#1. Geneva
Like the swans that frolic on its eponymous Alpine lake (Europe's largest), Geneva (Genève) is a rare bird. Slick, cosmopolitan and constantly perceived as the Swiss capital (it isn't), the people of Switzerland's second-largest city chatter in almost every language among streets paved by gold.
The headquarters of the World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, International Committee of the Red Cross, the second-largest branches of the United Nations and World Bank (among some 200-odd international organisations, including not-for-profits) are here, along with the overload of luxury hotels, boutiques, jewellers, restaurants and chocolatiers accompanying them.
Beneath this flawless exterior, lies a fascinating rough-cut diamond, peopled by artists and activists educated in international schools, drifters and denizens. Geneva's counter-culture dwells in Les Grottes, the Quartier des Pâquis and along the post-industrial Rhône where neighbourhood bars hum with attitude and energy.