{"id":508972,"date":"2025-10-18T08:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T08:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/508972\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T08:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T08:28:15","slug":"the-most-charming-old-town-in-europe-is-just-2-5-hours-from-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/508972\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Charming Old Town In Europe Is Just 2.5 Hours From London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_2520768841-min-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid\" alt=\"an old town street in Krakow at sunrise\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: PHOTOCREO Michal Bednarek, Shutterstocker<\/p>\n<p>    Save<\/p>\n<p>As a girl whose train of thought is pretty much always on a one-way trip to holiday-town; it\u2019s not particularly rare for you to find me dreaming, scheming, plotting and planning my next getaway. But with so many <strong>gorgeous towns and cities<\/strong> within oh-so easy reach of <a href=\"https:\/\/secretldn.com\/best-things-to-do-london\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretldn.com\/best-things-to-do-london\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_0\" data-category=\"click_internal\">London<\/a>, it\u2019s rather difficult to know which of them is worthy of a sacred slice of my annual leave allowance.<\/p>\n<p>Europe is a treasure trove of twinkling gems, but thanks to the travel experience curators over at <strong>Tourlane<\/strong>, we now know exactly which of the continent\u2019s charming old towns is the sparkliest of all. Having scoured the length and breadth of <strong>Europe<\/strong>, the lovely lot over at Tourlane used data from widely-used online platforms to uncover the most charming old towns.<\/p>\n<p>  <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-327637 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_2431700931-min.jpg\" alt=\"The Town Hall Tower and the Cloth Hall in Krakow's old town\" width=\"1200\" height=\"811\"  \/>Credit: ecstk22, Shutterstock <\/p>\n<p>Their findings were based on four factors: the age of the each town, the cost of a <a href=\"https:\/\/secretldn.com\/sightseeing-london-map-walking-route\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretldn.com\/sightseeing-london-map-walking-route\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_1\" data-category=\"click_internal\">walking tour<\/a>, the overall walkability of each town, and its popularity on social media. Once the numbers were crunched, Tourlane curated a handy list. And although London (rather outrageously) didn\u2019t even get a look in, we\u2019re pretty pleased that<strong> the city that snapped up the top spot<\/strong> is just a hop, skip, and a jump \u00a315 flight from the Big Smoke.<\/p>\n<p>  The most charming old town in Europe <\/p>\n<p>Nabbing the crown as the most charming old town in the entire continent is <strong>Krakow in Poland<\/strong>. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978, this 7th century city serves up history, charm, culture and beauty in equal measure. Almost entirely pedestrianised,<strong> this \u2018surprisingly compact\u2019 town<\/strong> is easy to explore on-foot, and boasts impressive architecture, picturesque streets, hidden squares, and plenty of small <a href=\"https:\/\/secretldn.com\/best-restaurants-london\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretldn.com\/best-restaurants-london\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_2\" data-category=\"click_internal\">restaurants<\/a>, cafes, and eateries.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-327639 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_2564080521-min.jpg\" alt=\"An aerial view across Krakow at sunset\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"  \/>Credit: MKavalenkau, Shutterstock Getting to Krakow from London <\/p>\n<p>A flight from<strong> London to Krakow<\/strong> takes approximately two and a half hours. The cost of a flight, of course, depends on when it is you wish to visit. But in November, there are flights available from Stansted to Krakow for <strong>just \u00a315<\/strong>. A complete and utter bargain, hey?<\/p>\n<p> The most charming old town in Europe: <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Krakow, Poland<\/li>\n<li>Naples, Italy<\/li>\n<li>Regensburg, Germany<\/li>\n<li>Riga, Latvia<\/li>\n<li>San Marino, San Marino<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>You can read Tourlane\u2019s full findings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tourlane.com\/the-world-most-charming-old-towns\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.tourlane.com\/the-world-most-charming-old-towns\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_3\" data-category=\"click_non_sales\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: PHOTOCREO Michal Bednarek, Shutterstocker Save As a girl whose train of thought is pretty much always on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,10762,257,10763,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-508972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-international-trip","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-trip-travel","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115394230303720966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}