[ { "id": 1, "slug": "lugano", "title": "Lugano", "country": "Switzerland", "continent": "Europe", "price": 142, "currency": "€", "days": 1, "idealDays": 1, "date": "2026-07-18", "rating": 9, "tint": "#C99633", "coverImage": "/images/lugano/cover.jpg", "coverAlt": "Lake Lugano in summer, with the town of Lugano, Switzerland climbing the wooded hillside above the water", "gallery": [ { "src": "/images/lugano/1.jpg", "alt": "Massed white and red bedding flowers on the lakefront at Lugano, Switzerland, with the lake and wooded mountains behind", "caption": "The flower beds run right down to the water. All of this part of Lugano is free, which the rest of the day was not." }, { "src": "/images/lugano/2.jpg", "alt": "A shopping street in the old town of Lugano, Switzerland, with the Swiss and Ticino flags hanging above it and a church at the far end", "caption": "The Swiss flag and Ticino's blue and red beside it, which is the day in one frame: the country changes, the language does not." }, { "src": "/images/lugano/3.jpg", "alt": "Wheels of cheese and crates of fruit outside Gabbani in Lugano, Switzerland, with salami hanging in the arched windows across the street", "caption": "Gabbani on Piazza Cioccaro: cheese by the wheel on one side of the street, salami hanging in the arches on the other." }, { "src": "/images/lugano/4.jpg", "alt": "A tiered stone fountain ringed with red flower beds in a square in Lugano, Switzerland, with a Swiss flag on a building behind it", "caption": "A fountain, a flag and a flower bed, which is Switzerland telling you where you are." } ], "description": "A day trip out of Milan and over the border into Italian-speaking Switzerland: the lake, Parco Ciani, the old town, and half an hour on a pedalo. What a day in Lugano costs, and why to pack swimming things.", "headline": "What to see in Lugano", "worth": "No, not for a day. The whole thing came to €142 each and €42 of that was the train, so what we actually spent in Lugano was €100. Half of that went on chocolate and souvenirs rather than on anything we needed: lunch with dessert was €35, and half an hour on a pedalo was €15. Switzerland is expensive to sleep in, and Lugano out of Milan is a day trip, which is most of the answer.", "howLong": "One day, and one day is right for it. The train from Milan is just over an hour each way, which leaves the lake and the old town comfortably inside an afternoon without hurrying either. The one thing we would do differently is pack: take swimming things, because the lake is warm enough for it and you will work that out too late otherwise.", "story": [ "We like to cross a border when we are staying somewhere close to one. Lugano is just over an hour from [Milan](/trips/milan) by train, €42 each there and back, and it is worth the day. This is Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, so the country changes but the language on the menus does not.", "The shape of the day was walking, and almost none of it needed planning. The lakefront first, where the flower beds run right down to the water and Parco Ciani starts, then up into the old town, which is small and shaded and full of shops that have clearly stood there a long time. We ate well and we looked at the mountains, and the weather held all day, which this close to the Alps is luck rather than a forecast.", "Go with swimming clothes. The lake is warm enough to swim in, and if you take a pedalo out you will certainly want to be in it. The view of the town from the water is better than any of it from the shore, which is worth €15 of anybody's day. Two days later we did the same thing in the other direction, to [Bergamo](/trips/bergamo), and between them they say most of what needs saying about Milan as a base." ], "costs": [ { "label": "Train (Milan ←→ Lugano)", "amount": 42 }, { "label": "Pedalo in the lake (30 min)", "amount": 15 }, { "label": "Lunch and dessert", "amount": 35 }, { "label": "Chocolate and souvenirs", "amount": 50 } ], "places": [ { "place": "Parco Ciani", "why": "A few steps from the centre of Lugano and straight onto the water. It is free, it is where the lakefront walk starts, and it is the easiest hour in the city to spend without spending anything." }, { "place": "Piazza della Riforma", "why": "The main square, closed to traffic and ringed with historic buildings and cafés with their tables out. The old town works outwards from here, so it is the place to start walking from." }, { "place": "Gabbani, Piazza Cioccaro", "why": "A historic deli on Piazza Cioccaro, food and wine and a great deal of chocolate. The sort of shop you go into for lunch and come out of carrying more than you meant to." }, { "place": "Lake Lugano", "why": "Warm enough to swim in in July, which we were not packed for. Take a pedalo out for half an hour, €15, and look back at the town from the water. It is the best view of Lugano there is and it is the cheapest thing we did." } ] }, { "id": 2, "slug": "bordeaux", "title": "Bordeaux", "country": "France", "continent": "Europe", "price": 268.31, "currency": "€", "days": 2, "date": "2024-09-20", "rating": 8, "tint": "#97A0A6", "coverImage": "/images/bordeaux/cover.jpg", "coverAlt": "A wet square in the centre of Bordeaux, France, with pale stone facades and a cyclist crossing the cobbles", "gallery": [ { "src": "/images/bordeaux/1.jpg", "alt": "A cafe terrace on a narrow street in the old centre of Bordeaux, France", "caption": "Rain, and nobody sitting outside. The chairs stayed out anyway." }, { "src": "/images/bordeaux/2.jpg", "alt": "A paving stone in Bordeaux, France, engraved with Stendhal's line about the city", "caption": "Bordeaux est, sans contredit, la plus belle ville de France. Stendhal, set into the pavement by the city itself." }, { "src": "/images/bordeaux/3.jpg", "alt": "Canneles in a patisserie window in Bordeaux, France", "caption": "Cannelés, ninety cents for a small one. The most Bordeaux thing you can buy." }, { "src": "/images/bordeaux/4.jpg", "alt": "Bunches of tulips in paper wraps outside a florist in Bordeaux, France", "caption": "Tulips by the bucket, every bunch stickered Fleurs de France." }, { "src": "/images/bordeaux/5.jpg", "alt": "The Grosse Cloche in Bordeaux, France, its bell and gilt clock face above the arch, with people walking through underneath", "caption": "The Grosse Cloche, bell still in it and clock still gilded. You walk under it for nothing." } ], "description": "Two days in Bordeaux for €268 each, return flights from Lisbon included. What the old centre holds on foot, what a cannelé costs, and where the rest of the money went.", "headline": "What to see in Bordeaux", "worth": "No. Two days came to €268.31 each, and the two lines that settle that number are both paid before you leave: €100 for the return flights out of Lisbon and €68.31 for two nights at the Ibis budget. That is €168.31 gone before arriving, which left exactly €100 each for the two days themselves. Bordeaux helps here. The old centre is walkable end to end and everything on the list below except the Cité du Vin is free to stand in front of. That €100 went €70 on food, €23 on the one ticket we bought, and €7 on trams.", "howLong": "We had two days, and two is enough for the centre. Everything below except the Cité du Vin sits inside the same half hour of walking, and the Cité du Vin is the only thing that needs a ticket, so the days largely set their own pace rather than being scheduled around opening times.", "story": [ "We wanted somewhere cheap that neither of us had been, and Bordeaux answered both at once. Return flights out of Lisbon were €100 each and two nights at the Ibis budget came to €68.31 each, so the trip had cost €168.31 before we bought anything in France. That is the whole reason a French city fits inside a weekend budget. Three days in [Paris](/trips/paris) cost us €476.60 each. Two days here cost €268.31.", "It rained for most of it, which turned out not to matter. The centre is compact enough to walk without planning a route, and the pale limestone the entire city is built from looks better wet than dry. We crossed the **Pont de Pierre** for the view back at the quays, went under the **Porte de Bourgogne** at the end of it, and worked inward through the old streets to the **Grosse Cloche**. Somewhere along the way we found Stendhal's line about the city set into a paving stone: Bordeaux is, without contradiction, the most beautiful city in France. The city put it there itself, which tells you how settled the argument is locally.", "The one thing we spent real money on was food, €70 each across two days including what came home with us. Bordeaux's own pastry is the cannelé, a small ridged thing with a burnt-dark crust and a soft middle, sold by the dozen in every patisserie window in the city. The counter we bought from had them at €0.90 for a small one and €1.50 for a medium. Add €23 for the Cité du Vin and €7 of tram tickets and that is the entire cost of being in Bordeaux, as opposed to the cost of getting there." ], "costs": [ { "label": "Flights (LIS ←→ BOD)", "amount": 100 }, { "label": "Ibis budget Bordeaux, 2 nights", "amount": 68.31 }, { "label": "Ticket tram", "amount": 7 }, { "label": "Food & souvenirs", "amount": 70 }, { "label": "Cité du Vin entry", "amount": 23 } ], "places": [ { "place": "Pont de Pierre", "why": "The old bridge across the Garonne, shared by bikes and people on foot. The view back at the quays is the reason to walk it rather than ride." }, { "place": "Porte de Bourgogne", "why": "The Burgundy gate, standing at the city end of the Pont de Pierre. It is a triumphal arch in everything but name, and it marks where the old centre begins." }, { "place": "Basilique Saint-Michel", "why": "Gothic, and the second largest church in Bordeaux. Its bell tower is a separate building standing beside it rather than part of it, which is the thing you notice first." }, { "place": "Grosse Cloche", "why": "The medieval bell tower over Rue Saint-James, and the piece of old Bordeaux that has survived best. There is a bakery directly in front of it, and stopping there is worth as much as the tower is." }, { "place": "Miroir d'eau", "why": "A flooded slab of granite facing the Place de la Bourse, holding a couple of centimetres of water and the whole facade upside down in it. Said to be the largest reflecting pool in the world. It drains and refills on a cycle, so if you arrive on the wrong minute, wait." }, { "place": "Cathédrale Saint-André", "why": "The cathedral, at the far end of the old centre from the river. Its bell tower is also a separate building, standing across the square from the church it belongs to." }, { "place": "Monument aux Girondins", "why": "The column and fountain at the end of the Esplanade des Quinconces, raised to the Girondins who went to the guillotine in the Revolution. The bronzes around the base are worth a circuit on foot." }, { "place": "Cité du Vin", "why": "The wine museum out at Bacalan, north of the centre, and the only thing on this list the tram is really for. €23 in, and the ticket ends with a glass at the top of the building looking back over the city, which is the part worth the money." } ] }, { "id": 3, "slug": "bergamo", "title": "Bergamo", "country": "Italy", "continent": "Europe", "price": 66, "currency": "€", "days": 1, "idealDays": 1, "date": "2026-07-20", "rating": 7.8, "tint": "#8C8270", "coverImage": "/images/bergamo/cover.jpg", "coverAlt": "Bergamo old town, the Città Alta, on its hill in early summer", "gallery": [ { "src": "/images/bergamo/1.jpg", "alt": "The frescoed and gilded vault inside Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, Italy, with a painted Coronation of the Virgin at its centre", "caption": "This is what the €5 buys. From the street the basilica is plain enough to walk past." }, { "src": "/images/bergamo/2.jpg", "alt": "The polychrome marble facade and dome of the Cappella Colleoni in Bergamo old town, seen from the shaded arcade beside it", "caption": "The Colleoni chapel next door, its marble set out in pink and white diamonds. No ticket for it in the costs above." }, { "src": "/images/bergamo/3.jpg", "alt": "A stone bell tower above the arcades in Bergamo old town, its clock face numbered through to twenty-four", "caption": "A clock that counts to twenty-four rather than twelve, and the motto beneath it: where there is justice, peace, charity and love, there is God." }, { "src": "/images/bergamo/4.jpg", "alt": "The sphinxes of the fountain in Piazza Vecchia, Bergamo, Italy, with a trattoria terrace and shuttered facade behind it", "caption": "The fountain in Piazza Vecchia, guarded by sphinxes and lions on chains. Standing in the square costs nothing; the funicular up to it was €7." } ], "description": "A day trip out of Milan, spent almost entirely in Bergamo old town: the Città Alta, up on its hill above the modern city. Medieval streets, the oldest square in Bergamo, and the gelato flavour that was invented here.", "headline": "What to see in Bergamo", "placesHeading": "Where to go in Bergamo old town", "worth": "No, and a day there is one of the cheaper things you can do out of Milan: ours came to €66 each, door to door. Lunch with dessert was the biggest line at €35, and the train only €14, which tells you most of what you need to know. The old town is small enough to cross on foot, so once the funicular has taken you up, most of a day up there costs nothing at all. Piazza Vecchia is free to sit in and the view from the walls at Porta San Giacomo is free to stand at, and those were the two things we remember best.", "howLong": "One day, and one day was right. We came up on the funicular in the morning, walked the Città Alta end to end, ate, and went back down without hurrying any of it. Give it two only if you want the Città Bassa, the lower town, as well. We did not, and did not feel we had missed the point of the place.", "story": [ "We had three days in [Milan](/trips/milan) and no plans at all for the third. On a whim we took a train to Bergamo instead: fifty minutes, comfortable, and better looking out of the window than it needed to be. We were there by the middle of the morning with the whole day still in front of us.", "From the station we walked to the funicular, which has been carrying people from the Città Bassa up to the Città Alta since 1887 and is still the right way to arrive. The old town opens out as you step off it. The view is better again from Porta San Giacomo, where the walls look back over the lower city with the Alps standing behind it, and that is the one we stood at longest.", "The rest of the day cost us almost nothing. Bergamo old town is compact, and walking it is the whole activity: Piazza Vecchia, the oldest square in the city, is free to sit in, and we sat in it. The one thing worth spending on is the stracciatella. It was invented here, at La Marianna, and it is worth the walk to the place that did it first rather than the first place you pass." ], "costs": [ { "label": "Train (Milan ←→ Bergamo)", "amount": 14 }, { "label": "Funicolare to old town", "amount": 7 }, { "label": "Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore", "amount": 5 }, { "label": "Lunch and dessert", "amount": 35 }, { "label": "Bus to station", "amount": 5 } ], "places": [ { "place": "Funicolare to the Città Alta", "why": "Running from the Città Bassa up to the old town since 1887, and still the way to arrive. Walking up is possible and pointless." }, { "place": "Piazza Vecchia", "why": "The oldest square in Bergamo. Sitting in it costs nothing, which is the best argument for it." }, { "place": "La Marianna (Gelato)", "why": "Stracciatella was invented here. Go to this one rather than the first gelateria you pass, which is the whole of the advice." }, { "place": "Porta San Giacomo", "why": "The best view in the old town. The walls look back over the Città Bassa with the Alps standing behind it, and we stood there longer than anywhere else." }, { "place": "Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore", "why": "Plain enough on the outside that you could walk past it, and not plain at all once you are through the door. €5 in, and the only thing in the old town we paid to see." } ] }, { "id": 4, "slug": "madrid", "title": "Madrid", "country": "Spain", "continent": "Europe", "price": 278, "currency": "€", "days": 3, "idealDays": 3, "date": "2025-08-13", "rating": 9.5, "tint": "#6E5F50", "coverImage": "/images/madrid/cover.jpg", "coverAlt": "The facade of the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain, with the Spanish flag flying above it", "gallery": [ { "src": "/images/madrid/1.jpg", "alt": "The winged bronze on the dome of the Edificio Metropolis in Madrid, Spain, at dusk", "caption": "The Metropolis, at the Gran Vía end of Calle de Alcalá, once the light had gone blue." }, { "src": "/images/madrid/2.jpg", "alt": "The facade of the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid, Spain, with a Spanish flag over the door", "caption": "Calle de Alcalá, where the caryatids hold up the doorway." }, { "src": "/images/madrid/3.jpg", "alt": "A church dome and bell tower above a fountain and flowerbeds in Madrid, Spain", "caption": "Shade, water and a dome. Most of what August in Madrid comes down to." }, { "src": "/images/madrid/4.jpg", "alt": "The Templo de Debod in Madrid, Spain, its two freestanding stone gateways standing apart from the temple on a paved rise", "caption": "Debod at midday in August, which is why there is nobody in the frame." }, { "src": "/images/madrid/5.jpg", "alt": "The dome and towers of the Catedral de la Almudena and the long block of the Palacio Real in Madrid, Spain, seen across the treetops", "caption": "The cathedral and the palace from across the city, which is where you can see they are neighbours." } ], "description": "Three days in Madrid in August for €278 each, flights from Lisbon included. What the centre holds on foot, what the heat takes out of the middle of the day, and where the money went.", "headline": "What to see in Madrid", "worth": "No, and by a margin. Three days came to €278 each. €78 of that was the flight out of Lisbon and €100 was three nights at the Ibis budget, which leaves €100 for three days in a capital city: €70 of food, a €15 metro pass and a €15 ticket for the Prado. Nothing else on the list below charged us anything. Sometimes the grass really is greener next door.", "howLong": "We had three, and three covers the centre. Everything below except the Retiro and the Templo de Debod sits inside the same square kilometre, so the days were mostly walking. What three days in August does not give you is the middle of the day: it was too hot to be outside for a good stretch of every afternoon, so the indoor things on this list are worth saving for then rather than losing. We said we would go back, which is the honest answer to whether three was enough.", "story": [ "A weekend in Madrid, and the first city I have been to that made me think I could live in it. I was expecting the version of a capital that is mostly other tourists. It did not feel like that at all. It felt like somewhere people live, and I still have not worked out what makes the difference.", "We went in the middle of August, which is the wrong month and part of the reason it was cheap. Flights out of Lisbon were €78 each, three nights at the Ibis budget were €100 each, and the whole three days came to €278. It was too hot. Not in the morning and not after dark, but for a long stretch of every afternoon the sensible thing was to be inside something, and Madrid has enough museums to make that a plan rather than a retreat. The **Prado** was €15 each and the only ticket we bought all weekend.", "The rest of it was walking. **Sol** to the **Plaza Mayor** to the **Mercado de San Miguel** to the palace is a straight line through the oldest part of the city and takes a morning if you stop, which you will. Nuestros hermanos have a beautiful capital, and more to the point a well kept one, which is not a thing you can say about every city this size. Top five, and we are going back." ], "costs": [ { "label": "Flights (LIS → MAD)", "amount": 78 }, { "label": "Ibis budget Madrid, 3 nights", "amount": 100 }, { "label": "Food", "amount": 70 }, { "label": "Metro pass, 3 days", "amount": 15 }, { "label": "Museo del Prado tickets", "amount": 15 } ], "places": [ { "place": "Puerta del Sol", "why": "Kilometre zero of the Spanish road network is set into the pavement here, and the square is the busiest place in Madrid at almost any hour. Somewhere to cross rather than to linger in, but everything else starts from it." }, { "place": "Plaza Mayor", "why": "The enclosed square two streets west of Sol, arcaded on all four sides and closed to traffic. The one place in central Madrid where you can see the whole of a square at once." }, { "place": "Mercado de San Miguel", "why": "A covered iron market beside the Plaza Mayor, long since given over to counters selling small plates rather than to groceries. Somewhere to eat standing up on the way between two other things." }, { "place": "Palacio Real", "why": "The royal palace, and the largest in western Europe by floor area. The facade and the square in front of it cost nothing, which is how we saw it. There is no ticket for the rooms in the costs above." }, { "place": "Museo del Prado", "why": "€15 each, and the only thing all weekend we paid to go into. Velázquez, Goya and Bosch, and enough of each that an afternoon only starts it. It is free for the last two hours of the day if you would rather queue than pay." }, { "place": "Catedral de la Almudena", "why": "Next door to the palace and far newer than it looks from outside. It was only finished in 1993, which is why the inside is nothing like the outside leads you to expect." }, { "place": "Madrid de los Austrias", "why": "The oldest part of the centre, the streets that were the whole of Madrid when the Habsburgs made it the capital. The Plaza Mayor and the palace sit at either end of it." }, { "place": "Parque del Retiro", "why": "The park on the east side of the centre, and where the city goes once the heat breaks. Big enough that crossing it is a walk rather than a shortcut." }, { "place": "Gran Vía", "why": "The avenue cutting across the top of the centre, theatres and shops along it and the Edificio Metropolis at the end. Better after dark than in the afternoon, and not only because of the heat." }, { "place": "Templo de Debod", "why": "An Egyptian temple, given to Spain and rebuilt stone by stone on a rise west of the palace. Free, open air, and the sunset that everyone in Madrid already knows about, so go early enough to get a place on the wall." } ] }, { "id": 5, "slug": "lisboa", "title": "Lisbon", "country": "Portugal", "continent": "Europe", "price": 264.50, "currency": "€", "days": 3, "idealDays": 3, "date": "2019-09-28", "rating": 9.1, "tint": "#79806B", "coverImage": "/images/lisboa/cover.jpg", "coverAlt": "The top of the Arco Triunfal da Rua Augusta in Lisbon, Portugal, its statuary and Latin inscription against a clear sky", "gallery": [ { "src": "/images/lisboa/1.jpg", "alt": "Tote bags printed with Fernando Pessoa and Don Quixote in a secondhand bookshop in Lisbon, Portugal", "caption": "Livraria Sá da Costa, trading since 1913. Pessoa on a tote bag, guidebooks in the rack behind." }, { "src": "/images/lisboa/2.jpg", "alt": "A street in the Baixa in Lisbon, Portugal, tiled facades on one side and the wooded castle hill closing the view", "caption": "Almost every street in the lower town ends in a hill. This one ends in the hill the castle sits on." }, { "src": "/images/lisboa/3.jpg", "alt": "Cafe tables on a cobbled street in Lisbon, Portugal, directly beneath the approach span of the Ponte 25 de Abril", "caption": "Lunch under the Ponte 25 de Abril, the road deck overhead and the railway truss below it." }, { "src": "/images/lisboa/4.jpg", "alt": "Cafe tables and parasols on the waterfront in Lisbon, Portugal, with the full suspension span of the Ponte 25 de Abril behind them", "caption": "Far enough back along the water to see the whole span, which the street underneath it cannot show you." }, { "src": "/images/lisboa/5.jpg", "alt": "A cable car gondola crossing above palms and bamboo in Lisbon, Portugal", "caption": "A gondola over the treetops, and no ticket for it in the costs above." } ], "description": "Three days in Lisbon for €264.50 each, with no flight in it, because we live here. What the centre and Belém hold on foot, and how little of that total went on actually seeing the city.", "headline": "Is Lisbon expensive for tourists?", "worth": "No. Three days came to €264.50 each, and there is no flight inside that number, because we live here and did not take one. €105.50 was three nights at the Ibis on José Malhoa and €100 was food, drink and pastéis de nata, so €205.50 of the total is bed and board and nothing else. Seeing the city cost €59: a €15 metro pass and €44 of entries, being €20 for Pena, €17 for the Castelo de São Jorge and €7 for the Sé. That is the answer, really. Lisbon charges you to sleep and to eat, and then mostly lets you look at it for free.", "howLong": "Thirteen years, which is not what anyone searching this wants to know. Three days is the itinerary below, and it is three rather than two because the centre, Belém and Sintra will not fit into fewer. With two days, drop Pena. It is the one thing on the list that is not in Lisbon, it needs a train out of the city, and it is €20 of the €44 of entries. That leaves the Baixa, the castle and Belém, which is the city itself.", "story": [ "I came here as a student and stayed, which is thirteen years now, so this is the one page here written by somebody who lives at the address. That cuts both ways. I cannot tell you what Lisbon looks like on a first morning, and I have lost the right to be surprised by it. What I can tell you is that the figures above are not a holiday estimate. They are what these things cost, from somebody who pays them.", "Three days, and almost all of it downhill. The **Baixa** first, in under the Arco Triunfal da Rua Augusta and out into Praça do Comércio with the river in front of you, then back up through Rossio to where the old bookshops are. Belém on the second day, because the tower, the monastery and the Padrão are within a walk of each other and there is no sense splitting them. Sintra on the third, for Pena. Of the twelve places below, three carry a ticket in the costs above; the rest of what those days are made of is squares, streets, tiled walls and the river.", "Two things I will argue about. The first is that the only cooking in Europe that beats Portuguese cooking is [Italian](/country/italy), and we have been to check. The second is that nowhere on this continent has better weather, which is why a walking city works here in a way it did not work for us in Paris in February. Past that the case makes itself: the history is in the buildings rather than behind glass, the beaches are a train ride down the coast, and somebody will start a conversation with you at a bus stop. I am not neutral about Lisbon and there is no point writing as though I were." ], "costs": [ { "label": "Ibis Lisboa José Malhoa, 3 nights", "amount": 105.5 }, { "label": "Metro pass", "amount": 15 }, { "label": "Food, drinks and pastéis de nata", "amount": 100 }, { "label": "Castelo de São Jorge entry", "amount": 17 }, { "label": "Sé de Lisboa entry", "amount": 7 }, { "label": "Palácio da Pena entry, Sintra", "amount": 20 } ], "places": [ { "place": "Praça do Comércio", "why": "The square the city opens onto, straight on the river. Everyone who lives here still calls it Terreiro do Paço, after the palace that stood on it until 1755. Free, enormous, and the place to start from if you only have three days." }, { "place": "Arco Triunfal da Rua Augusta", "why": "The arch at the top of the square, built to mark the rebuilding of the city after the 1755 earthquake rather than a battle, which for a triumphal arch is unusual. The statuary and the Latin along the top of it are the photograph at the head of this page." }, { "place": "Elevador de Santa Justa", "why": "The iron lift standing in the middle of the lower town, which carries you up to the level of the ruined Carmo convent and is photographed a great deal more than it is ridden. No ticket for it in the costs above. Looking up at it from the street costs nothing." }, { "place": "Torre de Belém", "why": "The tower out on the water at Belém, a UNESCO site since 1983, and the shape the country puts on its own postcards. No ticket for it in the costs above, and it is worth the walk out there either way." }, { "place": "Padrão dos Descobrimentos", "why": "The prow of stone on the waterfront, put up in 1960, five hundred years after the death of Henry the Navigator. He paid for the voyages rather than sailing on them, which is a distinction the monument does not trouble itself with. There is a lift to the top of it and no ticket for that in the costs above." }, { "place": "Mosteiro dos Jerónimos", "why": "Next along from the Padrão, and on the same 1983 UNESCO listing as the tower. The cloister is what the ticket is for; the church beside it is the part with the tombs in it. No ticket for either in the costs above." }, { "place": "Parque Eduardo VII", "why": "The long formal park climbing away from Marquês de Pombal, named after a British king who came to visit in 1903. From the top you look straight back down the avenue to the river. Free, and the quietest thing on this list." }, { "place": "Praça do Rossio", "why": "Officially Praça de D. Pedro IV, called Rossio by everybody, and the wave pattern underfoot is the thing to look down at rather than up. Bars and restaurants all round it, which is where a fair part of that €100 went." }, { "place": "Castelo de São Jorge", "why": "The walls on the hill above the Baixa, Moorish before they were Portuguese, and rebuilt often enough that what you walk on is several centuries at once. €17 in the costs above, which buys the ramparts and the view down over the roofs of the lower town." }, { "place": "Sé de Lisboa", "why": "The Cathedral of Saint Mary Major, the Sé to everyone here, Romanesque at the front and much repaired behind it, because it has stood through every earthquake the city has had. €7 in the costs above." }, { "place": "Praça Marquês de Pombal", "why": "The roundabout at the top of the Avenida da Liberdade, with Pombal himself up a column looking down it. He is the man who actually ran the rebuilding that the arch by the river commemorates, so the two squares are the same story told from either end." }, { "place": "Palácio da Pena", "why": "Not in Lisbon. It is up in the hills at Sintra, a train ride out of the city, and it is painted red and yellow in a way that looks invented until you are standing under it. €20 in the costs above, and the one thing to drop if you only have two days." } ] }, { "id": 6, "slug": "paris", "title": "Paris", "country": "France", "continent": "Europe", "price": 476.6, "currency": "€", "days": 3, "idealDays": 3, "date": "2024-02-07", "rating": 9.9, "tint": "#C99633", "coverImage": "/images/paris/cover.jpg", "coverAlt": "The glass pyramid of the Louvre in Paris, France, framed by a stone archway", "gallery": [ { "src": "/images/paris/1.jpg", "alt": "The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, lit gold at night beside a full moon", "caption": "The Eiffel Tower, lit against the night sky with a full moon beside it." }, { "src": "/images/paris/2.jpg", "alt": "A glass-roofed sculpture courtyard inside the Louvre Museum in Paris, France", "caption": "The three hours we spent in the Louvre, which was not enough and was never going to be." }, { "src": "/images/paris/3.jpg", "alt": "The Moulin Rouge and its red windmill in Paris, France", "caption": "The Moulin Rouge, seen from the pavement on the way past." }, { "src": "/images/paris/4.jpg", "alt": "The Winged Victory of Samothrace at the head of a vaulted stone staircase in the Louvre in Paris, France", "caption": "The Winged Victory, at the head of the staircase. Part of the €22 in the costs above." }, { "src": "/images/paris/5.jpg", "alt": "A lit cafe terrace on a Haussmann corner in Paris, France, crowded at night with people in winter coats", "caption": "Dark, cold, and every table taken. This is the part of Paris that does not care what month it is." } ], "description": "Three days in Paris for a birthday, one of them spent at Disneyland. What it cost per person, what two days in the city actually holds, and where the money really went.", "headline": "How many days do you need in Paris?", "placesHeading": "What to see in Paris in 3 days", "worth": "No, or not the way its reputation suggests. Three days came to €476.60 each. Getting there and sleeping there was under half of that, €82 for the flights out of Lisbon and €114.60 for three nights at the B&B in Porte des Lilas. The thing we most wanted to do, the Louvre, was €22. The two lines that actually moved the total were food at €150 across three days and Disneyland at €93, and only one of those is really Paris.", "howLong": "Three, and three was right. Only two of them were in Paris: the third went to Disneyland, out at Marne-la-Vallée, which takes a day rather than an afternoon. That split worked because Disneyland was half the reason we came. If it is not part of your plan, then three days here means three days in the city, and you will see a good deal more of it than we did.", "story": [ "Another birthday long weekend, and a childhood plan finally cashed in: Paris and Disneyland on the same trip. The question we spent longest on before booking was how many days in Paris would be enough for a first time. We landed on three. Flights out of Lisbon were €82 each return, which is the number the whole trip hangs off, and three nights at the B&B Hotel Porte des Lilas came to €229.20 for the room, so €114.60 each.", "What we did not think through is that one of those three days was not in Paris at all. Disneyland Paris sits out at Marne-la-Vallée, a good way east of the city, and going there uses the whole day rather than part of one. So three days in Paris was really two days in Paris, and the itinerary below is what two days holds rather than three.", "The two days were enough to be glad about and not enough to be finished. We gave the Louvre three hours and came out knowing we had seen a corner of it. We stood under the **Eiffel Tower** after dark, which is the version of it worth waiting for, and walked past the Moulin Rouge on the way somewhere else. What surprised us afterwards was how little of the money went on the things we came for. The Louvre was €22 each. The line that actually grew was food, €150 across three days, and that is the one to watch if you are trying to keep Paris down." ], "costs": [ { "label": "Flights (LIS ←→ BVA)", "amount": 82 }, { "label": "B & B Hotel Paris Porte des Lilas, 3 nights", "amount": 114.6 }, { "label": "Louvre Museum tickets", "amount": 22 }, { "label": "Food, wine and bread", "amount": 150 }, { "label": "Disneyland Paris tickets (both parks)", "amount": 93 }, { "label": "Metro pass, 3 days", "amount": 15 } ], "places": [ { "place": "Eiffel Tower", "why": "Go after dark. It is lit gold once the sun is down and it is a different object at night than the one in the daytime photographs. Standing underneath it costs nothing, which is worth knowing before you queue for the lift." }, { "place": "Musée du Louvre", "why": "The one thing here we would give more time to. Three hours got us a corner of it, and the building is half the point: walk into the courtyard with the glass pyramid before you have a ticket for anything. €22 each, which makes it the cheapest serious thing we did." }, { "place": "Arc de Triomphe", "why": "At the top of the Champs-Élysées, and free to stand under. There is a paid terrace above it that we did not go up, so it is not in the costs, but the arch itself is on the walk between the Louvre and the tower and costs nothing to take in." }, { "place": "Disneyland Paris", "why": "€93 for both parks and a full day out of the three, because it is at Marne-la-Vallée rather than in Paris. Worth it if it is the reason you came, as it was for us. Worth knowing about first if it is not." }, { "place": "Moulin Rouge", "why": "The red windmill in Pigalle, and one of the few things in Paris that looks exactly like its pictures. There is no ticket for it in the costs above because we only saw it from the pavement, which is free and takes five minutes." }, { "place": "Notre-Dame", "why": "The cathedral on the Île de la Cité, which we saw from the outside because in February 2024 there was no inside to see. It was still closed after the fire and did not reopen until the December after we went. Standing in the square in front of it was free then and is free now." }, { "place": "Champs-Élysées", "why": "Two kilometres of avenue from the Place de la Concorde up to the Arc de Triomphe, and mostly shops once you are on it. Walk it towards the arch so the thing worth looking at is in front of you the whole way." }, { "place": "Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur", "why": "The hill at the north end of the city with the white basilica on top of it. The climb is free and so is the view from the steps, which is the cheapest way Paris will let you look at itself from above." } ] }, { "id": 7, "slug": "milan", "title": "Milan", "country": "Italy", "continent": "Europe", "price": 527.5, "currency": "€", "days": 3, "date": "2026-07-17", "rating": 8.4, "tint": "#C99633", "coverImage": "/images/milan/cover.jpg", "coverAlt": "Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan, Italy", "gallery": [ { "src": "/images/milan/1.jpg", "alt": "A stained glass window inside the Duomo di Milano, its narrative panels lit against the dark stone of the nave", "caption": "Stained glass in the Duomo. The €22 pass in the costs above starts here." }, { "src": "/images/milan/2.jpg", "alt": "The entrance arch of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy, seen from the roof of the Duomo with a carved spire in the foreground", "caption": "From the Duomo roof, looking down on the Galleria's arch. The roof is what the €22 is for; the arcade underneath it is free." }, { "src": "/images/milan/3.jpg", "alt": "Flying buttresses and marble tracery on the roof of the Duomo di Milano, with a brick campanile and the rooftops of the city behind", "caption": "Also the roof. The marble carries reference marks block by block, because the Duomo has never quite stopped being built." }, { "src": "/images/milan/4.jpg", "alt": "An outdoor panel in a park in Milan, Italy, reproducing a Renaissance altarpiece of the Madonna and Child enthroned with saints and the Sforza family kneeling", "caption": "The Pala Sforzesca, reproduced on a board and left out in a park. The original is in the Brera; this one is free." } ], "description": "A birthday long weekend based in Milan: three days, only one of them spent in Milan itself, and the other two on day trips to Lugano and Bergamo. What it cost, what we saw, and why giving the city a single day was the mistake.", "headline": "Is Milan expensive?", "placesHeading": "What to see in Milan in 3 days", "worth": "Not as expensive as a city with Milan's reputation ought to be. Three days came to €527.50, and more than half of that was booked before we left home: €170 for the flights out of Lisbon and €220 for three nights at the Ibis in the centre. Being in the city was the cheap part. A three day metro pass was €15.50, and €22 covered the Duomo, its museum and the walk out onto the roof, which is the one thing here worth both queueing and paying for.", "howLong": "Three days, and only one of them in Milan itself. That was the mistake, and it is most of the reason this page is worth reading. The other two went to Lugano and Bergamo, both worth the train, but they are additions to Milan rather than replacements for it, and we did not work that out until the day we flew home.", "story": [ "Milan gets written off as a city with nothing to see once you have done the Duomo and the Galleria. We believed it, and we planned the trip around believing it. Four days on the ground, arriving too late on the first for it to count, and of the three that were left only one was spent in Milan at all. The others went to [Lugano](/trips/lugano), over the border in Switzerland, and to [Bergamo](/trips/bergamo), fifty minutes up the line.", "The mistake was obvious by the middle of the second day. We saw the **Duomo**, which is more imposing in person than any photograph of it manages, then the Galleria, then the Castello Sforzesco, and by the end of it we wanted another day in Milan rather than another train out of it. The reputation is wrong. We will be back, and next time the day trips will be the extra rather than the plan.", "We were also in the city the night Spain won, which we had not planned and would not have traded. A square in Milan turns out to be a good place to watch a country win something." ], "costs": [ { "label": "Flights (LIS → LIN, MXP → LIS)", "amount": 170 }, { "label": "Hotel Ibis Milano Centro, 3 nights", "amount": 220 }, { "label": "Food & drinks", "amount": 100 }, { "label": "Subway 3 day pass", "amount": 15.5 }, { "label": "Duomo pass (Stairs Roof + Cathedral + Museum)", "amount": 22 } ], "places": [ { "place": "Duomo di Milano", "why": "The cathedral, and the reason the reputation is wrong. The €22 pass covers the inside, the museum and the stairs up onto the roof. The roof is the part you are paying for." }, { "place": "Castello Sforzesco", "why": "Six hundred years of castle, an easy walk from Piazza del Duomo along Via Orefici and Via Dante. The walk there is half of it." }, { "place": "Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II", "why": "Italy's oldest shopping arcade and still a working one. Free to walk through, which is the only sensible way to use it unless you are buying a handbag." } ] } ]