Compare 576 Travel Destinations

Lithuania's capital has the largest Baroque Old Town in Eastern Europe (UNESCO, 70+ churches), but its most singular feature is Užupis — a self-declared breakaway republic that announced independence on April Fool's Day 1989, has its own "president," and has posted its Constitution in 23 languages on a wall. Gediminas' Tower overlooks the city from a hill that's also the end of the 1989 Baltic Way human chain (675 km of people holding hands from Tallinn to Vilnius). One of Europe's most underrated capitals.

A city rebuilt from 85% destruction — Warsaw's Old Town was reconstructed brick-by-brick from 18th-century Bellotto paintings, earning a UNESCO inscription for the act of reconstruction itself. POLIN Museum of Polish Jews (European Museum of the Year), the Warsaw Rising Museum, Łazienki Park's free Sunday Chopin concerts, the Palace of Culture and Science (Stalin's polarising "gift"), and the Neon Museum's communist-era glow: the most historically layered capital in Central Europe.

The nation's capital delivers a staggering amount of world-class culture for free — 20+ Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery, every major memorial on the Mall. Beyond the monuments, Georgetown's cobblestones, U Street's jazz history, and Eastern Market's weekend bustle give DC a neighborhood depth many visitors miss.

New Zealand's compact, creative capital punches well above its weight with world-class Te Papa museum, a thriving craft beer and coffee scene, colorful wooden houses, and stunning harbor setting. Often called the "coolest little capital in the world."

North America's flagship ski destination — a purpose-built resort village 125 km north of Vancouver via the Sea-to-Sky Highway, set at the foot of two side-by-side mountains. Whistler (2,182 m) and Blackcomb (2,436 m) hold 200+ marked runs across 8,171 acres, joined by the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola whose 3.024 km unsupported span is the longest of any cable car on earth. Blackcomb's 1,609 m vertical drop is the largest at any North American resort. The Village core is fully pedestrian — no cars allowed. Co-host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Summer flips to lift-served downhill biking at the largest bike park in North America.

China's ancient capital at the eastern end of the Silk Road — the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang (8,000+ soldiers, discovered 1974) is humanity's greatest archaeological find of the 20th century. The Ming Dynasty City Walls (1370) form a 13.7km complete circuit you can cycle atop. Xi'an's Muslim Quarter has maintained a 1,300-year-old Hui community whose street food — roujiamo (Chinese burger), biangbiang noodles — is among China's best.

Myanmar's largest city dazzles with the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, faded colonial grandeur, vibrant street food, and a pace of life that feels decades removed from neighboring capitals.

The Pink City of Armenia glows with volcanic tuff buildings, Mount Ararat views, world-class brandy, and a café culture that rivals European capitals — all at a fraction of the cost.

Java's cultural heart — home to Borobudur and Prambanan temples, thriving batik tradition, and Javanese arts. One of Southeast Asia's best-value destinations with incredible food and warm hospitality.

York is England's medieval time capsule — a walled city in North Yorkshire where Roman ramparts, Viking street names, and a Gothic minster the size of a small mountain coexist inside a 3.4 km loop you can walk in two hours. York Minster is the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe; the Shambles (15th-century overhanging timber-frame butchers' lane) was J.K. Rowling's reference for Diagon Alley; the Jorvik Viking Centre sits over the actual 10th-century Viking dig at Coppergate. It's a 2-hour direct LNER train from London King's Cross and the most visited UK city outside London.

A walled peninsula on Croatia's central Dalmatian coast, halfway between Split and Pula, where Roman ruins meet 21st-century sound art. The Sea Organ — Nikola Bašić's wave-powered installation of 35 underwater pipes built in 2005 — moans and chords with every passing swell along the western promenade, while the adjacent Greeting to the Sun lights up at dusk from 300 sun-charged glass plates set into the quay. Inland sits the 9th-century rotunda of St Donatus on the Roman Forum. Zadar is also the practical gateway to Kornati Islands National Park and Plitvice Lakes, both an easy day trip away.

Croatia's inland capital — overlooked by visitors who fly straight to Split or Dubrovnik, but the city Croatians themselves rate above the coastal scrum. Medieval Upper Town (Gornji Grad) sits on the hill: cobbled lanes, the colourful tile roof of St. Mark's, the Stone Gate chapel where Zagrebčani still light candles. Below, the 19th-century Lower Town (Donji Grad) holds Austro-Hungarian boulevards, museums (including the world's only Museum of Broken Relationships), and Tkalčićeva — the densest café-and-bar strip in Croatia. Add the award-winning Advent Christmas market (best in Europe three years running) and you get the surprise of a Habsburg-era capital at half the price of Vienna.

Car-free Alpine village of 5,800 residents pinned beneath the 4,478 m Matterhorn — the most photographed mountain in Switzerland and arguably the world. The 1898 Gornergrat cog railway climbs to 3,089 m for the classic frontal Matterhorn view, and the Klein Matterhorn cable car tops out at 3,883 m, the highest cable-car station in Europe. Only electric taxis are allowed in town; everyone arrives by train through Visp. Year-round skiing on the Theodul Glacier and 400 km of summer hiking trails make this Switzerland's signature mountain resort.

Switzerland's largest city — banking capital, Lake Zürich anchor, and (consistently) one of the world's two or three highest-quality-of-life cities. Altstadt's medieval lanes climb to the twin towers of the Grossmünster (where Zwingli launched the Swiss Reformation in 1519); Bahnhofstrasse runs from the Hauptbahnhof to the lake; the Kunsthaus holds Switzerland's finest art collection. The Uetliberg's panorama trail and the lake's swim baths (Frauenbad, Männerbad, Seebad Enge) are the locals' summer rituals. Expensive — but the trains run on the dot.