Austria
1
Bermuda
2
Hamilton
Every bus route and ferry line on Bermuda starts in Hamilton, so from a room here you can take the bus to the South Shore beaches or the ferry to the Royal Naval Dockyard, then walk back to...
St. George's
Stay a night in St. George's and you can walk from your bed to the old lanes around King's Square, the snorkelling cove at Tobacco Bay and the forts on the north shore, with no bus back to...
Brazil
1
Chile
6
Santiago
Come in spring or autumn and give the city three days, with a fourth for the wine valleys or the coast.
San Pedro de Atacama
The geysers and high lagoons sit almost two thousand metres higher than the town where you sleep, so the order you book the tours in decides how you feel all week.
Puerto Varas
Book three nights, not one: Osorno can sit in cloud for days, and a spare night gives you the chance of a clear morning at the Petrohué falls.
Puerto Natales
Book your park refugios first, then fit your Puerto Natales nights around them: a night either side of Torres del Paine gives you time to buy gear, catch the early bus and come back to a...
Ancud
If the penguins are why you came to Chiloé, sleep in Ancud and not Castro: the boats at Puñihuil are under an hour away, and the town itself fills the day you are not on the water.
Rapa Nui
Stay in Hanga Roa and the moai at Tahai are a walk along the coast from your room, so every clear evening of the trip can end there at sunset.
Croatia
2
Dubrovnik
Walk the walls at opening time on your first morning. Cruise passengers fill the old town from mid morning, so the early hours are the quiet ones.
Rovinj
Stay in the old town or beside it: Rovinj's best hours are over before the day-trippers arrive.
France
6
Paris
Give Paris four days and spend most of them walking: the neighbourhoods along the river are the reason to come, more than the museums.
Lyon
Plan your days in Lyon around its food: the market halls in the morning, the silk weavers' covered passages on the Croix-Rousse one afternoon, and the funicular up to the Fourvière lookouts...
Annecy
Be on the canals by eight, before the Geneva day-trippers arrive, then give the lake the rest of the day by boat, by bike or under a paraglider.
Avignon
Book a room inside the walls: the palace is a few minutes' walk from your door, and trains reach Arles in twenty minutes and Nîmes in about thirty-five.
Colmar
Sleep in the old town and you have the canals to yourself before ten; give the next morning to the wine villages before their coaches arrive.
Mont-Saint-Michel
After six the coaches have gone, so sleep on the rock or at La Caserne on the mainland, and walk the empty lanes at dusk and the bay at first light.
Germany
3
Munich
Spend your evenings in a beer garden, such as the one under the Chinese Tower in the Englischer Garten, and your days walking between the Residenz, the Viktualienmarkt and the museums.
Nuremberg
Give Nuremberg two or three nights: you can walk the walled old town up to the castle, then stand in Courtroom 600, where the Nazi leaders were tried.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Book a night inside the walls and you can walk the town wall before breakfast, while it is still quiet. After dinner, go back to the Plönlein once the lanes have emptied.
Iceland
10
Mývatn
Why drive straight through on the ring road when a bed by the lake puts you on a crater rim before the tour buses arrive and in hot water after dark?
Höfn
Stay the night for langoustine at the harbour where the boats unload it, and spend the next morning on the black dunes under Vestrahorn, a short drive east.
Akureyri
A lunch stop on the ring road gets you the church steps and a coffee; a night here adds a whale boat from the harbour, an evening in the Forest Lagoon and a morning on the island of Hrísey.
Borgarnes
Stop for the night an hour out of Reykjavík and you start Snæfellsnes or the Reykholt valley next morning with the drive already done, after an evening on the saga sites and in the town...
Vestmannaeyjar
Drive off the morning ferry and you can be on the rim of Eldfell before lunch; stay the night, because the puffins at Stórhöfði are at their busiest in the evening.
Vík
Storms on this coast can close the Ring Road and Reynisfjara for hours at a time, so stay the night: with a bed in the village, you just go back out when the weather turns.
Grundarfjörður
If Kirkjufell is why you came, sleep in the town at its foot: you get the mountain at sunrise and under the winter aurora, long after the day-trippers have driven on.
Selfoss
Head north in the morning for Kerið and the Golden Circle, or east for the waterfalls of the south coast: from a room on the Ölfusá you can take either road and still be back by the river...
Húsavík
Come between June and August, when sightings from the whale boats are most reliable, and stay a second night so you can give Ásbyrgi canyon a day of its own.
Stykkishólmur
Arrive the afternoon before your boat trip: the evening is for the lighthouse on Súgandisey, and a night here puts you on the pier when the morning boats leave for the islands of...
India
2
New Delhi
Pick your hotel by its metro line, not by how close it looks on the map: traffic can turn a short hop into 90 minutes.
Agra
Never make Thursday your night in Agra: the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays, and the reason to stay is to see it at dusk and again at first light the next morning.
Ireland
3
Dublin
Book three nights near St Stephen's Green and you can walk to Trinity College, Dublin Castle and Christ Church, then ride the DART for about half an hour to the Howth cliff walk on your...
Glendalough
Walk the cliff tops above the Upper Lake on one day and drive the Military Road to the Sally Gap on the next, with a night in the valley between the two.
Howth
Give Howth Head a full day from Dublin: take the DART to the end of the line, walk the cliff loop in the morning, and spend the afternoon on the boat out to Ireland's Eye and around the...
Italy
5
Rome
Walk three thousand years of history in one compact centre. Then eat: the food is the second reason to come.
Venice
There are no cars and no bikes, so you walk or take the boat everywhere.
Florence
Give Florence three days and you can see the David, the Birth of Venus and the inside of Brunelleschi's dome, then end each evening at San Miniato above the Arno.
Milan
Give Milan two days for the Duomo roof, the Last Supper and the aperitivo, then use it as your base for the lakes.
Manarola
Pack water shoes as well as walking shoes: in Manarola you swim off the harbour rocks, and the Via dell'Amore from Riomaggiore ends in the village, entered by a half-hour slot you book...
Japan
12
Tokyo
Choose your hotel by its train line before its room: in Tokyo, the station nearest your door sets how easily you get around.
Kyoto
Be at Fushimi Inari, Kiyomizu-dera or the bamboo grove by seven, before the coaches, and sleep where you can walk out to them.
Osaka
Save your evenings for Osaka: by day the city is a base for Kyoto, Nara and the hills, and after dark the canal streets of Namba are where you will want to eat.
Nara
Most visitors are gone by three in the afternoon, so sleep in Nara: the deer park, the Great Buddha's gate and the lanterns of Kasuga are yours at dawn and after dusk.
Hakone
Stay the night in a ryokan with dinner and its own hot spring bath: you get the evening soak, and next morning another try at Fuji before cloud hides it, usually by noon.
Kanazawa
Stay the night and you can walk into Kenroku-en free at first light, hours before the tour buses, and have the teahouse street almost to yourself once the shops close.
Nikkō
Sleep in Nikkō and you can be at Tōshō-gū's gate when it opens at nine, ahead of the day trips from Tokyo, with the second day free for Lake Chūzenji, Kegon Falls and the Senjōgahara marsh.
Takayama
Book two nights in an inn with its own hot bath, and use Takayama as your base for Shirakawa-go and the Northern Alps as well as the old town.
Sapporo
Book three nights and spend the last one in a hot-spring hotel in the Jōzankei gorge, an hour's bus ride from the centre and still inside the city.
Fujikawaguchiko
Fuji is usually clearest before nine in the morning, so sleep beside the lake and you see the summit at dawn, before the first buses from Tokyo arrive.
Hiroshima
Book the Peace Memorial Museum's first slot online and you walk the park ahead of the school groups, with the afternoon still free for the ferry to Miyajima.
Niseko
Come in winter for four ski areas on one pass, then return in summer to climb the volcano you watched from the chairlift.
Jordan
1
Mexico
1
Mongolia
1
Montenegro
16
Kotor
Kotor is a town for evenings: once the ships sail, you have the lanes, the cats and the floodlit walls above you almost to yourself.
Budva
Walk the cliff path to Mogren and the lanes of the walled town, then go to the City Museum to see how old Budva really is: most of what you walk through was rebuilt after the 1979...
Žabljak
When the July coast runs into the mid thirties, Žabljak is cool enough for a full day on foot, and you can walk out of town straight into a national park.
Perast
Leave the car at the entrance and let a golf cart carry your bags down: Perast is one street on the water with no traffic, and its two islands sit five minutes offshore.
Cetinje
Every museum in Cetinje, the old royal capital, is a few minutes' walk from the next, so the town fills one afternoon and you can be up on Lovćen when the mausoleum opens the next morning.
Virpazar
From Virpazar's quay, a small wooden boat takes you into the lily channels of Lake Skadar, past island fortresses and on to monasteries that stand on islands of their own.
Tivat
Base yourself in Tivat and spend your days on the water: boats for the whole bay leave from the seafront, and the quiet sand of Luštica is a short drive away.
Ulcinj
From a room on the old town rock, a river island, a bay in the olive groves and salt pans where flamingos feed are each a short drive away.
Herceg Novi
Seven kilometres of seafront promenade run below Herceg Novi, so you can swim off its rocks and platforms before breakfast and still catch a morning boat across the mouth of the bay.
Gusinje
Within ten kilometres of Gusinje you can walk under the Karanfili walls, watch a river rise out of the ground and start the hike over the border to Theth.
Petrovac
Two paved coastal paths start at the ends of the promenade, so from one room you can walk to three beaches and two monasteries without getting in a car.
Podgorica
Give Podgorica one night and spend the evening by the river: the Morača runs through the middle of the city, and the Roman ruins of Doclea and the Cijevna falls are each a short taxi ride...
Bar
Stari Bar's ruins are cool, quiet and nearly empty when they open at eight in the morning, and a room in the lane below the gate puts you there first, not down on the coast.
Kolašin
Pick your season before you book: in winter you ski on the slopes above the town, and from June the same mountain is walking country, with a primeval forest a short drive away.
Sveti Stefan
Sleep in Sveti Stefan and you get the beach under the island at seven in the morning and the church on the hill at sunset, before the day-trip coaches arrive and after they leave.
Plužine
Wake up in Plužine and you can be on Piva Lake in a kayak while the water is still, then take the tunnel road north to the via ferrata in the afternoon.
Namibia
8
Windhoek
Keep your free day in Windhoek for the end of the trip, when you can walk a compact centre, eat kapana at the Katutura grills and see zebra on foot half an hour out of town.
Swakopmund
Coming off the gravel roads of the interior, give Swakopmund two or three nights: the dune tours, the Welwitschia Drive and the seal boats from Walvis Bay all start within forty minutes of...
Walvis Bay
Sleep in Walvis Bay rather than Swakopmund: the seal and kayak trips start from its own waterfront, and the flamingos feed a short walk from your room.
Lüderitz
The wind is lightest before noon, so spend your two mornings well: one in the sand-filled ghost town at Kolmanskop, one on the boat out to the penguins.
Keetmanshoop
Reach town by mid afternoon: the quiver trees just out of town are the reason to stop, and you want to be walking among them in the last hour before sunset.
Twyfelfontein
See rock engravings thousands of years old at eight in the morning and desert elephants in a dry riverbed by four, from a lodge along the dry Aba-Huab riverbed.
Okaukuejo
The park gates shut at sunset, but the benches at Okaukuejo's floodlit waterhole, just inside the camp wall, stay open all night, and from them you can watch black rhino come down to drink...
Sesriem
Sleep inside the park gate and you are driving to the dunes an hour before sunrise, while the queue is still forming outside: book one of those beds months ahead and you walk Deadvlei in...
Netherlands
1
Norway
1
Peru
5
Cusco
Cusco puts Inca stone walls, the Qorikancha and the cathedral within a level walk of one square, and the trains and colectivos to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu start from here.
Lima
Come to Lima to eat: it is the best food city in the Americas, even though the sky is grey for half the year.
Chachapoyas
Book your Kuélap ticket before your room: entry is capped each day and checked against your passport, so the day you can get decides how many nights you need here.
Písac
Come on a Sunday, when Pisac's market is at its largest and fills the main square, and spend the morning on the Inca terraces on the ridge directly above it.
Chinchero
Stop in Chinchero on your way from Cusco into the Sacred Valley: you can watch alpaca wool spun, dyed with native plants and woven, then walk down the Inca terraces below the church.
Poland
4
Kraków
Few cities give you a royal castle, a medieval market square and a living Jewish quarter in one compact centre, and Kraków adds a salt mine and the Auschwitz memorial as day trips by train...
Warsaw
A room in the rebuilt Old Town puts the Market Square, the Royal Castle and the start of the Royal Route at your door, and every museum on the city's war is a short tram or metro ride from...
Gdańsk
Split your days between the rebuilt Main Town and the Baltic: give the mornings to the gabled streets and the war and Solidarity museums, then take a tram or a commuter train to the sand...
Wrocław
Take a room a street back from the Rynek and nearly everything is a walk away: the cathedral island across the river, the Racławice Panorama, and the small bronze dwarfs hidden along the...
Romania
12
București
Come to hunt for the old city: the churches that survived the 1980s clearances now stand behind housing blocks.
Brașov
Under an hour on a forest path takes you from the old town to the top of Tâmpa, with the whole walled town below; leave Bran and Râșnov for the second day.
Sibiu
Walk the walled town's squares and stairways, then ride a city bus twenty minutes south to a forest full of old windmills and farmhouses.
Sighișoara
Book a room inside the walls: once the tour coaches have gone, you have the lit lanes and the empty square to yourself until breakfast.
Iași
Spend one day walking the boulevard of palaces and carved churches, and one at the walled monasteries in the hills, with far fewer tour groups than Brașov or Sibiu.
Oradea
Climb the city hall tower on your first morning: from the top you can pick out the restored art nouveau streets you will spend the next two days walking.
Băile Herculane
If you want to walk all day and lie in hot water at the end of it, stay here: free hot pools sit on the Cerna's bank above town, and the mountain trails start from the edge of the resort.
Piatra Neamț
Want one bed for the Bicaz dam, the Ceahlău massif and the convents to the north? Stay in Piatra Neamț, where a gondola lifts you from the railway station to a forested ridge in eight...
Sinaia
Time your two nights for Wednesday to Sunday, when Peleș is open: tour the palace one morning and ride the gondola to two thousand metres the next.
Bran
Skip the midday queue: be at the castle gate at nine, then walk up to the hay-meadow villages above Bran and spend the night facing Piatra Craiului.
Lacu Roșu
Two marked trails and a via ferrata start within a kilometre of the shore, so a night at Lacu Roșu lets you see the lake from above as well as from a rowing boat.
Zărnești
Give Zărnești two nights, not a day trip from Brașov: the rescued bears in the morning, the gorge and the Curmătura hut in the afternoon, and a summit on the second day.
Slovenia
7
Ljubljana
You can see the castle, the market and the river before lunch and still be at Lake Bled by two.
Bled
Stay the night and swim before breakfast: at seven in the morning the water is still and the shore is empty.
Piran
Slovenia has under fifty kilometres of coast, and Piran is the town on it to sleep in: you can swim before breakfast and watch the sun set from St George's terrace without ever needing a...
Bohinjska Bistrica
Six kilometres short of Lake Bohinj, you get what the shore lacks, the railway station and the shops at your door, with the lake a bus ride west each morning.
Kranjska Gora
Leave the car at the hotel: in summer a bus climbs the Vršič hairpins, and the lakes, the green spring at Zelenci and the Planica valley are an easy ride or walk from the village.
Koper
Stay the night in Koper, not just the afternoon: the old town is quiet again once the cruise ships sail, and Piran, Trieste and the Karst are all a short ride away.
Kobarid
Do not treat Kobarid as a lunch stop on the road to Bovec: the ossuary, an Italian defence line, the Soča gorge and Kozjak Falls fill a whole day on foot from the square, so book the night.
Spain
34
Barcelona
You can stand under a Gaudí ceiling in the morning and swim off the city beach the same afternoon, and walk between the two.
Madrid
Book dinner for ten at night and you see Madrid at its best: the squares of La Latina and Malasaña are still full at midnight, a short walk from three of Europe's great art collections.
Seville
See the palaces in the cool of the morning, rest through the heat, and walk out again after dark: the evenings are why Seville deserves three nights.
Granada
Sleep in the Albaicín for a window on the Alhambra: give the palace your morning and the hill lanes your evening.
Valencia
Hire a bike for your three days: a park in the old riverbed links the medieval centre to the white science museums without a car in sight, and the beach is a short ride beyond.
Málaga
Land on the Costa del Sol and stay in the city, not a resort: two nights in Málaga give you a Moorish fortress, the Picasso museum and sardines grilled on the beach, all within walking...
San Sebastián
Leave the car behind: three city beaches, two green hills and the pintxo bars of the old town all lie along one level seafront, and a funicular climbs the higher hill for you.
Córdoba
Stay the night and be at the Mezquita door at half past eight: for its first fifty minutes on Monday to Saturday mornings it is free, there are no tour groups, and the forest of arches is...
Toledo
The train from Madrid takes about half an hour, so Toledo is packed at noon and nearly empty by ten at night.
Bilbao
Give your days to the museums and the river, and your evenings to the old town between eight and half past nine, when the pintxo counters are at their fullest.
Ibiza
Walk the walls of Dalt Vila before the heat, give each afternoon to a different cove, keep one whole day for the ferry to Formentera, and watch the sun go down from the Torre des Savinar...
Ronda
Come at midday and you share the Puente Nuevo with the coach tours from the coast, packed along the parapet from late morning.
Cádiz
Walk out along the causeway to the Castle of San Sebastián on your first evening, as the sun goes down over the Atlantic, then eat fried fish on the terraces of Calle Virgen de la Palma,...
Marbella
If you want a cheap, quiet week in August, look elsewhere; if you want a seaside town you can walk, Marbella gives you whitewashed lanes, a boulevard of Dalí bronzes down to the sand and a...
Nerja
Want the Costa del Sol without the high-rise strip? Stay in Nerja, where you can swim in a cove under the cliffs before breakfast, paddle to a waterfall that pours into the sea, and still...
Girona
Half an hour on the train puts you at the Dalí museum in Figueres, and you still sleep in a walled old town small enough to cross on foot.
Cáceres
From the top of the Torre de Bujaco you take in the whole walled hill of Cáceres at once, and two nights give you its lanes at dawn and after dark, with a full day left for Trujillo or...
Jerez de la Frontera
Stay in Seville and the sherry cellars are a day trip; sleep in Jerez and González Byass, Lustau and Tradición are a walk from your bed, with El Puerto and Cádiz a short train ride away.
Almería
Málaga's coast is built up almost end to end; from Almería you drive about fifty minutes to Genoveses and Mónsul, beaches with no buildings behind them, and come back at night to bars that...
Úbeda
Úbeda's Renaissance squares are floodlit and nearly empty once the day tours leave, and Baeza is only 9 km away on a frequent bus, so sleep here and give each town a morning.
Arcos de la Frontera
Arcos will not fill a week of sightseeing: its two churches and its cliff balconies take a morning.
Pamplona
Walk in through the Portal de Francia, the gate Camino pilgrims use, and one day covers the bull-run streets, the ramparts and the citadel park, with the evening left for the pintxo bars.
Cartagena
Two nights here give you a Roman theatre, a Carthaginian wall and a naval harbour inside a ten-minute walk, then a second day on beaches with no buildings behind them.
Vejer de la Frontera
Spend your first evening on the Plaza de España, when the town comes out after the heat, then split your days between the white lanes on the hill and the coast below: the surf at El Palmar,...
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Why sleep here and not in Cádiz? Because from Sanlúcar you can take the morning boat into Doñana, tour a manzanilla bodega the next morning and eat langostinos on the river as the sun goes...
Almuñécar
Stay in Almuñécar for clear water under the Cerro Gordo cliffs and a castle above the beach, and the Alhambra is still only an hour's drive inland, close enough for a morning there and a...
El Puerto de Santa María
Stay in El Puerto instead of Cádiz and the old city is still one boat ride away, but you sleep a walk from the sherry cellars, with beaches on both sides of the river and Jerez a short...
Tarifa
Do not build a Tarifa trip around one beach day: an easterly levante can blow for days, fill the air on Los Lances with sand and keep the boats in port.
Antequera
Arrive by mid afternoon and there is still time to climb the Alcazaba's keep, then walk down to the Mirador de las Almenillas below its walls and watch the evening light reach the Peña de...
Mojácar
Sleep up in Mojácar Pueblo for sunsets over the whole coast and dinner in its lit lanes and squares, and spend your days in the sea below.
Cazorla
If you want to walk the Río Borosa, stand at the source of the Guadalquivir and hear red deer roar at dusk, base yourself in Cazorla, and bring a car: no bus reaches a single trailhead in...
Estepona
Skip Estepona if you want beach clubs and a late night out; stay for the quiet, in an old town where Spanish families still live five minutes from the sea, with the fir forest of Los Reales...
Capileira
Sleep in Capileira and you get what a day trip from Granada never can: the gorge paths to yourself at eight in the morning, before the heat, and in summer a seat on the national park...
Carmona
Stay in Carmona and keep the car here: Seville is half an hour away on the A-4 for a day trip, and you come back to a quiet walled town and a terrace over the plain at dusk.
Switzerland
11
Zermatt
Cloud often gathers on the Matterhorn by mid morning, so sleep in the village and spend three early starts on its three lift systems, each giving a different view of it.
Lucerne
Choose your mountain by the forecast: with two nights in Lucerne, the first clear morning goes to Pilatus or the Rigi and the other day to the bridges and the old town wall.
Geneva
Keep Monday for the lake, because most museums shut: in two days you can swim in the harbour, climb the cathedral tower and tour the UN.
Appenzell
Three cable cars and the path to the Seealpsee start within half an hour of the painted main street by train or bus, so from one room in Appenzell you can cover most of the Alpstein.
Basel
Where else can you spend a morning with Holbein and Picasso, an afternoon at the Fondation Beyeler on the edge of the fields, and a summer evening drifting down the Rhine through the middle...
Lugano
Spend your days between two funicular mountains and a lake you can swim in, and let the Ticino Ticket your hotel hands you cover every train and bus in the canton.
Thun
Swim the Aare in the afternoon and watch the surfers on the river locks at dusk, then catch an early boat to a castle across the lake.
Engelberg
Day-trippers from Lucerne ride up the Titlis and leave; stay two nights and your second day is for the quieter side of the valley, the Fürenalp cable car and the walk down past the...
Lausanne
Stay the night to hear what the day-trippers miss: from ten until two a watchman calls the hour from the cathedral tower, and next morning the metro drops you at the lake in time for the...
Lauterbrunnen
Arrive in daylight and give it two nights: the cliffs and waterfalls are the reason to come, and Wengen, Mürren, the Schilthorn and Trümmelbach all start from the station or the bus outside...
Mürren
Wake with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau filling your window, and be on the first Schilthorn cabin before the day visitors ride up from the valley.
Thailand
1
Turkey
5
Antalya
Sleep inside Kaleiçi's walls and you are a morning's drive from Aspendos, a short ride from a waterfall that drops into the sea, and back on the harbour for sunset.
Göreme
Be on a terrace or in a basket by first light: the balloons rise over Göreme at dawn, and three nights give you three dawns in case the wind grounds one.
Konya
Rumi's tomb is quietest in its first hour, so take a room by Mevlâna Square and walk over as the doors open.
Çıralı
The flames of the Chimaera are hard to see by day and bright after dark, so sleep in Çıralı: walk up to the fires at night, then swim and explore the ruins of Olympos in the morning.
Kars
Give Kars two nights: a morning goes to Ani on the Armenian border and the rest to the town, and in winter a third night adds a horse sleigh across frozen Lake Çıldır.
United Kingdom
1
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