What are the top 3 most beautiful cities in Europe?
December 1, 2024
I'm curious what people will come up with. What are your top three cities in Europe to look at and why?
To make this a bit more of a interesting question we will ignore idilic villages or towns. Population of the place has to be over 50,000 people.
33 comments
The correct answer is probably something like “Paris, Prague, Florence” but my answer is “Lviv, Krakow, and Vilnius”
Florence has to be up there. It cured my short but intense WoW addiction 20 years ago.
Florence, Vienna, Barcelona, but Rome, Prague, Madrid, Paris, Venice, Bruges and many others could easily be there too.
Just in Italy, Florence, Rome, Modena, Mantua, Venice, Bologna, Ferrara, Turin, Milan, Padua and most major cities could all be considered.
From the ones I visited, Paris, Barcelona and Lisbon.
From those I have visited:
Copenhagen, Dresden, Prague
Depends on what you are into but I am going to say Vienna, Florence and Amsterdam as representations of three different styles of beautiful Europe has to offer. But I totally get if someone wants to say Paris or Barcelona or Warsaw or Venice or Klagenfurt. The bigger the city the more beautiful sights but also unsightly quarters it will have. I mean the center of Paris is magnificent but the banlieues are a disgrace.
Bruges and Ghent are definitely in the top 3 for me. Then it becomes difficult, there are so many great cities in Europe. Maybe Rome or Venice? But I was also very impressed by modern Rotterdam, like many other Dutch cities, or the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck.
But I would still include my hometown Vienna as the third city in the ranking 😉
Edit: In my opinion, by far the coolest city in Europe is Berlin. The techno scene there is unique in the world.
Hard to tell you a Top 3, but for me two cities that MUST be among the most beautiful are Vienna and Sevilla. 🇦🇹🇪🇦
My choices for a possible number 3 are:
•Paris 🇨🇵
•Prague🇨🇿
•Amsterdam🇳🇱
•Nice🇨🇵
•maybe also Stockholm🇸🇪
and a controversial pick: Bucharest! 🇷🇴
The city might seem a bit run down, but it is a very unique, charismatic, and simply charming city! Imagine something like Havana in Cuba.
And for transparency: I am from Vienna, but I still firmly believe that this city is among the most beautiful and charming in Europe 🙂
Edinburgh, Bath, Prague. Edinburgh has a hauntingly beautiful dark architecture and cobbled streets, with a lot of grandeur. Some of the city is medieval, other parts are Georgian. So there’s lots of character.
Bath has rows of fancy Georgian buildings that are made of a local, golden stone called Bath stone. This gives the city a distinct atmosphere and a uniform layout. There’s also lots of greenery, with hilly parks, gardens and lush overgrown cemeteries. Bath has a melancholy elegance that I love.
Lastly, Prague. I love the diversity of architecture in Prague and how compact it is with the cobbled streets, squares and cute historic bridges. The cityscape features church spires, the river, and slopes. It has a haunted feel to it.
There isn’t an objective answer, it depends what exactly you are looking for
That’s just too subjective, and honestly there are a lot of beautiful cities in Europe to visit. My top 3 of cities I visited is Strasbourg, Prague and Vienna. But there are so many places I would like to visit and would probably hit the top 3.
Why just 3? Beautiful cities are Europe’s bread and butter 🙂
No matter what you name you’ll start a war. But off the top of my head:
🇸🇪 Stockholm (location in archipielago)
🇳🇱 Amsterdam (houses & canals)
🇨🇭 Lucerne (architecture and setting)
Rome has to be up there. It has unparalleled architecture and history.
I don’t see a Budapest mention. So I won’t name three (it’s quite difficult), I’ll just say Budapest is special for me, I love it more than Vienna or Prague. Ah the feeling you get walking along Danube on a winter evening, watching the beautiful buildings lit up in the night on both sides of the river. I love it. The parliament, the Buda castle, the Basilica, the streets the Jewish ghetto, the termal bathhouses, czardas…Due to it’s rich history that includes arrival od Magyar tribes, Tatar invasion, Turkish invasion, Budapest was really the first point in Europe where I could also “smell” the east in the air, it is like a little sign of all these magnificent empires: “we were here”. I know some Hungarians would roll their eyes at me and say I have an idealized image of the city. So be it, I’m happy then not to be born in Budapest, I can simply enjoy it in a different way each time I visit.
Unpopular opinion: vienna is kind of… Meh. It’s very elegant but I’ve always felt it lacks soul. I love the city but I wouldn’t put it in my top 3, perhaps top 10?
i‘m undecided between several cities, but venice has got to be there.
Why do people like Florence so much? I’ve been there, and it was pretty disappointing. And don’t get me wrong, the small villages and cities surrounding Florence(Siena, Luca, Pisa, …), and the surrounding area and landscape are amazing, but the city itself is pretty mid.
I’d rate pretty much any of the other large Italian cities over Florence. In fact, I’d rate Siena and Luca over Florence itself.
Anyway. My top 3 beautiful large European cities you should visit at least once, is:
1. Venice
2. Amsterdam
3. Istanbul
Followed by all the usual suspects, like Rome and Paris.
I also really Like Milan. That Gallery in Milan is probably one of the most beautiful places in Europe.
All these are ruined by tourists though. The cities themself are beautiful and unique, but the excessive amounts of tourists ruin the experience a bit.
—
Top 3 smaller cities(and my personal favourites):
1. Carcassonne
2. Siena
3. Bamberg
For me, Bergen has to be a candidate.
It has both fantastic nature as well as beautiful architecture. The city is located in the middle of dramatic fjords and mountains, the city itself stretches up into the mountains sides. At daytime you see the houses, and at nighttime you get the lights going vertically up.
Architecturally I am sure there are more beautiful cities, but there are some amazing streets, especially the narrow ones like Knøsesmauet.
Just by sheer scale, I would say that London, Rome and Venice have the most beauty within their city limits.
Some slightly leftfield choices I would say Strasbourg, Turin and Granada.
But the cities were the beauty enraptured me the most were Barcelona, Riga and Palermo.
As I’ve visited most cities in the UK, here are my top three within the UK alone:
1. Edinburgh – never fails to blow me away with the impressive array of architecture just around Waverley Station alone, but then this beauty is maintained throughout most of the city, with slivers of modernity incorporated in a way that actually works; you just can’t beat the Scottish capital.
2. Bath – another popular one, but the sheer amount of the stunning stone buildings you get for an English city, along with the cleanliness of its streets, really throws it out of the park.
3. Lincoln – this one’s a bit out of the way, but a true underrated gem with beautiful architecture, walkable streets and packed with plenty of rich history to offer, which I personally prefer over York; its cathedral was once the tallest building in the world and what’s more, there’s even a castle right next door.
Including the rest of Europe, however, my top three from those I visited:
1. Zurich, Switzerland – largest city in Switzerland still offers the postcard-perfect Swiss charm around the Altstadt, with an amazing array of picturesque buildings, streets and squares to explore on both sides of the Limmat river; plenty more to offer around it, such as its namesake lake, shops on Bahnhofstrasse and even the perfect blend of modernity in all the right places.
2. Luxembourg City – stunning city, with an impressively clean mix of old and new built around hills and rivers, plus free public transport to help you explore it all effortlessly.
3. Antwerp, Belgium – excellent walkable city with an impressive train station and an insane variety of architecture, you never get bored walking around every nook and cranny of the city centre.
Honourable mentions include (again, only out of those I’ve been to):
* Basel, Switzerland – beautiful old town complemented with impressive modern high-rises (architecturally) and clean streets, as well as the best looking station building at SBB.
* Metz, France – stunning historic buildings along clean walkable streets, nice quieter alternative to Paris.
* Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany – contrast between the stunning skyscrapers and the picturesque old town.
* Lugano, Switzerland – blends Swiss cleanliness with Italian beauty in the perfect way, would put this in the top three if I spent more time here, but it was only a quick stopover on the train.
* Rotterdam, Netherlands – in terms of a totally modernised city rebuilt from the ground up, Rotterdam pulls it off perfectly, with a massive square outside the impressive station and an amazing display of skyscrapers by the waterfront.
* Strasbourg, France – excellent blend of French and German architectures, with its own charm.
I’ve actually researched a lot of cities I haven’t been to, and I conclude that Lucerne and Vevey-Montreux in Switzerland are pretty hard ones to beat. Also, Innsbruck in Austria (alps) or Ventimiglia in Italy (beach).
No love for Ljubljana in here? Such an amazing town centre.
Also hijacking my own comment to say if none of you have been to Prizren in Kosovo you absolutely should. Another stunning town
For me: Edinburgh (I’m in love with that city), Prague and Toledo.
Top 3
Athens
Rome
Paris
Honourable mentions:
Florence
Istanbul
Budapest
Tallinn
Edinburgh
Prague
Lucerne
London
Barcelona
It’s pretty subjective as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but mine would be, in no particular order:
– York
– Prague
– Kraków
I can’t even do a top 3 for Italy let alone Europe… we are too lucky!
This section is absolutely biased depending on where people have been, how much time they did spend there and the quality of that time, that is highly correlated to the people who hosted them.
It’s perfectly normal. In any case, it’s a good source to learn places to visit.
Even with the 50k population limit it is unanswerable as it depends on your tastes a lot. If forced to decide I will go for:
* Venice. The work unique is over used, but Venice is unique and beautiful.
* Seville. One of many Spanish cities I could mention TBH, but as it is large, beautiful and a lovely feel it goes here.
* Edinburgh. A beautiful setting. Great culture. Friendly people. Okay, so I may personally like Glasgow more but one cannot deny the beauty of the capital.
I’ll put as asked three:
Venezia as no. 1 ( just pure beauty, so complex and layered, yes overcrowded and chaotic ..but pure baroque beauty
Vienna as second.
Paris as the third – not necessarily in this order.
To live in:
Ljubljana definitely. And my most favourite thing about all the surroundings of Ljubljanica river area was that it started and emwas created quite on purpose, as I remember somewhere around mid 1990’s.
In no particular order: Copenhagen, Budapest, and Prague.
Slough, Scunthorpe and Wrexham and it’s not even a debate
edinburgh, venice and st petersburg for places i’ve been, not many cities have a volcano with a castle on top in the middle or the school of divinity which is beautiful.
glasgow also is cool in a more urban street art way, like you can see the waves of generations of poverty and glaswegian-ness but it might be hard to explain for people not from central scotland or glasgow.
stirling is nice too, helsinki and copenhagen are good too, i loved lorient but not top 3 and wrotsaw (can’t remember the spelling) was beautiful too. depends what u want, wintery castles and mountains – scotland or warm summery mediterranean vibes – somewhere down south (haven’t been far south lol)
Very subjective. Rome, Saint-Petersburg and Edinburgh for me.
Paris, Vienna – not in my top 10, there will be many other cities higher on the list. Budapest is beautiful, but still not in my personal top 10.
Say top 10 I saw personally and find stunning not order just what comes:
1) Rome – No need to comment
2) Venice – No need to comment
3) Krakow – Jewel of Eastern Europe (city centre)
4) Budapest – already discussed old and new history and fun
5) Bayeoux – medieval town incarnate
6) Stavanger – city on islands and the views are stunning (more of the natural plus the medieval wooden temple)
7) Dubrovnik – Old town is just fantasy ++
8) Barcelona – Mediterranean dream city with a lot of fun and braches
9) Edinburgh – Scotland in nutshell
10) Brasov – Transylvania, Medieval beauty and that Dracula (bleh-bleh) vibe! People are lovely!
33 comments
The correct answer is probably something like “Paris, Prague, Florence” but my answer is “Lviv, Krakow, and Vilnius”
Florence has to be up there. It cured my short but intense WoW addiction 20 years ago.
Florence, Vienna, Barcelona, but Rome, Prague, Madrid, Paris, Venice, Bruges and many others could easily be there too.
Just in Italy, Florence, Rome, Modena, Mantua, Venice, Bologna, Ferrara, Turin, Milan, Padua and most major cities could all be considered.
From the ones I visited, Paris, Barcelona and Lisbon.
From those I have visited:
Copenhagen, Dresden, Prague
Depends on what you are into but I am going to say Vienna, Florence and Amsterdam as representations of three different styles of beautiful Europe has to offer. But I totally get if someone wants to say Paris or Barcelona or Warsaw or Venice or Klagenfurt. The bigger the city the more beautiful sights but also unsightly quarters it will have. I mean the center of Paris is magnificent but the banlieues are a disgrace.
Bruges and Ghent are definitely in the top 3 for me. Then it becomes difficult, there are so many great cities in Europe. Maybe Rome or Venice? But I was also very impressed by modern Rotterdam, like many other Dutch cities, or the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck.
But I would still include my hometown Vienna as the third city in the ranking 😉
Edit: In my opinion, by far the coolest city in Europe is Berlin. The techno scene there is unique in the world.
Hard to tell you a Top 3, but for me two cities that MUST be among the most beautiful are Vienna and Sevilla. 🇦🇹🇪🇦
My choices for a possible number 3 are:
•Paris 🇨🇵
•Prague🇨🇿
•Amsterdam🇳🇱
•Nice🇨🇵
•maybe also Stockholm🇸🇪
and a controversial pick: Bucharest! 🇷🇴
The city might seem a bit run down, but it is a very unique, charismatic, and simply charming city! Imagine something like Havana in Cuba.
And for transparency: I am from Vienna, but I still firmly believe that this city is among the most beautiful and charming in Europe 🙂
Edinburgh, Bath, Prague. Edinburgh has a hauntingly beautiful dark architecture and cobbled streets, with a lot of grandeur. Some of the city is medieval, other parts are Georgian. So there’s lots of character.
Bath has rows of fancy Georgian buildings that are made of a local, golden stone called Bath stone. This gives the city a distinct atmosphere and a uniform layout. There’s also lots of greenery, with hilly parks, gardens and lush overgrown cemeteries. Bath has a melancholy elegance that I love.
Lastly, Prague. I love the diversity of architecture in Prague and how compact it is with the cobbled streets, squares and cute historic bridges. The cityscape features church spires, the river, and slopes. It has a haunted feel to it.
There isn’t an objective answer, it depends what exactly you are looking for
That’s just too subjective, and honestly there are a lot of beautiful cities in Europe to visit. My top 3 of cities I visited is Strasbourg, Prague and Vienna. But there are so many places I would like to visit and would probably hit the top 3.
Why just 3? Beautiful cities are Europe’s bread and butter 🙂
No matter what you name you’ll start a war. But off the top of my head:
🇸🇪 Stockholm (location in archipielago)
🇳🇱 Amsterdam (houses & canals)
🇨🇭 Lucerne (architecture and setting)
Rome has to be up there. It has unparalleled architecture and history.
I don’t see a Budapest mention. So I won’t name three (it’s quite difficult), I’ll just say Budapest is special for me, I love it more than Vienna or Prague. Ah the feeling you get walking along Danube on a winter evening, watching the beautiful buildings lit up in the night on both sides of the river. I love it. The parliament, the Buda castle, the Basilica, the streets the Jewish ghetto, the termal bathhouses, czardas…Due to it’s rich history that includes arrival od Magyar tribes, Tatar invasion, Turkish invasion, Budapest was really the first point in Europe where I could also “smell” the east in the air, it is like a little sign of all these magnificent empires: “we were here”. I know some Hungarians would roll their eyes at me and say I have an idealized image of the city. So be it, I’m happy then not to be born in Budapest, I can simply enjoy it in a different way each time I visit.
Unpopular opinion: vienna is kind of… Meh. It’s very elegant but I’ve always felt it lacks soul. I love the city but I wouldn’t put it in my top 3, perhaps top 10?
i‘m undecided between several cities, but venice has got to be there.
Why do people like Florence so much? I’ve been there, and it was pretty disappointing. And don’t get me wrong, the small villages and cities surrounding Florence(Siena, Luca, Pisa, …), and the surrounding area and landscape are amazing, but the city itself is pretty mid.
I’d rate pretty much any of the other large Italian cities over Florence. In fact, I’d rate Siena and Luca over Florence itself.
Anyway. My top 3 beautiful large European cities you should visit at least once, is:
1. Venice
2. Amsterdam
3. Istanbul
Followed by all the usual suspects, like Rome and Paris.
I also really Like Milan. That Gallery in Milan is probably one of the most beautiful places in Europe.
All these are ruined by tourists though. The cities themself are beautiful and unique, but the excessive amounts of tourists ruin the experience a bit.
—
Top 3 smaller cities(and my personal favourites):
1. Carcassonne
2. Siena
3. Bamberg
For me, Bergen has to be a candidate.
It has both fantastic nature as well as beautiful architecture. The city is located in the middle of dramatic fjords and mountains, the city itself stretches up into the mountains sides. At daytime you see the houses, and at nighttime you get the lights going vertically up.
Architecturally I am sure there are more beautiful cities, but there are some amazing streets, especially the narrow ones like Knøsesmauet.
Just by sheer scale, I would say that London, Rome and Venice have the most beauty within their city limits.
Some slightly leftfield choices I would say Strasbourg, Turin and Granada.
But the cities were the beauty enraptured me the most were Barcelona, Riga and Palermo.
As I’ve visited most cities in the UK, here are my top three within the UK alone:
1. Edinburgh – never fails to blow me away with the impressive array of architecture just around Waverley Station alone, but then this beauty is maintained throughout most of the city, with slivers of modernity incorporated in a way that actually works; you just can’t beat the Scottish capital.
2. Bath – another popular one, but the sheer amount of the stunning stone buildings you get for an English city, along with the cleanliness of its streets, really throws it out of the park.
3. Lincoln – this one’s a bit out of the way, but a true underrated gem with beautiful architecture, walkable streets and packed with plenty of rich history to offer, which I personally prefer over York; its cathedral was once the tallest building in the world and what’s more, there’s even a castle right next door.
Including the rest of Europe, however, my top three from those I visited:
1. Zurich, Switzerland – largest city in Switzerland still offers the postcard-perfect Swiss charm around the Altstadt, with an amazing array of picturesque buildings, streets and squares to explore on both sides of the Limmat river; plenty more to offer around it, such as its namesake lake, shops on Bahnhofstrasse and even the perfect blend of modernity in all the right places.
2. Luxembourg City – stunning city, with an impressively clean mix of old and new built around hills and rivers, plus free public transport to help you explore it all effortlessly.
3. Antwerp, Belgium – excellent walkable city with an impressive train station and an insane variety of architecture, you never get bored walking around every nook and cranny of the city centre.
Honourable mentions include (again, only out of those I’ve been to):
* Basel, Switzerland – beautiful old town complemented with impressive modern high-rises (architecturally) and clean streets, as well as the best looking station building at SBB.
* Metz, France – stunning historic buildings along clean walkable streets, nice quieter alternative to Paris.
* Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany – contrast between the stunning skyscrapers and the picturesque old town.
* Lugano, Switzerland – blends Swiss cleanliness with Italian beauty in the perfect way, would put this in the top three if I spent more time here, but it was only a quick stopover on the train.
* Rotterdam, Netherlands – in terms of a totally modernised city rebuilt from the ground up, Rotterdam pulls it off perfectly, with a massive square outside the impressive station and an amazing display of skyscrapers by the waterfront.
* Strasbourg, France – excellent blend of French and German architectures, with its own charm.
I’ve actually researched a lot of cities I haven’t been to, and I conclude that Lucerne and Vevey-Montreux in Switzerland are pretty hard ones to beat. Also, Innsbruck in Austria (alps) or Ventimiglia in Italy (beach).
No love for Ljubljana in here? Such an amazing town centre.
Also hijacking my own comment to say if none of you have been to Prizren in Kosovo you absolutely should. Another stunning town
For me: Edinburgh (I’m in love with that city), Prague and Toledo.
Top 3
Athens
Rome
Paris
Honourable mentions:
Florence
Istanbul
Budapest
Tallinn
Edinburgh
Prague
Lucerne
London
Barcelona
It’s pretty subjective as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but mine would be, in no particular order:
– York
– Prague
– Kraków
I can’t even do a top 3 for Italy let alone Europe… we are too lucky!
This section is absolutely biased depending on where people have been, how much time they did spend there and the quality of that time, that is highly correlated to the people who hosted them.
It’s perfectly normal. In any case, it’s a good source to learn places to visit.
Even with the 50k population limit it is unanswerable as it depends on your tastes a lot. If forced to decide I will go for:
* Venice. The work unique is over used, but Venice is unique and beautiful.
* Seville. One of many Spanish cities I could mention TBH, but as it is large, beautiful and a lovely feel it goes here.
* Edinburgh. A beautiful setting. Great culture. Friendly people. Okay, so I may personally like Glasgow more but one cannot deny the beauty of the capital.
I’ll put as asked three:
Venezia as no. 1 ( just pure beauty, so complex and layered, yes overcrowded and chaotic ..but pure baroque beauty
Vienna as second.
Paris as the third – not necessarily in this order.
To live in:
Ljubljana definitely. And my most favourite thing about all the surroundings of Ljubljanica river area was that it started and emwas created quite on purpose, as I remember somewhere around mid 1990’s.
In no particular order: Copenhagen, Budapest, and Prague.
Slough, Scunthorpe and Wrexham and it’s not even a debate
edinburgh, venice and st petersburg for places i’ve been, not many cities have a volcano with a castle on top in the middle or the school of divinity which is beautiful.
glasgow also is cool in a more urban street art way, like you can see the waves of generations of poverty and glaswegian-ness but it might be hard to explain for people not from central scotland or glasgow.
stirling is nice too, helsinki and copenhagen are good too, i loved lorient but not top 3 and wrotsaw (can’t remember the spelling) was beautiful too. depends what u want, wintery castles and mountains – scotland or warm summery mediterranean vibes – somewhere down south (haven’t been far south lol)
Very subjective. Rome, Saint-Petersburg and Edinburgh for me.
Paris, Vienna – not in my top 10, there will be many other cities higher on the list. Budapest is beautiful, but still not in my personal top 10.
Say top 10 I saw personally and find stunning not order just what comes:
1) Rome – No need to comment
2) Venice – No need to comment
3) Krakow – Jewel of Eastern Europe (city centre)
4) Budapest – already discussed old and new history and fun
5) Bayeoux – medieval town incarnate
6) Stavanger – city on islands and the views are stunning (more of the natural plus the medieval wooden temple)
7) Dubrovnik – Old town is just fantasy ++
8) Barcelona – Mediterranean dream city with a lot of fun and braches
9) Edinburgh – Scotland in nutshell
10) Brasov – Transylvania, Medieval beauty and that Dracula (bleh-bleh) vibe! People are lovely!