Cities

Linz

Linz splits your day between a tram ride up the Pöstlingberg and a riverbank of museums, where the Ars Electronica Center puts robotics and AI in your hands and the Lentos faces it across...

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.

Arica

Spend two days by the sea and in the Azapa valley, then climb Ruta 11 to Putre: after a night at 3,500 metres, you can walk the shore of Lago Chungará at 4,517 metres with breath to spare.

Vicuña

On a dark night at Mamalluca you see the planets through a telescope, and a few days based in Vicuña leave the daylight for the pisco distilleries on the road up to Pisco Elqui.

Coyhaique

Take a full day between the long drives: the biggest town on the Carretera Austral has forest trails and a river canyon within half an hour of its plaza, and a large supermarket to stock up...

Villarrica

Swim off Playa Pucará with Volcán Villarrica in view across the lake, then walk back into town for the carved wood and weaving of Mercado Fritz: in Villarrica the beach, the market and the...

Liberec

From the restaurant in Ještěd's 1970s television tower you look straight down on Liberec, where you sleep; give the town three nights, and keep the third for the Jizera Mountains from...

Plzeň

Why stay rather than day-trip from Prague? With a night here, you can give the brewery tour and the passages under the old town their own time slots, and fill the gaps with the cathedral...

Kutná Hora

Take the express from Prague and stand among the stacked bones of the Sedlec Ossuary before lunch, then walk under the vaults of St Barbara's in the afternoon.

Mikulov

From August to November you can drink burčák, the young wine poured while it is still fermenting, in a Mikulov cellar at the end of a day on the Pálava hills to the north.

Annecy

Walk the canals, 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.

Saint-Malo

When can you walk across the sand to Chateaubriand's grave on the Grand Bé? The answer changes every day with the tide, so stay inside Saint-Malo's walls and you can set out whenever that...

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.

Cologne

Walk the Rhine from the Hohenzollern Bridge south to the Rheinauhafen and you pass the cathedral, Groß St.

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.

Oia

Check the last bus before you go out for the sunset: the queue for the evening buses back to Fira starts before the sun is down, and in July and August there are few taxis to fall back on.

Delphi

Sleep in Delphi and the sanctuary is a short walk from your bed, so the museum, the Sacred Way and the Tholos, about four hours on their own, never have to fit round a return drive from...

Kalabaka

Sleep in Kalabaka and the six monasteries of Meteora sit on the rock towers above your room.

Milos

Milos has more than seventy beaches, and in summer the wind decides which coast is fit for a swim.

Paros

Come to Paros for the wind as much as the beaches. On a blowing day in July or August you can take a beginner windsurf lesson at Pounda, then swim in calm water at Faragas, which is...

Corfu

Take a room inside Corfu's old town and the lanes and fortresses are at your door.

Zakynthos

Base yourself in or near Zakynthos Town and hire a car for two days: the white cliffs, sea caves and coves of the west and north are why you come, and the buses barely reach them.

Naxos

Take KTEL Line 1 from Chora to the west-coast beaches at Agios Prokopios and Plaka, and hire a car for one day to reach Chalki, Apeiranthos and the Temple of Demeter.

Nafplio

Walk the cliff path from Arvanitia beach round Acronauplia to the harbour at dusk, after a day at Mycenae or Epidaurus. Three nights in the old town give you three of those evenings.

Argostoli

Stay in Argostoli for its harbour, where loggerhead turtles often feed among the small fishing boats.

Lindos

Stay the night and Lindos is yours once the day-trippers leave: you walk the car-free lanes in the quiet of the evening, swim in St Paul's Bay at the edge of the village, and reach the...

Olympia

Walk the sanctuary at Olympia in the morning or the early evening, when the ruins are cooler and quieter than at midday.

Papingo

Take a morning taxi to Monodendri and walk the Vikos Gorge back to your room: the path climbs past the Voidomatis springs to Papingo.

Kardamyli

Start up the Vyros Gorge at dawn while it is cool, and be in the water at Ritsa by lunch: Kardamyli puts the Mani's best walking and swimming a few minutes apart, with Limeni and the Diros...

Parga

Taxi boats leave Parga harbour for the sand at Valtos about every half hour from 10:00, and Lichnos is ten to twenty minutes away by water, so each extra night you stay gives you another...

Monemvasia

From a room inside Monemvasia's walls, the zigzag path to the ruined upper town starts a few lanes from your door, near enough to climb for the sunset from the fortress.

Rethymno

Take a room in Rethymno's Old Town and the Venetian lanes, the Fortezza and the causeway out to the old lighthouse are all on foot, with Arkadi Monastery and the pottery village of...

Elounda

Snorkel over the sunken ruins of Olous one morning and sail to the island fortress of Spinalonga the next.

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.

Egilsstaðir

Book three nights in Egilsstaðir: Stuðlagil's basalt canyon, the harbour town of Seyðisfjörður and the Borgarfjörður puffins each make a day out by car.

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...

Waterford

Three museums within a few minutes' walk of each other fill your first day, and 46 km of Greenway on a hired bike fills the second.

Kinsale

Do not treat Kinsale as a day trip from Cork: the forts and the harbour fill the day, so give the town a night or two and keep the evenings for dinner.

Portmagee

Roughly one booked Skellig landing in three is called off for weather, so stay three nights: the spare days give you a chance at a seat freed up by another cancellation, and Valentia Island...

Achill Island

There is no ferry to catch: drive over the bridge at Achill Sound, take a room in Keel for a few nights, and you can walk from the sand at Keem Bay onto Croaghaun's sea cliffs one day and...

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...

Milan

Give Milan two days for the Duomo roof, the Last Supper and the aperitivo, then use it as your base for the lakes.

Amalfi

Walk up the valley behind the cathedral and the same morning you can be among the giant ferns of the Valle delle Ferriere, so stay long enough to give the hills above Amalfi a day of their...

Dimaro

Ski Folgarida and Madonna di Campiglio in winter and raft the Noce in summer from the same village room, with the station, the cycle path and the rafting bases a walk from the door.

Val di Funes

Walk along the foot of the Odle, the Dolomite peaks at the head of this valley, with lunch at a mountain hut below the cliffs, and come back down to a room in the valley rather than a long...

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...

Nicolosi

A cable car and a guided 4x4 bus take you to almost 3,000 m on Etna's south side, and from a bed in Nicolosi you are back down in time to walk up the Monti Rossi on the edge of town.

Varenna

Stay in Varenna and you need no car: trains leave for Milan from the station above the village, boats leave the pier below for Bellagio, and the villa gardens and the climb to Castello di...

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 and have the teahouse street almost to yourself once the shops close.

Nikkō

Sleep in Nikkō and you can give the first day to Tōshō-gū and the shrines, 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.

Birgu

Mdina

Victoria

Xagħra

Rabat

St. Paul's Bay

Sliema

St. Julian's

Marsalforn

Xlendi

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

Sveti Stefan

Sleep in Sveti Stefan and you get the beach under the island and the church on the hill at sunset, after the day-trip coaches have left.

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.

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.

Tangier

Tangier sits where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic, and two nights let you look out over both: the strait from the terrace beside the Kasbah Museum one day, the open ocean from the...

Ouarzazate

Spend the morning on a film studio backlot outside Ouarzazate, then drive about forty minutes to Ait Benhaddou and walk its earth lanes in the evening light.

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 in the morning and desert elephants in a dry riverbed by afternoon, 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...

Uis

With a bed in Uis you are close enough to the Brandberg for a dawn drive to the White Lady trailhead, and a second night leaves a morning for the desert-adapted elephants of the Ugab.

Ålesund

Four hundred and eighteen steps take you from the centre to the top of Aksla, where the whole Art Nouveau town lies below you on its islands, with the open sea beyond.

Bodø

Half an hour from Bodø, the tide drives the sea through Saltstraumen's narrow strait hard enough to raise whirlpools, and you time your days to it, then take the coast road north or the...

Tromsø

Cloud can hide the northern lights over Tromsø for a whole evening, so give yourself several nights, and on each clear one drive onto Kvaløya, west of the island, where dead-end roads run...

Longyearbyen

Ride a dog sled out to an ice cave in winter, or take a boat across Isfjorden to the Russian mining town of Barentsburg in summer, and come back each night to a bed in Longyearbyen, because...

Alta

Come in the dark months and your days go to a husky sled, the igloo hotel at Sorrisniva and the titanium spiral of the Northern Lights Cathedral, with the evenings kept for the aurora; come...

Odda

Sleep in Odda and the first shuttle of the morning has you at the Trolltunga trailhead half an hour later, while the Buarbreen glacier walk and the Låtefossen waterfall are each a short...

Huaraz

Give Huaraz two quiet days before you go high: after that, turquoise lakes under the peaks, a glacier you can walk up to and the underground galleries of Chavín de Huántar are each a day...

Cajamarca

In the Cuarto del Rescate you can stand in the room where Atahualpa was held prisoner, and a few nights in town put a pre-Inca canal, a cliff of burial niches and private hot-spring tubs...

Urubamba

Sleep about 500 metres lower than Cusco and your first nights at altitude come easier, with Pisac, Moray, the Maras salt pans and the trains at Ollantaytambo all within a day trip of your...

Máncora

Stay three nights between December and March and you get a 27°C sea, the point break in front of town each morning, and the green turtles under the Los Órganos pier a short bus ride south.

Nazca

The first flights over the Lines go up in the calmest air of the day, and a night in Nazca is what puts you at the airfield for them, with the afternoon left for the open tombs at...

Trujillo

Mud-brick temples and cities older than the Incas lie all around Trujillo, so you can spend your days among painted Moche walls and Chimú citadels and your evenings on the promenade at...

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.

Maras

Walk it rather than ride it: from Moray's terraces the path runs through Maras village and past the salt pans, then drops more than 500 m to the Urubamba river at Pichingoto, so one day on...

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...

Zakopane

One night in Zakopane leaves you choosing between the cable car onto Kasprowy Wierch and the road walk up to Morskie Oko; with two, you take a bus to each in turn.

Poznań

Give Poznań a weekend: the Town Hall goats butt heads above a painted market square at noon, and the cathedral island is a short walk east.

Toruń

Toruń's Gothic Old Town keeps its brick churches, town hall and river wall on the Vistula, and you can walk from the town hall tower to Copernicus House and down to the river in one...

Lublin

Your room in Lublin's Old Town is a short walk from the castle, down through the Grodzka Gate and across the causeway, so the painted royal chapel and the Market Square's cellars share one...

Zamość

Base yourself on the Great Market Square of Zamość, a UNESCO-listed Renaissance town, and you have its arcaded houses lit after dark on your doorstep and the forests of Roztocze National...

Kłodzko

Spend a morning in the tunnels beneath Kłodzko and on the fortress above them, then drive under an hour to the sandstone mazes of the Table Mountains or the Bear Cave at Kletno.

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.

Sighetu Marmației

Start in the cells of the old political prison, now the Memorial, then drive south into the Iza valley, where the wooden churches of Maramureș stand on the hills above their villages.

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...

Bran

Climb the stair hidden inside Bran Castle's wall to Queen Marie's rooms in the morning, then walk the marked trail up to Măgura for dinner at a shepherd-village guesthouse under the Piatra...

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.

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.

Vama Veche

Time your trip for early June or September, when the beach bars are open and the sand has room to spare; in July and August the beaches pack and the music runs until dawn.

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.

Rimetea

A marked path leaves the middle of Rimetea for the top of Piatra Secuiului, so the limestone wall you see over the whitewashed roofs from your guesthouse window is the walk you take the...

Maribor

Ten minutes in a cable car lifts you from the edge of Maribor to 1,042 m on Pohorje's forest trails and ski runs, so a weekend here gives you the mountain by day and, down on the Drava, the...

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.

Dobrovo

Take the Dobrovo cellar tour in late morning, then leave the car and walk out through the vines to Medana or Gradno; with a night or two at a guesthouse among the vineyards, you can give...

Bovec

Raft the Soča beside Bovec in the morning and walk above its turquoise gorge upstream by afternoon, then stay on, because the river's source, the forts and the waterfalls fill the next day.

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.

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.

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.

Ankara

Two nights give you the city's two big mornings, the Hittite and Phrygian finds of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and Atatürk's mausoleum at Anıtkabir, with both evenings free for...

Selçuk

In spring and summer white storks nest on the old aqueduct through the centre of Selçuk, and it is floodlit after dark: spend the night to see it lit, with Ephesus a short taxi ride from...

Mardin

From the roof of the Zinciriye Medrese you look over the old town's stepped houses to the Mesopotamian plain; give Mardin two nights and there is time for that roof, the bazaar and a day...

Konya

Rumi's tomb is quietest in its first hour, so take a room by Mevlâna Square and walk over as the doors open.

Ürgüp

End your days in Ürgüp with a glass of the town's own wine and the view from Temenni Hill over its carved stone houses, after mornings out in the valleys to the south.

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.

Ayder

Be on Huser at sunset, with cloud often filling the valleys below you, then ride back down to a soak in your wooden hotel's thermal water: that evening needs a night in Ayder.

Thurso

Sleep in Thurso, and the Orkney ferry at Scrabster, the cliff path to the Holborn Head blowholes and the coast road east to Dunnet Head all start a few miles from your bed.

Dornoch

Book a bed in Dornoch and Royal Dornoch's golf course and a Blue Flag beach both sit right beside the town, so a round in the morning and a walk on the sands in the afternoon fit into one...

Ullapool

Sleep in Ullapool and you get a harbour to eat beside every night, then drive out along the A835 by day: north to the Stac Pollaidh ridge, south to the gorge at Corrieshalloch.

Durness

Cross the Kyle of Durness on a ten-minute ferry to the cliffs of Cape Wrath, then walk across open moorland to the white sand of Sandwood Bay: Durness puts you within reach of both, with...

Gairloch

Sleep by Gairloch's bay and you can be on the sand at Red Point for a long summer evening, when on a clear day the view crosses the Minch to Skye and the Outer Hebrides.

Lochinver

Suilven needs a dry, calm day, so stay at least two nights in Lochinver. Climb on the clearest day and drive the B869 coast to Achmelvich and the Old Man of Stoer on the other.

Applecross

Book your bed before you plan the drive: Applecross is a village of about 240 residents with very few rooms, and a night here lets you cross the Bealach na Bà on whichever day the cloud...