Munich is one of the best bases in Germany for day trips. Three of the country’s most memorable days out start at the Hauptbahnhof in the morning and have you back in a beer garden by evening — and they could not be more different from each other. One is a fairytale castle in the … Read more
Munich rewards anyone who slows down. Bavaria’s capital is famous for beer halls and Oktoberfest, but a first visit is really about three different cities layered on top of each other: a medieval old town built around one great square, a royal capital of palaces and grand gardens, and a modern, sobering city that does … Read more
Amsterdam can fill a long weekend on its own — but the Netherlands is a small, flat, brilliantly connected country, and some of its most memorable places sit less than an hour from Centraal Station. Working windmills are twenty minutes away. A village with canals instead of roads is ninety. And a port city that … Read more
Krakow rewards a slow few days — but some of Poland’s most powerful places sit just beyond the city walls. A salt cathedral carved 135 metres underground, the lakes and peaks of the High Tatras, a traditional raft ride through a limestone gorge, and the memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau all make straightforward day trips, most of … Read more
Krakow is one of those rare cities where choosing where to stay is less about distance and more about mood. Almost everything a first-time visitor wants — the Main Market Square, Wawel Castle, the Kazimierz food scene, the main train station — sits inside a walkable core barely two kilometres across. What changes is the … Read more
Krakow is the rare European city that survived the Second World War with its medieval heart almost intact — and then kept living in it. Poland’s capital until the court moved to Warsaw at the end of the 16th century, it packs a royal castle, Europe’s largest medieval market square, a storied Jewish quarter and … Read more
Istanbul rewards a long stay, but its best days out reach well beyond the old town: an island of pine forests and horse-drawn-era streets an hour by boat, the first Ottoman capital in Bursa, and Sinan’s masterpiece in Edirne. This guide ranks the three honestly, with the do-it-yourself versus guided-tour call made for each. Sort … Read more
Berlin can fill a week on its own, but some of the best days out in this corner of Germany start at Hauptbahnhof: Prussian palaces in Potsdam, one of Europe’s most important memorial sites at Sachsenhausen, and Dresden’s rebuilt old town on the Elbe. This guide ranks the three honestly, with the train-on-your-own versus guided-tour … Read more
Munich rewards travelers who pick the right base. The Bavarian capital is compact and its U-Bahn is excellent, but each neighborhood gives you a different city: step out into medieval lanes and the Marienplatz Glockenspiel in the Altstadt, museum-hop through neoclassical Maxvorstadt, or live like a local among the cafés of Schwabing and Haidhausen. Choose … Read more
Vienna rewards slow travel — but some of Austria’s best days start at its train stations and tour meeting points. Within a few hours of the Ringstrasse you can taste Grüner Veltliner in terraced Danube vineyards, walk the lakeside lanes of Hallstatt, stand in Mozart’s birthplace in Salzburg, or have lunch in a second capital … Read more