Curated places with real stories, live weather, and thoughtful recommendations.
A Seljuk-era castle on a high peninsula, a long crescent beach below, and a Cleopatra-legend swimming cove the locals will tell you Mark Antony actually paid for.
Cobblestone Aegean village famous for windsurfing, stone-cottage hotels, and the most photogenic Wednesday market on the coast.
Capital of the Turquoise Coast — a Roman harbor that's still a working harbor, ringed by an Ottoman old town that bends down to the water.
Canada's first national park. Lake Louise's turquoise, Moraine Lake at sunrise, the Icefields Parkway running 230 kilometers north to Jasper. Mountains the way the brochures promise but rarely deliver.
The Mezquita — eight hundred years of being both mosque and cathedral, at the same time, in the same building. The most physically improbable monument in Spain.
The best-preserved Greco-Roman city on the Mediterranean coast. The Library of Celsus alone is reason to come.
The Alhambra. The last Moorish kingdom in Iberia. Free tapas with every drink. The most romantic city in Spain, and most Spaniards will agree.
The planned capital — Greek architect Doxiadis laid out the grid in the 1960s, the Margalla Hills did the rest. Cleaner, greener, and quieter than any city of two million has a right to be.
Two empires, two continents, 1,500 years of being the capital of the world. The Bosphorus runs through dinner.
Ancient Smyrna, Turkey's third city. The most relaxed, most secular, most Mediterranean of the big cities — a bay-front Korso and excellent seafood.
Pine-shaded resort town pressed between Tahtalı Mountain and the Mediterranean. The pebble coves are uncommonly clear; the Lycian Way starts here.
Where Rumi is still buried, where the whirling started, and where modern Turkey's most observant Anatolia still keeps its hours of prayer.
Mughal capital, poet's city, the most generous dinner table in South Asia. The Shahi Qila and Food Street within walking distance, both still open at midnight.
The city that ran the industrial empire, then ran most of the 20th century's cultural one. Museums are free. The pubs are the point.
LA is not a city you visit, it's a region you choose a part of. The trick is to commit to two neighborhoods and ignore the rest for the trip.
Two square kilometers of principality on a Mediterranean rock. The casino is the cliché; the actual draw is the gardens, the palace, and one of the best aquariums in Europe.
A British-era hill station 2,300 meters up in the Galyat, set against pine-forested ridges. Where Punjab goes to escape May heat and to see snow in January.
Picasso's hometown, recently woken up. Port refit + Picasso Museum + Pompidou outpost + 300 days of sun — Spain's most quietly improved second-tier city.
The famous things are real. The actual city is what's between them — a 24-hour subway, a borough you've never been to, a slice of pizza at 1 a.m.
Three falls, half a billion liters per minute, mist that soaks you from a hundred meters away. The Canadian side is where you stand.
The Côte d'Azur capital that's actually a city — Italianate old town, ochre buildings, a five-kilometer beachfront promenade, and a museum density most capitals would envy.
White travertine terraces filled with warm calcium-rich water, stacked above the Greco-Roman ruins of Hierapolis. The two together make one of Anatolia's strangest, most photographed places.
The city that ran the Enlightenment, then the Revolution, then most of Europe's idea of beauty. Walk it. The Métro is for emergencies.
Antiquity in the foundations, Renaissance in the churches, Baroque in the fountains, Vespas in the rest. Walk it backwards through time.
The actual city is a collection of microclimates and neighborhoods you wouldn't think were the same place. Forget the Golden Gate photo — go to a neighborhood and walk it.
The City of Three Cultures — Christians, Jews, and Moors living and building side by side for centuries, all of it stacked on a granite spur ringed by the Tagus.
Canada's most populous city — half global multicultural lab, half small-town friendly. The neighborhoods are the trip: Kensington, Little Italy, Greektown, Chinatown, Little India.
A small bay village south of Marmaris, reached by a winding road through pine forests and one short tunnel. The water is the color the brochures lie about.
Pacific city pressed between ocean and Coast Mountains. The most beautifully sited big city in North America. Granville Island, Stanley Park, and a dim sum scene that doesn't quit.
Medieval cliff-top village 427 meters straight up from the Mediterranean. Nietzsche walked the path up. The view is what he was looking for.