europe city tours

Grandiose Vienna was the showpiece of the all-conquering Habsburg dynasty. Monumental edifices line the city centre, world-class museums burst with treasures, white stallions strut their way down mirrored halls and renowned orchestras and angelic choirboys perform in lavish concert halls. Vienna has plenty of lower-brow pleasures too - walks in the woods, splish-splashing high jinks on the river, slap-up indulgent evenings in its renowned wine taverns. If you can't find something to please you in this generous, opulent, open-armed city, you're ready for the grave.

Cultureheads of every stripe will swoon over Vienna, but music lovers in particular will be in ecstacy. This is the city that nurtured the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Brahms and Mahler, among others. This heritage has an almost physical presence, and music is still a driving force in today's city.

Situated on the northern edge of the Alps, this historic city is home to a population of around 150,000 people. Although Salzburg is most famous as the birthplace of Mozart this is a city with many attractions, beautiful landscapes and a rich culture and some excellent central European cuisine. Salzburg is a very popular tourist destination in Austria and offers a wide variety of cultural attractions to the tourist. Historical buildings in Salzburg include the Festung Hohensalzburg, the Residenz and the Großes Festspielhaus. Other attractions in Salzburg include the city's many galleries and museums such as the Galerie Academia, the Haus der Natur and the Burgmuseum. Salzburg also has a good night life scene with many night clubs, bars and theatres and other entertainment to keep to occupied from the evening onwards. Restaurants in Salzburg are some of the most expensive in the country and also some of the best with a wide variety international dining options also being readily available.

The city of choice for Eurocrats, Brussels is sumptuous, historic and luxuriously cosy. With artistry richer than chocolate, architecture as graceful as its cuisine and diversity frothier than the beer, Brussels is an heirloom of northern culture at its best.

What makes Brussels special? Great seafood in great restaurants, the smell of hot waffles on a cold winter's day, cafes and pubs that never close, the cosmopolitan but neighbourly feel, forests practically on the doorstep, pheasant and truffles in autumn, comic strips, designer shops...

The city's character largely mirrors that of Belgium: confident but modest, and rarely striving to impress. For visitors, it's full of delights - Grand Place, mussels with chips, pralines, uncrowded museums, intimate hotels, Art Nouveau, Horta, Tintin and unbelievable beers.

Copenhagen has been Denmark's capital for 600 years and is the largest city in Scandinavia. It's an appealing and largely low-rise city comprised of block after block of period six-storey buildings. Church steeples punctuate the skyline, with only a couple of modern hotels marring the view.

No matter what your interests, Copenhagen has a whole lot of sightseeing and entertainment on offer. Historic or modern, gay or straight, sleek shops or cosy cafes - it's all nestled right in the heart of a compact city and presented with typical Scandinavian assurance and flair.

Copenhagen has an incredible amount of attractions and sight-seeing to offer even the most diverse of tastes. The Danish capital is a unique combination of the historic and the modern with the architecture, culture and atmosphere to prove it. As well as a multitude of museums and theaters, Copenhagen has excellent night-life, parklands and picturesque streets and squares, all within walking distance of each other.

The City of Hundred Spires. Six hundred years of architecture, unharmed by war or nature, make Prague one of the most aesthetically pleasing cities in Europe. Disappearing behind the Iron Curtain for most of the latter part of the twentieth century, Prague re-emerged after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and is today, one of Europe's most visited attractions. The city is compact and easy to navigate, from the Old Town Square where classical concerts and traditional marionette theatre shows are regularly held to the two citadels from which the modern-day city has grown. Philosophers read Kafka in Bohemia whilst history enthusiasts feast upon castles and cathedrals, dating back to medieval times. In summer visitors can take advantage of boat-rides down the river, under the spectacularly adorned Charles Bridge.

The beach is silky white, the sea as blue as sea will ever be and the entertainment among the best in the world. It is hardly surprising that Cannes is a famous playground for the wealthy and successful, regularly seen promenading La Croisette in sunglasses costing more than the average package holiday. It is perfectly positioned for driving along the rest of the Riviera and is close enough to the Alps to allow an afternoon excursion. The old quarter, Le Suquet and the aromatic and visual delight of early morning flower markets remain typically French. Most of all though, Cannes is a vivacious city filled with people indulging in the finer things of life and having an extremely good time.

Nice's beaches are pebbly. On the other hand there are a lot of them, all free, warm and clean as a whistle. The city itself is brash and bold (there's no such thing as being too old to wear a bikini) and enormously popular, so if you're looking for a place of serenity and zen-like peace... move on.

Nice was once the haunt of wealthy aristocrats, but these days its population is wildly varied. As the regional capital and the gateway to the beautiful Côte d'Azur, Nice is spitting distance from glamorous resorts like Cannes and Monaco, and within easy reach of the rural villages of Provence.

Paris assaults the senses, demanding to be seen, heard, touched, tasted and smelt. From romance along the Seine to landscapes on bus-sized canvases to the pick-an-ism types in cafés monologuing on the use of garlic or the finer points of Jerry Lewis, Paris is the essence of all things French.

Gaze rapturously at its breezy boulevards, impressive monuments, great works of art and magic lights. Savour its gourmet pastiche of cheese, chocolate, wine and seafood. Feel the wind in your face as you rollerblade through Bastille, or a frisson of fear and pleasure atop the Eiffel Tower.

Paris is a city to discover. So see the sights, visit the museums - they're part of the experience. But then jump on the metro or a bus and get off at a place you've never heard of, wander through a quartier where French mixes with Arabic or Vietnamese, poke your head into mysterious shops, have lunch in a local restaurant, or just perch on a café terrace with a vin blanc and let yourself fall in love with your very own Paris.

Berlin is now, officially, the capital of Germany and many major German corporations are in the process of relocating their headquarters to the city of political decision making. New buildings, built by world-class architects have sprouted up throughout the 'New Berlin' and although much of its historical heritage was destroyed during the second world war, Berlin has maintained a cultural richness, sustaining a fascinating and diverse selection of museums and monuments.

Still a city of two sides, the west embraces alternative lifestyles with a vivacious nightlife and inherent atmosphere of mounting excitement while the east is a journey through the remains of the socialist experiment, a living breathing museum of utilitarian buildings and hidden delights. Beyond the main thoroughfares there are lively bars, all night entertainment and interesting little cafés.

Set on the banks of the River Main and Germany's only city of skyscrapers, Frankfurt is affectionately known as 'Mainhattan'. A commercial centre since the thirteenth century, today it's home to the European Central Bank and plays a leading role in the European Monetary Union. In contrast to the towering buildings in the centre, the Sachsenhausen area is packed with half-timbered houses and traditional cider taverns, along quaint cobblestone streets. A vibrant cultural centre with world-class opera, theatre and ballet, Frankfurt is also the birthplace of Goethe, Germany's most famous poet, to whom an excellent museum has been dedicated. Jazz is very much the music of this city, with hundreds of jazz venues and the annual German Jazz Festival.

Redolent with mythology, smeared with grime, Athens is an affable city enlivened by outdoor cafes, pedestrian streets, parks, gardens and urban eccentrics. If you get into the Athenian mindset, you might not even notice the layer of nefos (smog) overhead.

The city may look like a concrete jungle, but beyond this off-putting veneer is a kind of dilapidated charm. Almost every house and apartment has a balcony bulging with geraniums, and many of the city's streets and squares are fringed with orange trees.

Athens is a curious blend of east and west; its raucous street vendors and colourful markets are reminiscent of Turkish bazaars, while crumbling neoclassical mansions hark back to the city's brief heyday as the 'Paris of the Mediterranean'.

The twin cities of Buda and Pest, unified in 1873, face each other across the famous river Danube, linked by the graceful spans of several bridges. The 'gateway to Eastern Europe', Budapest is renowned as a warm-hearted city, with a rich artistic, architectural and cultural legacy, of which its citizens are justly proud. Tradition is important to the Hungarians, so much so that the European Centre for Traditional Culture is based in Budapest. Famed, since Roman times, for its thermal and curative springs, the city has 80 hot water springs, still used today as treatment for a variety of ailments. Marvellous scenery, a wealth of attractions and a cosmopolitan 'café culture', most evident in Pest, makes this city a unique and exciting destination.