Travel magazine

Eight villages that look made up

Small, postcard-perfect, and famous for exactly that. With what to know before you turn up.

Some villages look retouched in photographs. These eight are real, can be walked in a morning, and share one problem: they are so photogenic that in high season there are more visitors than residents. Here they are, with when to go and why they are worth it even when they are full.

1. 01
   Austria

   Hallstatt

   The salt village, wedged between lake and cliff

   A hundred and fifty metres of shoreline between a lake and a vertical mountain, in the Austrian Salzkammergut. Salt has been mined here for some seven thousand years: the mine is open to visitors and holds the oldest wooden slide still in use anywhere. It is famous enough that China built a full-size replica. Eight hundred residents receive close to a million visits a year, so come midweek and outside summer.

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2. 02
   Marruecos

   Chefchaouen

   Blue from top to bottom, in the Rif

   Founded in 1471 as a stronghold against the Portuguese, in the mountains of northern Morocco. The whole medina is painted indigo: some credit the Sephardic Jews who arrived in the 1930s, others call it a mosquito repellent, and plenty admit it is kept up today because it works. The best light is early; by mid-morning the high sun flattens the blue.

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3. 03
   Francia

   Colmar

   Alsace at its most half-timbered

   Half-timbered houses in green, pink and ochre along canals, on the Alsace wine route. The Petite Venise quarter is the most photographed, but the Unterlinden museum and its Isenheim altarpiece justify the trip on their own. Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, was born here. December's Christmas market packs it out; May and September are calm.

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4. 04
   Colombia

   Guatapé

   Painted plinths and a rock of 740 steps

   Two hours from Medellín. What sets it apart are the zócalos: painted relief friezes along the base of every façade, showing the trade or the story of whoever lives there. Next door stands El Peñón, a 220-metre granite monolith climbed by a staircase wedged into a crack — 740 steps to a view over the whole reservoir. Weekends fill with visitors from Medellín; midweek it is another place.

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5. 05
   Chequia

   Český Krumlov

   A bend of the Vltava, with a castle

   The river wraps almost entirely around the medieval centre, in southern Czechia. The castle is the country's second largest and keeps a baroque theatre from 1766 with its original wooden machinery still working — close to unique in Europe. It is three hours from Prague and fills with day trips: the town changes completely after six in the evening.

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6. 06
   Países Bajos

   Giethoorn

   A village without a single street

   In the northern Netherlands, with no roads in the historic centre: you move by canal and wooden footbridge, in electric boats or traditional punts. The canals were left behind by peat cutters working the land for centuries. In high season the boat traffic turns absurd; in April or October you understand why they call it the Venice of the North.

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7. 07
   España

   Albarracín

   Teruel red, hanging over the river

   In Aragón, above a gorge of the Guadalaviar river. The houses are rendered in a reddish plaster drawn from local earth, and the wall climbs the hill far above the rooftops. It was the capital of a small taifa kingdom in the 11th century. It is a long way from anywhere, which helps: it is one of the few on this list where you can still have a street to yourself.

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8. 08
   Italia

   Sorrento

   The balcony over the Bay of Naples

   On a tuff cliff facing Vesuvius, it is the classic base for the Amalfi Coast, Capri and Pompeii — all under an hour away. The old town is narrow lanes with lemon trees everywhere: this is where limoncello comes from. There is no sandy beach at the foot of town, but platforms out over the water. June and September are its best moments.

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One piece of advice that works for all eight: sleep in the village. The coaches arrive mid-morning and leave before dinner, so sunrise and sunset belong to whoever stays.

Photo from Wikimedia (CC BY-SA). The editorial content is our own.