City breaks vs. resort holidays is one of the eternal travel choices. They deliver fundamentally different experiences, and the 'better' option depends on what your everyday life looks like at the moment of the trip.
Choose city break when
Your day-to-day life is calm and low-stimulus. You want intellectual and cultural input. You want to walk a lot, see new things, eat new food. You don't need to recover from anything specific.
Good city break destinations for women: Lisbon, Vienna, Edinburgh, Krakow, Porto, Copenhagen, Seville. All walkable, safe, full of culture, affordable to moderately priced.
Choose resort when
Your day-to-day life is exhausting and high-stimulus. You want to do almost nothing for several days. You have children whose primary need is unstructured play space. You're recovering from something (illness, divorce, work burnout).
Resort doesn't have to mean all-inclusive concrete blocks. Boutique hotels with pools, agriturismo in Italy, beach houses on Greek islands, riads in Marrakech all qualify.
The hybrid that often works best
3-4 days in a city (cultural input) followed by 3-4 days in a resort/quiet location (recovery). Lisbon then beach in Algarve. Rome then Tuscany countryside. Athens then Greek island. London then Cotswolds. Combines exploration with rest in a single trip.
What to skip if you don't enjoy it
Major theme parks unless you have kids in the right age range. Mass tourist landmarks if they don't actually interest you (you don't have to see the Mona Lisa, or the Eiffel Tower close up). 'Must see' bucket-list destinations that other people sold you — Petra, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat are spectacular for some people and underwhelming for others.
The right trip matches your current state, not your aspirational one. If you're exhausted, don't book a city break thinking it'll energise you — it won't. Match the trip to what you actually need.