Europe

Europe rewards the traveller who likes contrast within short distances. In a week you can move from the palaces and galleries of an old capital to a lake in the mountains, then on to a fishing harbour or a vineyard village where the pace drops to a walk. Trains and short flights join most of it, and ferries and river boats link the coasts, the islands and the great waterways.

The range is wide. In the far north, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Greenland deal in glaciers, fjords, reindeer country and long Arctic nights lit by the aurora. The middle of the continent holds the Alps of Switzerland and Austria, the castles and half-timbered towns of Germany and Czechia, and the canals and art cities of the Low Countries. To the south the Mediterranean runs from Spain and Portugal through France, Italy and Monaco to the Adriatic coast of Croatia and Montenegro, the Greek islands, Malta, Cyprus and the coasts of Türkiye.

Seasons matter more here than in many regions, and they differ sharply from north to south. Spring brings blossom, gardens in bloom and quieter cities. Summer is long and light in the Nordic countries, with the midnight sun above the Arctic Circle, and hot and dry around the Mediterranean, where sea breezes cool the islands. Autumn is harvest time, with truffles, wine and turning forests, and often the most comfortable months in the south. Winter splits two ways: snow, skiing and Christmas markets in the mountains and the north, and mild, sunny days in Cyprus, Malta and the Canary Islands.

Journeys here tend to pair a city with a slower landscape: a few nights in Vienna or Paris followed by a lake or a vineyard, or Copenhagen joined to the islands. Many travellers return to one country again and again, going deeper each time, while others link two or three neighbours by rail or by sea. Either way, the shape is usually two to four bases rather than a new bed every night.