The 40 Greatest Cities in the World to Visit

Golden light, melancholy fado, and custard-tart mornings.

Chaos with the world's best street food as its soundtrack.

Neon nights, palace mornings, and culture the world now copies.

Mountains, oceans and vineyards inside one city's limits.

Sensory overload in the best possible sense.

Harbour life perfected — swim, ferry, repeat.

Canals, cycling, and centuries of art in a walkable core.

Faded grandeur, midnight steaks, and tango until it is not night any more.

The Renaissance, still in residence.

Old-quarter mornings and the world's most poetic street food.

A fairytale skyline that survived the centuries almost intact.

Coffee-house culture and imperial calm, in that order.

Beaches, samba, and a skyline drawn by giants.

The pink city — palaces, bazaars and Rajasthani colour everywhere.

The desert's improbable stage for everything superlative.

A volcanic skyline, a festival city, and the best pub culture in Europe.

Japan's kitchen — louder, funnier and hungrier than Tokyo.

Design, cycling and the restaurant scene everyone else is copying.

Night markets, mountain trails and the friendliest city in Asia.

Lisbon's tougher, tastier sibling, built on a river of port.

Temples, mountains and the world's best value for slow living.

Central Europe's most beautiful square and a sobering, essential history.

Laneway coffee, street art and a genuine claim to sporting capital.

Thermal baths, ruin bars, and a Danube that earns every photograph.

Pintxos bars, a perfect city beach, and Michelin stars per capita.

French Europe with North American space and a fierce festival calendar.

Vertical, ferocious, and greener than anyone expects.

Ancient ruins over an unexpectedly modern food and bar scene.

A city preserved and alive at the same time, and unlike anywhere else.

Sulphur baths, natural wine, and Europe's most exciting emerging capital.