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Top 10 destinations in Europe

According to Tripadvisor, the top 10 destinations in Europe are currently: 1. Monte-Carlo, Monaco 2. Heidelberg, Germany 3. Salzburg, Austria 4. Florence, Italy 5. Lucerne, Switzerland 6. Venice, Italy 7. Siena, Italy 8. Rome, Italy 9. Hamburg, Germany 10. Amsterdam, The Netherlands Are there any notable omissions in the list, do you think? Where would you choose as a top European destination and why? Please click on the comments to tell us.

Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Daily Telegraph.

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16 Comments

  1. Bah! What do they mean by “top destinations”? The most popular? The most swamped by tourists?

    Caithness is the best place I’ve been for ages. Clean air, beautiful light, magnificent food, relatively traffic-free roads, amazing scenery, wonderful people, peace and quiet, wildlife, and the best chips I’ve ever had in my life. (Made by our host who had dug the tatties out of his garden only moments earlier.)

    Caithness is paradise but please don’t go. It won’t be so good if everyone wants a piece of the action.

  2. Kay, You raise the same questions that went through mind mind when I read this. Without the judging criteria, it is difficult to comment.
    However if I was to choose a top European location it would be Chamonix-Mont Blanc. Why? Well did I mention I like to do some snowboarding. The Chamonix Valley has some of the best off-piste terrain in Europe. It doesn’t end there though. At any time of the year Chamonix is enthralling. It is located close to both the Italian and Swiss borders as well some spectacular locations in the Haute Savoie that include Lake Annecy and Annecy itself.
    The walking, hiking, mountain biking, climbing, paragliding and canyoning is world class. The snow covered rock mountains are hypnotic, they cast beams of light across the valley at sunrise and change colour throughout the day. My neck gets sore from looking up at the peaks all day long.
    Of course it is small in comparison to the locations on the list above, but can cater for up to 77 000 beds, in all price ranges, depending upon the season.

  3. Tripadvisor don’t make it entirely clear as to what their criteria are. I did wander at first if they were crudely basing it on the number of Facebook likes that each page had as when I started to go through, I noticed that…

    1. Monte-Carlo, Monaco – 170 Facebook likes
    2. Heidelberg, Germany – 110 Facebook likes
    3. Salzburg, Austria – 100 Facebook likes

    However, I was soon ‘put right’ on this when the apparent pattern of an ever-decreasing number of likes didn’t continue through the rest of the list:

    4. Florence, Italy – 612 Facebook likes
    5. Lucerne, Switzerland – 101 Facebook likes
    6. Venice, Italy – 453 Facebook likes
    7. Siena, Italy – 166 Facebook likes
    8. Rome, Italy – 392 Facebook likes
    9. Hamburg, Germany – 60 Facebook likes
    10. Amsterdam, The Netherlands – 238 Facebook likes

    Then I did a bit more searching…

    As we all know, you can write reviews on Tripadvisor for hotels, and even restaurants, attractions, etc. and you can give star (or rather blob!) ratings of your experiences.

    Well, I wasn’t entirely sure, but it seems that you can also review destinations. So I think this top 10 is simply the highest rated destinations from the destination reviews that they’ve amassed (this year?).

    Paul

  4. It’s strange that two of the most expensive cities are not even listed there (Paris and London). Moscow also comes to mind.

    Maybe luxury travellers are opening to a new world!

  5. john

    i have to agree annecy is a fab destination, i studied there while at university and had a fabulous time, it is a beautiful town within easy reach of so many places.

    i can’t believe paris, london and edinburgh aren’t on the list

  6. Interesting list…but you are missing Stockholm, the most beautiful capital city in the world! A well designed, liveable and safe architectural beauty, with everything on walking distance. Built on 14 islands connected by 53 bridges, it mixes old and new, luxury with folksy, the trendiest with the most classic (and classy), scenic and green with urban chic. And seriously, clearly Paris must be among the top 10, ahead of HAMBURG?! Jan

  7. Wow I’m really surprised by that, places you would go back to and never tire of have got to come top… I would always return to Rome it’s amazing and so much to see, followed closely by Barcelona why was that not on the list?!

  8. Not a single one of Greece’s Cycladian islands are on that list? Mykonos/santorini? I find that hard to believe given the summer crowds.

  9. These ‘best of lists’ really are jolly things that totally ignore the real world. For instance any sane business person will tell you that an analysis must reflect a market base, so where does the statistical info come from, OK sure from the site feedback but thats not what I refer to, what are the demographics, geographics of submissions, cultural preferences affecting likes/dislikes and as an earlier comment made, what about special interest groups, gay (mentioned previously); disabled (my own area of work); adventure; etc? In short a tabloid nonsensical bit of stuff to be taken as a pub trivia question at best. Just to throw my preference in… disabled? in a wheelchair? then Barcelona has to be your 1st choice (that is if you are aged 55+; no kids at home; earn USD100K+; are a professional such as accountant, doctor, etc)before leaving for that all important Mediterranean cruise!

  10. I have some comments for number 3. I find since you have only written one city of Austria in the list that it should be Vienna instead of Salzburg. The reasons are as follows: Vienna is a much richer city in terms of culture, people and living standards. The transportation system is much more developed (in terms of a mechatronics engineer and a luxury traveler), there are more design and 5 star hotels. There are more sights to see and it has been an imperial capital for a long time. I am writing this out of experience of traveling frequently between Salzburg-Linz-Vienna.

  11. It depends what you mean by “popular.” I think that Dubrovnik, Croatia, has been gaining a lot of attention lately. It is now seen as the Saint Tropez of Croatia, with beautiful beaches, great parties and amazing food.

    I also think that Barcelona should be on the list, because it’s a cheap destination where luxury is affordable.

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