Where alternative travelers go
Go somewhere gorgeous
and a little wrong.
A guide to the deliciously morbid and unexpected corners of Europe. Ossuaries, oddity museums, overgrown cemeteries, candlelit cellars. Every city sorted four ways: where to stay, where to eat, what to see, and what to point a camera at.
9 cities. 128 spots. None of them in a normal guidebook.
The Destinations
Pick your poison.
The obvious gothic capitals, plus the smaller, stranger cities most guides skip. More get added when we find them.
Paris
Six million dead under the prettiest city on earth.
Prague
Alchemists, golems, and a church decorated with 40,000 people.
Brno
Mummified monks, a nuclear bunker you can sleep in, and the second biggest pile of bones in Europe.
Vienna
The city that buried its emperors in silver and never stopped wearing black.
London
Plague pits, Victorian surgery, and a cemetery with a waiting list.
Berlin
Wet specimens, abandoned spy stations, and a brothel you can sleep in.
Kraków
A cathedral carved out of salt, and bars that never seem to close.
Tallinn
A medieval Dance of Death and taverns lit by nothing but candles.
Köln
A golden room walled in human bone, under the biggest gothic cathedral in Germany.
How this works
B&Bs, haunted old hotels, Victorian piles. Small and full of ghosts, never a hostel.
Candlelit cellars, dark bars, rooms that have seen things.
Ossuaries, anatomy museums, cabinets of curiosities, the properly strange.
The shots worth carrying a camera for, and how not to be a ghoul about it.
Every spot carries an honest read: solo-friendly, quiet, adults only, and a warning when somewhere skews touristy, kid-heavy or full of hen parties. We'd rather tell you.