We have 5 days, including travel, where should we go?

Are there any places you wished to go?

What does fun mean for you?

Throw a dart at a map of Europe.

From where are you coming? What time of year?

I suspect for most people, the cost of getting there makes such a short trip ( financially) impractical

Shooting in the blind, my suggestion is a beach town in Portugal

Stay home and clean out the garage.

This is spur of the moment -- we would be flying out of Denver the first week of June. Really don't have any preferences - just wondered what others had done quickly and felt like it was worth it. Not a beach -- LOL! Fun would be anything with rich history and architecture.

It would be a waste for me. I would not be over jet lag before I had to fly back. Why somewhere domestic like San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, or Toronto?

I would look at wherever you can get to on a direct flight from/to Denver, in order minimize travel time. Maybe you'll find a good fare deal.

I've never done a trip to Europe less than a couple of weeks, but to answer your question -- Paris or London, whichever interests you more and/or is quicker to get to and back. Just visit the city, see a few highlights, walk in a park or two, take a boat ride, enjoy some good food. I'd pick Paris for compactness and sheer beauty, London is more spread out, but they speak (more or less) your language.

EDIT -- Stan makes a good point. Whatever European city you can reach in the least time from Denver, to make the most of your very limited time on the ground.

What are the non-stop locations from Denver? I would choose from that short list.

Is it crazy? Yes. But I once flew a cheap flight nonstop to Honolulu (first time to Hawaii) in December and only stayed one night to reach an airline mileage level. I still remember that it was a fun adventure!

Your travel could actually be 3 days from Denver, depending on when your flights arrive or leave. Day 1 - leave Denver, Day 2 - arrive, Day 3, 4 - explore your destination, Day 5 - leave for home. Sounds like a pretty short holiday and lots of flying/travel time. If you arrive early on Day 2 and leave late on Day 5, you'll have some more time to check out your location. You'll need some light luggage to haul around on your travel days. I second Paris or London. Do a walking tour and check out a couple of museums, have some great meals. It's doable.

You could fly direct to Munich and have 3 days of fun on the Oktoberfest.

I agree with the closest destination that you can fly direct/nonstop. I believe United has Denver as a major hub, so I'd be looking for places United flies direct from Denver. Wow, just did a really quick search looks like with United there are nonstops to London, and in my quick search not much else. I noticed Icelandair also flies nonstop Denver to Reyjkavik. Iceland would be a good choice for summer.

I just did a quick trip to Amsterdam and Prague from LA. 2 days in each city. Was it rushed, yes but I still had a great time. Everyone has a different travel style but I personally would never turn down an opportunity to go to Europe, even for a few days. As others have suggested, see where you can get good flights and have a great time! I live in a fairly small town so I love a chance to hang out, even briefly, in a big city.

Iceland. It’s a direct flight from Denver on Icelandair.

I suggest Canada.
Denver to London is about 9 hours each way. Add in a couple hours for security and a couple hours to get through passport/customs both ways and you are easily at 24 to 25 hours of travel time.

Assuming you leave on Friday evening you get to London on Saturday morning by the time you drop you bags it is going to be pushing noon. You will get a couple hours on Saturday. You get maybe 12 on Sunday and Monday (remember you do need to eat, sleep, wash ect so no every waking hour is seeing the sites) and Tuesday you return home.
So you have about 30 hours In London doing and seeing and 25 hours to get there. Plus the cost of two round trip tickets (not sure what Denver costs but from Michigan it is 1300 to 1700 per depends on the type of seating) so let’s call it 2000 for flights.

Seams to me a bit to much travel/expense/jet leg for to little time in the City.
If you are not counting Friday then it is a bit different as you have about 42 hours. But I think if you are counting all days (vs days off work) then you are just two short unless.

As for destination if you do it. I would say London or Paris with it being a bit of a tie. If you want “Romance” maybe Paris wins. If this was a month ago I would give the edge to Paris but I think the river boat lost some of its romance with the fire.

So I say it is in this order.
1) Don’t Leave North America
2) Caribbean
3) Whatever you can fly direct to
3a). London
3b). Paris

London, Paris or Rome. I am exhausted just thinking about it. LOL Enjoy your trip.

Consider Mexico DF or maybe Lima, Peru

London. Direct flight on United arriving at 9:40 am. So maybe 2 1/2 days of fun.

I haven’t, but I think it’s great. I agree with finding a place you can get to easiest - whether that’s non-stop or a quick stop somewhere. Some of the cities that I’ve liked that would likely be direct or close to direct out of Denver are: London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Lisbon.

That sounds fun!

Rich history and architecture-Charleston

Grand Circle. Hit Capital Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon.

Mexico City. It's a beautiful, complicated, charming, messy, and fascinating place. A few days there is great. Being there is cheap and so is getting there. From Denver, you can get there in just a few hours

Personally, I think it's foolish to blow the money it costs to get to Europe and back if you're only going to be there for 2 or 3 days. However, if cost is no object - that is, you have enough disposable income that the cost of flying to Europe and back doesn't even register for you, and you could go a dozen times this year without the costs of the flights having any impact on your ability to go next time - then by all means, fly to Paris for dinner (and order something made with real gold for dessert).

I think for most people, the cost of a flight to Europe is not negligible. So paying for a flight to Europe now means the next time you would like to go, money will be a little tighter, and for many folks, that means the trip has to be deferred. If that's the case, then I wouldn't go just for 2 or 3 days. Spend your limited money on airfare when you'll get more Euro-bang for your airfare buck by staying longer.

How short is too short a trip to Europe to justify the cost of getting there? I don't know, it's going to be different for everyone. If you could only be in Europe for a day, would you go? How about if you could only be there for an hour? For a minute? For a second? Yeah, that sounds crazy...but where do you draw the line? For me, I've decided that having at least 2 full weeks on the ground (not counting travel days) is my personal minimum. If I can't manage that, then I'll wait and go later (and stay longer). YMMV.

Not worth it to fly to Europe for 3 days fun. Jet lag, airport security, long immigration lines, then the same back. Colorado is a beautiful state. I would much prefer to drive just few hours or less and have 5 days fun than this kind of masochistic travel just for three days of fun (in the best case scenario). The shortest time I ever went to Europe was 3 weeks.

How much are you willing to spend on the air fare? If that's irrelevant, then I suggest going to Europe. Would I do that? Absolutely depending on the month. Summer is no problem, autumn and spring are all right, depending on the city.

If you prefer the US or Canada, the advantage is a shorter flight and cheaper air fare.

Regarding your time span: I don't count the days in the same manner as you. I can be on the go within a few hours of landing.

Flights from SFO or OAK to Europe, Frankfurt, Paris, London, non-stop will land there in the morning, the earlier the better. If it lands by 0930 hrs, by noon or the latest 13:00hrs, with all my dilly-dallying, etc, I'll be at the hotel where I can count on, at least, dropping off my luggage if not actually checking in. By then I will have had a hot leisurely lunch, and can head out to the museums or the sights, all the more so if it's from April to Sept.

Where to spend this limited time you have? I suggest Paris, London, Budapest, Berlin, Vienna, Frankfurt (including the greater area). Logistically, all very easily done if you know what you're doing by planning it and timing it right.

This is spur of the moment -- we would be flying out of Denver the first week of June.

Umm, do they do Oktoberfest in June?

You could fly direct to Munich and have 3 days of fun on the Oktoberfest.

Octoberfest cannot be in June. Only Junefest.

If you have not gone to New Mexico and AZ, spend 5 days there. Go to Gallup, Albuquerque, the Sandia mountains, the desert parks of AZ, and that sort of thing.

Virgin Atlantic has had some amazing deals, from Boston at least, these last couple of weeks, which has brought other airlines' prices down. I'm talking $343.00 round trip from Boston. So worth looking into London flights via BA and VA even from Denver. I have gone to London in your allotted time many times and enjoyed my stays. I would think from Denver it just means getting on a flight immediately after work versus my preferred (when I use to take over night flights) 10:00-11:00 PM. Do it! The advantage for me is that I did not have return jet lag as I never adjusted to the new time, as day 4 is my worst jet lag day.

I'd suggest one city. Stay in one lodging and plan all your activities within easy reach. Pick a place that appeals to you. Make sure it's somewhere with convenient flights from your home, you want to avoid lost time to connections or layovers. Any of the big cities (London, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich, Prague, etc.) will have plenty to keep you occupied for at least three days.

If it were me, I'd probably shop flights and be inclined to choose the city with the best deal on flights.

Icelandair has very quick connections to most of Europe. If you fly to a Schengen country, your passport is stamped in Iceland (usually zero wait time). When you arrive at your destination, you can walk straight from your plane to ground transportation - which might save as much time as you lose in the connection.

https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/schengen-visa-countries-list/

Montreal and pretend it's Paris? Victoria and have tea like London? NYC and see some Broadway / off-Broadway shows?

In case you missed it ------

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/what-is-the-best-and-shortest-no-business-related-trip-across-the-atlantic-that-you-have-ever-taken

Montreal or Quebec: both hit your history and architecture buttons, plus the French feel of Quebec especially, and good food! And no huge travel time nor jet lag.

If Europe, then definitely Iceland and only if you can get a direct flight, well-priced airfare, and have 3 dull days on the ground. Reykjavik is the perfect size for a 3 day trip. I don't think large cities like London are as good of a fit because you'll likely be jet lagged, so a more laid back place would probably be less tiring and make the best use of your time (rather than a place that has two weeks more worth of stuff to do and way too many attractions to pack into 3 days). Unfortunately, the incredibly long summer days with full light in Iceland will screw up your circadian rhythms clock(s) even more, but you'll definitely get your money's worth if you can manage to stay awake.

Having said that, I would pick Mexico or Canada over Europe because it's much closer. There are plenty of interesting places - you can easily spend 3 days in Puebla or Mexico City or Guadalajara.

Quebec City would be a good Paris substitute. And you’d have more time there for fun... : )

Another vote for Mexico City (I just spent 5 days there and loved it) or Quebec City or Montreal. (Puebla is also great, but would use up more travel time.)

Using Kayak's "Explore" tool, here's what I found for you - the cheapest Denver to Europe flights.

June 2-7 - Denver to Reykjavik - Delta (one stop) - $684

Eveywhere else ended up being over $1k with usually 2 stops. Not sure I'd pay that for a 5-day trip.

Domestically for those same dates you can fly to Vegas, Salt Lake, Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, or San Antonio for $119 or less.

Hate to be Debbie Downer but jet lag and the time involved with international travel means anything less than a week means it’s not worth it. Heck, with such a short stay, you might get extra attention from the immigration officers, delaying your limited time on the ground even more. Canada and Mexico have been mentioned, I’d probably stay in the USA with such little time. Boston, Washington DC, or NYC would be a nice change from Denver

Which factors are most important to you in deciding on a place to go? Price of the flight, non-stop flight, other costs, salient interests, specific destination, etc.

Five days duration is ample time to go if you go non-stop to Europe, even with a connection over there this trip is still very doable, definitely to London is the easiest.

If I had only 5 days, the air fare was cheap, say $400-600 in Economy, non-stop, I would go in an instant to Paris, London, Budapest, Berlin or Vienna since it's going to be the first week in June.

Vote for Spain/Portugal/France maybe? Any on the list will make a great choice with rich history and culture

Come to New Orleans! 2 1/2 hours direct from Denver! "The most European North American city." Fascinating architecture, great food, river cruises, fabulous music. (Just in case you've decided against the 25-hour travel time...!)

I do it all the time. I only get so much to.e off work and for me travel is my main interest.

I have gone to Belgium (Brussels, Bruges and Ghent-1day each), Iceland twice, London several times and I'm doing Havana in June.

You only live once!