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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.

    • Trieste

      Trieste

      Trieste is where Italy, Slovenia, and Austria blur — a Habsburg port city with the best coffee culture in Italy, Miramare Castle on the Adriatic, and Joyce’s old haunts.

    • Toulon

      Toulon

      Toulon is France’s main naval base with a harbor, a lively provençal market, and Mont Faron cable car views — the Côte d’Azur without the Riviera price tag.

    • Taos

      Taos

      Taos has a 1,000-year-old pueblo, a ski valley that gets serious snow, and a high-desert art colony that attracted Georgia O’Keeffe for a reason.

    • Split

      Split

      Split built an entire city inside Diocletian’s Roman palace — 1,700 years later the walls hold bars, apartments, and a waterfront Riva where the Adriatic meets ancient stone.

    • St. John’s

      St. John’s

      St. John’s is North America’s oldest and easternmost city — colorful row houses on Signal Hill, icebergs in the harbor, and a friendliness that Newfoundland is famous for.

    • Singapore

      Singapore

      Singapore fits hawker centers, Gardens by the Bay, and a rooftop infinity pool into a city-state the size of a large suburb — efficiency and ambition in every square meter.

    • San Quirico D’Orcia

      San Quirico D’Orcia

      San Quirico d’Orcia is the Val d’Orcia’s quiet center — Horti Leonini gardens, a Romanesque church, and the cypress-lined road that appears in every Tuscany screensaver.

    • San Gimignano

      San Gimignano

      San Gimignano still has 14 medieval towers standing in a Tuscan hill town the size of a few city blocks — the gelato won a world championship and the Vernaccia wine is only made here.

    • Saint-Malo

      Saint-Malo

      Saint-Malo is a walled Breton port city where the tides are among Europe’s largest — walk the ramparts at high tide and the beach appears at low, like clockwork.

    • Provence

      Provence

      Provence peaks in July when the lavender fields bloom purple and the markets overflow with rosé, olives, and cheese. The rest of the year is just as good, minus the crowds.

    • Pittsburgh

      Pittsburgh

      Pittsburgh reinvented itself from Steel City to a tech-and-culture hub — the Andy Warhol Museum, Duquesne Incline ride, and three rivers converging downtown.

    • Playa Del Carmen

      Playa Del Carmen

      Playa del Carmen is Cancún’s cooler sibling — Quinta Avenida for the evening stroll, cenotes for the morning swim, and Cozumel a ferry ride away.

    • Portland

      Portland

      Portland keeps it weird on purpose — food carts in parking lots, Powell’s Books filling an entire city block, and a craft beer scene that set the template for the country.

    • Pienza

      Pienza

      Pienza was redesigned by a pope as the “ideal Renaissance city” and the Val d’Orcia views from its walls are exactly what every Tuscan postcard promises.

    • Pisa

      Pisa

      Pisa has the Leaning Tower, obviously — but the rest of the Campo dei Miracoli, the university quarter, and the Arno riverfront give this Tuscan city more depth than a photo op.

    • Paros

      Paros

      Paros is the Cycladic island between Mykonos and Naxos with Naoussa’s fishing harbor, Kolymbithres’ smooth-rock beach, and a village pace that Mykonos traded away.

    • Parma

      Parma

      Parma makes two of Italy’s most famous exports — Parmigiano-Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma — and the factory tours let you taste both at the source.

    • Osaka

      Osaka

      Osaka is Japan’s kitchen — takoyaki, okonomiyaki, and a Dōtonbori strip that glows neon over a canal. The locals are louder than Tokyo’s, and proud of it.

    • Padua

      Padua

      Padua has Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel frescoes, Europe’s oldest botanical garden, and Prato della Valle — a square so large it’s basically a park. Venice is 30 minutes away.

    • Orvieto

      Orvieto

      Orvieto perches on a volcanic plateau in Umbria with a striped Gothic cathedral, underground Etruscan caves, and a white wine (Orvieto Classico) that tastes better here.

    • Oberwesel

      Oberwesel

      Oberwesel has 16 medieval towers still standing along the Rhine with a castle-turned-hotel above and vineyards that drop to the river below. Textbook Rhine Valley.

    • Omaha

      Omaha

      Omaha has the world’s largest indoor desert under a geodesic dome at the Henry Doorly Zoo, a revived Old Market district, and a steak reputation it takes very seriously.

    • Nusa Dua

      Nusa Dua

      Nusa Dua is Bali’s manicured resort peninsula — gated beaches, international hotel brands, and a calm that’s the polar opposite of Kuta’s chaos up the road.