Sun, snow or spas, escape for 48 hours

Prague rocks, from club/loungey Radost fx, to experimental space Roxy (best club in the Czech Dance Music Awards 2000), to Palac Akropolis, with its international DJs. Wing it with British Airways from £134 (next Saturday am to Monday am) through STA Travel (0870 160 6070) and find somewhere to lay your head (if you need sleep, that is).

Long after Damon Albarn caused overkill, Reykjavik still buzzes, with the likes of Cream as well as the two clubs Thomsen and Astro. Arctic Experience (01737 214 214) can get you in on the 9pm flight next Friday (arriving 11pm), give you two nights' bed and breakfast in the City Hotel and return you on Sunday on the 5pm to Heathrow. All for £272pp.

For Barcelona, bag a £146 return with easyJet (www.easyjet.co.uk): out next Friday pm, back Sunday pm.

Culture vultures

Easy French foodie break: Auberge de la F?ret - in the Flemish village of La Motte au Bois, Flanders, 43 miles south of Calais - does inventive regional cooking (fillet of plaice with snails and mushroom sauce, braised sirloin with braised endive in brown sugar, jugged hare with celery pastry, cod fillets with onions). Motor over with Inntravel (01653 629001) on the 6pm Hoverspeed from Dover next Friday (arriving for a late dinner), returning Sunday at 7pm from Calais. Yours for £126pp, including dinner and bed and breakfast at the Auberge on both nights and Channel crossings.

Do the Madrid art circuit the Friday after next on a two-nighter with Sovereign (08705 768373). The weekend costs £299pp, which includes bed and breakfast at the fourstar Tryp Reina Victoria, walking distance from the Prado Museum. Includes Friday/Sunday pm flights from Gatwick.

The same day, British Airways Holidays (0870 2424 243) has two nights in Florence at the central threestar Machiavelli Palace for £235pp. Bed and breakfast, including flights from Gatwick to Pisa.

Powder hounds

Book now for St Anton (season starts 14 December): FlexiSki (0870 90 90 754) has a weekend for city boys/girls. Leave City Airport Friday night (easy 30-minute check-in; back early Monday), for two nights in a three-star chalet. £495pp including flights to Zurich, cooked breakfast, afternoon tea and four-course dinner with wine. Boozing at Krazy Kanguruh extra.

Ski Weekend (01367 241636) can get you to Chamonix for a two-nighter next Friday (season's start), using Friday/Sunday evening flights from Heathrow to Geneva. Hit town around midnight, ski your pants off all day Saturday, party that night (Dick's Tea Bar etc), bash the pistes again on Sunday morning, waving farewell late afternoon. From £379pp bed and breakfast, including guide and two-star hotel.

Country softies

Moongate (00 353 503 73669), two hours south of Dublin, shatters the chintzy Irish clichÈ: rooms include the Swiss Room (yellow and gold silken cushions) and marbled master bedroom: 14 of you can take it for two nights next weekend at £250pp. Includes a gourmet breakfast, tea and six-course supper thrown in. Harpists and other musicians serenade you while you dine . Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) has Friday/Sunday night flights to Dublin for £119.41. Transfers organised by Moongate for £12pp.

In Charlton, West Sussex, the Landmark Trust (01628 825920) has Fox Hall, a perfect little Palladian pile. Four can rent it for three nights the weekend after next (from 7 December) for £381. You can order wine from Berry Bros and Rudd to be there for your arrival.

Footie fans

Spot stars Luis Figo, Raul and Zinedine Zidane when Real Madrid play Osasuna in the Spanish capital on Sunday, 2 December: departing Heathrow Saturday, 1 December. Fan Fare Events (0161 437 0002) has a twonighter in Madrid (back 9am Monday) for £335pp, including flights, bed and breakfast in a central three-star hotel and side-view match tickets. Or make for Milan to see AC Milan play top-of-the-table Chievo (Verona) on Sunday, 2 December. Liaisons Abroad (020 7376 4020) can get you tickets: £70 per ticket (second

Style seekers

Replenish your gladrags in Milan. With the exchange rate still great for Londoners, designer labels are a steal. Flying next Friday evening, Magic of Italy (020 8241 5135) has two nights for £385pp. Bed and breakfast at the central fourstar Hotel Galles, including Alitalia flights. Chill-out prereturn (late Sunday) at lakeside Como, 40 minutes away by train.

New York's luxury Carlyle, on Madison Avenue near Central Park, has a weekend discount that will cover half your flight: the reduced nightly rate of £203 per double represents a saving of £102. Call Leading Hotels of the World (00800 2888 8882). Bag Friday/Sunday night flights for £220 through Bridge the World (0870 444 7474).

Intrepid individuals

Marrakech is easy-access exotica: fly out next Friday pm and check in at Riad Noga - a seven-room ethnic-luxe townhouse with cool pool in the frenetic heart of the medina. Two nights with Abercrombie and Kent (0845 0700617) for £506pp bed and breakfast and flights.

Wangle a long weekend and walk in Tuscany from hill town Colle Val d'Elsa to Siena, with ATG Oxford (01865 315678). The terrain is straight out of Room with a View. You cover eight miles a day, sleeping in small hotels. Three nights (Friday-Sunday) £208pp bed and breakfast, including route advice, luggage/airport transfers. British Airways (0845 7733377) has Friday am/Monday pm flights to Pisa from £190.

Spa trekkers

Submit to Hungarian therapies on a two-nighter in Budapest with Eurobreak (020 8780 7700) at the four-star Danubius Gellert Hotel - where Madge sang Don't Cry For Me, Argentina. Two nights' bed and breakfast next weekend costs £339pp, including Friday pm/Monday am flights from Heathrow. The landmark inhouse Gellert Spa has foot massages (£1.40), underwater jet massage (£3.50), magnetomassage (£1.60), and half-hour massage (£4.70). Panic not - there is just time to get the hell out of the whole ghastly business that is the run-up to Christmas. Whether your bag is shopping or scoffing, clubs or facial scrubs, we have cheap weekend-away suggestions for you.

(Deals quoted were available at prices quoted at time of publishing)

FLIGHTS ONLY

Get a hot date to hole-up with one of the following. Next Saturday am (1 December), Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) can get you from Stansted to: Stockholm (£75.23), or Dublin (£99.41), both returning on Sunday night. At the same time Go (www.go-fly.com) can get you to Hamburg (Lubeck airport) for £167.11, and Buzz (www.buzzaway.com) offers Berlin for £120. EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) can do Luton to Geneva for £80 return (out Friday night, back Sunday); or Gatwick to Nice (out Friday pm, back Sunday am) for £97.90.