This article is part of Traveller’s Holiday Guide to bucket-list places to eat. See all stories . On a holiday, the cafe is everyone’s favourite postcard-scribbling spot: a space to relax, gather thoughts, remember loved ones; cafes in every country offer a completely different experience.
In Italy, cafes are all about energy and urban hustle – a quick shot, a brief exchange of news and gossip, and off to work or play we go. Budapest’s Cafe New York claims to be the world’s most beautiful cafe – and it’s difficult to mount a counter-argument. Credit: Getty Images In Turkey, cafes are social, there to slow life down, with soft, wide seats and perhaps a hookah pipe to puff.
In Paris – and those many cities that emulate it, from Buenos Aires to Tangier to Taiwan – the cafe is a way of life: it’s where to be alone, where to flirt, where to confess, confer, create. My favourite cafes are almost as dear to me as the places where I’ve lived. When I go back to certain cities, especially in my favourite continent, South America, I head for those cafes – to toast my happy return and touch base.
A visit to a cafe, especially the grandest ones, can be as important a pilgrimage site as a cathedral, a museum, an ancient ruin or a modern architectural marvel. But cafes also offer that human, social quality, like pubs (even if the booze is optional). Here, then, is my selection of the world’s most beautiful cafes, along with choices by travel writers who live in man.