Compare 576 Travel Destinations

Boston is America's most walkable big city — four centuries of history packed into cobblestone streets, punctuated by Fenway's green monster, Italian cannolis in the North End, and college-town energy from Harvard and MIT across the river. The Freedom Trail delivers Revolutionary history in a single 2.5-mile walk.

Branson is a 10,000-person Ozark Mountain town in southwest Missouri that pulls roughly 9 million visitors a year on the strength of 50-plus live theaters, a 49-mile shoreline on Table Rock Lake, and the Silver Dollar City theme park up the road. The downtown 76 Country Boulevard strip stacks neon-lit theaters end to end (more theater seats than Broadway, the locals like to point out), Branson Landing runs a mile and a half along Lake Taneycomo with a fountain show and chain restaurants, and Dolly Parton's Stampede dinner theater feeds 1,000 people a night. Most travelers fly into Springfield (SGF, 45 minutes north) since Branson Airport (BKG) has thin scheduled service.

Transylvania's most beautifully preserved Saxon city sits in a Carpathian amphitheatre 625m above sea level — Mount Tâmpa rises directly above the old town with the famous Hollywood-style 'BRAȘOV' sign. The 14th-century Black Church (largest Gothic church in southeastern Europe), Council Square ringed by pastel Saxon merchant houses, and Strada Sforii (one of Europe's narrowest streets at 1.11m wide) anchor the UNESCO-quality old town. Bran Castle (Dracula marketing notwithstanding) is 30km away; the Poiana Brașov ski resort 12km. Founded in 1211 by the Teutonic Knights as one of the seven Saxon walled cities of Transylvania.

A compact, walkable old town on the Danube — just an hour from Vienna by train. Bratislava Castle overlooks pastel-colored streets, cozy wine bars, and some of Central Europe's best-value dining.

Queensland's sunny capital offers a laid-back river lifestyle, South Bank's cultural precinct with a man-made beach, and easy access to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. The 2032 Olympics host city is undergoing a major transformation.

The capital of Europe is a city of Art Nouveau architecture, comic book murals, world-class chocolate, and the Grand Place — one of Europe's most beautiful squares. Outstanding beer culture with hundreds of varieties and cozy brown cafés.

Romania's eclectic capital mixes Belle Époque elegance with communist-era brutalism and a booming nightlife and cafe scene. Gateway to Transylvania's castles and Carpathian Mountains.

Budapest is two cities in one — hilly, historic Buda on one side of the Danube, flat, buzzing Pest on the other, connected by iconic bridges. The thermal baths are legendary (Szechenyi, Gellert), the ruin bar scene is one-of-a-kind, and the Parliament building lit up at night is one of Europe's most beautiful sights. Exceptional value.

Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America — grand Haussmann-style avenues, sidewalk cafes, and a fierce cultural identity built on tango, steak, and Malbec. The city's barrios each have a distinct personality, from the colorful houses of La Boca to the tree-lined elegance of Palermo. Incredible value for visitors right now.

Buffalo invented the chicken wing at the Anchor Bar on Main Street in 1964 and never quite got over it — but the city is also the closest American gateway to Niagara Falls (20 miles north), the home of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece Darwin Martin House complex, and a rebuilt waterfront at Canalside that turned a derelict freight terminus into the city's summer centre. Add Bills Mafia at Highmark Stadium, the Albright-Knox-Buffalo AKG Art Museum (one of the best modern collections between Manhattan and Chicago), and the cheapest steak fingers in the East, and the city has quietly stopped being a punchline.

One of the best-preserved medieval cities in Central Asia, Bukhara's old town is a UNESCO site of ancient mosques, madrasas, and caravanserais. The Kalyan Minaret, Ark Fortress, and covered bazaars evoke centuries of Silk Road trade.

Vermont's biggest city is still small — under 45,000 people — and packs them onto a hillside that drops into Lake Champlain. Church Street Marketplace is a four-block pedestrian mall of brick, buskers, and farm-to-table restaurants. The University of Vermont (UVM) keeps the place caffeinated and progressive; Ben & Jerry's was founded here in 1978, Magic Hat brews on the south end of town, and the Adirondack peaks across the lake make every sunset look staged. Fall foliage peaks early October.

South Korea's coastal second city offers stunning beaches, vibrant seafood markets, hillside villages splashed with street art, and soothing hot springs. Haeundae Beach and Gamcheon Culture Village are highlights, with the KTX bullet train connecting to Seoul in just 2.5 hours.

Where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortez at the southernmost tip of the 1,200-km Baja California peninsula — the El Arco rock arch is the geological marker of land's end and the most photographed landmark in Baja. Calm Medano Beach, the buzzing 380-slip Marina, world-class sportfishing (the Bisbee tournament is the world's richest), December-April whale watching for grey, humpback, and blue whales, and the Tropic of Cancer running through the middle of Los Cabos. Easy US-friendly access — direct flights from every major US gateway, US dollars accepted everywhere.

Tropical northeastern Queensland's gateway to two adjacent UNESCO World Heritage sites — the Great Barrier Reef offshore and the 180-million-year-old Daintree Rainforest just to the north (the world's oldest continuously surviving tropical rainforest, where it meets the reef at Cape Tribulation). Cairns itself is a compact, walkable city of ~150K built around the Esplanade Lagoon (free saltwater pool replacing the unswimmable mudflat foreshore), with most of life happening between the lagoon, the Pier marina, and the night markets. Reef day trips (90min boat to outer reef pontoons; ~$220-280 AUD) and Kuranda Skyrail-and-Scenic-Railway combo to the rainforest village (~$120 AUD) are the standard outings. Tropical wet season Nov-April brings heat, humidity, monsoon rain, and stinger jellyfish — May-October is the dry, calm, pleasant window.

Cairo is a megacity that sits at the crossroads of ancient and modern — the Great Pyramids of Giza are literally at the city's edge. The Egyptian Museum holds treasures spanning millennia, Islamic Cairo's mosques and bazaars are a maze of history, and the Nile runs through it all. Chaotic, overwhelming, and absolutely unforgettable.

The Caribbean's most visited resort destination — Cancún's Hotel Zone is a 23km barrier island of turquoise water so specific in shade it barely looks real. But Cancún is also the gateway to Mexico's greatest Maya site: Chichén Itzá (a New Seven Wonder, 200km inland), Isla Mujeres (30min ferry), and Tulum's cliff-top ruins above the sea. The cenotes of the Yucatán Peninsula — crystal-clear sinkholes sacred to the Maya — are the most extraordinary swimming experiences in the Americas.

The French Riviera's film-festival capital was a 3,000-person fishing village until British Lord Brougham was quarantined here in 1834 and, smitten, told his aristocratic friends — within a generation Cannes was wintering European royalty. The 2 km palm-lined Boulevard de la Croisette runs from the red-carpeted Palais des Festivals (home of the May film festival since 1946) past the Belle Époque grand hotels (Carlton, Martinez, Majestic) to Pointe Croisette. Le Suquet, the medieval old town climbing the western hill, holds the 11th-century Tour du Suquet, the Église Notre-Dame de l'Espérance, and most of the city's actual character. Daily ferries from the Vieux Port reach the Lérins Islands — Sainte-Marguerite's Fort Royal (where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned 1687–1698) and Saint-Honorat's working Cistercian monastery making Lérins wine. The Marché Forville, behind the old port since 1934, runs every morning except Mondays.

Cape Town is stunningly beautiful — Table Mountain looming over a city nestled between ocean and vineyards. The food and wine scene is world-class and incredibly affordable. From penguin colonies to the Cape of Good Hope, from vibrant Bo-Kaap to the V&A Waterfront, it's one of the most photogenic cities on earth.

Cartagena's UNESCO-listed walled city is one of the most beautiful colonial centers in the Americas — bougainvillea-draped balconies, pastel-colored buildings, and cobblestone streets alive with music and street food. The Caribbean warmth extends to the people, the nearby Rosario Islands, and the ceviche.

Morocco's largest city (~4 million) and economic capital — the Hassan II Mosque rising from the Atlantic with its 210-metre minaret (one of only two mosques in Morocco open to non-Muslims), the Art Deco legacy of the French Protectorate along Boulevard Mohammed V, the 1930s Quartier Habous new medina, the Corniche oceanfront bar scene, and a nightlife reputation that rivals Marrakech. The city that the Bogart film was entirely NOT shot in.

The oldest city in the Philippines — founded by Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565 and the colonial capital before Manila. Magellan's wooden cross from 1521 still stands beside the Basilica del Santo Niño, the country's oldest Catholic church. Cebu's lechon (whole roasted suckling pig with lemongrass and garlic stuffing) is what Anthony Bourdain called "the best pig ever". The Mactan Island shrine marks where chieftain Lapu-Lapu killed Magellan, ending the first European circumnavigation. Easy day trips reach Kawasan Falls, the Moalboal sardine run, the Oslob whale sharks, and the Bohol Chocolate Hills (2-hour ferry). The mid-January Sinulog Festival brings a million people to the city.

Charleston has perfected the southern coastal city — pastel Rainbow Row on East Bay, Battery mansions staring down the harbor where Fort Sumter sits, and a restaurant scene (Husk, FIG, The Ordinary) that has defined modern low-country cooking. Gullah-Geechee heritage, King Street shopping, and plantation day trips round out longer visits.

Charlotte is North Carolina's biggest city and the second-largest US banking centre after New York — Bank of America and Truist (formerly BB&T) are headquartered here, and the Uptown skyline along Tryon Street is a wall of corporate towers. Beyond banking, the NASCAR Hall of Fame anchors stock-car culture an hour from the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the US National Whitewater Center (a man-made Olympic-grade rapids course) sits west of town, and the Discovery Place science museum draws families. Charlotte is also the entry point to the western North Carolina mountains (Asheville is 2 hours northwest).