We all love a good holiday or weekend trip away from home, but sometimes what we want to do doesn’t match up with our partner’s idea of fun. While our other halves are fantastic company most of the time, getting them to happily spend the afternoon browsing local shops or relaxing on a spa retreat is often a losing battle.
If this sounds familiar, then it could be the perfect time to gather your best girlfriends and plan the girly weekend away that you’ve all been waiting for. However, deciding on the best location can be tricky, especially as there are so many places to choose from!
With this in mind, we here at Slingo have done the hard work for you, analysing 50 top European destinations, as well as 25 here in the UK, to reveal the best spots for a girly weekend away!
The Top UK Girls Trip Destinations
1. Bath - Girls Trip UK Score: 9.17
Bath is the top girls trip destination in the UK, earning an impressive overall score of 9.17/10. This beautiful city in the South West of England is famous for its natural hot springs, which saw it develop into a popular spa town as far back as Roman times! As such the city has one of the highest rates of spas in the country, making it an ideal place for a weekend of pampering.
Bath also has an excellent array of shops and markets, the most in the country for its size, while also playing host to plenty of coffee shops and places to indulge in a late-morning brunch.
2. Brighton - Girls Trip UK Score: 9.03
The second-best place in the UK for a girls weekend away is Brighton, which scored 9.03 overall. This popular resort town on the South coast of England actually has the highest number of spas per person in the whole of our study, even beating first-place Bath!
Away from the spa, Brighton offers a huge number of brunch options, with as many as 233.1 per 100,000 residents. Facing onto the sea, Brighton’s beach is a popular spot for taking in the sea air and snapping some holiday pics for the ‘gram, while the nearby Brighton pier offers plenty of seaside attractions.
3. York - Girls Trip UK Score: 7.64
York is the third-best city in the UK for a girls trip, with an overall score of 7.64. York performed well in every category, but really excelled in the number of brunch options and tea and coffee shops, such as the famous Betty’s Tea Rooms in the city centre.
This picturesque medieval city is a joy to wander around as you hop from shop to shop, with the iconic Shambles street being one of York’s most popular shopping destinations.
The Top UK Destination for each category
As we’ve seen from the top three UK cities in our study, Brighton is home to the most spas per person, while Bath is home to the most shopping malls and markets. However, the historic market town of Windsor, while famous for its impressive castle which is one of the UK’s royal residences, has the highest rate of brunch options and tea and coffee shops in our study.
We also considered the online popularity of these cities when creating our ranking, which we explored in two different ways. The city with the most searches for weekend trips is Manchester, which saw 14,660 UK searches over the last year. When it came to Instagram hashtags for weekends away, London came top of the pile with a total of 100,511 posts.
The Top Girls Trip Destinations in Europe
1. Venice - Girls Trip Abroad Score: 8.88
The top European destination for a girls trip is Venice, scoring a total of 8.88/10. The stunning city of Venice is famous for its unique system of canals and waterways, making it only accessible by boat or on foot.
This iconic Italian city scored well across the board but excelled when it came to brunch options and tea and coffee shops, offering the highest rate of both in our study. Between the gorgeous location, the amazing local food and some of the best photo ops you’ll find, what’s not to love?
2. Amsterdam - Girls Trip Abroad Score: 8.57
Taking second place is Amsterdam, the beautiful capital of the Netherlands, with a score of 8.57. Amsterdam is another city defined by its system of canals and while, unlike Venice, it is accessible by car, the most popular mode of transportation here is bicycles.
Amsterdam is a popular getaway destination for many different reasons, from its reputation as a party city to its excellent collection of galleries and museums, the most famous of which is the Rijksmuseum.
3. Prague - Girls Trip Abroad Score: 8.20
Prague takes third place with a score of 8.20. The Czech capital scored well across the board, with a large number of brunch options and tea and coffee shops on offer, but didn’t place first in any one category.
Prague is famous for its old town, which is home to plenty of stunning medieval and baroque architecture, such as the iconic Kinsky Palace. In fact, the city’s beautiful scenery, such as the Astronomical Tower and impressive Powder Tower, earned it the nickname “the City of a Hundred Spires”, so there’ll be plenty of Insta-worthy backdrops for your holiday snaps.
The Top European Destination for each category
Our first place winner, Venice, is the top European destination for brunch options and tea and coffee shops, with the highest rate per 100,000 people for both factors. However, the Swiss capital, Zurich, would be the top choice for a girly spa trip abroad, with 45.9 spas per 100,000 people. The top destination for shopping is glitzy Monaco, which has the highest number of shopping malls and markets for its size.
The most frequently-searched European city in our study was Amsterdam, which saw as many as 52,000 UK searches for weekend trips over the last year alone. Meanwhile, Paris took the top spot for the number of weekend holiday Instagram hashtags with more than 72,500 posts!
Methodology
We wanted to find out which destinations in the UK and abroad were the best choice for a girls weekend away. To do this, we compiled articles and online lists such as Glamour Magazine, Grazia and Travel and Leisure, which we then used to build a list of 25 UK destinations and 50 across greater Europe.
We limited the scope of our study the Europe and a few neighbouring locations, such as Istanbul and Tel Aviv, as these were more likely to be chosen for a weekend trip than places further from the UK. We also didn’t include island locations such as Santorini because their data might not be directly comparable to that of large towns and cities.
Once we had our lists of destinations, we used Tripadvisor to gather several factors. Using the restaurants feature, we found the number of establishments under the “brunch” filter, as well as the number of results for “coffee and tea”. We also collected the number of spas in each location, as well as the number of shopping malls and flea and street markets, which we combined into a single “shopping” figure.
All Tripadvisor data was normalised against population data taken from World Population Review, and calculated to a rate per 100,000 residents. This allowed us to compare large and small cities on an even footing.
We also collected the number of searches for each city using Google Keyword Planner and the search term “weekend in [CITY]”. UK search data was collected covering the period from October 2022 to September 2023. Instagram data was then collected for the hashtags “#[CITY]weekend” and “#weekendin[CITY]”.
All six factors were then combined into an equally-weighted score out of ten to reveal the best destinations for a girls weekend trip. The scores for UK and European cities were calculated separately to account for search volumes being naturally higher in the UK for UK cities, meaning that scores across the two sections are not directly comparable.
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