BelgiumBelgium: what to see and when to go
Belgium fits inside a three-hour drive, corner to corner, and yet the country can't agree on a single language, a single beer culture, or even a stable government. What it does…
Destination guides
Where to go, when to go, and what these places are actually like — for the destinations we keep finding cheap flights to.
Europe
Belgium
BulgariaBulgaria: what to see and when to go
The Rila Monastery sits in a mountain fold about two hours south of Sofia, its courtyard walls painted top to bottom in reds, blues and gold, monks' cells stacked in tiers like…
CyprusThings to do in Paphos
The mosaics under Paphos are the reason UNESCO bothered with the place: floors laid down eighteen centuries ago, Dionysus and Theseus rendered in millions of stone chips, still…
CyprusThings to do in Larnaca
Larnaca wears its history casually. You can be eating grilled halloumi on a palm-lined promenade one minute and standing inside a church where Lazarus — the one raised from the…
FranceFrance: what to see and when to go
The Paris Métro smells of warm brake dust and someone's cigarette, and within twenty minutes of landing most first-timers are standing under the Eiffel Tower wondering why they…
GermanyGermany: what to see and when to go
Germany rarely sells itself. It doesn't have the Aegean light or the loud confidence of a place that knows it's beautiful. What it has instead is depth: a country that rewards t…
GreeceGreece: what to see and when to go
The thing most first-timers don't realise is that "Greece" barely functions as a single destination. There are roughly six thousand islands and islets, only a couple of hundred…
ItalyItaly: what to see and when to go
The espresso in Naples comes in a thick-walled cup barely bigger than a shot glass, downed standing at the bar in under a minute, and it costs almost nothing. That single ritual…
MaltaMalta: what to see and when to go
Malta is smaller than you expect and older than almost anywhere you've been. The temple complexes at Ġgantija and Ħaġar Qim were raised before the pyramids at Giza, and you can…
MoldovaMoldova: what to see and when to go
Moldova is a country where the roads run underground. Beneath the village of Mileștii Mici, tunnels once quarried for limestone now hold bottles stacked to the ceiling along ten…
PortugalPortugal: what to see and when to go
The Atlantic hits Portugal differently than the Mediterranean hits Cyprus. It's colder, wilder, loud against the cliffs at Nazaré where surfers ride waves the size of buildings.…
SpainSpain: what to see and when to go
Spain is not one country pretending to be many; it is many pretending to be one. Cross from Andalusia into the Basque Country and the food changes, the language changes, the lig…
SwedenSweden: what to see and when to go
Picture a country where the sun barely sets in June and barely rises in December, where strangers queue with the patience of saints, and where a plain cinnamon bun comes wrapped…
United KingdomUnited Kingdom: what to see and when to go
The United Kingdom rains less than its reputation suggests and disappoints anyone who thinks London is the whole story. Step off a train in a Yorkshire market town and you find…
Middle East & Caucasus
ArmeniaArmenia: what to see and when to go
Mount Ararat doesn't belong to Armenia anymore — the border with Turkey cut it away a century ago — yet it fills the skyline behind Yerevan like a national obsession, printed on…
GeorgiaGeorgia: what to see and when to go
The Georgian alphabet looks like someone drew smoke with a steady hand — loops and curls that spell words no other language shares. You'll see it on shopfronts in Tbilisi within…
Asia
IndiaIndia: what to see and when to go
The first thing India does is overwhelm the senses all at once: marigold garlands, diesel fumes, temple bells, the smell of frying onions, a cow ambling through traffic that som…
PhilippinesPhilippines: what to see and when to go
The Philippines is not one destination but seven thousand of them, scattered across a distance roughly the length of the trip from Cyprus to Norway. You can spend a morning in a…
SingaporeSingapore: what to see and when to go
Singapore fits inside a space smaller than the Larnaca–Limassol commute, yet it packs a rainforest, a container port that runs the global economy, and hawker stalls where a plat…
ThailandThailand: what to see and when to go
The first thing that hits you in Bangkok is the smell: charcoal smoke, lemongrass, exhaust fumes, and jasmine garlands all at once, usually before you've even left the pavement…
Africa
Cape VerdeCape Verde: what to see and when to go
Ten islands scattered off the coast of West Africa, and no two of them feel like the same country. On Sal, the wind never stops and the horizon is flat as a table; three hundred…
MoroccoMorocco: what to see and when to go
The first thing that hits you in Marrakech is not a sight but a sound: the call to prayer bouncing off pink walls at dusk, tangled up with motorbike engines and the hiss of fryi…
Americas
United StatesUnited States: what to see and when to go
The United States is not one trip. It is a landmass where you can drive for two days and still be in the same time zone, where the desert in Arizona and the rainforest in Washin…
Elsewhere
DenmarkDenmark: what to see and when to go
Denmark is flat. Not gently rolling — flat, in a way that surprises people who expect Scandinavian drama. The highest "mountain" barely tops 170 metres and locals argue about wh…
EstoniaEstonia: what to see and when to go
Tallinn's Old Town looks like a fairy tale until you notice the drone-delivery robots trundling past the medieval guild houses. Estonia is the country where you can pray in a 70…
FinlandFinland: what to see and when to go
The light does something strange in Finland. In June the sun barely sets, and people mow their lawns at midnight; in December it hangs low and orange for a few hours, then gives…
IrelandIreland: what to see and when to go
The first thing that surprises people about Ireland is the light. It doesn't fall so much as shift — a bright hour swallowed by cloud, then a shaft breaking over a wet green fie…
LatviaLatvia: what to see and when to go
The forest starts where the city ends. Ride 40 minutes out of Riga in any direction and the pines close in, broken only by the occasional wooden farmhouse and a lake the colour…
NetherlandsNetherlands: what to see and when to go
The Netherlands sits mostly below sea level, held back by dikes, pumps and a national obsession with water management that predates the country itself. Ride a bike out of any ci…
NorwayNorway: what to see and when to go
The light does strange things in Norway. In June, the sun barely dips below the horizon at midnight in the north, and people mow lawns at 11pm as if it were the afternoon. In De…
Sri LankaSri Lanka: what to see and when to go
The train from Kandy to Ella runs slow enough that you can lean out the open doorway and watch tea pickers work the hillsides, banana leaves brushing the carriage as it curves t…
SwitzerlandSwitzerland: what to see and when to go
The train from Zürich to the mountains does something Cyprus roads never will: it climbs into cloud, breaks through it, and deposits you at a station where the air smells of col…