City Guides
Routes, articles, and curated lists to help you discover amazing places.
Croissants to Confit: A Paris Food & Market Walk
Paris doesn't just inspire art and revolution—it perfects the art of eating. This half-day walk threads through the 10th and 3rd arrondissements, Paris's most authentic food neighbourhoods, stopping at a legendary boulangerie, the city's oldest covered market, a Marais fromagerie, and ending with a classic bistro lunch at Place des Vosges. Plan it for a Tuesday–Saturday morning when everything is open.
The Impressionist Trail: Chasing Monet, Renoir & Degas Across Paris
Between 1860 and 1910, a handful of radical painters in Paris changed how the world sees light, colour and ordinary life. This full-day walk connects the four greatest Impressionist museums in the city before finishing in the Montmartre neighbourhood where Renoir and Van Gogh actually lived and painted. Book the Orsay and Rodin online to skip queues.
Madrid from Above: Rooftops, Terraces & Miradores
Madrid is a city built to be seen from above. Its density—barely any skyscrapers—means the skyline from any elevated point is a sea of terracotta rooftops punctuated by Baroque domes and stone church towers. This route strings together the city's best public viewpoints: rooftop bars, observation terraces, and formal miradores. Best done at golden hour (6–9pm in summer) when the light is extraordinary. Includes the famous Círculo de Bellas Artes rooftop, Callao Sky Bar, Corte Inglés terrace, and the free mirador at Cibeles City Hall.
Blood, Guillotines & Liberty: The French Revolution Walk
Between 1789 and 1799, Paris became the stage for one of history's most dramatic upheavals. This full-day walk connects the sites where the Revolution started, where the royal prisoners were held, where heads rolled, and where the new Republic enshrined its heroes. It covers the Right Bank, Île de la Cité, and the Latin Quarter. Comfortable shoes are essential.
Retiro Park & La Castellana: Madrid's Green Spine
Madrid has more parkland per capita than almost any other European capital—and the two great green arteries of the city are the Parque del Buen Retiro (125 hectares of royal parkland) and the Paseo de la Castellana (a 6-kilometre tree-lined boulevard stretching from Atocha to the north). This route spends half a day in the Retiro, then follows the Castellana north through the city's grandest architecture and up to the Santiago Bernabéu neighbourhood. Good for a relaxed morning with a coffee in the park.
The Square Mile: City of London Pub Walk
The City of London—the 'Square Mile', the ancient walled Roman city on which all of modern London grew—is the world's oldest financial district and contains some of the most extraordinary architecture in Britain: Christopher Wren churches, the Georgian Bank of England, Norman Foster's Lloyd's building, Rafael Viñoly's Walkie-Talkie. But under and between all of this modernity sits a layer of medieval city that survived the Great Fire of 1666 (barely), the Blitz, and centuries of property development: Roman pavements, Victorian covered markets, and pubs that were serving ale before Shakespeare was born. This walk visits the financial heart of London while weaving through history in a way that no other square mile on Earth can match.
The Football Pilgrimage: Bernabéu, the City & Metropolitano
Madrid is home to two of the world's most successful football clubs—Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid—whose rivalry defines the city's sporting soul. This full-day route visits both stadiums and everything in between: the grand boulevard where titles are celebrated, the old-town bars where fans debate the game, and the working-class neighbourhood that gave birth to Atlético. Best done on a matchday if possible.
The Art Golden Triangle: Prado, Thyssen & Reina Sofía
Within a 10-minute walk of each other on the Paseo del Prado, three of the world's greatest art museums sit side by side: the Prado (Spanish Golden Age and old masters), the Thyssen-Bornemisza (medieval to Pop Art) and the Reina Sofía (Picasso, Dalí, Miró and 20th-century Spanish art). This is one of the highest concentrations of great art in any European city. The route also takes in the Retiro park for a break and the Fuente de Cibeles—Madrid's most iconic fountain.
Greenwich & the Prime Meridian: Time, Ships & the Edge of the World
Greenwich—accessible by riverboat from central London in 40 minutes—is where Greenwich Mean Time was invented, where the line divides East and West, and where Britain's greatest maritime heritage is preserved. The Royal Observatory sits on the hill above a town that was the centre of British naval power for three centuries. This route takes in the Cutty Sark (the world's fastest tea clipper), the Old Royal Naval College (Baroque architecture on the grandest scale), the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Observatory, and the best view of London from any hill in the city.
La Movida & Malasaña: Madrid's Cultural Revolution
Between 1977 and 1985, after nearly 40 years of Franco's dictatorship, Madrid erupted in a wave of creativity, transgression and hedonism known as La Movida Madrileña. Filmmakers (Almodóvar), musicians, painters, drag artists and clubbers poured into the streets of Malasaña and Chueca in a celebration of newly-won freedom. The neighbourhood still carries that spirit. This evening route explores the bars, plazas, record shops and cultural spaces of the area that became the cradle of modern Spanish pop culture.
Tapas & Vermut: The La Latina Food Walk
Madrid's tapas culture is not a tourist gimmick—it's the social fabric of the city. Every evening from 7pm, Madrileños pour into the streets to stand at zinc bars and eat small plates with wine, vermouth or cold beer. This Saturday afternoon walk begins at the Mercado San Miguel (the city's most beautiful covered market) and threads through La Latina—the dense, ancient neighbourhood where Madrid's tapas tradition is most alive. Plan for Sunday when El Rastro flea market adds an extra layer.
Paris From Above: The Rooftops & Panoramas Route
Paris is one of the very few major world cities where a strict building height code (Haussmann's 1853 decree, still mostly in force) means you can climb to the top of any landmark and see an ocean of uniform grey-zinc rooftops punctuated by church domes, the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Cœur. This full-day route hits six different elevated viewpoints, ranging from free to moderately priced.
Royal Madrid: Palaces, Plazas & Ancient Temples
Long before the Prado or the Gran Vía, Madrid was a Habsburg and Bourbon royal capital. This route follows the imperial spine of the city: the Palacio Real (the largest royal palace in Western Europe by floor area), Plaza Mayor (the grandest public square in Spain), the Almudena Cathedral—the only cathedral in the world whose crypt is partly Visigothic—and the Temple of Debod, an ancient Egyptian temple gifted to Spain by Egypt in 1968. The entire route is mostly flat and takes 3–4 hours at a gentle pace.
The Golden Triangle: Paris Fashion Capital Walk
Paris has been the world's fashion capital since Louis XIV established his court at Versailles and invented the concept of 'French style' as a diplomatic tool. This half-day walk covers the 'Golden Triangle'—the three avenues that define Parisian luxury fashion—from the historic Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré to Avenue Montaigne and the Champs-Élysées. Even window-shopping here is an architectural and aesthetic experience.
Literary Bloomsbury & Covent Garden: Books, Philosophers & Street Theatre
Bloomsbury—the area around the British Museum and Russell Square—has been the intellectual heart of London for 300 years. Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Bertrand Russell, John Maynard Keynes and the Bloomsbury Group lived and worked in these streets. Charles Dickens had his most productive years in a house on Doughty Street. Karl Marx spent 11 years writing Das Kapital in the British Museum's Reading Room. This route takes in the British Museum (one of the world's greatest), the Dickens Museum, the Bloomsbury squares, Covent Garden's piazza and street performers, and the Inns of Court—the medieval lawyers' quarter that still functions as it did in the 14th century.
The Most Romantic Evening in Paris: Sunset to Light Show
Paris earns its 'City of Love' reputation most thoroughly at dusk and after dark, when the monuments glow amber, the Seine reflects the lights and the streets empty out. This evening route (start 5pm, finish around midnight) strings together the city's most romantically charged locations in sequence—each building on the last—culminating in the Eiffel Tower's famous hourly light show and a final walk across Pont Alexandre III.
East End & Brick Lane: Street Art, Bagels & Bangladeshi Curry
The East End—the area east of the City of London—has always been London's first port of call for new arrivals: Huguenot silk weavers in the 17th century, Jewish migrants fleeing Eastern European pogroms in the late 19th century, Bangladeshi communities from the 1970s onwards, and most recently a wave of creative industries that has transformed Shoreditch into London's most vibrant cultural district. This walk takes in the street art of Shoreditch, the Sunday market and curry houses of Brick Lane, the Victorian grandeur of Spitalfields Market, and the galleries and coffee shops that define the neighbourhood today.
Hemingway's Paris: The Lost Generation Walk
In the 1920s, a generation of American and British writers and artists poured into Paris, drawn by the cheap franc, the freedom, and Gertrude Stein's famous salon. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, James Joyce and Man Ray all lived within walking distance of each other on the Left Bank. This half-day walk visits their actual addresses, favourite bars and gathering places—much of which looks remarkably unchanged.
South Bank Arts Trail: Waterloo to Borough Market
The South Bank is London's arts and culture quarter—a 2-kilometre stretch of riverside walkway that links the Southbank Centre (home to the Royal Festival Hall, the Hayward Gallery and the National Theatre) with Tate Modern and Borough Market. It is also London's most democratic public space: free to walk, lined with outdoor cafés, book stalls under Waterloo Bridge (operating since 1982), street performers, and—under the concrete arches near the NFT—the oldest surviving skate park in Europe. Best on a summer evening when the terraces fill and the river catches the last light.
Museum District & Hyde Park: Science, Art & the Great Outdoors
South Kensington's 'Albertopolis'—the cluster of world-class cultural institutions built with the profits from the 1851 Great Exhibition—contains the Natural History Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum (the world's largest museum of art and design) and the Science Museum, all free to enter and all within a 10-minute walk of each other. Add Hyde Park (the most famous Royal Park, with Speakers' Corner and the Serpentine Gallery) and Kensington Palace to make this a full day of some of London's richest public culture, most of it completely free.
Royal Westminster: Palaces, Parliament & the Changing of the Guard
Westminster is the seat of British royal and political power—a compact area of London where a 15-minute walk takes you from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament. The route covers: the Changing of the Guard ceremony (one of the great pieces of military pageantry in the world), St James's Park (the oldest of London's Royal Parks), Horse Guards Parade, Westminster Abbey (where every British monarch has been crowned since 1066), the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, and the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square.
The Royal Axis: From the Louvre to Versailles
For four centuries, Paris was a city built by and for its kings. This full-day route traces the 'royal axis'—the geometric line connecting the Louvre (medieval royal palace), the Tuileries Garden, Place de la Concorde, Champs-Élysées and Arc de Triomphe—before taking the RER train 40 minutes out to the Palace of Versailles for the afternoon. Start early and book Versailles tickets in advance.
Flamenco & Lavapiés: The Soul of Deep Spain
Flamenco is the art form most associated with Spain—yet it is not actually from Madrid. It was born in Andalusia (Seville, Jerez, Cádiz) and came to Madrid in the 19th and 20th centuries with waves of Gitano (Roma) and Andalusian migration. Today Madrid has more professional flamenco performances per night than Seville. The place to understand this in Madrid is Lavapiés—the city's most diverse, working-class, and culturally rich neighbourhood, long the home of the city's Gitano community and now a mosaic of Spanish, Bangladeshi, West African, Chinese and South American communities. This route combines flamenco history, live performance, and the street life of Madrid's most authentic quarter.
Tower Bridge, Southwark & the Thames Path
The stretch of the Thames between London Bridge and Blackfriars is the most historically dense mile in Britain. On the north bank: the Tower of London, where Henry VIII sent his wives to be executed, where the Crown Jewels are kept, and where ravens have been resident since at least the 17th century. Cross Tower Bridge—a Victorian masterpiece built in 1894—to reach the south bank, where Borough Market, Shakespeare's Globe and Tate Modern line the river in a sequence of food, theatre and art that is uniquely London. End at St Paul's Cathedral, Wren's masterpiece that survived the Blitz.