The 18 most beautiful places in Europe, by travel writers who’ve seen them all

Fjords exist in only a handful of countries, and Norway is home to the longest, deepest and most spectacular. Unfurling from the Norwegian Sea, these cavernous inlets stretch the length of the country’s coast, harbouring the type of scenery that will make you audibly gasp. I was particularly smitten with the pastoral Nordang Valley, where near the village of Oie you’ll find fresh-out-the-sauna locals plunging into popsicle-blue water (no matter the weather). And if all those thundering waterfalls and forested mountains get a bit boring, the fjords are home to a couple of surprisingly buzzy little cities: Stavanger and Bergen make for ideal bases to explore the region. 

Time Out tip: Unesco-listed Geirgangerfjord’s incredible scenery is made all the more thrilling when bouncing along the water on a high-speed RIB boat. Book a local tour and your guide might well beguile you with troll stories. And if you head out early or late (before or after the cruises are in town), you’re in with a decent chance of having the entire site to yourself.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has no shortage of beautiful places, but it takes a brave voice to rank anywhere above the charms of Jajce. The magnificent 22 metre Pliva Falls take top billing, a spectacular image framed by the rising town crowned by a fortress that looms large in the country’s long and storied history. The Pliva Lake and its achingly gorgeous mills sit just outside the town (be sure to stay at Hotel Jezero), while the city’s collection of Ottoman architecture, Christian churches and monasteries, mysterious catacombs, and Yugoslav history showcase Bosnia and Herzegovina at its absolute best.

Time Out Tip: Located in the birthhouse of beloved national poet Nikola Šop, Svemirko is one of the best pubs in the country, complete with a fabulous beer selection and weekly pub quizzes.

Xerocambos beach in Crete has the Mediterranean’s longest coastline along with some 6,000 stunning islands so beautiful beaches are standard. Even so, Xerocambos’s silky sand strands fringed by mirror-clear waters in the wilder, lesser-visited southeastern half of Crete Island are stand-out special. Be warned, however: this blissful beach is seriously off the beaten track. To get there you’ll need to follow winding roads from Sitia town to the traditional mountain village of Armeni. From here the road – said to be one of Greece’s scariest – loops like a liquorice coil along the dizzy edge of a deep gorge to reach near-deserted coves far below. Trust us: it’s worth it. 

Time Out tip: It might be remote, but there are several tavernas in Xerocambos and a handful of guesthouses: Akti Rooms has apartments near the beach.

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This quiet street in the center of Riga is one of the epicenters of European Art Nouveau. Stretching just 255 meters, almost every building on this street is an architectural monument. Stroll down Alberta Street to enjoy the vibrant facades adorned with wrought-iron balconies, elegant archways, and sculptures with expressive faces. Then, if you crave more – and I’m sure you will – find more iconic architectural gems just around the corner. In total, there are over 800 Art Nouveau buildings in Riga, most of which are densely located in the city center.

Time Out tip: End your tour of Alberta Street at the Riga Art Nouveau Museum on the same street. Step inside an early 20th-century apartment with original wall paintings and authentic furniture and experience the era's elegance from the inside, too.

My first glimpse of Lake Bled was my colleague showing me where she got engaged, on the banks of the lake with blue-green water shimmering behind them. So last year, I flew to Ljubljana and hopped on a bus there myself. On a clear day, the glassy water reflects the trees and green mountains that flank the lake, as if it’s brushing the clouds away. Your eyes are instantly drawn to the little island in its centre, which is home to the Church of Mary the Queen. And that soft chiming sound? That’s the wishing bell in the 52-metre bell tower, rung by tourists as a reward for climbing the 99 steps to the top.

Time Out tip: Look up and you’ll spot the terracotta-coloured rooftop of Bled Castle, built in the sixteenth century. Its terrace café alone makes it worth a visit, especially if you order their speciality, a slice of Bled cake – a light cream cake topped with flaky pastry. 

I don’t use ‘fairytale town’ liberally, but towns really don’t get much more whimsical than Alberobello. Creeping up the hills of this Puglian comune are thousands of traditional ‘trulli’, houses that look like they’d home hobbits rather than humans, made from white limestone and topped with a jaunty conical roof. You can only find trulli in this part of the world, so a trip to this protected heritage site is well worth the effort. Originally constructed as storage spaces and temporary shelters for livestock, the town’s trulli today have been converted into hotels, guesthouses, cafés, gift shops – and yes, actual homes. 

Time Out tip: For proper local souvenirs, Nice to Bì sells homemade orecchiette, dried seasoning mixes, excellent wines and liquours in adorable trulli-shaped bottles. This place has been owned by the same friendly family for generations – don’t be surprised when they ply you with free samples of booze.

Vestmannaeyjar is one of those places that makes you feel like you’ve reached the end of the earth (in a good way). A three-hour car ride and short ferry from central Reykjavik, and you’ll come up to nothing but tall, towering cliffs, reflecting light and sending it dancing into the sky. You’re now in Vestmannaeyjar – or the Westman Islands – a 4000-population cluster of islands off the south coast of Iceland. The entire island is beautiful, where little wooden houses are backlit by rolling hills and jagged cliff faces, and baby puffins waddle around at your feet. But it’s probably most famous for the Elephant Rock, which can be viewed up seriously close if you hitch a speedboat ride. 

Time Out tip: Time your trip with Matey Seafood Festival, which runs for one weekend every September and invites international chefs to the island to cook with local ingredients. 

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Full of tiny, mesmerising details and illuminated by warm sunlight at the right time of day, the Royal Alcázar of Seville is the city’s crowning glory. The royal palace dates back to the 11th century (when Seville was under Moorish rule) but the Alcázar has lived a thousand lives. And you can feel it – its at once quiet, Gothic and fairytale-like, in classic Mudéjar style with ornate façades, intricate stucco details and beautiful ceramic tilework. If you feel like you’re in a movie when you visit, that might be because the Alcázar was the Kingdom of Dorm in Game of Thrones. Or not. 

Time Out Tip: Make sure to book ahead as tickets are limited and queues can get pretty long. But if you’re lucky enough to be there on a Monday, it’s free to enter during the last hour (and normally quiet). 

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Ever looked at a Toblerone and wondered if the pyramid-shaped mountain on its wrapper was a real place? The answer is yes, and that place is Zermatt. The literal chocolate box village in the Swiss alps is watched over by the majestic Matterhorn peak. In the winter, Zermatt is a ski-bum’s paradise, with snow-topped wooden chalets flanked by armies of fir trees, and it’s got some of the best skiing around. But Zermatt in the summer is just as pleasing, with lush green mountains filled with scuttling marmots and bouncing mountain goats. 

Time Out tip: Ring in the new year in Zermatt and see skiiers descend the mountain in a torch-lit procession – it will make the most magical New Year’s Eve ever.

From the time I was eight weeks old, summer holidays were spent at my grandparents’s caravan in southwest France, and a trip to the Dune du Pilat – Europe’s highest sand dune, which stands 103 metres tall at the entrance to the Bassin d’Arcachon – was an annual occurrence. The only way up is by climbing 160 steps, which are installed at Easter and taken down at the start of November each year, but you needn’t worry. Once you’re up there, the views across the forest, dune and sea make it all worthwhile.

Time Out tip: Watching the sun sink into the Bay of Biscay while enjoying a picnic of local cheese and wines (we are in France, after all) might just be the perfect way to take in the spectacular vistas.

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Mediaeval architecture. Tick. Rolling green hills. Tick. Views of vineyards for days. Tick. Motovun, an ancient village in the Istrian hills, has got everything you could possibly want for a picturesque European old town. Found in Croatia’s southernmost peninsula, Motovun is deep in truffle and wine country, meaning the food and drink is top notch. In my opinion, there’s simply nothing better than spending an afternoon soaking in the views from the hilltop town over a few glasses of Istrian rosé.

Time Out tip: Bring your walking shoes, those cobbled streets and steep hills aren’t for the faint hearted.

Maybe it’s a hangover from the pandemic’s rise in domestic tourism, maybe it’s all down to the gorpcore trend, or maybe I’m just getting older – but suddenly, every Scot I know is spending their weekends bouncing up hills. Often overlooked in favour of the Highlands, the Arrochar Alps offer great Munro-bagging opportunities (which, for the uninitiated, means summiting one of Scotland’s 282 peaks over 3,000 ft), with the added bonus of being far closer to Glasgow and its transport connections.

Time Out tip: Make the most of a rainy day with a trip to Oban, which, depending on where you’re based, will be around an hours drive. Learn more about the water of life (and maybe sample a dram or two) at the Oban Distillery, before enjoying dinner at Ee-usk, which serves exceptional local seafood.

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I visited the beautiful Perast this year, a little coastal town surrounded by mountains and sea, away from the tourist madness of nearby Kotor. Quiet but oh-so pretty, there’s a cluster of very nice restaurants along the seafront where you can tuck into squid ink risotto and share pomegranate wine (a local speciality), and no one stops you jumping off for a swim afterwards. But the highlight, undoubtedly, was my visit to Our Lady of the Rocks, an island sanctuary (technically an islet), unique pilgrimage site and symbol of faith in Montenegro  which you can get a return boat to from Perast for just €5. 

Time Out tip: The story goes that Our Lady was built by seamen in 1452, who laid a singular rock in the bay for every voyage they took. If you visit on July 22, you’ll see locals adding stones to commemorate them. 

Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places I stumbled across in Copenhagen was the Winter Garden at the Glyptoteket. Don’t get me wrong, this art museum is stunning in pretty much every direction you look, but there’s something about the Winter Garden, the central point of the building, which feels a bit magical. The space is essentially an elevated greenhouse, with white marble sculptures and enormous date palms, all encased under an intricate glass ceiling. For such a quiet environment, it’s incredibly atmospheric, and it feels like a completely different world to the streets outside.

Time Out tip: The museum is only open till 5pm (unless you go on a Thursday, when it’s open till 9pm), but I’d highly recommend heading here later in the day, copping a bench and just watching the honey-coloured dome catch the last drabs of sunlight and push it around the room: it’s quite stunning.

I’d never heard of the Wilderness Road when I was sent there for work last year, but I’ve barely stopped thinking about it since. Up where Swedish Lapland meets Jämtland in the vastly unvisited wilds of Northern Europe, this 500km circular road was made for a mine, which has since closed down. Now nature has taken over. In autumn, the trees are ablaze as the road passes deep blue lakes, the rippling Trappstegsforsen Waterfall, Sami heritage villages and moose on their way to Sweden’s highest plateau, Stekenjokk, where reindeer graze and the Northern Lights play at night. You can only drive this route between June 6 and October 15 each year, as heavy snow cuts it off. 

Time Out tip: Restaurant Bergman’s Fisk & Vilt just outside Vilhelmina is the best place in the area to pick up snacks and picnic goodies, including smoked salmon and meats, ideal for the trails ahead.

After a rough century, the German capital isn’t known for its classical good looks: ‘poor but sexy’ is the city’s unofficial motto. But if you need a break from grit and glamour, there’s proper, incredible natural beauty to be found just an S-Bahn ride away. Brandenburg, the German state that surrounds Berlin, has something like 3,000 lakes, and a clutch of the prettiest are right on the city’s doorstep, edged with trees and even a sandy beach. My favourite, to the south-west, is Schlachtensee – wrapped up in the ancient Grunewald forest, and ringed with countless tiny, secluded inlets where it’s a simple matter to slip into the water.

Time Out tip: Naturism is big in Germany – so if you’re in any way a prude, steer clear of lake bathing areas marked ‘FKK’. It’s the German abbreviation for ‘free body culture’, aka letting it all hang out.

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You can find beauty in almost every corner of Tuscany – everyone knows that. But there’s something irresistibly romantic about the small, rugged island of Giglio, the second largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. Due to it taking four hours (via train, bus and ferry) from Pisa, it’s much less touristy than seaside spots on the mainland. Steps carved into stone guide you down to turquoise waters, the hilltop mediaeval town of Castello offers panoramic sunset views over the Tyrrhenian Sea – then, there are the mountains, abundant with pine forests, cliffs and wildflowers. In other words? A blissful spot to chill out, swim, explore, then eat your bodyweight in seafood pasta.

Time Out tip: If you’re feeling adventurous, get up early and rent a boat. I travelled round the whole coast in a day, swimming and sipping beer, and appreciated Giglio’s beauty from a whole new perspective. 

Porto’s position at the edge of the Douro Valley mean Porto is blessed with some absolutely knockout views. The best spot for them? That’s Jardim do Morro. Sure, it’s hardly a hidden gem, perched right at the top of a hill in the heart of the city, but locals and tourists flock here every evening in the summer to catch the sunset, and you can see why. Gazing west towards the coast, you’ll not only get a front-row seat of the gorgeous sky turning pink, yellow and then dark blue, but also of Porto’s higgledy-piggledy north side slowly illuminating into the evening.  

Time Out tip: Just a little further up Vila Nova de Gaia is a small supermarket – grab some snacks and drinks here and head back to Jardim for dusk and grab a patch of grass. It will be busy, but there’s usually a lovely atmosphere, and maybe some live music from buskers, too. 

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