Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder.

It's Friday the 9th of February and I'm recording this in the afternoon,

just at about the time that tens of thousands of people will be heading for airports

and international railway stations

in order to head away on a city break to Europe. And I want to talk about that today because

it's been quite a week for the city break. First of all, Advantage Travel Partnership,

who I met a couple of days ago, tell me that

the traditional favourites of Amsterdam and Barcelona have actually been deposed from the

top four city breaks by, would you believe, Krakow in Poland and also Reykjavik in Iceland?

A couple of favourites, Paris and Rome, stay in their top four.

But it's really interesting to see what's happening.

First of all, Krakow is there because it's an exquisite city.

I was lucky enough to be there in December. I've actually

travelled there many times since, would you believe, the mid-1980s. And it just gets better and better

in terms of the tourism offering. It's also, and this is something that Advantage Travel

Partnership was very clean to get across extremely affordable.

You've got loads of choice in terms of getting there from across the UK.

And when you get there, everything's so easy.

You've got a cheap train into town.

You've got very inexpensive places to stay and eat and drink.

You've got great guides. You've got astonishing

things nearby. The tragedy of Auschwitz is told close to the city. There's also the people who

...