Top 10 Holiday Destinations in Europe

Europe rewards travellers who look one stop beyond the obvious. Paris, Rome and Barcelona earn their fame, but the trips people still talk about years later often happen somewhere that was not first on the list: a small green capital where the centre belongs to pedestrians, a Bulgarian city far older than Rome, a Dutch riverside town founded by the Romans, or a Finnish lakeside region where the sauna is simply part of the day.

This list of holiday destinations in Europe mixes exactly those kinds of places. Some are made for a long weekend, some for a full beach week, and some for slow days among lakes and forests. All ten are easy to reach, distinct from each other, and worth the journey in their own right.

One thing has genuinely changed for visitors from outside Europe: the paperwork at the border. Start with the short section below, then pick your destination.

Before You Go: Entry Rules Worth Knowing

The Entry/Exit System (EES) is now live. The EU began rolling out this digital border system on 12 October 2025, and it became fully operational on 10 April 2026 across 29 European countries. If you are a non-EU national visiting for a short stay of up to 90 days in any 180-day period, your entry and exit are now recorded electronically instead of with a passport stamp. On your first crossing, border officers or a self-service kiosk will take a facial photo and your fingerprints. There is nothing to apply for in advance and no fee, but the first registration can add a few minutes at busy airports, so allow a little extra time. The European Commission’s official EES page explains how it works.

ETIAS is not required yet. ETIAS, the planned travel authorisation for visa-free visitors, is still not in operation, and no applications are being collected. The official ETIAS website says the EU will announce the start date several months before launch, and that the fee will be EUR 20 when it begins. Until that announcement comes, you do not need to do anything about ETIAS, and any website offering to sell you one today is not the real thing.

London has its own system. The UK sits outside both schemes above. Most visitors who do not need a visa, including travellers from Europe, the USA, Australia and Canada, now need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) before travelling to the UK. It costs GBP 20, is applied for through the official GOV.UK service or app, and lasts two years or until your passport expires. Full details are on the GOV.UK ETA page.

Top 10 Holiday Destinations in Europe

1. Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ljubljana is the rare capital that feels like a deep breath. Slovenia’s largest city was named European Green Capital in 2016, and the commitment shows: the old town centre is largely car-free, the Ljubljanica River is lined with cafe terraces, and bridges designed by the architect Jože Plečnik, including the famous Triple Bridge, link one leafy bank to the other.

Ride the funicular or walk up to Ljubljana Castle for views over the red rooftops, then drift back down to the markets and riverside bars. Tivoli Park gives you green space minutes from the centre, and the city’s size means nothing is ever far away. Come for two or three unhurried days.

2. Marbella, Spain

Marbella is the Costa del Sol at its most polished: a long stretch of beaches backed by the Sierra Blanca mountains, a marina full of yachts at Puerto Banús, and an old town of whitewashed lanes, orange trees and small plazas that is far prettier than the resort reputation suggests.

Days here split easily between the beach, a long lunch in the old town, and an evening stroll along the promenade. It works just as well for a glamorous long weekend as for a family week with day trips along the Andalusian coast. If your idea of a holiday is sunshine, good food and no complicated decisions, Marbella delivers it reliably.

3. Amiens, France

Amiens is the France that tour buses skip, and it is all the better for it. Its Notre-Dame Cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in France and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, yet the city’s real magic is water: the Saint-Leu quarter, nicknamed the Little Venice of the North, threads colourful old houses along quiet canals.

Just beyond the centre lie the Hortillonnages, some 300 hectares of floating market gardens divided by around 65 kilometres of canals and cultivated since the Middle Ages. The way to see them is from a traditional flat-bottomed boat, drifting past vegetable plots and flower-filled islands. Add the house where Jules Verne lived and wrote, and Amiens makes a gentle, surprising weekend.

4. Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Plovdiv makes a claim few cities can match: it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe, with settlement stretching back roughly 8,000 years. Layers of that history sit side by side. The Ancient Theatre of Philippopolis, built in the late 1st century AD, still hosts concerts and performances, while part of the Roman stadium lies beneath the main shopping street.

The cobbled Old Town climbs over the city’s hills in a wash of colourful Revival-era houses, and the Kapana district fills former artisans’ streets with galleries, workshops and cafes. Plovdiv was a European Capital of Culture in 2019, and the creative energy from that year never really left.

5. Leuven, Belgium

Leuven is a university city in the best sense: grand, youthful and small enough to cross on foot. Its university, KU Leuven, was founded in 1425, making it the oldest university in the Low Countries, and its colleges and libraries are woven through the whole centre. On the Grote Markt, the ornate Gothic Town Hall faces a square ringed with cafes.

Between lectures and late-night bars, find the quiet corners: the Kruidtuin, Belgium’s oldest botanical garden, laid out in 1738 for medical students, and the beguinage’s hushed lanes. Leuven also takes chocolate and beer seriously, which tells you most of what you need to know about its priorities.

6. Oradea, Romania

Oradea, near Romania’s western border, is one of the country’s most beautiful and least hurried cities. Grand palaces and elegant facades line its central streets and the banks of the Crișul Repede River, giving the centre a faded grandeur that rewards slow wandering rather than a checklist of sights.

That is exactly the point of coming here. Oradea suits travellers who like their city breaks unhurried: coffee on a terrace, a river walk at golden hour, dinner in a square that empties at a civilised pace. Use it as a gentle introduction to Romania, or as a relaxing stop on a wider trip through Transylvania.

7. London, United Kingdom

London needs no sales pitch, but it earns its place on any list of holiday destinations in Europe because no two visits are ever the same. One trip can be blockbuster museums and West End theatre; the next can be markets, football, and neighbourhoods most visitors never reach, from Richmond’s riverside to the canals of Hackney.

Spring and summer show the city at its best, when its royal parks fill with picnics and the Thames path stays light late into the evening. Just remember the practical point from the section above: most visitors now need a UK ETA arranged before they travel, so sort that before you book the fun parts.

8. Nijmegen, Netherlands

Nijmegen calls itself the oldest city in the Netherlands, and it has the paperwork to back it up: as the Roman town of Ulpia Noviomagus, it received market rights from Emperor Trajan around the year 100 AD. Roman remains still surface in its streets, and the Valkhof hill, where the Romans first settled, overlooks the wide Waal River.

Today Nijmegen mixes that deep past with student energy, festivals and a lively cafe scene. Walk the Waalkade promenade along the river, look up at St Stephen’s Church above the old town, then settle into its bars and cafes. It is Amsterdam’s antidote: properly Dutch, genuinely historic, and refreshingly uncrowded.

9. Lahti Region, Finland

Finland is called the land of a thousand lakes, which undersells it: the country counts more than 187,000 lakes, and the Lahti region sits at the southern gateway to that lakeland. The city of Lahti rests on the shore of Lake Vesijärvi, with forested ridges rising behind it and water in almost every direction.

Come here to slow down properly. Swim or take a boat on the lake in summer, walk the Salpausselkä ridge trails, then finish the day the Finnish way, in a sauna by the water. It is the nature-first counterweight to every city break on this list, and the calm is the attraction.

10. Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul is the one city here that refuses to sit in a single continent: it straddles Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus, and that in-between character shapes everything about it. One morning can hold the Hagia Sophia and the Grand Bazaar; the same afternoon can be a ferry ride to the Asian shore for tea and a completely different skyline.

The scale is huge, but the pleasures are human-sized: a simit from a street cart, the call to prayer rolling over the rooftops, a hammam session after a day of walking. Few places on earth layer this much history, food and everyday energy into a single trip.

How to Choose the Right One for Your Trip

Short on time? Leuven, Ljubljana, Amiens and Nijmegen are all natural long-weekend cities, compact enough to enjoy without a plan. Chasing sun, Marbella is the straightforward pick, while Istanbul suits travellers who want a big, layered city with serious history. Plovdiv and Oradea reward anyone who likes their destinations beautiful and under-visited, and the Lahti region is the reset button when what you really need is lakes, forest and quiet.

Whichever you choose, do two small jobs before you leave. First, re-check the entry rules for your nationality, since the EES is new and ETIAS will follow at some point. Second, protect the photos you are about to take: our guide to backing up your phone photos automatically takes ten minutes to set up and means a lost phone can never take the trip with it. And if a European trip has to wait a little longer, a forest park closer to home can still feel like a holiday: our Mushrif Park guide shows how much green you can get from a single day out.