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One of Europe’s most pedestrian-friendly city breaks is in the UK

Cities were ranked on the distance, walking time, step count and elevation between all their top attractions

India Lawrence
Written by
India Lawrence
Staff Writer, UK
Brighton promenade
Photograph: Dragan Jovanovic / Shutterstock.com
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It’s the dream holiday: a European city break where you can walk to all of the big sites. And good news, because now there’s a handy list that has ranked all of the best places to do just that, and one of them is in the UK. 

Purveyors of comfy sandals FitFlop has assessed 50 European cities on the distance, elevation, step count and time it takes to get between each one’s most popular tourist attractions, and has produced a ranking of Europe’s most pedestrian-friendly cities. These towns were made for walking. 

Flying the flag for Old Blighty was Brighton which came in third on the list. It may be hilly, but Brighton had a total score of 95.33 out of 100 for walkability, with an average distance between attractions of 1.9km. Top things to see in Brighton include the pier, the lanes, and the UK’s answer to the Taj Mahal, the Royal Pavilion

Brighton, UK
Photograph: Shutterstock

Brighton was in good company, following Bruges and Porto which came in first and second, respectively. Belgian Bruges scored an impressive 98.73, with only 1.2 km (just 16 minutes) between attractions, and no elevation. Despite having plenty of steep inclines (hello glutes), Porto came in second with an average of 26 minutes walking time between attractions. 

See the full ranking of the top 10 most walkable European cities here.

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