{"id":142150,"date":"2026-08-07T16:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/142150\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T16:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:26:11","slug":"forget-venice-and-amsterdam-beat-the-crowds-in-europes-best-alternative-canal-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/142150\/","title":{"rendered":"Forget Venice and Amsterdam: Beat the crowds in Europe\u2019s best alternative canal cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

By&nbspRebecca Ann Hughes<\/a>&nbsp&&nbspJames March<\/p>\n

\n Published on 07\/08\/2026 – 17:14 GMT+2\u2022Updated
\n 17:44\n <\/p>\n

Venice introduced an entry fee for daytrippers<\/a> on peak days in 2024, with current rates \u20ac5-\u20ac10 but calls to up that to \u20ac50. <\/p>\n

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Amsterdam, too, is oversaturated by tourists. It has launched several campaigns<\/a> over the years to encourage better visitor behaviour, but with numbers still rising, residents resorted to suing<\/a> the city last year. <\/p>\n

If you want to avoid contributing to overtourism and have a better traveller experience, consider visiting some of Europe\u2019s lesser-trod but equally picturesque canal cities. <\/p>\n

Admire industrial beauty in Hamburg<\/p>\n

Despite boasting more canals than both Amsterdam and Venice, Hamburg<\/a> perhaps isn\u2019t the first city you\u2019d place on a romantic European canal trail map. <\/p>\n

But as Europe\u2019s third-largest port after Rotterdam and Antwerp, this is a city where its waterways have always had much more pragmatic uses.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a hard-edged industrial beauty to the canals of modern Hamburg, especially the historic warehouse district of Speicherstadt, which is now designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. <\/p>\n

Though half of the warehouses were destroyed during the Second World War, their grandeur is enduring and a walk or a boat tour here is a must-do.<\/p>\n

Take a stroll along Stockholm\u2019s waterways<\/p>\n

Situated on an archipelago of fourteen islands, Sweden\u2019s capital is full of intersecting canals and rivers crisscrossed by a tapestry of more than 50 bridges. In fact, the original name for Stockholm<\/a>\u2019s historic Old Town was \u2018The Town between the Bridges\u2019 \u2013 Staden Mellan Broarna.<\/p>\n

Despite being located in the city centre, the Djurg\u00e5rdsbrunnskanalen Canal is one of the quietest and most picturesque waterways. <\/p>\n

Stretching 5km between attraction-heavy Djurg\u00e5rden and the mainland, its meandering tree-lined path is one of Stockholm\u2019s most popular walking routes.<\/p>\n

Drink at canal-side bars in Birmingham<\/p>\n

Birmingham<\/a> in the UK also famously has more kilometres of canal than Venice \u2013 and they have undergone a significant glow up since their industrial heyday.<\/p>\n

With more than 160km of canals still navigable, the buzzing bars and cafes at Gas Street Basin show off the city\u2019s canals at their most vibrant, while the gently curving towpath running down to the University of Birmingham is a bucolic escape from the hum of the city centre.<\/p>\n

Take a boat tour in Copenhagen<\/p>\n

With the 17th-century waterfront district of Nyhavn at its heart, Copenhagen is one of Europe\u2019s most charming cities to take a canal cruise. <\/p>\n

Famed for its brightly coloured townhouses and old wooden ships, Nyhavn\u2019s a superb location to stroll on a summer afternoon or take a boat tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But while it may project an air of sophistication today, during its early years (from around 1670) Nyhavn was a notorious area for hedonistic sailors in search of alcohol and prostitutes. <\/p>\n

In the 19th century it was home to Hans Christian Anderson and in 1980 it was pedestrianised, leading to its revitalisation as a tourist area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By&nbspRebecca Ann Hughes&nbsp&&nbspJames March Published on 07\/08\/2026 – 17:14 GMT+2\u2022Updated 17:44 Venice introduced an entry fee for daytrippers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[101],"tags":[199,14637,15291,108,8888,200,131,30066],"class_list":["post-142150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-amsterdam","tag-amsterdam","tag-birmingham","tag-canal","tag-copenhagen","tag-hamburg","tag-netherlands","tag-stockholm","tag-travel-destinations"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117055166194752394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}