🌏 Europe

Europe looks easy until the first day of planning. You have already picked a country or a city, and now you need specific decisions: which neighborhood to stay in, which tickets to buy in advance, how to get in from the airport. General advice does not go far enough for that. You need articles about one particular place, and those are the questions this section answers.

The core of the section is guides to cities and individual sights. There are large roundups of places in Lisbon, Oslo, Barcelona and Berlin, day-by-day itineraries for Venice and Heraklion, and a one-day walk through Karlovy Vary. Some articles cover a single site: the Alhambra in Granada, the Parliament in Budapest, Westminster Abbey, the Vatican Museums, Notre-Dame after the restoration. In those we go through tickets, opening hours and the order of the visit. For walking there are neighborhoods and routes: Trastevere in Rome, walking tours of Tbilisi.

The second large group is about where to stay. We compare the neighborhoods of Amsterdam, Split and Paphos, the base towns of the Amalfi Coast, the coasts of Crete, places on Rhodes and the resorts of Lanzarote. One article explains how to choose a base in Tuscany: a city, a village or the sea. Hotel roundups are tied to a purpose: family hotels in Greece with a water park, hotels in Paphos with the distance to the beach. There is also a close look at a single hotel, Belmond Hotel Cipriani in Venice: the rooms, the restaurant and the boat crossing.

The third group is transportation and seasons. It covers the trip from Naples to the Amalfi Coast, the RER B train from Charles de Gaulle Airport, the route from Barcelona to Andorra, car rental in Italy and the Georgian Military Highway. For seasons there is Madeira in winter, Georgia in winter, Zagreb in December and skiing in the Dolomites. Some articles are written for a specific reader: Prague with kids, Barcelona for people who work remotely. We write about events too, for example St. Patrick's Day in Dublin.

Every article opens with a short takeaway: what matters most and what to decide in advance. Practical blocks follow: tickets, getting there, time needed for the visit, lodging options. Every price and every schedule comes with its source and the date it was checked. We are direct about the downsides: lines, mandatory reservations, an awkward transfer, a noisy neighborhood. If the data is missing or contradicts itself, we say exactly that.

The section suits people who travel independently and want to put a trip together piece by piece on their own. It is useful both on a first trip to a country and on a return visit, when you need a new neighborhood or a nearby city. If you are looking for a ready-made guided tour or inspiring stories with no practical side, these articles are unlikely to suit you. We write as a reference.

Start with the subsection for your country: everything related to that destination is collected there. Read the article on where to stay first, because the other decisions depend on your base. Then move on to getting in from the airport and traveling between cities. Read about sights and tickets last: that way you will see what needs to be bought in advance.

"Europe" is part of the "Destinations" section. Inside, the articles are sorted by country: from the subsections "Italy", "Spain", "Greece" and "France" to "Georgia", "Iceland", "Malta" and "Andorra". Each country has its own subsection, so you will not have to hunt for your city through the whole list. If your route goes beyond the continent, see the neighboring sections: "Asia", "Africa", "North America", "South America", "Oceania" and "Antarctica".

Prices, schedules and entry rules in Europe change often. That is why we go back to published articles, check them against the official websites of museums, carriers and city services, and update the date of the check. Before buying a ticket, look at the official source anyway: it is named in the text. We do not settle visa and insurance questions for you, we show where to check the current requirements. Open the subsection for your country and start with the article on where to stay.