If you love travelling and feel down when you’re stuck at home, you’ll be really tempted by those offers of cheap flights that arrive pinging into your inbox for late Autumn or mid-Winter weekends when Spring is far away.

Just remember you might be battling the elements and risk: landing in the snow in Bergamo on a Sunday night after a weekend in Brussels; being stranded in Eindhoven in a blanket of fog as the sun goes down, but…

• you can enjoy a city with fewer tourists and spend less on accommodation
• appreciate time immersed in culture indoors and visit places like museums and art galleries 
• get cosied up and warm with a hot chocolate in a café for a break in between sightseeing and shopping.
• take photos of moody white-grey skies, although thinking about it, this is something which you can actually do in London all year round!

London

Stay: Seraphine Hammersmith Hotel. Our room was small, quiet, and spotless. Recently redecorated, it’s near a bustling high street with local shops and places to eat. 

It’s also within walking distance from Hammersmith tube station where there is a fantastic pastel de nata bakery selling those delicious Portuguese fluffy and light custard tarts and strong coffee- and that’s your breakfast done!

Art and Culture: the British Library. This place is quite anonymous from the outside and doesn’t seem very exciting. But it is actually one of the biggest libraries in the world and if you book one of the fascinating guided tours you will go behind the scenes and find out where and how all those books are stored; observe the wonderful study room and hear how this institution got back to life after suffering a serious cyber attack.

Shopping: 

• High-street shopping along Oxford Street. It’s actually 1.9 km long so prepare yourself for walking and shopping! It has huge stores of all the brands you know and want, plus Selfridges, a UK high-end department store. This really is where you can shop till you drop!

• Harrods, in Knightsbridge world-famous department store which is worth visiting for the beautiful window displays and the Food Hall and general merchandise with the Harrods logo, like tote bags, teddy bears and tea towels which all make good gifts to take back home for friends and family.

• Fortnum & Mason, famous grocery store selling all kinds of traditional English teas, biscuits, puddings and crockery in a really distinctive blue-green packaging. The main store is in Piccadilly and it’s a real treat. 

Pub Lunch: there’s nothing more warming and cosy in the colder months than an old English pub with its dark wooden furniture, shiny brass fittings at the bar and the general hum of talking and laughter as locals and tourists sit down to have a drink and put the world to rights.

We tried the The Red Lion, in Westminster, a place that ticks all the boxes for the typical pub vibe and has a really long history- it goes back to medieval times when it started out as a tavern. Now its serves locals, tourists and politicians alike.

We had marinated steak and ale pie with chips and gravy- good old British food- warming and filling!

Another British special is fish and chips. Fresh cod fillets deep fried in batter until they’re crunchy, served with homemade thick cut and fried potatoes. 

You must add plenty of salt and plenty of malt vinegar (made from malted grains of barley, this vinegar has a warming aroma and is less sharp than your regular vinegar) to get that great fish and chips smell and flavour coming through. We had ours outside under an awning and with outdoor heating at Rock And Sole Plaice in the Covent Garden/Seven Dials area.

You can see from the photo that portion sizes are big so think about sharing, too. 

Afternoon tea and cake: L’Eto cake shop in St James’s, Piccadilly, has so many colourful cakes to gaze at and choose from. I had a strawberry cheesecake, my ultimate sweet treat. Around us there were ladies drinking tea poured from china teapots. The real thing!

Show: we went to the evergreen favourite Mamma Mia at the Novello Theatre in the West End (the district where all the theatre are and where you can find places to drink and dine at before/after the show. If you love music and Greece, this is the show for you.

Paris

Stay: Hotel du Vieux Marais in a quiet street in the Marais quarter of Paris. The hotel feels all retro inside with dark green walls and antique furniture.

It might feel quiet and hushed inside but it’s close to the buzzing streets of independent shops, vintage clothes boutiques, restaurants and those Parisian street cafés with typical tiny round tables and chairs outside. 

Art and Culture: what to choose? There are so many options. Let’s just get inside out of the cold, please!

The Musée d’Orsay is an all-time favourite for its vast collection of beautiful works by Monet, Dégas, Seurat, Renoir, Cézanne and many others.

Its stunning location is inside a converted railway station, creating a vast luminous exhibition space with a huge station clock at one end.

Take a break at the chic bar/restaurant called Café Campana on the fifth floor. Do as we did and have a coffee and carrot cake with the magnificent view of the clock.

Shopping: the best part about shopping in Paris is the unexpected. 

Far from the retail party of London, here you can find some nice and/or unusual shops by walking along Rue des Francs Bourgeois and Rue du Bac. I found Sézane nearby and bought a snuggly winter hat and scarf set.

For gourmet shopping you must go to La Grande Épicerie de Paris in Rue Passy where you can find delicatessen products literally from all over France and all the rest of the world. You will find products and brands that you didn’t know you didn’t know (!) and if you’re that curious to try, you can buy some of the dishes from the counter to eat in.

Sweet Snack: Boulangerie Murciano  a delightful kosher pastry shop with tiers of fresh doughnuts and slabs of cheesecake.

Situated in the Rue des Rosiers, you’ll know you’ve arrived when you see the long queue snaking outside.

Coffee break with a view: Café Hugo, at the corner of the beautiful square called Place des Vosges in the Marais.

Chic Parisian Lunch: Marty, Rue des Gobelins. We were taken here by a Parisian business woman and her daughter- which is in itself a sure recommendation. 

A beautiful restaurant interior in Art Deco style with waiters dressed in black and white giving good service; and a traditional menu of French dishes, including typical deserts like îles flottantes (literally Floating Islands of white meringue on a yellow custard cream). 

Show: Paradis Latin Cabaret end a great day with an evening of cabaret at this theatre in the Latin quarter. Singing, dancing, quips; emotions and plenty of sparkle. I never wanted this show to end!

Venice

This city may not have all the attractions that Paris and London have to offer but in the winter Venice has an atmosphere all of its own. The streets are quieter, the skies are greyer, and it’s icy cold.

Stay: Alloggi Santa Sofia 

A family-run hotel down a narrow side street (they’re always narrow in this city!) and up a steep and narrow flight of stairs or two to our room. 

We were at the top floor and had access to an altana, a typical Venetian wooden terrace built on the rooftop for the inhabitants to put out the laundry or to rest and observe the city from above.

Shopping: Carnival masks made from papier-mâché; marbled paper and quill pens; small leather goods like bags and belts and gloves. You can spend as little or as much as you like.

But why not try the famous Acqua Alta Bookshop and buy some vintage books to add to your book collection? This place is famous because it has books crammed into every surface, including a huge gondola in the middle of the shop and another one out the back which lies moored on the canal. There are also some adorable residential cats hanging around and just adding to the general quirky ambiance of this place. A must.

Aperitivo: in Venice you should order a Spritz with some cicchetti, small appetisers similar to a Spanish tapas. You can find olives, creamed cod on a piece of fried polenta, marinated sardines with olive oil. While your typical pasta dish might be spaghetti alle vongole (with clams), and a main course could be the fegato alla veneziana (liver with onions) or more of a crowd-pleaser such as a fritto misto (mixed fried fish).