An independent journal about trips to small towns. We do not sell tours or tickets, do not organise group purchases and are not connected with the former website on this domain. Check timetables and visiting rules with the transport operators and the venues themselves.
Destinations
A good trip to a small town begins with an honest answer to why you are going. Below are five interests around which it is easy to build your choice, plus a few questions that help you tell a place that suits you from one that merely looks pretty on a postcard.
Do not look for a town that has everything. Look for one that has a single thing you are willing to get up early for.
How this section works: we describe not specific addresses but types of small towns and the signs by which you can recognise them. A type is included if it can be comfortably explored on foot in a day and a traveller's interest can be found there without a guide.
Five reasons to visit a small town, and what to look for if the reason is yours.
A town with a long memory gives itself away through an old market square, stone houses with wrought-iron balconies, memorial plaques and a local museum housed in a building from centuries past. People come for the sense of layers of time lying right there on the street.
Sometimes the best part of a small town begins where the houses end: the edge of a forest, rolling meadows, a path to a spring. Look for places from which nature is within walking distance, so you do not spend half the day getting there.
In some small towns traditional crafts are still alive: potters, woodcarvers, embroiderers. Look for mentions of workshops on the website of the museum or the community arts centre, and check in advance whether you can drop in on a craftsperson.
Wooden houses with carved window frames, merchants' mansions, an old railway station or a water tower are all best admired slowly. Clear days and comfortable shoes suit these trips well.
A town on the bank of a river or lake lives at a different rhythm: an embankment, boats, bridges, evening mist. Such a trip is especially good in the warm months, when you want to linger by the water until sunset.
Questions worth asking before you buy a ticket.
Quiet, wonder, a link with the past or simply a change of scenery? One sentence about your aim is enough to rule out most options and avoid disappointment once you arrive.
Many people happily set off and only think about returning at the last minute. If the journey home on your chosen day is awkward, it is better to pick another town or stay the night.
If the town has only a couple of streets, a day trip is enough. If there is a forest, a monastery or a neighbouring village nearby, consider staying overnight so you are not rushing from one spot to the next.
Check whether the town has a museum, a library or a visitor centre with publicly available information. If you can find almost nothing, that is no reason to give up, but it is a reason to allow more time for exploring.
Sample routes without place names: the old centre in a day, a riverside town and two days with the surroundings.
Local museum, church, high street, market, viewpoint, park and station: how to make the most of each.
Trip preparation step by step: interest, information, travel, a place to stay, a fallback and a checklist.
Information reflects the situation on the date of preparation. Timetables, opening hours and visiting rules in small towns change without much notice, so check them with the transport operators and the venues themselves shortly before you travel.