Recently, I visited Europe twice (for two conferences) for a combined period of about four weeks. In this post, I will rank each of the cities I visited.

Now, of course, I visited some cities more than others. So it is already a big reason to not take my list so seriously. Regardless, for transparency, I will note roughly how long I was in each of those cities. After each city name, I will include one of the following indicators:

  • [xN] means I stayed in that city for x nights (i.e., [1N] means 1 night stay). For a one night stay, this would mean I would have explored the city for at least half a day (or more likely a full day).
  • [DT] means I was there for a day trip (stayed longer than 4 hours).
  • [ST] means I was there for a short trip (stayed for 4 hours or fewer).



17. Linz [ST]

Yeah, sorry, but someone had to finish bottom. Out of all the towns that I visited, Linz felt the least touristy of the bunch, and I can’t really recommend it much. To be fair to it, I did go there in the evening (when almost everything seems to be closed already), and I did get to do some city viewing and had pizza at a really friendly restaurant. But it doesn’t look like a place that tourists would go to. It’s just a nice, peaceful yet boring city (for a tourist) in Austria for me.

16. Bratislava [ST]

I was at Bratislava for several hours, and it didn’t super stand out in that short time. I did see a very colourful church and walked down a nice street in the central of town, but it wasn’t super interesting. Maybe it is a bit unfair that I was there for such short time, but at the same time, it didn’t seem like a place that I would go out of my way to visit again.

15. Cologne [1N]

Cologne was quite a normal German town. There is a big cathedral (probably one of the bigger ones I saw in Europe to be fair), and the river walk was nice (though it was super hot on the day I went), but that was about it. Cologne didn’t really strike me as a place with many interesting things in the short time I was there.

14. Budapest [DT]

I feel this rating might be a bit unfair to Budapest since I spent such a short time there. I do find that it is one of the more unique cities that I had the chance of going to, since it feels more east European vibe than the majority of the places on the list. The architecture there was interesting (I did enjoy visiting the fort that was on the hill) but not mindblowing. The food was cheaper than the cities I went to (and was quite unique compared to other places) but similarly it wasn’t something that was that impressive. So it explains why I rated it a bit lower. But maybe if I spent more time there I would have enjoyed the city more.

13. Lindau [ST]

Lindau is another city that I feel could be placed higher if I spent more time at. It is a small town by Lake Constance (which itself is quite an interesting place), and it seems like a place that you can just hang around at and just relax for a bit while not doing much. I did see a number of people walking along the lake and even swimming in the lake, which looked like good fun to be honest. The town area also had quite a nice vibe as well, and I’m sure there were quite a bit to do around there if I was willing to take a train to other nearby places. I think it was a town that wasn’t suited the Europe trip where everything was all in a rush like we were trying to accomplish, but it would be a good choice if one wanted to just wind down and look at the lakes and walk around some older European city buildings.

12. Salzburg [1N]

This is a weird one, but I thought Salzburg was a bit overhyped. The town itself is nice (it is Mozart’s birthplace after all), and there are some nice museums and gardens you can go to. However, apart from some of the area in the middle of town, I didn’t find too much else going on there. The city itself was kind of a moderate-sized town vibe but not really one that I felt had a lot to see or worth staying too long (although if you go to the neighbouring towns then it’s a different point – a bit of a spoiler for later in the list).

11. Zurich [DT]

Zurich is nice, but I also felt it could have been more. It’s a city by the lake, which I am generally a big fan of anyway. But I am putting it a bit lower in the list as compared to the other lakeside cities. Taking away the nice lakeside vibes and the European building achitecture, the city itself seemed like a standard large European city. There are some interesting attractions but on the overall I did find it a bit disappointing as a visit compared to what I was expecting. I was talking to a friend who had been to Zurich a few times in the past, who said that the city does seem to have nicer vibes in the past. And although I have never been there prior to this, I could kind of see what they were saying. I felt other Swiss cities may have been able to provide some of the vibes that you may get in Zurich (spoilers for later), so I was more neural about the city. Would have to say though that the FIFA Museum was an interesting one.

10. Paris [DT]

I found it a bit of a challenge to rank the next few cities, since I felt they are somewhat standard tourist destinations and so I already had expectations that they would be quite nice and so didn’t super blow me away or anything. On a different day, I might rank the next few cities differently. But let’s start with Paris.

With all of the tourists flocking to Paris every year, I felt like it was a good city but not amazing. The attractions there were amazing – the Louvre somehow ending up one of my favourite places there, and the main landmarks were also very impressive architecture. But the city itself didn’t feel as nice as some of the others higher up on this list. it might be the vibe that it gives off (not as clean compared to some other places, or the people being a bit more unfriendly), or maybe it was too touristy. But regardless, I didn’t go there with much expectations (I have read about Paris synrdrome before) and so I was quite neutral about the town.

9. Istanbul [1N]

Out of all the cities in the list, Istanbul is probably the most unique of the bunch. Being the only Islamic city that I went to, I found the architecture and the attractions to be different from the others I have been to. There were a few large mosques which were very nice to visit. Not to mention that the food there is also very nice. We shared a big plate of kebab for relatively cheap price compared to other places on this list, and had nice tea and dessert (balkava) at random shops as well. I wasn’t able to explore the city much at nighttime (since we arrived the hotel close to midnight already), but I can definitely see how lively the city is even at night. Unlike other European cities, I could probably have gotten some Turkish food even at the late hours if I wanted to.

Now, the two things that I weren’t a big fan of in Istanbul. First, I felt like the city was a bit of a pain to navigate around, especially for us to go from the airport to the centre of town and back. It took almost two hours to travel out of and into the airport by public transport, which is quite inconvenient especially if you have a lot of luggage (which fortunately I did not). The second was the extra charges on the tourists that we faced. The taxis (as we were told, and as experienced by another friend) were quite unfriendly to tourists. Furthermore, many of the attractions (like the Hagia Sophia) were charging quite high fees to enter when compared to some of the other tourist attractions in other cities (this seems to be a more recent thing though according to a friend who have been to Istanbul in the past and not have this occurring to them). So it did leave some bad impressions of the city at times. However it was not all bad – we had staffs helping us at the subway station, and very friendly locals who introduced us to their culture when we visited the mosque.

Even with all of these negative points (which let’s be honest aren’t even that bad), I do find Istanbul a place that’s definitely worth visiting. Would definitely go back if had the chance, especially since I haven’t even had the chance to visit a Turkish hammam.

8. Berlin [1N]

I found Berlin to be quite interesting. Anyone remotely aware of German history would know that the city used to be divided into two halves, which makes the city a great destination for history geeks (which I am not), or anyone who is just interested in a city that has some interesting stories behind it. Visiting Berlin allows you to see the relics of a once divided past – remains of the Berlin wall scattered throughout the town, the famous cold war mural/outdoor art installation, the checkpoints used to control the movement of people on both sides of the city, and so on. Not to mention that Berlin is the capital of Germany, and so many government buildings (with modern architecture) can also be found. I so happened to also be there right after the EURO final (as in I was on the plane when the England-Spain final was going on), and so getting to see some residual celebration was quite interesting. There were definitely exhibits that I missed out on seeing (like the Lego museum), but I will have to say that what I saw was definitely very impressive.

7. St Wolfgang [1N]

Wolfgangsee is a lake about an hour on the bus from Salzburg. It was probably one of the more difficult areas to get to via public trainsport, since there were no train lines that passes through there. But if you manage to go through that hurdle, oh man, it was a nice place. It is a small town, and so gave somewhat more of an authentic vibe. One of my favourite memory there was walking from our hotel to a small cafe at 10pm almost in the dark. Once the sun set the streets were quiet (which being from large cities where everything was open all the time) and was certainly an experience.

But the main attraction there was definitely the nature around. Wolfgangsee is a very nice and peaceful lake, and there were nearby mountains which you could go up (on steam trains) and look at the lake area from far away. The mountain also seemed like a nice hike upwards as well (although I didn’t hike up due to time constraints) and had some very cool views. I remember a cliff that you could walk along. The short walk I took along that cliff edge was very peaceful (very off the usual tourist paths) and it was probably the most danger I felt during the entire trip. The little town was surrounded with such nice nature and impressive views. So I had to rate it high up.

Although to be fair, I suspect that if I had this much time in Lindau, I may also have had put it nearby number 7 in this list as well. And now that I think about it, I didn’t visit Halstatt this trip. I do wonder where I would have put that place on this list.

6. Amsterdam [DT]

I surprisingly liked Amsterdam. I mostly went there because I had a long layover there, but even in that short period I did find the city quite nice. One of the nicest aspect of the city were the people – they were quite friendly, and (a bit biased point but) were also very easy to communicate with in English. The city itself is also interesting place to walk around and have plenty of things to explore. In the brief time in Amsterdam, we were able to visit a flower garden, saw tulips and a windmill (truly a Dutch classic), walked along the canals (although not my favourite canals in Europe, spoilers for later) and some unique buildings and architectures. It was a busy city that seemed to have a lot to do, and I did really wish I had more time to explore there.

5. Innsbruck [1N]

In my Austria leg of the trip, Innsbruck was probably the city I was most exicted to visit. And oh boy, it didn’t disappoint. Even though it sounds like another city, the vibe there is amazing. Innsbruck is in a valley, which means (1) whichever way you look you will see beautiful, snow-capped mountain tops, and (2) you can go up those mountains and see the view of the city or see the snow. We were fortunate enough to go up Nordkette (the mountain in Innsbruck) when there were still snow, so being able to slide around in the snow or throw snowballs at your unsuspecting friends did definitely make a difference. The attractions themselves in the town were also quite nice though – the street near the central square, the zoo where you could also see the city view and some of the cold-climate animals, and so on. I even just spent a few hours of the morning just walking around the town, walking at random markets and still had a good time. It felt like a medium-sied city with friendly vibes and definitely has enough to keep you occupied for a short visit.

4. Munich [2N]

Munich is very different from the other German cities I visited – it felt less like the other German cities and more like Austria or Switzerland (or maybe I should be saying it the other way round). The architecture felt more traditional than some of the other German cities that I went to, and we were even fortunate enough to visit the city during the Kocherlball event. It might just be me being lucky, but I did feel there were more traditional German/Bavarian vibes we were able to see and definitely did make me enjoy the cities more. Aside from the cultural aspect, the city centre area has some nice buildings, and had a lot of places to visit. I was able to spend a few hours in the Technology museum, and that was definitely a place I could spend more time in. I also did visit the Allianz Arena, but I wasn’t a big Bayern fan so I was quite neutral about the place. But overall, still felt you can get more traditional vibes from the city as compared to some of the other German towns I visited, but also modern enough that you could find interesting stuff to do.

Now comes the real highlights of the trip. I picked the following three cities because they were some of my favourites, and that each of these three cities have vibes that felt different from one another.

3. Lucerne [1N]

For number 3, I’m going to put my favourite lakeside European city here. I felt Lucerne is a city that is small enough to not be overly busy, but also large enough to be easy to get to and have things to do. It felt like a larger and busier version of St Wolfgang (which people may not appreciate depending on what you enjoy). Even though the city is smaller than Zurich and argubaly has less going on than there, I do find it more plesant than Zurich. Even a walk along the river and to the lake was very peaceful, and I probably saw the most European beautiful sunset here.

The highlight of Lucerne is probably all the mountains nearby the place. There were at least two mountain tops that were about an hour away from the Lucerne city centre, and the one we went to (Mount Rigi) was definitely worth the view. Similar to St Wolfgang, the view from up top was definitely something to go for. From up there, you can spot other lakeside towns and many other mountain ranges across the horizon. Even the journey to the mountain involved going across a massive lake and going up a train, allowing us to absorb the natural features the town had to offer.

I mean it might not be quite Interlaken or whatever (I have not been to those places so cannot comment), but I feel it does give me a good impression as to why people like going to Switzerland so much. If I had to mention some negatives, I would have to say that (1) it can be a bit boring since the town is quite small and doesn’t have much to do, and (2) it is a bit pricey (although it is true for most of Switzerland anyway).

2. Vienna [14N]

Compared to the other cities on this list, Vienna has the advantage of being the place that I spent the most time in by some amount (partially because both conferences I attended were in Vienna). But even taking this bias into account, I find Vienna a very impressive city that deserves this spot. There are many attractions with nice architecture that you can visit during the day. You can go to random record stores in town, take a walk by the river, go to random football games (my first European football experience was with Austria Wien where they lost 4-0) or visit the countless museums in town. You can even just take the public transport to the centre of town and just wander around looking at some of the old buildings. When night falls, you can go watch one of the many musical acts (orchestra at the Musikverenin or just en ensemble playing at the church), or hang around at the Prater for a bit. It’s a very lively city, and also one that is convenient to get around with good public transport. Not to mention that it is quite safe and with quite friendly people. It’s not somewhere that I would be trying to go back to again (I was there for two weeks already after all), but I would definitely recommend anyone else to go, since it seems to have plenty of things to do here.

1. Hamburg [2N]

Yes, Hamburg is my top pick. Really. It ticks all the boxes for things I like – good seafood (it’s by the coast), good bodies of water (loads of canals, a big river and a pond), good public transport to go places, and a good list of interesting attractions. The Miniatur Wunderland for me is the single best attraction I went to this entire trip. It is a place where they have built miniature models (dioramas) inspired by real-life cities, but at such great details that you can keep finding little things they have done and go, “oh wow, they were bothered to put that in”. The airport had actual planes taking off and landing, the model trains were all travelling along the tiny tracks, and the people would move around and looking lively. Even after already being there for 3 hours, I feel I could easily have been there for much longer just admiring the details of everything.

But aside from the Miniatur Wunderland, I could see so many other things that one could do there – walking or even taking a boat ride along the river or by their various canals, chilling by the pier having seafood (did I mention that I love having seafood), visiting the churches, seeing the opera house or the Lion King show (really), watching the German Bundesliga at St Pauli stadium with a giant fort as a backdrop. It feels like one of those cities that you can just hang around at for a while and just find random stuff to do, and I always rate cities that has that. It does have some very unique vibe to it that I didn’t really see in the other cities, and it is probably why I put it at the top spot on this list.



That’s the end of the list. Any cities you felt were too low on the list? Any other cities that I should have visited that could probably have been high on my list? There are no comment sections here so you are probably going to have to keep those opinions to yourself.