The cities compared

Here's a light-hearted take on some of the best and worst things about the cities we visited. Do you think we got it wrong? Comment at let us know!

Paris

Advantages:

• Amazing patisseries on every corner.
• Fantastic shops: Les Salons du Palais Royal, La Maison du Chocolat, Laderée...
• Great metro system with lots of character.
• The Musée d'Orsay.
• The stunning Sainte Chappelle.

Disadvantages:

• Lots of long lines to get into any tourist attraction.
• Indifferent shop assistants.
• Châtelet - Les Halles RER station at night.
• As historic and grand as it is, the palace at Versailles was a little disappointing: Huge crowds and grand but mostly empty rooms.

Avignon

Advantages:

• Relaxed Provençal atmosphere.
• Everything is in walking distance.
• Narrow winding alleyways in the shadow of the Palais des Papes.
• The pretty streets of Villeneurve-les-Avignon.

Disadvantages:

• Vegetarian food is hard to find.
• Everything is closed for a couple of hours at lunch.

Venice

Advantages:

• Amazing history.
• Beautiful canals.
• No cars.
• Some fantastic masks and Murano glass, if you look.

Disadvantages:

• Huge crowds between the main tourist spots: San Marco, Rialto and Ferrovia.
• The smell of the canals.
• Everything is overpriced.
• The service in most shops, restaurants and cafes is appauling.

Vienna

Advantages:

• Very efficient public transport, especially the U-Bahn.
• Locals are friendly.
• Schönbrunn Palace is beautiful and very well presented.
• Very clean: The only city in Europe we visited where there weren't awful drain smells!
• The Hundertwasserhaus and Kunsthaus.
• Lots of vegetarian restaurants.

Disadvantages:

• Shops have restrictive opening hours.
• Most of the architecture is dull.

Bratislava

Advantages:

• Nice examples of art nouveau architecture around the city.
• Locals who are thrilled that you take an interest in the history of their city.
• The historic city center is easy to get around by foot.

Disadvantages:

• Most cafes and restaurants are aiming at the 'beer and chips brigade' (i.e., British backpackers).
• Bratislava Castle is virtually a shell.
• Soviet-style archtecture that looks completely out of place.
• Huge communist-era housing estates.

Budapest

Advantages:

• Fantastic fin de siècle architecture everywhere.
• History everywhere - fantastic National Museum.
• Good public transport: Fun contrast between the histroic M1 and the communist-era M2 and M3.
• The thermal baths.
• Everyone we met was amazingly polite and helpful.
• The State Opera.
• Azerbaijani food at Maquis des Salade.
• Less expensive than the rest of Europe.

Disadvantages:

• Problem with air pollution.
• Trying to change the 20000 Forint notes the ATMS give you.