The European city where selfies are 'awkward'

Following an analysis by TourReview, Germany stands as the 10th best country in Europe based on online reviews sourced from platforms such as TripAdvisor and Expedia. In 2023, Germany garnered over 118,000 reviews, achieving a remarkable 4.7 rating out of 5. Additionally TourReview used its data to find out the top five German cities, according to traveller evaluations on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Visitors flock to Venice year-round, and who can blame them?

With cobblestone lanes wrapped around arched bridges and canals, Amsterdam makes for a charming vacation at any time of year.

Admittedly travel-averse, Eugene Levy—multiple award-winning actor, writer and comedian—has come a very long way since his debut season of Apple TV+’s The Reluctant Traveler last year. Now premiering a second season on March 8, the seven-episode series spotlights Sweden, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Spain. It is gorgeously filmed, tightly edited, uplifting and funny: A luxurious travel deep-dive that soars with insight and smiles. Levy’s wry humor is on-point entertaining. For insider info about how this quirky and enchanting show was brainstormed and created, read my article Actor Eugene Levy On Going From ‘Schitt’s Creek’ To ‘The Reluctant Traveler’. Levy and I recently talked about the newfound joys he discovered not only on the road, but also within himself. Plus, how travel can best widen your horizons.

Grapes have been associated with pleasure since ancient times, a symbol of Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry. These days, clusters of plummy Concords, oval autumn royals and dusky kyohos are decorating dinner tables, doubling as cornucopian decorations and low-effort snacks. “You can get a beautiful, imperfect drip and drape from grapes,” says the interior stylist Colin King, 35, who overflowed a marble urn with abundant mounds of them for the launch of his furniture collection, a collaboration with the Future Perfect, in New York this past fall. Although he uses green grapes for daytime parties, for evening events he prefers the “moody, sensual vibe” of dark varieties — like the attenuated, oblong moon drops that the artist Laila Gohar, 35, mixed with red globes and flames to form an edible monolith for the recent opening of the Essentiel Antwerp clothing store in New York. The chef Mina Stone, 42 — who runs Mina’s, the cafe at MoMA PS1 in Queens, and is a go-to caterer for art gallery dinners — favors Thomcords, a sweet, seedless hybrid she often serves with dessert to “provide heft and a colorful backdrop” for daintier confections. She also likes to roast grapes alongside seared duck breast. In London, the pastry chef Claire Ptak, the owner of Violet bakery, offers what she calls fragolina cupcakes, named for the fragola (Italian for “strawberry”) grapes that she cooks down, then purées and adds to the buttercream frosting. The fragolas “taste like a berryish Concord,” says Ptak, 49, who tops each cake with a small cluster of fruit. The frosted treats “transport you back to childhood when you take the first bite,” she says, “and then you realize they’re also very grown-up.” —

This upcoming spring instead of just seeing historical sites in European cities, why not also stay in some cultural landmarks while you’re there. Major cities like Berlin, Zurich and Amsterdam have hotels in centuries-old buildings allowing you to immerse yourself in rich architectural details and notable surroundings. Here are four hotels to enjoy contemporary comforts and sleep in a piece of history:

Australia is a vast, diverse country celebrated for its iconic landmarks and natural beauty.

Since moving from Seattle to Luxembourg for school, I've noticed a few things the European country does better than the US.

The Salomon brand and functionality have always been synonymous. Ever since its inception in the French Alps during the late ’40s, the design collective’s mission has remained the same—to make gear that transforms the wearer’s life experiences. Today, it’s come a long way from the ski-boot origins and expanded its offering to include an everyday “Sportstyle” collection with pieces fit for city-dwellers who enjoy the exhilaration of the athletic outdoors.

I first landed in Berlin in the late 1990s, in the heady years after the fall of the Wall. I was aware enough of its licentious reputation to startle a teacher by announcing plans to run away there and open a club. But that first night my girlfriend and I chanced on a bar owned by the Glaswegian cousin of queer artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman. I DJ'd with a pile of scratched 78s, he took us to a party in an after-hours record store run by Russian émigrés, and we ended the morning at a techno night in the basement of a mansion block on Karl-Marx-Allee, sweating among the Stalinist decor.

As worldwide tourist numbers continue to rise, major European destinations are making big moves to get mass tourism and its impact under control.