Denmark

The kingdom where a merchant's harbour became a royal capital of green copper spires, a Viking river town raised the world's greatest teller of fairy tales, and an industrial port on Jutland reinvented itself as a capital of art. Read Copenhagen at your own pace, from the coloured houses of Nyhavn and the palaces of Amalienborg to the spiral spire of Our Saviour and the island where parliament sits on a bishop's ruined fortress; wander the Latin Quarter of Aarhus beneath the longest church in Denmark and stand in the rainbow ring above the ARoS art museum; walk Hans Christian Andersen's Odense from his birthplace to the cathedral of a murdered king. Some of the most liveable, most tour-packaged heritage in Europe, and all of it better on your own clock, lingering on a quay or under a spire as long as you like.