All destinations
Every place we cover, grouped by country. Each guide is built from real sources — creator videos, Wikivoyage, Wikipedia — and vetted before it is listed here.
Italy
- Rome— Ancient ruins, the Vatican, and unbeatable food.
- Florence— Renaissance art capital and Tuscan gateway.
- Venice— Canals, gondolas, and no other city like it.
- Milan— Fashion, the Duomo, and northern style.
- Naples— Birthplace of pizza and gateway to the Amalfi Coast.
- Bologna— Italy's food capital — ragù, tortellini, and porticoes.
- Turin— Elegant arcades, chocolate, and the Alps at the doorstep.
- Verona— Roman arena, Romeo & Juliet, and Lake Garda nearby.
- Genoa— Gritty maritime port, pesto's birthplace, gateway to Cinque Terre.
- Pisa— The Leaning Tower and a lively student city.
- Siena— Medieval Tuscan gem around the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo.
- Amalfi Coast— Cliffside villages, lemon groves, and turquoise sea.
- Cinque Terre— Five pastel cliff villages linked by coastal trails.
- Lake Como— Grand villas and mountains mirrored in a glassy lake.
- Sicily— Island of Greek temples, Etna, and extraordinary food.
- Palermo— Sicily's chaotic, delicious, history-layered capital.
- Sardinia— Caribbean-clear beaches and ancient nuraghe towers.
- Capri— Glamorous island of the Blue Grotto and sea stacks.
- Sorrento— Clifftop town and the perfect Amalfi & Capri base.
- Positano— The Amalfi Coast's most photogenic vertical village.
- Lucca— Intact Renaissance walls you can cycle around.
- Perugia— Umbria's hilltop capital of chocolate and jazz.
- Assisi— Serene medieval town of St. Francis and pink stone.
- Bari— Puglia's seafront capital of orecchiette and old town lanes.
- Lecce— The 'Florence of the South' in golden baroque stone.
- Taranto— Spartan-founded port whose old town sits on its own island, with the Ori di Taranto gold in the archaeological museum and mussels from the Mar Piccolo.
- Matera— Ancient cave-dwelling Sassi carved into the ravine.
- Bergamo— Walled hilltop Città Alta above the modern town.
- Parma— Home of Parmigiano and prosciutto — a foodie pilgrimage.
- Modena— Balsamic vinegar, Ferrari, and Osteria Francescana.
- Ravenna— Dazzling Byzantine gold-tile mosaics.
- Padua— Giotto's frescoes and an easy Venice day trip.
- Trieste— Habsburg cafés and a Central-European seaport soul.
- Rimini— Adriatic beach resort with a Roman past.
- Catania— Sicily's gritty baroque city under Mount Etna.
- Taormina— Sicilian clifftop resort with a Greek theatre and Etna views.
- Syracuse— Ancient Greek city and the island of Ortigia.
- Cagliari— Sardinia's sunny capital with a hilltop old town.
- Portofino— Tiny, glamorous Ligurian fishing harbour.
Austria
- Vienna— Imperial capital of Habsburg palaces, coffeehouse culture, and Steirereck's three-Michelin-star cooking.
- Salzburg— Mozart's baroque birthplace, ringed by Alps and set against the Hohensalzburg fortress.
- Hallstatt— Lakeside village of pastel houses stacked beneath the Dachstein Alps, one of Austria's most photographed spots.
- Innsbruck— Tyrolean capital with the gilded Golden Roof beneath dramatic Nordkette peaks reached by cable car from downtown.
- Wachau Valley— Danube-carved wine valley of terraced vineyards, apricot orchards, and hilltop abbeys between Melk and Krems.
- Graz— UNESCO old town with a modern art-museum spaceship, the Kunsthaus, dropped in the middle of it.
- Kitzbühel— Medieval Tyrolean town famed for the Hahnenkamm downhill ski race and its colorful arcaded main street.
- Zell am See— Alpine lake resort town used as a base for the Kitzsteinhorn glacier and Grossglockner High Alpine Road.
- Melk— Baroque Melk Abbey towers over the Danube at the Wachau Valley's western gateway.
- Bad Gastein— Belle Époque spa town built around a waterfall crashing through its center, historic thermal-bathing destination.
Croatia
- Dubrovnik— Marble-paved Old Town encircled by intact medieval walls above the Adriatic, the filming backdrop for King's Landing.
- Plitvice Lakes— UNESCO cascade of sixteen turquoise terraced lakes linked by wooden boardwalks through forest.
- Split— A living city built inside the ruins of Diocletian's Roman palace, right on the Adriatic waterfront.
- Hvar— Lavender-scented island famed for its yacht-set nightlife, hilltop fortress, and Adriatic's sunniest climate.
- Rovinj— Istria's postcard fishing town of pastel houses tumbling toward the sea beneath a hilltop belfry, and home to two-Michelin-star Agli Amici.
- Zagreb— Austro-Hungarian capital with a lively Dolac market and Noel, Croatia's only Michelin-starred restaurant.
- Zadar— Roman-era peninsula city known for the Sea Organ, a wave-powered instrument built into its waterfront steps.
- Korčula— Fishbone-planned walled town on a green island, traditionally cited as Marco Polo's birthplace.
- Pula— One of the world's best-preserved Roman amphitheaters still stages concerts in Istria's largest city.
- Brač— Home to Zlatni Rat, the pebble spit near Bol whose shape shifts with the current.
- Trogir— A compact UNESCO island town of Romanesque-Gothic streets just west of Split.
- Šibenik— UNESCO-listed St. James Cathedral built entirely of interlocking stone, overlooking a maze of stepped alleys.
- Vis— Adriatic's most remote inhabited island, closed to tourists until the 1990s and still the least developed.
Czechia
- Prague— Gothic-and-baroque 'City of a Hundred Spires' straddling the Vltava, from Charles Bridge to Prague Castle.
- Český Krumlov— A fairy-tale castle town wrapped by a horseshoe bend of the Vltava River.
- Kutná Hora— Silver-mining boomtown famous for the Sedlec Ossuary chapel decorated with tens of thousands of human bones.
- Karlovy Vary— Grand colonnaded spa town built around hot mineral springs, host to its own international film festival.
- Brno— Moravia's capital, home to the functionalist Villa Tugendhat and a lively student-driven food scene.
- Plzeň— Birthplace of Pilsner lager in 1842, still brewed at the original Pilsner Urquell brewery.
- Olomouc— Moravian university city centered on the UNESCO Holy Trinity Column, famous for its pungent tvarůžky cheese.
- Telč— UNESCO-listed square of Renaissance and baroque gabled houses ringed by a fish-pond moat.
France
- Paris— The Louvre, Eiffel Tower and a bistro-and-bakery culture unmatched anywhere else in the country.
- Provence— Lavender fields around Valensole and hilltop villages like Gordes define the postcard south of France.
- Mont-Saint-Michel— A tidal island abbey that has drawn pilgrims since the 8th century, best seen at high tide.
- Nice— The Promenade des Anglais and Vieux Nice's socca stalls anchor the Côte d'Azur's most walkable base.
- Lyon— France's official gastronomic capital, built on Paul Bocuse's legacy and the traditional bouchon.
- Loire Valley— Chateaux like Chambord and Chenonceau line France's longest river through vineyard country.
- Corsica— Napoleon's mountainous birth island, ringed by calanques and some of the Mediterranean's clearest water.
- Bordeaux— The world's wine capital, surrounded by Médoc and Saint-Émilion vineyards.
- Chamonix— The Aiguille du Midi cable car climbs to 3,842m for the closest ordinary access to Mont Blanc.
- Annecy— Canals and a turquoise glacial lake earn it the nickname 'Venice of the Alps'.
- Marseille— France's oldest city, home of bouillabaisse and the gateway to the Calanques fjords.
- Carcassonne— Europe's largest surviving medieval fortress city, double-walled and turreted above the Aude.
- Avignon— The fortified Palais des Papes recalls the 14th-century seat of the Western Schism popes.
- Colmar— Alsace's best-preserved old town, with canal-side timber houses in La Petite Venise.
- Cannes— The film festival's red carpet town, with a palm-lined Croisette and Le Suquet's old harbor.
- Strasbourg— Half-timbered Petite France quarter and the seat of the European Parliament on the Alsace wine route.
- Aix-en-Provence— Cézanne's home town, with a fountain-lined Cours Mirabeau and a Saturday market built for browsing.
- Biarritz— The birthplace of European surfing, with Belle Époque villas above Atlantic beach breaks.
- Toulouse— The 'Pink City' of brick architecture, cassoulet, and France's aerospace industry.
- Saint-Malo— A walled corsair port on Brittany's coast with tides that swing among the most extreme in Europe.
- Reims— The Gothic cathedral where French kings were crowned sits atop the Champagne region's grand maisons.
- Dijon— Burgundy's capital, the source of the mustard and the gateway to the Côte d'Or wine road.
Germany
- Berlin— A city rebuilt after division, layering Cold War history with Europe's most experimental art and club scene.
- Munich— Bavaria's capital, home to Oktoberfest, the Hofbräuhaus, and easy day trips to the Alps.
- Neuschwanstein / Füssen— Ludwig II's fairy-tale mountain castle that inspired Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle.
- Hamburg— Germany's great port city, with the Elbphilharmonie concert hall rising over the historic Speicherstadt warehouse district.
- Heidelberg— A ruined Renaissance castle overlooks Germany's oldest university town along the Neckar River.
- Cologne— A twin-spired Gothic cathedral that survived WWII bombing to anchor the Rhine's liveliest riverside city.
- Black Forest— Dense pine forests around Triberg's waterfalls, the birthplace of the cuckoo clock and Black Forest cake.
- Dresden— Baroque 'Florence on the Elbe' meticulously rebuilt after WWII firebombing, including the Frauenkirche.
- Rothenburg ob der Tauber— The best-preserved medieval walled town on the Romantic Road, with an intact city wall walk.
- Nuremberg— A medieval imperial castle city that also hosted the WWII war crimes trials, told at the Documentation Center.
- Bamberg— A UNESCO-listed old town of nine hills, famous for its smoky Rauchbier brewed nowhere else.
- Baden-Baden— An elegant 19th-century spa town whose Friedrichsbad baths once drew Mark Twain and European royalty.
- Frankfurt— Germany's financial skyline rises over Sachsenhausen, the birthplace of apple wine and Goethe.
- Potsdam— Sanssouci, the Prussian answer to Versailles, spreads across landscaped gardens just outside Berlin.
- Leipzig— Bach's home church, St. Thomas, anchors a city that helped launch the peaceful revolution of 1989.
- Regensburg— A remarkably intact medieval old town centered on Germany's oldest standing stone bridge, built in 1146.
- Stuttgart— Home to the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums in the heart of Germany's automotive industry.
- Lübeck— The former capital of the Hanseatic League, its brick Gothic old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- Trier— Germany's oldest city, with the best-preserved Roman city gate north of the Alps, the Porta Nigra.
- Bremen— The Town Musicians of Bremen statue and a Hanseatic market square defined by the Roland statue.
Greece
- Santorini— Caldera-rim villages of Oia and Fira with blue-domed churches perched above a collapsed volcanic crater.
- Athens— The Acropolis and Parthenon anchor a capital that now also holds Greece's only Michelin two-star restaurant, Delta.
- Mykonos— Whitewashed Cycladic town famed for its windmills, and the beach-club nightlife of Psarou and Paradise Beach.
- Crete/Chania— Venetian harbor town on Greece's largest island, gateway to the Samaria Gorge and Cretan mountain cuisine.
- Meteora— UNESCO-listed Byzantine monasteries perched atop sheer sandstone pillars in central Greece.
- Rhodes— A UNESCO-listed medieval Old Town built by the Knights Hospitaller, ringed by castle walls above the Aegean.
- Corfu— Venetian-Italian old town on the Ionian Sea, greener and lusher than the Cyclades, with a UNESCO-listed fortress skyline.
- Zakynthos— Home to the Navagio (Shipwreck) Beach cove and turtle-nesting bays of the Ionian Sea.
- Thessaloniki— Greece's second city and food capital, known for its souvlaki and bougatsa scene and Byzantine White Tower waterfront.
- Milos— Volcanic island with lunar-white Sarakiniko rock formations and the multicolored fishing village of Klima.
- Paros— Cycladic island balancing Parikia's marble-paved lanes with the windsurfing beaches of Naousa.
- Delphi— The ancient Greeks' sacred 'navel of the world,' with the Temple of Apollo set dramatically on Mount Parnassus.
- Kefalonia— The largest Ionian island, known for the turquoise waters of Myrtos Beach and the Melissani cave lake.
- Hydra— Car-free Saronic Gulf island of stone mansions climbing from a horseshoe harbor, reached by donkey and water taxi.
- Naxos— The largest and most fertile Cycladic island, home to the marble Portara gateway and quieter mountain villages.
- Nafplio— Romantic Venetian-era port town beneath the Palamidi fortress, widely called one of Greece's prettiest towns.
India
- Delhi— Old Delhi's Chandni Chowk lanes and Karim's Mughlai kitchens sit a few miles from Lutyens' colonial-era New Delhi.
- Agra— Home to the Taj Mahal, the marble mausoleum Shah Jahan built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal.
- Mumbai— India's financial capital and Bollywood home, where Britannia & Co.'s Parsi cafe cooking has fed the city since 1923.
- Jaipur— The Pink City's Amber Fort and City Palace showcase Rajput architecture alongside kachori shops like Rawat Misthan Bhandar.
- Udaipur— The 'City of Lakes' centers on Lake Pichola, ringed by palaces including the lake-floating Taj Lake Palace.
- Varanasi— Hindu pilgrims cremate the dead and bathe at dawn along the Ganges ghats in one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.
- Amritsar— The gleaming Golden Temple and its free community kitchen anchor Punjab's spiritual and culinary capital.
- Kerala/Kochi— Chinese fishing nets line Fort Kochi's waterfront, gateway to the palm-fringed backwaters of Kerala's houseboats.
- Goa— Former Portuguese colony of whitewashed churches, beach shacks and Goan seafood curries along the Arabian Sea.
- Jodhpur— The 'Blue City' is dominated by Mehrangarh Fort towering over indigo-washed old-town houses.
- Jaisalmer— A sandstone fort city rising from the Thar Desert, its ramparts still enclosing a living old town.
- Rishikesh— The self-declared 'Yoga Capital of the World' sits on the Ganges where it exits the Himalayan foothills.
- Hampi— Boulder-strewn ruins of the 14th-century Vijayanagara Empire scatter across a surreal granite landscape.
- Mysore— The opulent Mysore Palace illuminates with nearly 100,000 bulbs on Sunday nights, near the birthplace of masala dosa.
- Darjeeling— Terraced tea estates climb Himalayan foothills beneath views of Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak.
Japan
- Tokyo— The world's most Michelin-starred city, from Tsukiji Outer Market breakfasts to the neon Shibuya crossing.
- Kyoto— Over a thousand temples and shrines, including Fushimi Inari's endless torii gates.
- Osaka— Japan's street-food capital, famed for takoyaki and okonomiyaki around the neon Dotonbori canal.
- Hakone— Hot-spring ryokan town with views of Mount Fuji across Lake Ashi.
- Hiroshima— The Peace Memorial Park and A-Bomb Dome stand as a sobering historical landmark.
- Nara— Bowing wild deer roam Nara Park beside Todai-ji, home to a giant bronze Buddha.
- Sapporo— Gateway to Hokkaido's snow festival and miso ramen, with the historic Sapporo Beer Museum.
- Miyajima— Itsukushima Shrine's vermillion torii gate appears to float on the tide.
- Okinawa— Subtropical islands with coral reefs and a distinct Ryukyu culture.
- Kanazawa— Kenroku-en, one of Japan's three great gardens, sits beside a preserved samurai district.
- Nikko— Toshogu Shrine's gilded mausoleum sits deep in cedar-forested mountains.
- Kamakura— A seaside former capital centred on the Great Buddha of Kotoku-in.
- Fukuoka— Birthplace of tonkotsu ramen, with riverside yatai food stalls lighting up at night.
- Kobe— Home of the original Kobe beef, plus a hillside port skyline.
- Takayama— An Edo-period old town of dark-wood merchant houses in the Japanese Alps, famed for Hida beef.
- Hakodate— The night view from Mount Hakodate ranks among Japan's finest, paired with a famed seafood market.
- Beppu— Japan's hot-spring capital, famous for its steaming 'hells' of coloured boiling ponds.
- Nagoya— Known for hitsumabushi grilled eel and the reconstructed Nagoya Castle.
- Nagasaki— A layered history of Dutch trade and the Atomic Bomb Museum overlooking the harbour.
- Yokohama— Japan's largest Chinatown sits beside the modern Minato Mirai harbour skyline.
- Matsumoto— One of Japan's original wooden castles, the black 'Crow Castle', rises against the Alps.
- Yakushima— A UNESCO rainforest island of moss-covered ancient cedars.
- Okayama— Korakuen, among Japan's three finest landscape gardens, sits beside a black-walled castle.
Mexico
- Mexico City— A world-class dining capital anchored by Pujol and Quintonil, plus the Aztec ruins beneath the Zócalo.
- Chichén Itzá— The stepped pyramid El Castillo, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
- Oaxaca— The birthplace of mole and mezcal, with Zapotec ruins at Monte Albán just outside town.
- Tulum— Maya ruins perched on an oceanfront cliff above a white-sand beach.
- Cancún— Caribbean turquoise water along the Hotel Zone's beach strip and easy access to Maya ruins.
- Baja/Cabo— The dramatic rock arch at Land's End where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific.
- San Miguel de Allende— A pink-stone colonial town centered on the neo-Gothic Parroquia, now a major arts hub.
- Puerto Vallarta— A cobblestoned Pacific coast beach town with a lively Malecón boardwalk.
- Playa del Carmen— A walkable beach town on Quinta Avenida with ferry access to Cozumel's reefs.
- Guanajuato— A former silver-mining city of underground tunnel roads and candy-colored hillside houses.
- Guadalajara— The birthplace of mariachi and tequila's home region lies just outside the city.
- Cozumel— World-class reef diving along the Palancar and Columbia reef systems.
- Mérida— Yucatán's colonial capital, a gateway to Chichén Itzá and the region's cenotes.
- Isla Mujeres— A laid-back golf-cart island off Cancún with calm swimming beaches like Playa Norte.
- Tuxtla/San Cristóbal— A highland Chiapas town near Sumidero Canyon, with a strong Maya indigenous culture.
- Puebla— The birthplace of mole poblano and Talavera pottery, framed by colonial-era churches.
- Valle de Guadalupe— Mexico's leading wine region, dotted with architect-designed tasting rooms and farm-to-table restaurants.
- Monterrey— A modern industrial city ringed by the dramatic peaks of Cerro de la Silla and Chipinque.
Netherlands
- Amsterdam— Canal-ring capital with the Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank House, and a Bib Gourmand dining scene packed into the historic grachtengordel.
- Keukenhof— The world's largest flower garden, with over seven million tulips and daffodils blooming each spring.
- Rotterdam— Rebuilt after WWII into a showcase of bold modern architecture like the Cube Houses and Markthal.
- Giethoorn— Car-free 'Venice of the North' where thatched farmhouses are reached only by footbridge or boat.
- Utrecht— Tiered wharf-level canals lined with cafe terraces beneath the medieval Dom Tower.
- Zaanse Schans— Open-air cluster of working 18th-century windmills and green wooden houses beside the Zaan river.
- The Hague— Seat of the Dutch government and the Mauritshuis, home to Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring.
- Maastricht— Burgundian southern city with Roman-era vaulted cellars, a Dominican-church-turned-bookstore, and a French-Belgian-inflected food scene.
- Delft— Blue-and-white Delftware pottery and the canal views that inspired Vermeer's cityscapes.
- Haarlem— Compact Golden Age city of Frans Hals paintings and a Grote Markt ringed with gabled houses.
- Leiden— Rembrandt's birthplace and the Netherlands' oldest university town, threaded with quiet canals.
- Groningen— Youthful university city in the north known for its bicycle-first streets and the eccentric Groninger Museum.
Poland
- Kraków— Poland's former royal capital, with Wawel Castle, Europe's largest medieval market square, and the gateway to Auschwitz.
- Warsaw— A meticulously rebuilt Old Town after WWII devastation, now paired with a fast-rising modern dining scene.
- Auschwitz-Birkenau— The former Nazi concentration and extermination camp, preserved as a memorial and UNESCO World Heritage site.
- Gdańsk— Hanseatic Baltic port city of merchant townhouses along Long Market, birthplace of the Solidarity movement.
- Zakopane— Gateway to the jagged Tatra Mountains and the wooden highland architecture of Poland's winter capital.
- Wrocław— A city of a hundred bridges and hidden bronze dwarf statues, now home to Michelin-starred BABA.
- Wieliczka Salt Mine— A 13th-century working salt mine descending 300 meters, with chapels and chandeliers carved entirely from salt.
- Poznań— Old Market Square famed for its mechanical butting goats atop the Renaissance town hall.
- Malbork— The largest brick castle in the world, built by the Teutonic Knights on the Nogat River.
- Toruń— Nicolaus Copernicus's brick-Gothic birthplace, famous for its gingerbread bakeries dating back centuries.
Portugal
- Lisbon— Hilltop capital of tiled facades, yellow trams, and 18 Michelin-starred restaurants including José Avillez's two-star Belcanto.
- Porto— Port wine cellars line the Douro River below a UNESCO-listed old town famous for the artery-clogging francesinha sandwich.
- Sintra— A UNESCO World Heritage hillside of fantastical palaces, including the candy-colored Pena Palace, in a cool misty forest.
- Algarve/Lagos— Golden sea-cliffs and grotto-lined beaches like Ponta da Piedade define Portugal's southern coast resort hub.
- Madeira— Volcanic Atlantic island of levada trail hikes, subtropical gardens, and dramatic sea cliffs at Cabo Girão.
- Azores— Volcanic crater lakes and hydrangea-lined pastures on São Miguel, Portugal's remote mid-Atlantic archipelago.
- Douro Valley— Terraced vineyard valley producing Port wine, best seen by river cruise or the Pinhão-to-Peso da Régua train.
- Cascais— Former fishing village turned upscale beach resort on the Lisbon coast, with the dramatic Boca do Inferno sea cave.
- Évora— UNESCO-listed Alentejo city with a Roman temple, a chapel walled in human bones, and hearty regional cooking.
- Nazaré— Fishing town famous for the record-breaking giant waves that big-wave surfers ride off Praia do Norte.
- Coimbra— Home to one of Europe's oldest universities and its baroque Biblioteca Joanina library.
- Óbidos— A medieval walled town famous for ginjinha cherry liqueur served in chocolate cups.
- Braga— Portugal's religious capital, crowned by the baroque staircase sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte.
- Aveiro— The 'Venice of Portugal,' with candy-striped moliceiro boats gliding through its canals.
- Guimarães— The 'birthplace of Portugal,' its UNESCO-listed medieval center anchored by the castle where Afonso Henriques was born.
Spain
- Barcelona— Gaudí's still-unfinished Sagrada Família anchors a city built for wandering the Gothic Quarter and Boqueria market.
- Madrid— The Prado and Reina Sofía hold Spain's greatest art alongside a tapas and vermouth culture that runs past midnight.
- Seville— Flamenco's spiritual home, with the Alcázar's Mudéjar palaces and the world's largest Gothic cathedral.
- Granada— The Alhambra's Nasrid palaces against a Sierra Nevada backdrop, plus free tapas with every drink.
- San Sebastián— Per capita, among the most Michelin-starred cities on earth, home to Arzak, Mugaritz and Akelarre plus Parte Vieja's pintxo bars.
- Mallorca— Serra de Tramuntana cliff villages balance Palma's Gothic cathedral against cove beaches.
- Valencia— The birthplace of paella, paired with Santiago Calatrava's futurist City of Arts and Sciences.
- Ibiza— The Balearics' nightlife capital, with a Dalt Vila UNESCO old town by day.
- Córdoba— The Mezquita's forest of striped horseshoe arches records Córdoba's run as Europe's largest 10th-century city.
- Toledo— A walled hill city where Christian, Muslim and Jewish quarters and El Greco's paintings still stand side by side.
- Tenerife— Spain's highest peak, Mount Teide, rises from a Canary Island ringed by black-sand beaches.
- Bilbao— Gehry's titanium Guggenheim transformed a former industrial port into a design and pintxo destination.
- Málaga— Picasso's birthplace, now a museum-dense old town backing onto Costa del Sol beaches.
- Santiago de Compostela— The Camino de Santiago's endpoint, where pilgrims arrive at a Romanesque-Baroque cathedral said to hold St. James's remains.
- Ronda— A whitewashed pueblo split by a 120m gorge, crossed by the 18th-century Puente Nuevo.
- Girona— A walled medieval old town and the closest base to El Celler de Can Roca, repeatedly ranked among the world's best restaurants.
- Salamanca— A golden sandstone university town founded in 1218, one of Europe's oldest.
- Menorca— The quietest Balearic island, its coastline protected as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of coves and Talayotic ruins.
- Segovia— A Roman aqueduct still standing without mortar, plus a fairy-tale Alcázar said to have inspired Disney.
- Cádiz— One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, wrapped almost entirely by the Atlantic.
- Zaragoza— The Basílica del Pilar rises over the Ebro in a city that blends Roman, Mudéjar and Baroque layers.
Switzerland
- Zermatt— A car-free alpine village where the Matterhorn's pyramid peak dominates every street-end view.
- Lucerne— The covered wooden Chapel Bridge and Lake Lucerne waterfront make this the postcard image of Switzerland.
- Interlaken— Wedged between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, it's the adventure-sports gateway to the Jungfrau region.
- Zurich— Switzerland's financial capital pairs a medieval Altstadt along the Limmat river with a dense concentration of Michelin-starred kitchens.
- Jungfraujoch— The 'Top of Europe' cog railway station at 3,454m sits between the Jungfrau and Mönch peaks beside the Aletsch Glacier.
- Geneva— The Jet d'Eau fountain and UN headquarters anchor this lakeside diplomatic hub on Lake Geneva.
- Grindelwald— Sitting directly beneath the north face of the Eiger, it's the launch point for the First cliff walk and Männlichen cable car.
- Lauterbrunnen— A sheer-walled glacial valley with 72 waterfalls, including the Staubbach Fall that plunges almost straight off the cliff above the village.
- Bern— Switzerland's capital has a UNESCO-listed medieval Old Town of sandstone arcades built on a bend in the Aare river.
- Montreux— A mild-climate resort on Lake Geneva known for its palm-lined promenade and the lakeside Chillon Castle just down the shore.
- St. Moritz— A glamorous Engadine ski resort that has hosted the Winter Olympics twice and remains synonymous with high-altitude luxury.
- Lugano— Palm trees and Italianate piazzas line Lake Lugano in this Ticino city where Swiss precision meets Italian style.
- Basel— A Rhine-side city with one of the world's densest concentrations of art museums, headlined by the Fondation Beyeler.
- Gstaad— A low-key, car-restricted Alpine village in the Bernese Oberland long favored by European royalty and celebrities for its discretion.
- Appenzell— Painted wooden farmhouse facades and the pungent local Appenzeller cheese define this rural canton where women only won the vote in 1990.
- Locarno— A sub-tropical microclimate on Lake Maggiore's northern tip hosts the historic Piazza Grande and its international film festival each August.
Thailand
- Bangkok— Jay Fai's Michelin-starred crab omelette and the Yaowarat Chinatown street-food strip anchor Southeast Asia's densest food capital.
- Chiang Mai— Northern Lanna capital famed for khao soi curry noodles and a walled old-town packed with temples like Wat Phra Singh.
- Phuket— Thailand's largest island pairs Patong's nightlife with Phuket Old Town's Sino-Portuguese shophouses and southern Thai cooking.
- Krabi— Limestone karst cliffs rise straight out of the Andaman Sea, the launch point for Railay and the Phi Phi islands.
- Koh Samui— Gulf-side island of coconut plantations and Chaweng Beach resorts with easy boat access to Angthong Marine Park.
- Koh Phi Phi— Maya Bay's cliff-ringed cove, made famous by the film 'The Beach', is reachable only by boat.
- Ayutthaya— UNESCO-listed ruins of the former Siamese capital, with the iconic Buddha head entwined in tree roots at Wat Mahathat.
- Railay— A car-free peninsula accessible only by longtail boat, ringed by karst cliffs that draw rock climbers worldwide.
- Chiang Rai— Home to the dazzling White Temple (Wat Rong Khun) and the Golden Triangle where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet.
- Koh Tao— Thailand's top scuba-diving hub, with reef dive sites like Chumphon Pinnacle and some of the cheapest PADI certification in the world.
- Pai— A laid-back mountain town reached via 762 curves of highway, known for its canyon, hot springs and backpacker night market.
- Koh Lanta— A quieter Andaman island of long sandy beaches and Old Town stilt houses, less developed than neighboring Phuket.
- Sukhothai— Thailand's first capital, its UNESCO historical park scattered with lotus-bud chedis best explored by bicycle at dawn.
- Kanchanaburi— Site of the Bridge over the River Kwai and the sobering Death Railway museum documenting WWII history.
- Khao Sok— Rainforest older than the Amazon, with jungle treehouse stays and the emerald limestone lake of Cheow Lan.
Türkiye
- Istanbul— The only city spanning two continents, with Ottoman imperial architecture, the Grand Bazaar, and a Michelin-rated dining scene.
- Cappadocia— Sunrise hot-air balloon flights over volcanic fairy chimneys and cave-carved cities like Göreme and Derinkuyu.
- Antalya— Turquoise-coast resort hub with a Roman-Ottoman old town (Kaleiçi) wrapped around a working yacht harbor.
- Bodrum— Whitewashed Aegean peninsula built around a Crusader castle, now home to Michelin-starred kitchens like Maçakızı.
- Pamukkale— Blinding-white travertine terraces of mineral pools sitting above the ruins of ancient Hierapolis.
- Ephesus/Selçuk— One of the best-preserved Roman cities in the Mediterranean, anchored by the Library of Celsus and the Great Theatre.
- İzmir— Aegean port city with a laid-back seafront promenade and the rising Urla wine-and-farm-to-table dining region on its doorstep.
- Fethiye— Gateway to the Lycian Way and Ölüdeniz's Blue Lagoon, with rock-cut Lycian tombs overlooking the harbor.
- Gaziantep— UNESCO City of Gastronomy since 2015, famed for EU-protected pistachio baklava and centuries-old kebab houses like İmam Çağdaş.
- Kaş— Low-key diving town on the Lycian coast with boat trips to the sunken city of Kekova.
- Mardin— Honey-colored stone city on a hill above the Mesopotamian plain, with Syriac Christian monasteries and Arabic-influenced architecture.
- Çeşme— Windsurfing beaches and thermal springs on the Aegean peninsula west of İzmir, popular with Istanbul weekenders.
- Bursa— First Ottoman capital, known for İskender kebab, silk trade history, and the Uludağ mountain backdrop.
- Ankara— Turkey's capital, home to Anıtkabir (Atatürk's mausoleum) and the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.
- Konya— Spiritual home of the whirling dervishes and the Mevlana Museum, mausoleum of the Sufi poet Rumi.
- Trabzon— Black Sea port city and gateway to the cliffside Sümela Monastery carved into a forested mountainside.
- Safranbolu— UNESCO World Heritage old town of Ottoman timber-framed mansions clustered in a river valley.
United Kingdom
- London— World-class museums, West End theatre, and the country's densest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants.
- Edinburgh— A medieval Old Town and Georgian New Town beneath a volcanic castle, home to the world's largest arts festival.
- Isle of Skye— Jagged Cuillin peaks, the Old Man of Storr, and Fairy Pools make this the Highlands' most dramatic island.
- Cotswolds— Honey-colored limestone villages like Bourton-on-the-Water and Bibury define the English countryside idyll.
- Lake District— Glacial lakes and fells that inspired Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter, England's premier hiking country.
- Cornwall— Rugged Atlantic coastline, the Eden Project's biomes, and St Ives' art galleries and surf beaches.
- Oxford— Wander the honey-stone quads of an 800-year-old university that inspired Tolkien and Lewis Carroll.
- York— Walk the intact medieval city walls and the Shambles, then descend into the Viking history under Jorvik.
- Cambridge— Punt the River Cam past King's College Chapel, one of the finest examples of late Gothic architecture.
- Bath— Georgian crescents built around Britain's only natural hot springs and a preserved Roman bathing complex.
- Manchester— The cradle of the Industrial Revolution, now a live-music and football powerhouse with a thriving food scene.
- Stonehenge / Salisbury— A 5,000-year-old stone circle beside Salisbury's cathedral, home to the best-preserved of the four original Magna Carta copies.
- Inverness / Loch Ness— Gateway to the Highlands and the mist-covered loch famous for its monster legend and ruined Urquhart Castle.
- Liverpool— The Beatles' birthplace, with a UNESCO-listed waterfront of restored Victorian docks turned museums.
- Brighton— A pebble-beach seaside town with the exotic Royal Pavilion and Britain's most vibrant LGBTQ+ nightlife scene.
- Snowdonia— Wales's highest peak, Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon, anchors a national park of slate villages and mountain railways.
- Glasgow— Scotland's largest city mixes Charles Rennie Mackintosh architecture with a raucous live-music scene.
- Windsor— The world's oldest and largest inhabited castle, still a working royal residence for over 900 years.
- Belfast— The shipyard that built the Titanic, told through an award-winning museum, plus politically charged mural tours.
- Canterbury— The UNESCO-listed cathedral that has drawn pilgrims since Thomas Becket's 1170 murder, immortalized by Chaucer.
- Cardiff— A Norman castle remodeled with Gothic fantasy interiors anchors Wales's compact, walkable capital.
- Whitby— A gothic ruined abbey overlooking the fishing harbor that inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula.
United States
- New York— The country's densest concentration of world-class restaurants, museums, and Broadway theater.
- Grand Canyon— A mile-deep gorge carved by the Colorado River, among the most dramatic landscapes on Earth.
- San Francisco— Steep hills, the Golden Gate Bridge, and a food scene anchored by Chinatown and the Ferry Building Marketplace.
- Los Angeles— Hollywood, beach towns from Venice to Malibu, and one of the country's most diverse food scenes.
- Las Vegas— Casino resorts, celebrity-chef restaurants, and nonstop entertainment on the Strip.
- Yellowstone— The world's first national park, with Old Faithful's geysers and free-roaming bison herds.
- New Orleans— Creole and Cajun cooking, live jazz on Frenchmen Street, and the French Quarter's balconied streets.
- Washington DC— The National Mall's free Smithsonian museums alongside the monuments of the U.S. capital.
- Yosemite— Granite cliffs like El Capitan and Half Dome rising over waterfalls and giant sequoias.
- Chicago— Deep-dish pizza, a skyline of modernist architecture, and Lake Michigan's waterfront.
- Hawaii/Maui— The Road to Hana's waterfalls and the sunrise crater views of Haleakalā.
- Miami— Cuban food in Little Havana, Art Deco architecture on South Beach, and Latin American nightlife.
- Boston— Revolutionary War history along the Freedom Trail and classic New England seafood.
- Zion— Red sandstone cliffs and the wade-through-water Narrows canyon hike.
- Seattle— Pike Place Market, coffee culture, and easy access to the Cascades and Puget Sound.
- Nashville— Honky-tonks on Broadway and the birthplace of hot chicken and country music.
- Sedona— Red-rock buttes like Cathedral Rock ring a desert town known for hiking and vortex tourism.
- Austin— Live music on Sixth Street and some of the country's most decorated barbecue trailers.
- San Diego— Year-round beach weather, a historic Old Town, and the country's most-visited zoo.
- Charleston— Antebellum mansions on the Battery and a Lowcountry food scene built on shrimp and grits.
- Key West— The southernmost point in the continental U.S., Hemingway's former home, and sunset celebrations at Mallory Square.
- Savannah— Spanish-moss-draped squares laid out in the 18th century, unchanged in its historic core.
- Portland— A food-cart city surrounded by waterfalls, breweries, and the Willamette Valley wine country.
- Santa Fe— Adobe architecture, Pueblo and Spanish colonial history, and a nationally ranked fine-art market.
Vietnam
- Hanoi— Vietnam's capital wraps a thousand-year-old Old Quarter around bun cha stalls now covered by Michelin's Vietnam guide.
- Ho Chi Minh City— The country's largest city and most Michelin Bib Gourmand-decorated, from com tam broken rice to War Remnants Museum history.
- Hoi An— A UNESCO-listed lantern-lit trading port famous for cao lau noodles and tailor shops that stitch clothes overnight.
- Ha Long Bay— Nearly 2,000 limestone karsts rise from emerald water, best seen from an overnight cruise junk boat.
- Da Nang— A coastal boomtown with the Dragon Bridge, Marble Mountains, and a Michelin-covered mi quang noodle scene.
- Sapa— Terraced rice paddies climb the slopes below Fansipan, Indochina's highest peak, through Hmong and Dao villages.
- Hue— The former imperial capital's Citadel and royal tombs sit along the Perfume River, birthplace of bun bo hue.
- Ninh Binh— Karst valleys and rice paddies traversed by sampan boat through Tam Coc, dubbed 'Ha Long Bay on land'.
- Phu Quoc— Vietnam's largest island, ringed by white-sand beaches and famous for its traditional fish-sauce production.
- Mekong Delta— A maze of rivers and floating markets like Cai Rang, where the Mekong fans out toward the South China Sea.
- Da Lat— A French colonial hill station in the Central Highlands known for cool climate, pine forests and coffee farms.
- Phong Nha— Gateway to Son Doong, the world's largest cave, inside a UNESCO karst national park.
- Ha Giang— Vietnam's wildest motorbike loop, switchbacking through the Dong Van karst plateau near the Chinese border.