(photo: farm3.staticflickr.com)

A weekend break for all you armchair travelers, is this photo essay of the “25 Secret Small Towns in Europe You Must Visit” on the World of Wanderlust website. In the photo at left is Cesky Krumlov in southern Bohemia, Czech Republic. (No McDonalds, the caption writer celebrates or warns, depending).

Other small towns on this charm tour are scattered across Europe and possibly within driving reach if your travels take you to the larger cities in France, Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, Poland, England, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Malta, or Bosnia & Herzegovina. Or Turkey. Though I’ll bet not too many tourists make it to Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland, even if they can spell (or pronounce) it. Is Greenland in Europe now?

The caption-writer for this essay ran out of synonyms for charm early on and defaulted to superlatives. “Most charming,” “so picturesque,” “most underrated.” Annency, France, below, is “arguably more charming than any other French town you will find.”

(photo: pixabay, CC)

(rkramer, flickr)

Another non-European entry and representing the U.S.A., oddly, is Leavenworth, Kansas, which does not have much a a reputation as a place for a brief visit—20 years to life is more like it.

World of Wanderlust says Leavenworth is modeled on a Bavarian village, but if what you’re after is finding the Old World in the New, you might want to visit Holland, Michigan—especially at tulip time!