Compare 576 Travel Destinations

Central America's oldest colonial city on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. Colorful Spanish-era architecture, volcano views, and island-hopping in Las Isletas — at backpacker-friendly prices.

The Alhambra is the most visited monument in Spain — and justifiably so. The 14th-century Nasrid Palace complex, with its Generalife gardens cascading down the hillside above the whitewashed Albayzín quarter (both UNESCO), represents the pinnacle of Islamic art in the West. Granada was the last Moorish kingdom in Europe, falling to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, the same year Columbus sailed. One more gift: Granada is one of the last Spanish cities where tapas are still served free with every drink.

Mexico's second city and the capital of Jalisco, a 5-million metro that gave the country mariachi, tequila and the charreria rodeo. The historic centre runs from the twin-spired Cathedral past the Hospicio Cabanas, a UNESCO-listed neoclassical orphanage whose chapel ceiling is covered in Jose Clemente Orozco's 1939 frescoes including the Man of Fire. Tlaquepaque and Tonala sit on the southeast edge as artisan neighbourhoods of pottery, blown glass and Saturday markets. The town of Tequila is an hour west by tequila-themed train through fields of blue agave. GDL airport handles direct flights from most major US hubs.

Guanajuato is the Mexican silver-mining city that became a multicoloured riot — pink, ochre, mint, and lemon-yellow houses tumbling up the hillsides of a narrow ravine, with most of the city's traffic underground in 18th-century mine tunnels that were repurposed for cars. UNESCO inscribed the historic centre and the surrounding mines in 1988. The university (founded 1732) keeps the streets young; Diego Rivera was born here in a townhouse that's now a museum; the El Pípila monument on the hilltop gives you the photogenic panorama; and on weekend evenings the callejoneadas — student musicians in 17th-century costume leading wine-soaked walking serenades through the back alleys — are the warmest way to experience the city.

The capital of Cantonese cuisine and culture, Guangzhou is a megacity where dim sum reigns supreme. The Pearl River night cruise, Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, and bustling Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street showcase the city's blend of tradition and modernity.

The karst-peak landscape that appears on China's 20-yuan banknote — the most photographed natural scenery in China, draped in mist along the Li River and the smaller Yulong tributary. The 4-5 hour Li River cruise from Guilin downstream to Yangshuo (83 km) passes the iconic Xianggong Hill viewpoint and the Ming-dynasty fishing village of Xingping; National Geographic ranked it among the world's top ten watery wonders. Add the 1,300-year-old cormorant fishing tradition, the 700-year-old Longji rice terraces (golden in September, mirror-flooded in May), the labyrinthine Reed Flute Cave, the Zhuang and Yao minority cultures, and the relaxed backpacker scene of Yangshuo's West Street, and Guilin is the most photogenic destination in southern China.

Korea's museum without walls — capital of the Silla Kingdom for nearly a thousand years (57 BC to 935 AD) and home to a UNESCO Historic Areas inscription that bundles together Bulguksa Temple, the Seokguram Grotto on the slopes of Toham Mountain, the royal tumuli rising like grass-covered hills in the city centre, and Cheomseongdae, the small bottle-shaped observatory built in the 7th century and considered the oldest surviving in East Asia. Anapji Pond mirrors its restored pavilions after dark, cherry blossoms line the tomb park in early April, and the Gyeongju National Museum houses the Silla gold crowns. Two hours by KTX from Seoul or one from Busan.

Hallstatt is the postcard — a single 800-person village clinging to a sliver of land between Lake Hallstatt and the vertical Salzberg, with pastel houses stacked five-deep and a Lutheran church spire rising over a wooden boathouse for the photograph everyone has already seen. The salt mine above the village has been operated continuously for 7,000 years (the oldest active mine in the world), the Iron Age Hallstatt culture is named after this exact valley, and the entire Salzkammergut region is UNESCO listed. The trick is that 10,000 day-trippers arrive between 11:00 and 15:00 and the village empties by 17:00 — so stay overnight, walk at dawn, and you have one of Europe's most beautiful places almost to yourself.

Germany's second-largest city and largest port — a Hanseatic League trading capital that has more bridges than Venice, Amsterdam, and London combined, with Europe's largest contiguous warehouse complex (the UNESCO Speicherstadt) and the wave-roofed €866M Elbphilharmonie concert hall on top of an old harbour warehouse. The Reeperbahn in St. Pauli is Europe's most famous red-light district where The Beatles played 281 nights 1960–1962, the Sunday Fischmarkt has been operating for 320 years (05:00–09:30, with a live band), and the Inner and Outer Alster lakes give central Hamburg a sailing-club energy unique among major European cities.

The southern terminus of the Grand Canal and the city Marco Polo called the most beautiful in the world — West Lake (UNESCO 2011) is the cultural template every classical Chinese garden has imitated for a thousand years. The Su Causeway, Broken Bridge, Leifeng Pagoda, and the Tang-era Lingyin Temple anchor the lake. Longjing Village's tea terraces produce China's most prized green tea (Dragon Well, harvested before Qingming). Hangzhou is also Alibaba's home and the country's high-tech showpiece — the bullet train from Shanghai is just 45 minutes.

Hanoi is one of Asia's most atmospheric capitals — a thousand years of history layered into chaotic, charming streets. The Old Quarter buzzes with motorbikes and street food vendors, French colonial architecture stands alongside ancient temples, and Hoan Kiem Lake offers a tranquil escape. Pho for breakfast, egg coffee for lunch, bun cha for dinner.

Heilongjiang's northeastern capital, built up by Russian engineers around the Chinese Eastern Railway at the turn of the 20th century — the result is a Mandarin city with onion-domed cathedrals, Art Nouveau facades, and a Russian-bakery street culture you find nowhere else in China. Saint Sophia Cathedral anchors Daoli district, Central Avenue (Zhongyang Dajie) runs 1.4km of restored European stone storefronts to the Songhua River, and every January the Ice and Snow World turns the riverbank into 600,000 square metres of illuminated ice sculptures up to 50m tall. Pack a parka — January averages around -19C.

Havana is a city frozen in time — 1950s American cars cruise past crumbling colonial palaces, salsa music drifts from open doorways, and the Malecon seafront promenade is the world's longest open-air living room. Habana Vieja's restored squares contrast with raw, ungentrified neighborhoods. Mojitos, cigars, and a sense of place unlike anywhere else.

Germany's most romantic university town — the half-ruined red-sandstone Schloss looking down on the Neckar River, the cobbled Hauptstrasse threading through a pristine Old Town that was spared Allied bombing, and Ruperto Carola, the country's oldest university (1386). The Karl-Theodor-Brücke arches across to the Philosophenweg, where Hegel and Goethe both walked. Day-trippers from Frankfurt outnumber overnight stays, but the early-morning and late-evening hours when the tour buses leave are when Heidelberg becomes itself.

Finland's Baltic capital is a design capital, a sauna capital, and the European jumping-off point for Tallinn by 2-hour ferry. Löyly harborside sauna, Suomenlinna sea fortress, Temppeliaukio rock church, Senate Square's Lutheran white, and 19-hour June daylight. Finnish is Finno-Ugric — closer to Estonian than Swedish.

A city of resilience and peace. The Peace Memorial and Museum are profound, while nearby Miyajima Island's floating torii gate is iconic. Famous for okonomiyaki and oysters.

Ho Chi Minh City (still called Saigon by locals) is Vietnam's energetic southern hub — a city of roaring motorbikes, French colonial landmarks, and some of the best street food on earth. The War Remnants Museum is sobering, the Ben Thanh Market is overwhelming, and the coffee culture is addictive. Always evolving, always buzzing.

Hobart is the capital of Tasmania and Australia's second-oldest city — a working deep-water port at the foot of 1,271-metre kunanyi/Mount Wellington, with sandstone Georgian warehouses on Salamanca Place that fill every Saturday with Tasmania's best produce market. MONA (the Museum of Old and New Art) is the reason most visitors come now: a private subterranean museum funded by a professional gambler, reached by ferry from the city centre, and consistently ranked among the world's most provocative contemporary collections. Beyond Hobart proper lie Bruny Island oysters, the Tasman Peninsula's sea cliffs, and the Tasmanian wilderness.

A working langoustine port on a flat tongue of land that pokes into the Hornafjörður lagoon, with the white wall of Vatnajökull — Europe's largest ice cap — filling the entire western horizon. Höfn (the name just means "harbour") is the obvious base for the Glacier Lagoon (Jökulsárlón), the Diamond Beach, and ice-cave excursions onto Vatnajökull's outlet glaciers. 459 km / 6 hours from Reykjavík on the Ring Road; the eastern fjords begin 30 minutes north.

A dazzling vertical city where bamboo-scaffolded skyscrapers meet ancient temples, dim sum parlors, and one of the world's most spectacular harbors. East meets West at every turn.

Houston is the fourth-largest US city (2.3M in the city, 7.3M in the metro) and the most diverse — more than 145 languages spoken, world-class Vietnamese, Indian, and Tex-Mex food scenes side by side. NASA Johnson Space Center sits 25 miles south, the Museum District packs 19 institutions into 1.5 square miles (the Menil Collection alone justifies the trip), and Buffalo Bayou Park has reshaped downtown with 160 acres of trail along the water. The catch: Houston is sprawling, hot from June through September, and exposed to Atlantic hurricanes in late summer.

Hua Hin is the original Thai royal beach town, picked by King Rama VII for the Klai Kangwon summer palace in 1926 and treated ever since as Bangkok’s long-weekend coast. It sits 200 kilometres south of the capital on the Gulf of Thailand, a 3-hour drive or train ride that ends at a teakwood station with red and yellow gables. The five-kilometre town beach runs south to a clifftop temple at Khao Takiab, and the Cicada and Tamarind night markets on weekends draw the crowd that flies in for golf. Phraya Nakhon Cave, an hour south, hides the Kuha Karuhas pavilion built for King Rama V in 1890. Thailand’s golf capital, eight courses inside city limits.

A 110,000-person Pacific-coast city wedged between the Central Mountain Range and the open ocean — the working gateway to Taroko Gorge 15 kilometres north. Qixingtan Beach is a long arc of black pebbles facing whale-shaped bays, the Dongdamen Night Market sprawls across a former harbour, and the morning fishing-port market sells the day's bonito within an hour of landing. Two to three hours from Taipei on the eastern TRA line, and the home base of the Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation and its enormous hospital and university campus.

The imperial capital of Vietnam under the Nguyen Dynasty from 1802 to 1945 — UNESCO-inscribed in 1993 as a complex of palaces, royal tombs, pagodas, and citadel walls along the Perfume River (Song Huong, named for the autumnal scent of fruit-tree blossoms drifting from the upstream orchards). The Imperial Citadel covers 520 hectares enclosed by 10-kilometre stone walls and a moat, modelled on Beijing's Forbidden City but smaller, with the Forbidden Purple City reserved exclusively for the emperor and his immediate family at its heart. The 1968 Tet Offensive's 26-day Battle of Hue was one of the bloodiest urban battles of the Vietnam War — much of the citadel was destroyed and restoration is still ongoing. Seven royal tombs scatter through the hills south of the city; Tu Duc, Khai Dinh, and Minh Mang are the most architecturally exceptional. Hue cuisine is its own school of Vietnamese cooking — the iconic everyday dish is bun bo Hue (spicy beef noodle soup with lemongrass and fermented shrimp paste). The Eiffel-firm-designed Truong Tien Bridge connects the imperial north bank with the modern south.