Best Easter Long Weekend Breaks from UK: Flights from £29

Seville from £39 one-way on Ryanair from Stansted is the headline act every Easter, and for good reason. Four nights in April sits right in the middle of Feria season, temperatures are around 22°C, and the old town is walkable enough that you barely need a taxi. The downside is everyone knows it, so book accommodation early or prices get ugly.

Porto from £41 one-way on Ryanair from Stansted is the smarter move if Seville feels too hectic. It's quieter at Easter, genuinely cheaper on the ground, and three or four nights is the perfect amount of time. easyJet also fly from Gatwick from around £49 one-way if Stansted doesn't work for you.

Budapest from £31 one-way on Wizz Air from Luton is the best-value city on this entire list, full stop. I've seen returns dip to £58 in the weeks around Easter if you're flexible on dates. Four nights there, including decent accommodation and a lot of food and wine, routinely comes in under £350 total.

Krakow from £29 one-way on Ryanair from Stansted is the one your mates who travel a lot keep quietly recommending. Flights are cheap, the city centre is compact, and the food costs about half what you'd pay in Prague. Ryanair also fly from Manchester from around £35 one-way, which sorts out the north of England crowd.

Valletta on Malta from £52 one-way on Ryanair from Stansted works brilliantly for Easter because Malta takes the holiday seriously, with Good Friday processions across the island that are genuinely worth seeing. easyJet fly from Gatwick from around £61 one-way. Bruges is reachable by Eurostar from £49 return if you'd rather skip airports altogether, though easyJet do fly from Gatwick to Brussels from £44 one-way with a short train connection. Marrakech from £47 one-way on easyJet from Gatwick rounds out the list for anyone who wants warmth and zero chance of rain, though the medina at Easter is busy and you'll want to budget for taxi negotiation energy.

Seville is the most crowded city on this list at Easter, no question. Semana Santa, the Holy Week processions, draws huge crowds in the days before Easter Sunday, streets get closed, and some hotels triple their rates. Go if you want the spectacle, but go knowing what you're walking into, and book everything months ahead.

Marrakech gets noticeably busier over UK bank holidays, particularly in the Djemaa el-Fna square and the popular riads. It's still manageable, but you'll feel the surge. Bruges is overrun on Easter Saturday specifically, with day-trippers from Brussels and Amsterdam piling in, though it calms down noticeably by Sunday evening.

Budapest and Krakow are the quiet wins. Both cities attract far fewer British tourists at Easter compared to summer, and the locals are largely going about their own Easter traditions rather than catering to stag parties. Porto is similar, it sees a bump but nothing like the July and August crush.

Valletta is a genuinely calm choice despite the local festivities. The island fills with Maltese families celebrating rather than foreign tourists, which makes the whole thing feel more real. It's one of the few Easter destinations where the bank holiday actually adds to the experience rather than just adding to the queues.

Flying out on Good Friday is almost always cheaper than flying on Easter Saturday. Easter Saturday is the single most expensive departure day of the long weekend, because every family in the UK with school-age children is trying to leave at the same time. Shift your outbound flight to Good Friday and your return to Tuesday and you'll often save £60 to £90 on the round trip alone.

On Ryanair from Stansted to Krakow, Good Friday departures are currently showing around £29 one-way, while the same route on Easter Saturday is tracking at £74. That's not a rounding error, that's a completely different budget. The same pattern holds on Wizz Air from Luton to Budapest and on easyJet from Gatwick to Porto.

Coming back on Easter Tuesday rather than Easter Monday makes another big difference. Easter Monday returns from Seville to Gatwick on easyJet are currently showing around £89 one-way. Tuesday drops back to around £54. Four nights Friday to Tuesday is genuinely the sweet spot for a long Easter break, and it's cheaper than three nights Saturday to Tuesday in most cases.

One honest caveat: early morning Ryanair flights from Stansted on bank holidays mean leaving North or Central London around 3:30am for a 6am departure. That's grim. Factor in whether you'd rather pay a bit more for a civilised easyJet departure from Gatwick, or just stay near Stansted the night before. A Premier Inn near the airport costs around £55 and might be the best £55 you spend on the whole trip.

Went to Porto last Easter on Ryanair from Stansted, departing Good Friday at 6:40am, returning Tuesday evening. Flights came to £83 return after bag fees, which stings a bit but was still fair for peak dates. Three nights in a guesthouse in the Bonfim neighbourhood cost £161 total, so the whole trip landed at just under £320 including food, wine, and a day trip to Guimarães by train.

What worked: Porto at Easter is genuinely quiet compared to summer, the pastéis de nata situation is excellent, and the Douro riverfront is far more enjoyable when you're not shoulder to shoulder with everyone from the Algarve. What didn't work: I underestimated how cold the evenings still are in late March. It hit 19°C in the day and dropped to 11°C after dark. Pack a proper layer.

If I were booking Easter 2026 right now, I'd probably go Budapest on Wizz Air from Luton. Returns are showing around £68 on Good Friday and Tuesday departures, the city is calm over Easter, and I've been meaning to go back for three years. You can eat and drink very well there for £40 a day all-in if you avoid the tourist-trap spots on the main square.

The one I'd skip this year is Bruges, purely because Easter Saturday turns it into a very expensive, very crowded chocolate shop. Lovely city, wrong weekend. Save it for a quiet November trip on the Eurostar and you'll like it a lot more.