Forget Venice and Amsterdam: Europe’s best alternative canal cities

Venice introduced an entry fee for daytrippers on peak days in 2024, with current rates €5-€10 but calls to up that to €50.

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

If you want to avoid contributing to overtourism and have a better traveller experience, consider visiting some of Europe’s lesser-trod but equally picturesque canal cities.

Admire industrial beauty in Hamburg

Despite boasting more canals than both Amsterdam and Venice, Hamburg perhaps isn’t the first city you’d place on a romantic European canal trail map.

But as Europe’s third-largest port after Rotterdam and Antwerp, this is a city where its waterways have always had much more pragmatic uses.

There’s 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.

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.

Take a stroll along Stockholm’s waterways

Situated on an archipelago of fourteen islands, Sweden’s capital is full of intersecting canals and rivers crisscrossed by a tapestry of more than 50 bridges. In fact, the original name for Stockholm’s historic Old Town was ‘The Town between the Bridges’ – Staden Mellan Broarna.

Despite being located in the city centre, the Djurgårdsbrunnskanalen Canal is one of the quietest and most picturesque waterways.

Stretching 5km between attraction-heavy Djurgården and the mainland, its meandering tree-lined path is one of Stockholm’s most popular walking routes.

Drink at canal-side bars in Birmingham

Birmingham in the UK also famously has more kilometres of canal than Venice – and they have undergone a significant glow up since their industrial heyday.

With more than 160km of canals still navigable, the buzzing bars and cafes at Gas Street Basin show off the city’s 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.

Take a boat tour in Copenhagen

With the 17th-century waterfront district of Nyhavn at its heart, Copenhagen is one of Europe’s most charming cities to take a canal cruise.

Famed for its brightly coloured townhouses and old wooden ships, Nyhavn’s a superb location to stroll on a summer afternoon or take a boat tour.

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.

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.

St. Petersburg has 300km of canals

Built across the marshlands of the Neva River delta, St. Petersburg is crossed by around 100 tributaries and canals totalling 300 kilometres and more than 800 bridges.

At only 228 metres long, the Winter Canal is one of the shortest in the city, but its granite embankment and elegant bridges make it one of the most picturesque spots.

St. Petersburg is the world’s northernmost city with one million or more residents, so unless you love the cold, save your wanderings around its waterways for spring and summer.