Compact Cultural Destinations
Small cities with disproportionately big museums and music scenes
Basel
Basel is a small Swiss city where, somehow, three of the best museums in Europe sit within 30 minutes of each other: the Kunstmuseum, the Foundation Beyeler in Riehen, and the Tinguely. Add the Art Basel fair in June if you can stomach the prices, and a swim in the Rhine with your clothes in a wickelfisch waterproof bag like a local.
Weimar
Weimar, in Thuringia, is a small city packed with cultural history. Goethe's house, Schiller's house, the Bauhaus museum, the Anna Amalia library, and the dark counterweight of Buchenwald on the hill above. Two intense days are enough.
Toulouse
Toulouse is France's pink city, the centre built entirely in brick. The Place du Capitole, the Jacobins church with its palm tree vaulting, and the Saint-Sernin basilica anchor the old town. Add the Cité de l'Espace for the engineering side and a Saturday-morning market on Place Victor Hugo.
Aalborg
Aalborg in northern Denmark has reinvented its waterfront. The Utzon Center (designed by the architect of the Sydney Opera House, who was born here), the Kunsten museum, and a string of converted industrial buildings make it a small but serious cultural weekend.
Suggested itinerary
- Basel weekend: Three nights, Kunstmuseum, Beyeler, swim in the Rhine on Saturday afternoon.
Local highlights
- Basel's Kunstmuseum and Foundation Beyeler
- Weimar's Bauhaus and Goethe sites
- Toulouse's Place du Capitole
- Mantua's Palazzo Ducale
- Aalborg's Utzon Center and Kunsten museum
Nearby destinations
Other places worth combining with this trip: Colmar, Erfurt, Albi, Cremona.
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