Central Europe

Seven hills, medieval fabric and Franconian beer culture

Alpine lake, steep peaks and a national park at Germany's edge

History on every corner, art everywhere & nights that never end

Evergreen mountain ridges, rushing waterfalls & timbered farmsteads

Civic pride, Hanseatic trade and riverside quarters

Over 400 half-timbered heritage houses, ducal castle & heathland gateway

Twin Gothic cathedral spires, Rhine promenades & lively Kölsch beer halls

Baroque palaces on the Elbe, royal art treasures & Neustadt arts quarter

Red-brick canal warehouses, maritime swagger & Elbe concert halls

Romantic sandstone castle ruins, river bridges & Germany's oldest university

Music, publishing history and a city of creative reuse

Hanseatic brick towers above a lived-in island city

River bends, terraced vineyards and castle silhouettes

Beer gardens, baroque churches & the Alps on the horizon

Fairytale alpine castle towers, mountain lakes & King Ludwig's romantic dream

Franconian old town with difficult twentieth-century history

Palaces and gardens spread across a lake-rich city

A layered medieval town at the edge of the Harz hills

Medieval trading streets at a bend of the Danube

A fortified Franconian town best seen after day-trip hours

White Baltic chalk cliffs, Hanseatic gables & seaside resort piers

Sandstone towers and wooded gorges above the Elbe

Seven-towered island palace, mirror lakes & neoclassical gardens

Roman monuments at the door of a steep-vineyard valley

Classical literature and Bauhaus origins in a small city

Fairytale timbered town hall, hillside castle & Harz steam railway

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, historical memory & the town of Oświęcim

Europe's last lowland primeval forest, free-roaming European bison & colourful Podlasie borderland cultures

Wild mountain ridges, sea of green beech forests, Boyko wooden tserkvas & starry dark skies

Hanseatic brick facades, Baltic amber, the birthplace of Solidarity & seaside tri-city life

The 35-kilometre sandy scythe, windsurfing lagoons, Kashubian fishing heritage & the tip of Poland

The Giant Mountains, Śnieżka summit, Wang stave church & the Valley of Palaces and Gardens

Bohemian artists' haven, Mannerist limestone facades, loess ravines & Vistula river sunsets

A royal capital, Kazimierz at night & milk-bar lunches

The Polish Manchester, red-brick textile empires, world-famous cinema heritage & monumental murals

The Gateway to the East, Lublin Renaissance, Grodzka Gate & vibrant multicultural student energy

The world's largest brick castle, Teutonic Grand Masters & the reclaimed polders of the Vistula Delta

The Land of a Thousand Lakes, sailing channels, lakeside taverns & primeval water trails

The Jurassic limestone gorge, Hercules' Club, Renaissance cliff castles & bat-filled caves

Renaissance town hall goats, St. Martin's croissants, cathedral island & the cradle of the Polish state

Habsburg fortress bastions, San River terraces, Boyko-Lemko wooden tserkvas & Beksiński's surrealism

The Little Rome on seven hills, sloping market square, Vistula bluffs & the ancient Holy Cross Mountains

The Polish Sahara, shifting sand dunes, coastal pine forests & wild Baltic beaches

Monumental river terraces, award-winning contemporary architecture & West Pomeranian coastal gateways

Intact red-brick Gothic, Nicolaus Copernicus heritage & centuries of gingerbread mastery on the Vistula

Reconstructed Old Town, royal palaces, moving museums & modern Vistula energy

Subterranean salt cathedrals, saline lakes & 800 years of mining heritage

The City of 100 Bridges, Gothic market squares, Oder river islands & Lower Silesian castles

Highland Podhale wooden villas, Morskie Oko glacial waters & alpine ridge trails in the Tatras

The Pearl of the Renaissance, Bernardo Morando's Ideal City & pristine Roztocze beech forests

Pravčická brána sandstone arch, Kamenice gorges & Elbe sandstone peaks

Functionalist Villa Tugendhat, thriving café scene & Moravian capital

Vast arcaded square, Samson's Fountain & authentic Budvar lager

Looping Vltava curves, fairytale Renaissance castle & Baroque theatre

Great Spa Town of Europe, mineral colonnades & Becherovka heritage

Royal silver mining capital, Sedlec Ossuary & St Barbara's Cathedral

Pálava limestone hills, Renaissance chateau & sun-drenched wine cellars

Baroque Holy Trinity Column, Moravian fountains & pungent tvarůžky

Birthplace of golden Pilsner lager, vast main square & historic underground

A thousand years of architecture & the best-poured beer in Europe

UNESCO Renaissance square, pastel arcades & mirror-like fishponds

SNP anti-fascist heritage, copper-mining wealth & Low Tatra gateways

UNESCO silver caldera, Baroque calvary & secret mountain tajchy lakes

Fairytale romantic towers, prehistoric cave moats & ancient thermal baths

Danube panoramas, Gothic coronation towers & Little Carpathian wine cellars

Granite alpine crests, mirror tarns & Tatra mountain chalets

Gothic cathedral splendour, singing fountains & eastern creative energy

Nosferatu cliffside eagle's nest, wooden river rafts & northern fortress ramparts

Art Nouveau Spa Island, healing thermal muds & the Crutch-Breaker promenade

Limestone gorge ladders, rushing canyon waterfalls & UNESCO ice caverns

Monumental medieval ramparts, Master Paul's Gothic woodcarvings & Spiš UNESCO heritage

Cliffside royal fortress, Roman legion rock inscription & riverside cafe culture

UNESCO folk timber village, Greater Fatra meadows & pastoral sheepfold traditions

Thermal baths, the Danube & ruin bars in old courtyards

Calvinist Rome, Great Forest spas & the Hortobágy puszta

Egri Bikavér wine cellars, Ottoman minaret & the historic fortress

Living Palóc folk village, timber belfry & 13th-century castle

Opal-green waters, volcanic vineyards & Tihany Abbey

Early Christian necropolis, Ottoman mosque & Zsolnay ceramics

Firewatch Tower, Poncichter wine taverns & the border of freedom

Art Nouveau palaces, sunny Tisza river & authentic halászlé

Danube Bend artists' colony, Serbian Baroque & cobbled alleys

Tokaji Aszú dessert wines, volcanic cellars & the Bodrog confluence

Floating opera stages, Lake Constance breezes & timber architecture

Steppe lake horizons, stork chimneys & world-class dessert wines

Culinary capital, futuristic architecture & rolling wine hills

Austria's highest peak, panoramic mountain passes & glacial wilderness

Mirror-smooth alpine lakes, prehistoric salt mines & imperial spa towns

Capital of the Alps, Zaha Hadid cable cars & high alpine ridges

Ski racing heritage, medieval town facades & rugged limestone peaks

Baroque spires, fortress ramparts & Mozart's musical heritage

Carved wooden balconies, alpine meadow trails & authentic village life

Imperial palaces, monumental boulevards & historic coffee houses

Danube river bends, baroque abbeys & terraced Riesling slopes

Glacier summits, sparkling mountain waters & year-round alpine sports

Colossal ice currents, car-free plateaus & stone pine forests

Cliff-hung mountain inns, painted gables & living folkways

Rhine swims, world-class museums & tri-border architecture

UNESCO sandstone arcades, glacial river swims & clockwork towers

Diplomatic grand quays, gothic spires & Olympic parklands

Fortified cheese castles, biomechanical art & double cream

Sheer glacial valleys, car-free villages & the Eiger North Face

Medieval wooden bridges, paddle steamers & mountain summits

Subtropical palms, alpine grottos & Italianate lakefronts

Belle Époque palaces, terraced vineyards & island fortresses

Thunderous river cascades, circular bastions & frescoed towns

Champagne climate, glacier railways & sgraffito villages

Car-free alpine streets, pyramid peaks & glacier dining

River baths, world-class art & lakeside living

Liechtenstein's Alps: a Walser village, a family ski resort & ridge walks

A prince's castle, a black-cube art museum & vineyards on the Rhine

Slovenian Tuscany, terraced vineyards & orange wine cellars

Alpine resort, Lake Jasna & the Planica ski flying cradle

Alpine lake, cliffside castle & church on the island

Wild Alpine glacial lake, Church of St John & Mount Vogel

A river, a castle & Europe's most walkable capital

World's oldest vine, Drava riverbanks & the Pohorje hills

Venetian Gothic alleys, Tartini Square & Adriatic sea salt

Underground electric train, olm salamanders & Predjama Castle

Slovenia's oldest recorded town, hilltop castle & Kurent carnival

UNESCO subterranean canyon, Cerkvenik Bridge & the roaring Reka

Emerald river rapids, Vršič Pass & the First World War trails

High mountain plateau, spruce-shingle huts & Trnič cheese