Image copyright Alamy Image caption Holte Hill on the Horseshoe Hill in Copenhagen
The town of Holte Hill in Copenhagen is Europe’s most beautiful place, according to Lonely Planet.
It’s Europe’s most beautiful town because “a stroke of inspired genius has transformed a traditional Danish hillside sloping down towards the sea into a place where contrasts of contrast and sheer beauty can be enjoyed in equal measure”.
A subsequent trip to the nearby town of Little Kloster Bog revealed the same uniqueness, the guide book says.
“You think you know Copenhagen from the pictures you see on the internet but then, as you drive through Little Kloster Bog’s magical maze of centuries-old woodlands, or slide down a chute into the incredibly crisp water of a liquid waterfall, it’s not hard to get drawn into the way these places are made and for a fleeting moment, there’s this sense of magic… that we all share,” it said.
For places that are less than an hour’s drive from Copenhagen, it recommends Øresund – a riverside settlement surrounded by towering rocky hills which was once an important crossing point for upper-Europe imports, including timber, glass and tin.
It was once heavily damaged by fire in 1994 but rebuilt with its “completed charm intact” and is perfect for a lazy Sunday on the river, the guidebook says.
All five Lonely Planet guides are now available.