Most walkable cities for a short break?

[RedDoughnut]

Where could I avoid using public transport and just explore by foot?

If you stay in the middle of Rome you can walk to most of the key attractions as long as you have comfy shoes and plan your route sensibly over a period of a few days (not Ostia Antica or other more suburban sites though). If you stayed in the North East corner then walking all the way to the South West and back in a day might be a bit much.

The same logic applies to most cities of less than a couple of million people but probably not Barcelona due to location of the big attractions. Certainly not Paris/London/Berlin.

But if your main problem with public transport is fear of getting lost and language barriers then I recommend using CityMapper. Really foolproof.

Agree. Also, you need somewhere where you can affordable stay quite centrally so don't need to travel into the interesting bits.

Lisbon and Palma are pretty good for this I think. Though I did try (and fail) to get a train from Lisbon.

Florence, Seville, Palma, Bordeaux (lots of trams), Paris, Copenhagen and Barcelona.

I actually found where I stayed in Barcelona (was with DB and his in-laws but couldn’t book into same hotel) was much better than eg Bordeaux (very humid in the summer) as I stayed about a 30 minutes walk from the city centre. I like Florence but it does get very crowded.

Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius are definitely walkable. Smaller cities with all the touristy stuff in an old town type area are going to be easily walkable.

Valencia and Malaga are both very walkable.

And the weather in both is low/ mid twenties and sunny atm....

Many USA cities are pretty walkable.
Chicago has 3 million people and a public transport network.

But if you get a hotel in the central area, there are a lot of them, the public attractions are all walkable. (Although I might personally take an Uber to some)

That doesn't mean that there isn't a substantial urban sprawl but it doesn't contain the tourist attractions, they are very much in the city center.

The problem is that the OP doesn’t want to use the public transport network. So large cities become less ‘walkable’ just because of the scale.

Chicago is pretty walkable, but some things are quite far apart so it depends on how far you want to consider walking.

Prague
Lyon
Avignon

A big city like Rome, Paris, London, Budapest etc is only walkable if:

• You are there for several days and walk max 15 km every day, so you can see everything worth seeing in 7-10 days.
• If you are only interested in the centre and the highlights and can’t be bothered exploring further.

Believe me I visited all of these places and I’m considered really fit and can walk many many kilometres a day but in each of these cities I used public transport. Prague is a big city too, just the castle district by itself is huge.

Riga isn’t a particularly big city. And lots of the stuff of interest to tourists is very much in the centre (which is beautiful).

Bologna

Where in the world do you fancy exploring? I'm assuming Europe.
Europe:
Amsterdam
Bruges
London
Venice
Verona
Barcelona
Budapest

I'm happy to go anywhere. Stuck to school holidays though.
I've done a few on the list.
Rome seems popular but I think Id be going July or August so too hot then.

School holidays? No way would I take kids to Rome in august. I went in June and it was 35 degrees. It's a lot of walking and the pp who reckons it's very walkable took two taxis!

Some people on this thread don’t know the meaning of walkable.
A lot of these cities are not walkable because they are big and sprawling.

I am lazy and happily get public transport if I feel like it. That's how I know the cities I suggested are walkable - because I walked them.

Just back from a great trip to Salzburg and Vienna, both very walkable. Salzburg would require some hill walking to get the most out of it. Short flight and not far from the airport.

Some people on this thread don’t know the meaning of walkable.
A lot of these cities are not walkable because they are big and sprawling.

But you don’t need the whole of a city to be walking distance. For a short break you need two or three good areas to explore near your accommodation.

Obviously the whole of London isn’t walkable but if you stayed at Premier Inn Waterloo, for example, you could do a day exploring down the river, S Bank, HMS Belfast, The Globe, Tate Modern, The Golden Hinde, Borough Market. Another day crossing Westminster Bridge, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Downing Street, Etc. Or Hingrrfird Bridge: Trafalgar Sq, St James Park, The Ritz, Royal Academy, or go Covent Garden, China Town, Soho.

Paris , similar opportunities.

Etc.

Same! I haven’t included all cities I’ve visited but ones which I know can be walked around with a combo of public transport.

As I said eg Bordeaux is lovely but sprawling and very humid in summer so I wouldn’t want to walk miles then (been there lots as family has holiday home near there), it has lots of tram stops but by the main station (St Jean) can be a bit dicey due to pickpockets etc.

Lisbon

Manhattan New York is pretty awesome to explore! We walked everywhere.

I don't know where you're based in UK, but if you're not in East Anglia, Norwich is a great city for a short break & easily walkable.

Barcelona is mainly walkable but also has an easy metro system.

Krakow
Venice
Boston
Charleston
Savannah
Rome
Stockholm
Prague
Budapest

Reims

Yes because I wanted to do it in one day.

You could walk it easily over two days.