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    Mid-Range Travel Guides

    Mid-range travel is the comfortable middle: private rooms, a mix of sit-down meals and casual bites, the occasional guided tour, and room in the budget to say yes to a splurge. In the U.S. that comfort now averages around $325 a day — a figure that has climbed about 7% over the past year as travel prices keep rising. Everything filed here helps you travel well without paying full luxury rates.

    • Front of the Salisbury Museum

      Salisbury

      Salisbury’s Cathedral Close is the largest in England — and most people walk through it in 20 minutes on their way to Stonehenge.

    • Historic houses, flowers, and canal view at La Petite Venise in Colmar, Alsace, France

      Colmar

      Colmar’s Little Venice canal district looks almost too perfect — but it’s real, walkable, and far quieter than Strasbourg.

    • Aachen Rathaus, Germany

      Aachen

      Thirty-one German kings were crowned in Aachen’s cathedral. The columns inside came from Rome. It’s the oldest cathedral in northern Europe.

    • Munsinger Clemens Formal Gardens, one of the best attractions in St. Cloud

      St. Cloud

      St. Cloud sits on the Mississippi further north than most people think to look — and that’s exactly what keeps it interesting.

    • Zip lining through a tropical rainforest in Costa Rica with Rainforest Adventures

      Drake Bay

      Drake Bay is one of the few places left where you arrive by boat or plane and leave wondering why the rest of Costa Rica feels so crowded.

    • Toy Museum Salzburg

      Krems

      Krems sits at the edge of a UNESCO valley where 1,000-year-old vineyard terraces still produce the Riesling poured at dinner tonight.

    • St. Stephen's Cathedral clock tower in Passau, Germany, showcasing historic architecture and scenic views

      Passau

      Three rivers meet at Passau’s tip in different colors — blue, green, and black — and the view from Veste Oberhaus makes it click.

    • Linz Altstadt Austria historic architecture, cobblestone streets, charming European cityscape

      Linz

      Linz gets overlooked for Vienna every time — which is exactly why it works. A UNESCO City of Media Arts with the world’s oldest cake recipe.

    • Streets of Beaune, France in Autumn

      Beaune

      Beaune’s Hospices de Beaune stops you cold — then the Grand Cru vineyards pull you south. Budget a full day minimum for both.

    • From San Jose: Big Sur Monterey California Coast McWay Falls One Day Tour

      San Jose, California

      San Jose’s Japantown is one of the last three traditional Japantowns left in the US — and most visitors drive straight past it to the Winchester Mystery House.

    • Abbeyglen Castle Hotel Ireland

      Galway

      Galway is Ireland’s west coast city with trad music in every pub, the Claddagh, and a gateway to the Aran Islands and Connemara — the Atlantic defines everything here.

    • Canterbury Cathedral interior with Gothic columns and arches, historic site in Canterbury, UK

      Canterbury

      Canterbury’s cathedral has been a pilgrimage site since 1170 when Thomas Becket was murdered there — Chaucer wrote about the journey, and the medieval streets still tell the story.

    • Candlewood Suites Fairbanks, an IHG Hotel

      Fairbanks

      Fairbanks sits below the Arctic Circle with the northern lights visible up to 240 days a year, ice sculpture championships in winter, and midnight sun that refuses to set in June.

    • The Williamsburg Room in The Lexington

      St. Paul

      St. Paul is Minneapolis’ twin across the river — the state capital with Summit Avenue mansions, a winter carnival that embraces the cold, and a cathedral modeled after St. Peter’s.

    • Road in Joshua Tree National Park, California

      Joshua Tree National Park

      Joshua Tree sits where the Mojave and Colorado deserts meet — surreal rock formations, stargazing with zero light pollution, and the trees themselves looking like something from another planet.

    • Treptower Park Soviet Memorial

      Lübeck

      Lübeck was the capital of the Hanseatic League with brick Gothic architecture, marzipan that’s been made here since the 1400s, and a Thomas Mann heritage the city wears proudly.

    • View of the Oude Kerk (Old Church) tower in Delft, Netherlands

      Delft

      Delft is Vermeer’s hometown and the birthplace of Delft Blue pottery — a small Dutch city where the canals are quiet, the Nieuwe Kerk towers over the market square, and the ceramics are still hand-painted.

    • Dish from Harry's, a top restaurants in Maastricht

      Maastricht

      Maastricht is the Dutch city that feels French — a hilltop fortress, the oldest church in the Netherlands, and a bookshop inside a Dominican church that’s been converted perfectly.

    • A club scene in Greece on a vibrant night

      Assos Village

      Assos is a tiny Kefalonia village with a Venetian fortress on the peninsula, a handful of tavernas by the water, and a pace of life that resists everything modern.

    • Upper Sava Valley, Slovenia

      Upper Sava Valley

      The Upper Sava Valley in Slovenia stretches from Kranjska Gora to Bled with Julian Alps framing every view — a valley where ski resorts and emerald rivers share the landscape.

    • Theehuis de Haarlemmerhout Scenery

      Haarlem

      Haarlem is Amsterdam’s quieter neighbor with a Grote Markt square, Frans Hals paintings, and a canal charm that lets you skip the Red Light District crowds 15 minutes away.

    • Boats on the canals in Leiden, showcasing traditional Dutch architecture and city life.

      Leiden

      Leiden is a Dutch university city where Rembrandt was born, the Pilgrim Fathers left for America, and canal-side museums fill a town small enough to walk in an afternoon.

    • Explore the iconic Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, showcasing Dutch Golden Age art and 17th-century architecture.

      The Hague

      The Hague is the Dutch seat of government with Mauritshuis’ Girl with a Pearl Earring, a Scheveningen beach, and an international law identity that gives it gravitas without pretense.

    • Mountains ski resort Bad Gastein Austria

      Bad Gastein

      Bad Gastein rises along steep mountainsides with Belle Époque hotels, a waterfall crashing through town center, and thermal springs that have drawn visitors since the Habsburg era.