Leisure in the Fast Lane

Glen Nisbett, a South African-born, London-based management accountant, is difficult to reach on weekends. He might be off "experiencing a real winter," he says, as he did in Bergen last January, or "catching up with an old friend" in Venice. Or he could be "having a riot" in New York or "just [seeing] the sun again," which he did on a last-minute break to Alicante in April. Or he may be recharging his batteries on a self-drive trip to Devon or Cornwall, to the south of France or to Germany's Mosel Valley, where he and his girlfriend stayed in a converted winery. "There are so many places I want to see, but I'm restricted in terms of how much time I can take off work," he explains. "So I pack as much as possible into two or three days at a time."

Like Nisbett, more and more Europeans are finding that the once-traditional four-week summer vacation is no longer an option. According to the European Travel Monitor, short trips of between one and three days accounted for 27% of all breaks taken in 1999. Six out of 10 trips now last a week or less. And short holidays are more ambitious than ever before.

Numerous factors are fueling the boom in minibreaks. Demanding jobs and erratic hours mean that longer holidays, which often need to be planned well in advance, may be difficult to arrange. Shorter, more frequent vacations often extended weekends or business trips fit into busy schedules better. Besides, money is plentiful, and so are good deals. Low-cost, no-frills airlines like Ireland's Ryanair, Richard Branson's Brussels-based Virgin Express and the U.K.'s Go, EasyJet and Buzz have opened up a growing list of destinations. For independent travelers, the Internet provides an easy way to shop around for the best bargains. For those who don't want to expend even that much effort, specialist tour operators offer a variety of tailored packages.

City trips take the biggest slice of the short-break cake. Paris, London and Rome remain the favored stops but among seasoned nomads "there's a feeling of 'Been there, done that'," says Christine Ball, spokeswoman for Travelscene, a leading U.K. tour operator. Hence the growing popularity of what were once "second-string" cities: Lyons and Carcassonne in France, Milan and Bologna in Italy and Bilbao and Seville in Spain. Eastern Europe is also catching on: Estonia's Tallinn, Latvia's Riga and Poland's Krakow are all billing themselves as "the new Prague." And Reykjavik, with its all-night street parties in summer and huge club scene year-round, is benefiting from the boom in young, hip tourists.

Travelers are not just taking more city breaks, they expect to be entertained while they're there. Says Robin Zimmermann, p.r. manager at TUI Germany, the country's largest tour group: "People want more out of a city than just sightseeing." Like fabulous food or their favorite music. One of TUI's most popular trips: a gastronomy weekend in Lyons, which culminates in an evening meal at the restaurant of the original celebrity chef, Paul Bocuse. Opera buffs are flocking to Verona now that dozens of tour operators are offering tickets to Aida and La Traviata in its world-famous Arena as part of the tour. Dennis Bederoff, research director at the Swedish Tourist Authority, says that "everyone I know" who has visited London over the past year has gone to see Mamma Mia!, the musical tribute to Swedish supergroup Abba.

"Wellness" breaks are the latest trend for those who prefer rest to recreation at the weekend. Once the preserve of the elderly or infirm, spa breaks are now popular with the young and stressed. Current hip hideaway: the Anassa in Polis, Cyprus, which resembles a Greek monastery in design only.

Increasingly, European holidaymakers are going farther afield for quick kicks. Lyn Hughes, editor of Wanderlust, a magazine for independent travelers, says that a survey revealed that the city most readers wanted covered as a weekend break was Rio de Janeiro. "We're sending a writer down there this summer to see whether it can be done," she says dubiously. But Lucy Nicholson, product manager for upmarket tour operator Cox & Kings, which recently introduced four-night trips to both Rio and Cape Town, says it's "such a fabulous place that you won't even notice the jet lag." Her prediction for the next hot destination? Buenos Aires, a further three hours away. Fritidsresor Group, Scandinavia's largest tour operator, is market-testing long weekends in Toronto and Beijing. "It's only a nine-hour flight," says communications director Lottie Knutson, of Beijing. "If it's somewhere you've always wanted to go, you'll do it. It's a new way of thinking."