Chateau Thierry, and Fontainebleau for PARIS

The cities I'm visiting are:

Dublin - London - Paris - Amsterdam - Berlin - Prague - Vienna - Munich - Florence - Rome

If you have a special recommendation for any of this places, such as a good neighbourhood, a convenient city area, or a nice hostel, or anything related to accommodation, it'll be well received!

If you are going to visit Munich, consider staying in Holzkirchen. If you take the hourly BOB (Bayerische Oberlandbahn) train into Munich, it only takes about 25 min. If you are willing to ride a little longer, you could stay in Schliersee or Bad Tölz.

Landsberg am Lech is also nice, although about 50 min away.

There is also Freising, near the airport, about a 40 min S-Bahn ride into Munich.

I think Haarlam is the exception (and even then, Rick doesn't unequivocally recommend this, does he? I thought he posed it as a doable alternative). Suburbs in Europe just aren't generally very nice places, and you end up spending time and money getting in and out of the city. I think I've been to all the cities on your list except for Berlin and Prague, and I'd stay IN all of them.

I would stay in the city for those places. You probably will find it very inconvenient to travel back and forth all the time.

I did stay further away from the tourist area in Praague, but that was only becuase the hostel I stayed at had great reviews and wasn't known as a party place. It was still in the city, but all the restaurants were filled with locals and everything was much cheaper!

Vienna I stayed away from the center as well, but that was only because of cost as well.

Otherwise I love being right in the thick of things.

You pose an interesting question. But I honestly can't think of a single city I would WANT to visit, but wouldn't want to sleep in. Haarlem/Amsterdam is a unique situation in that Haarlem, itself, is a nice place and Amsterdam is unusually expensive and they are very close together with excellent direct connection by train. You won't find many (any?) examples of other cities&towns that fit all three of those criteria.

When you consider the cost of the extra transport, inability to pop back to your place for an afternoon nap, the extra time spent on transport (a family trip might cost $400/day and that's $50+ per waking hour!) and most of all, the inability to stroll the city in the evening as if it was your home, staying elsewhere rarely even makes finacial sense, to say nothing of the lost experience in the city.

You mean I've been doing it wrong all these years and never figured it out? I guess I was too busy counting the gobs of money I saved on accommodations to miss strolling the town in the evening. Oh, wait, I have strolled the city (Muenchen) in the evening before retiring to my suburban hotel (Poing).

In Muenchen, I stay in the "green" zone, and a Muenchen XXL Tageskarte at €6,70 vs an Innenzone Tageskarte for €5,00 costs me €1,70 extra. My hotel charges €54 per person, single room with breakfast. I haven't found too many hotels (not hostels) that I would want to stay at in downtown Muenchen for €56.

Hi Natalia,

Now that I know what cities you have in mind, I can add a few more suggestions to my earlier posting.

For Munich stay in AUGSBURG or some what farther away
ULM, both are well worth seeing, especially the cathedral in Ulm, one of Germany's largest.

For Berlin stay in JENA or HALLE, both historical cities and like the two above on the main track.

For Paris stay in AMIENS on the Somme, if you want to be in the north and in the Somme River area, or
Chateau Thierry to the east, both of these places are on the main track. I liked visiting Amiens, very historical and cultural, spent 2 days there, and Chateau Thierry--very historical.

If you want to stay some where to the south of Paris, my suggestion is definitely FONTAINEBLEAU with its chateau--utterly fantastic--been there many times, the town itself is interesting. The distance to Paris is greater than Amiens or Chateau Thierry to Paris, if you don't mind that.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to staying outside of these big cities and choosing a smaller place out side of it. For me if the train ride into Paris, Munich, Berlin takes more than an hour and twenty mins., I would more reconsider that option, unless there is some compelling reason.

The last time I went to London we stayed in Greenwich. Not really outside but it does have a different feel to it - and you're still close enough to all the big sites.

Thank you all! I received the kind of info I expected!
I'm not specially interested in staying in towns instead of cities, I just want to explore all my options... I've never been to Europe so I actually don't really know what I will like the most, if cities or towns. I guess each has its advantages and disadvantages, and, as it can be seen between all the replies to this post, it also depends on one's preferences.

I'll try to make a balance in my trip so as to have both experiences, but I am more inclined to staying in the big cities and making daytrips or passing by the little towns.

Hopefully this discussion is useful to someone else!
Cheers!

I happen to like both little towns and big cities. They both have their plus points and their minus points.
Little towns mean quaint, but also quiet as they often do roll up the sidewalks early. There may be limited choices for restaurants and they may only have small grocery stores which often charge higher prices then the chain stores. They probably will not have open produce markets either. Most small towns will have one or two museums, but that is it. You may spend a larger chunk of time getting to other places too.

Cities have the plus of not only having a lively side to them both day and night, but also many museums, galleries, easy public transportation, tons of restaurants and cafes, great cultural events and concerts, plus they always have neighborhoods where one can experience a different side of the city. Local pubs and cafes, open street markets, frequent street fests, parks, and unique stores too. One has a wide choice of stores as well as hotels. Apts. are actually easy to find in the city too, which can lower your vacation costs.

Using a city as a hub makes more sense to me than using a small town. If I go to Paris to see Paris, why would I stay someplace else? Same with Berlin or Rome or any of the other great cities. But that is just me. Each person does what they find personally interesting.

Europe is not just big cities! I suggest you do some research and find attractions outside of the big cities, in less touristy, less expensive small towns.

I prefer to stay in small towns and, for the most part, only make side trips into cities. In the last 9 years I have spent 108 nights in Europe, only 16 of which have been in or near large cities. I've spent 11 nights outside of Munich, in a suburb, 2 in Mainz, near the Hbf because I had early flights out of FRA, 1 in a suburb of Nürnberg, and 2 actually in downtown Würzburg. I am not a museum person, although I have visited the Deutsches Museum and the Stadtmuseum Muenchen in Munich, as well as the Dokumentation Center in Berchtesgaden and the Brocken Museum on the mountain. I have visited over a dozen "castles" and a handful of walled towns.

I go to small towns in Germany and France mainly for a particular thing, something specific, I want to see, such as a monument, a museum, an historical site, someone's house, a cemetery, etc. And, I hit the big cities, naturally.

Some of the small towns I have been to in Germany, spread over different trips, are: Eutin, Wetzlar, Wunsdorf, Kelheim, Wesel, Marburg, Rattingen, Pinneberg, Neuhardenberg, Dortmund-Hohensyburg, etc.

In France the small towns or even villages--a little hard to do by public transportation---are: Cambrai, Douai,
Albert, Gravelotte, Obernai, Colmar, Fontainebleau, Caen, Peronne, Chantilly, etc.

Natalia, it all depends on what you want to see and upon the level of your interest.

Dear Natalia,

Instead of Florence, we stay in Pistoia. It's a 20 minute train ride to a very untouristy town of about 90,000.