Paris

Paris earns its reputation within the first hour. The city is walkable, wildly photogenic, and stitched together by one of the best metro systems in the world, so you spend your time seeing things rather than getting to them. Most first-timers base themselves near the Seine and let the river do the navigating: the Louvre and Tuileries on one side, the Latin Quarter and Luxembourg Gardens on the other, Notre-Dame and Île de la Cité in the middle. The classic sights deserve the hype. The Eiffel Tower is best at dusk when the hourly sparkle kicks in, the Louvre rewards a focused two-hour visit far more than a marathon, and the view from the top of the Arc de Triomphe beats the one from the Tower because the Tower is in it. But Paris is really a city of neighborhoods. Spend a morning wandering Le Marais for boutiques and falafel, an afternoon in Montmartre for the hilltop village feel, and an evening in the Canal Saint-Martin area where locals picnic on the water's edge. Food is not a side quest here. A good day runs on a flaky morning croissant, a long lunch, an afternoon coffee, and dinner that starts late. You do not need a starred restaurant to eat brilliantly; a neighborhood bistro, a corner boulangerie, and a market street like Rue Montorgueil will do more for your trip than any bucket-list booking. Three to four days is the sweet spot for a first visit, enough for the landmarks plus two or three neighborhoods without rushing.