I'm curious.
How many people have returned to the same city (EDIT) 3 OR MORE times? And if you added it all up what's the total nights so far?
I mean to see the city, not just to change planes or its where the plane landed so you spent the night out of convenience. And let's exclude after receiving residency permits and work assignments .. just for tourism.
I am going to guess Paris leads, then maybe Rome and London.
I don't often go back so my list is short
Kyiv 6 times 24 N
Odesa 4 times 28 N
Paris 3 times 18 N
Rome 3 times 18 N
Budva 3 times 10 N
Perast 3 times 6 N
London 3 times 12 N
Vienna 3 times 7 N
Okay, I'm surprised, didn't think the list would be that long.
I don't know the number of nights, but you're right about the leaders: London 7x, Paris 4x, Rome and Florence 4x, Amsterdam 2 x, Athens 2x.
I sort of guessed at the nights myself.
You guessed my number one-Paris. Three times for a week (21 days total) each time over 20 years. Second is Rome for three visits totaling 14 days. Third was Barcelona-4 times for 13 days. I’ve been to your city, Budapest, two times for 7 days total and would happily go back for the baths, food, people and ambiance of different sections of the city. Central and Eastern Europe have become our go-to for European travel.
There are gonna be some very long lists here Mr. E, especially if you go on cruises. How about some people just list by country. I started writing them down then gave up, too much typing. I’ll just read other posters’ lists.
Barbara, you see right, but there is a difference between seeing Italy and returning to Rome 4 times. But maybe we change it to 3 or more times.
You’re right on the leaders!
Rome 3x at 15 nights
Paris 3x at 13 nights
I’d love to return to both and plan on it.
Not a city, but the Berner Oberland leads my list. I try not to repeat cities too often unless it is an arrival or departure city like Paris or Madrid.
I'm not well-travelled enough to have been anywhere outside of North America 3 times yet. But we've targeted London and Nice as potential multi-night, multi-visit destinations. Rome and Paris will likely get on the list by default because we can fly direct to them.
Our cities are quite different than most I'm sure:
Leipzig 4 times - 22 days
Ghent - 4 times 16 days
These cities just feel good to us. They are also cities that are great for day tripping.
Hmmmm. 3 times?
Budapest: 22 nights
Edinburgh: 11 nights
Prague: 9 nights
Vienna: 8 nights
Paris-- Been there 5 times for I think a total of about 34 nights.
Reykjavik--Been there 4 times so far with a total of 15 nights.
London--Been there 3 times for a total of 9 nights.
Bayeaux--Been there 3 times for a total of 6 nights.
This is why I look at All Topics on the Forum…
EDIT: Heavily edited b/c I didn’t notice the pleasure travel only.
Cities 3x or more, nights total:
Paris 80
London 70
Vienna 50
Amsterdam 35
Berlin 35
Rome 35
Milan 35
Quedlinburg 35
Munich 30
Florence 25
Aix en Provence 25
Überlingen 25
Bern 25
Freiburg 25
Venice 20
Prague 15
Edinburgh 10
Bayeux 10
Lauterbrunnen 10
Trips to Europe: 30+
600+ days with some towns/cities for multiple nights but just one visit.
Many repeat cities and towns.
Zagreb 10
Dubrovnik 8
Split 5
Budapest 10
Paris; 8 visits; 100 nights
London; 7 visits; 50 nights
Oslo: 4 visits; 20 nights
Rome: 3 visits; 26 nights
Florence: 2 visits; 20 nights
Rome, 2 times, 14 days
Florence, 2 times, 8 days
Venice, 6 times, 14 days
Paris, 7 times, 20 days
London, 4 times, 10 days
Barcelona, 4 times 12 days
Lisbon, 2 times, 9 days
Athens, 4 times, 11 days
Copenhagen, 3 times, 10 days
Sydney, 3 times, 16 days
Santiago, Chile, 3 times, 9 days
Lima, Peru, 3 times, 7 days
Cairo, Egypt, 3 times, 11 days
Jerusalem, 1 time, 4 days (going back in 2024)
Hong Kong, 3 times, 11 days
Amsterdam, 2 times, 12 days
Tokyo, 1 time, 8 days
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Odessa, Riga, Vilnus and Tallin, 1 time
Prague, 2 times 5 days
Warsaw, Kraków and Gdanzk 1 time
Can't list all it too much.
Some places, you want to return to, but others not so much. Also, for some places it is just not worth going, for example Beijing, China was great, but we did that well in several days and no desire to return.
Rome and London, yes, we will return.
I've been to several European cities twice but have never been to any of them more than that. I have a very limited travel budget and I like to spread my meager wealth around. So, no bragging rights here.
Hmmm. For me, my two biggest that I have been to four times or more would be Budapest and London, followed by maybe Rome. (not counting visiting in-laws in Turin to adhere to the spirit of your question).
Edit to add: I guess I also have Madrid and certainly Vienna on this list, and am close to having Glasgow.
Budapest - aside from the couple of times I have lived there, I have probably visited five (?) additional times. With stays of probably anywhere from three nights to a week. First post-living-there visit would have been in 1999, I think. (First time living there or elsewhere in Hungary and spending weekends there was 1993.) But it's been quite a while since I was there. Last time we tried to go, our flight out of Paris got snowed out. And more recently I am really uncomfortable with putting any money in Viktor Orban's government's coffers with my hard-earned euros. So I don't know when I might go next.
London - have been there many times, probably usually an average of four nights a visit. Sometimes fewer, and a few times, more. First visited for my 21st birthday but then many years passed before I went again,maybe 12 or 13 ? But haven't been back since the pandemic even though it is so close -- the UK and France stayed closed to each other during Covid much longer than they stayed closed to other places; and then there have just been too many rail strikes in both countries for me to feel like messing with it. I miss it a lot though.
Rome - first went there as part of my whirlwind backpacking trip after finishing up teaching in Hungary in the summer of 1994. Have been back at least three times that I can think of -usually just for two or three or four days. Last time I was there was a long weekend for my birthday in January 2022.
On my next visit to Glasgow, I will be on my fourth time there, so will finally meet your metric of returning somewhere three times (plus the initial visit makes four). Love that place !! And am mad I haven't been there four times already.
And to think of it, I may have four visits to Madrid outside of the couple of months' work assignment I had there 20 years ago. I also had a friend who married a guy there, so I went back a few times. They are now divorced and she lives in Copenhagen now, so I guess the only reason I would go back now is if for some reason I took my niece there.
And it occurs to me that I have surely visited Vienna for more than four times, so I guess that is the last one on my list. Again, just two to three nights each time; maybe I stayed once for four nights but I wouldn't bet on it.
Returning, you are correct, big difference. There are many places we visited once, won’t bother to go again. But revisited, are a few
Vienna - 4x 15 nights
Prague - 2x 6 nights
Budapest - 2x 6 nights
Amsterdam - 2x 16 nights
I would return to some cities we visited, like Madrid, but there are too many places we haven’t been to yet to plan return visits. I know I want to return to Paris and see more of France.
Does going to visit family count? Probably shouldn’t cause we’ve always discussed that when hubby goes I doubt I would visit without him. Anyway, Zagreb, split, Korčula, Dubrovnik, Rijeka - about a dozen times too many nights to even remember.
EDITED: I see your post was edited to 3 or more times. Cuts my list down to just Croatia.
London over 10x (probably 70+ days), but just since 2017: 4x, 41 days
Barcelona 4x: about 21 days
Rome 3x: about 28 days
Venice 3x or 4x: about 14 days (and will return in 2024)
I'm big on going to new places rather than revisiting old haunts. London's the only place I've been to three times since 1996. This is partly a function of the Schengen 90-day limit.
Thinking about where I have stayed 3 or more times that doesn’t include visiting family in Germany narrows it down to only 2 cities for me.
Paris - 7 times for a total of 53 nights
London - 3 times for a total of 24 nights
I’ve had multiple places that I have visited 2 times, but according to your question they don’t count.
Antalya (Turkey) - 4x, 37 nights
Venice - 3x, 30 nights
Istanbul - 3x, 11 nights
Over the course of 25 trips since 1971, the top two contenders are Berlin and Paris : Berlin 24 times, Paris 22 times...."just tourism."
How many nights total in each? I would have go through all my note and calendar books to arrive at some sort of accurate count.
Re: Consecutive nights Berlin leads with 14 nights staying in a Pension.
It’s Paris for me! Between my very first “European Vacation” style family trip in 1975 (yes, my dad drove us around the Arc de Triomphe) and my recent 10 night stay in 2022, I’ve been 11 times. I do not tire of Paris and feel that I know the city, but still have so much more to discover. Over 60 nights is my guess?
Following Paris is Amsterdam with at least 7 times, London with 6 and bringing up the rear with just 3 visits each - Lyon and Copenhagen. I lived in Germany for 3 years, so I’m just leaving out all points in Germany for this exercise (although Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Nuremberg would be the repeat leaders there).
Treis-Karden 4 for 8 nights
Venice 3 for 9
Binz 4 for 24
Haarlem 4 for 9
Celle 4 for 8
Hannover 4 for 8
😁
Okay...this took some research. Fun topics.
Geneva - 12 trips - at least 74 nights
Brienz, Canton Bern - 8 trips - 31 nights
Gersau, Switzerland - 3 trips - 13 nights
Raunheim, Germany - at least 3 trips - at least 21 nights
Munich - 5 trips - 30 nights
Compiling this list sure shows what a very fortunate beautiful life I have lived.
Happy Travels!
Traveler Girl
Why?
Why does anyone keep coming back to the same cities? Countries as a repeat I can see, but why the cities? Unless it is your fly in destination to access the country.
There is a whole world out there beyond Europe.
It is not a question of being on a cruise and thinking, been there, done that, with one day in port. But cumulative visits on the order of weeks?
We've done plenty of places two times, but Liverpool is the only place three times:
2000 - 4 nights
2007 - 1 night
2013 - 3 nights
We are heading back next year (at least that's the plan), for probably 6-9 nights.
Cities I’ve stayed three times or more:
Paris - 6X
Venice - 5X
Rome - 4X
Stresa, Italy - 3X
Verona - 3X
Vienna - 3X
” Why does anyone keep coming back to the same cities? ”
Been to Berlin several times for a total of 54 nights.
Looks like Paris, Rome and London top the list. Not too surprising.
Why the exercise? Well, going someplace once is exploring. Going someplace twice could mean a lot of things. Ive been to Athens, Prague twice and I dont much care for either.
But I think 3 times means that something is happening. Just curious what cities have gotten under the skin of people.
I think another interesting exercise (but I wont do it) is what other places have the London, Paris, Rome people been that they compare to when choosing to return to London or Paris or Rome? If they are well traveled, it says one thing. If they have never been out of the UK, France or Italy; then maybe it means somehting else.
Reminds me of a friend a few years back who had never been to Europe. He wanted to make a trip and asked for help. He wanted nature and the great outdoors so I helped him put together a trip the Balkans. But then I suggested he end the trip in one of the larger European capital citeis. He fought me. If he were to go to a city, it wouldnt be where I suggested, it would be London or Paris or Rome. Cities werent his thing but those 3 are somehow iconic of European travel. He did relent and spent four nights where I suggested. 9 months later he bought a flat in that city.
I'll add Liverpool and 9 times for about 36 nights over the last ten years or so. I've got friends there that i've met while traveling and over social media. To be honest, one of the reasons I've been so often is that while I quite like the city, it is also affordable if you avoid events and football. It's also a nice base for the Northwest of England and North Wales.
I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet for years as we often ask ourselves where we were for how long and when.
Our number 1 and 2 locations by stays and nights are
Bigger cities come in far behind in numbers of nights
- London - 8 stays/45 nights
- Venice - 11 stays/43 nights
- Paris - 8 stays/33 nights (not counting a business trip years ago and a one-night stay last week)
I am not including Rome as we lived there but we did have 14 nights over two trips as tourists before relocating.
We’ve been to Milan a lot — 14 times including several business trips for me — but usually just a couple of nights between other places.
I keep discovering cities where I think, "this is a place I would want to come back to several times." And then I visit a new city, and it grabs me.
This minute, Sofia seems very inviting! Prices. Ease of metro to the airport. Next year, the Euro. Maybe.
Maybe eventually I'll "settle down" somewhere. For now, I like knowing there are so many cities that I can return to with familiarity. Like this fall when I head back to Budapest.
Buda-what? Is that a country? https://youtu.be/r8pnec4Hxps
I like Sofia too. A very under rated city and one thats brouggt me back a few times.
"Hun-gry, that's a country??"
Oh dear. Thank heavens for 5th graders, trying so hard to be polite.
I will be there all Fall, so stop by and say hello.
I left Budapest off my list above because I needed time to add it up. I choked, so will keep it to myself. I have had a blessed life.
From St. Petersburg to Jerusalem, it's easier to list the major cities I've not been to numerous times:
Lisbon
i think I've been to Italy 10 times. It all comes with age as I first spent the summer at Innsbruck in 1970.
I cannot remember what I did yesterday, but I remember the streets of most major European cities, what to do and where to eat.
Edit: I'm sitting in London tonight and will be flying tomorrow (5/25) to Rome. We'll be visiting Athens and 8 other stops on a cruise ship. We've been to many of the Greek islands but will add Sicily to our list. It's tough traveling with a wife coming off back surgery that has to use a personal power scooter to walk any long distances. But we're adapting.
Never been to the same place in Europe 3X. This fall I will make my first 3X visit by going to London. But, I’m inspired by some of these very long lists and now I’m going to keep track so hopefully in 20 years when I am still on this forum, and someone asks this question, my list might look like some of ya’lls!
Mona, Laurel, geovagriffith WOW!
Edited: I have spent a total of about 18 nights in Paris on 2 visits.
Budapest-6 visits, 30 days
London-4 visits, 22 days
Vienna-3 visits, 11 days
Tallinn-2 visits, 10 days
At least 3 visits. I'm hazy on the first three since I visited multiple times decades ago - long before I went digital and can make an accurate count.
London 30+ nights
Paris 70+
Amsterdam ~10
Venice 14
Florence 12
Rome 17
Budapest 23
Vienna 8
Cordoba 7
Sevilla 11
Barcelona 18
I like Mona's list! It's a good rabbit out there and most of us have some chasing to do 🙂
I've probably been to Amsterdam 15 times for three nights. In and out of that place so many times back when I was a kid traveling.
And there's a really long list of places I've been at least three times, so we'll stick to just a couple of them more interesting or fun ones.
Tannheim in the Austrian Alps not far from Fussen.
Copenhagen.
Vienna.
The Berner Onerland.
The Salzkammergut.
Colmar.
Working through this exercise, I also realized that because some pretty good portion of my European travel is touring on a bicycle, I have a ton of one night stays. In those cases the journey itself is more of the event then the places visited along the way. But there are rides that I've done more than once. Most of the stretch of the Danube from Passau to Vienna three times for instance.
Paris - 4 Trips - 28 Days - And plan to add many more days, weeks & months to that number :)
Great topic and so fun to read all the repeat cities.
The only foreign city I've been to 3 or more times is London. In total, I've been there 4 times for a total of I think 34 days. I know my first trip was 12 days, third was 8, and my most recent was only 4. I think my second trip was around 10 days - I can't remember when I came back, just the day I left, and I also went to Sweden to visit a friend for three nights. I could figure it out if I went and pulled out my travel diary from that trip so maybe I'll update this, LOL.
Either way it wasn't long enough, I love London and would go back in a heartbeat.
The only other foreign cities I've been to more than once are Paris (10 total nights) and Stockholm (roughly 20 nights, on my second trip I was overseas a total of 22 nights but went to my friend's father's house out in the country and also did a few days in western Sweden and a couple overnights to Copenhagen and to Helsinki).
Apart from the obvious , Paris and Berlin, as stated above, numerous cities make the more than 3x list over the years, either as day
trips or spending 2 to 14 nights each visit, such as London, Arras, Bayeux, Amiens, Metz, Salzburg, Linz, Weimar, Lübeck,
Hamburg, Kiel, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Münster/Westf., Potsdam, Marburg an der Lahn, Eutin/Holstein, Dresden, Munich, Frankfurt
an der Oder, Fontainebleau, Vienna, and so on, all part of visiting, exploring, and revisiting.
Why?
What is it that has you returning to the same places over and over?
I wandered into Budapest in 2003 almost without a plan, loved every moment of it and just kept getting called back. maybe 40 trips and 6 or 7 hundred days later over 20 years I continue returning...... Not that I havent seen anything else but I discovered that it takes quite a few trips to be in a posistion to give any meaningful or accurate advice. But my list includes (the bold ones being two or more times AND THE ALL CAPS THREE OR MORE TIMES):
The Americas
1. Bahamas 2. Belize 3. Canada 4. Cayman 5. HONDURAS 6. MEXICO 7. St Kits & Nevis
Oceania
1. Australia
Asia
1. Israel 2. TURKEY
Europe - EU
1. AUSTRIA 2. Bulgaria 3. Croatia 4. Czech Republic 5. FRANCE 6. Germany 7. Greece 8. HUNGARY 9. ITALY 10. Romania 11. Slovakia.
Europe - Non EU
1. Albania 2. Bosnia & Herzegovina 3. ENGLAND 4. Iceland 5. Kosovo 6. MONTENEGRO
7. Russia (may G-d forgive me) 8. Scotland 9. Serbia 10. TURKEY (again) 11. UKRAINE
Africa
1. Egypt 2. South Africa
Will be adding Malta and another trip to Ukraine to my list in a few weeks.
I spent a couple of weeks in and around Budapest in 1988, I imagine it to be a bit different now.
Yup, the Budapest I discovered in 2003 is disapearing quickly. Cant imagine from 1988.
