Paris

 
A city that lives, and loves, in between its attractions.
Spoiler alert: next week, we're going to make at least 2.3 million enemies by including Paris on our Most Hated Cities list.
The thinking (corroborated by plenty of traveler feedback) is that not even Paris can live up to an unrealistic magical reputation once you’re overpaying for lukewarm coffee, staring at too many bones in the catacombs and waiting in herd-like crowds for hours just to squint at the Mona Lisa.  

That doesn’t mean Paris isn’t still Paris -- the world’s most-visited city, logging more than 15 million annual international travelers according to the Paris Tourism Office. 

Of course, the City of Light has to be on this list too, and not just for its standing as one of the world’s great troves of art, architecture, food and fashion, but for the real place that tends to leave veteran travelers here more enchanted than newbies rushing around to every must-see. 

In Paris, "most first-timers follow a fairly similar pattern," says Paris Notes, offering several tips on how to handle the inevitable checklist in this city, before recommending one thing not on it. "Set a lot of time for doing nothing more than walking. Walking you will learn more about the city, and get a better feel for what it is about, than any other thing you do." 

The Louvre. The Eiffel Tower. The Arc de Triomphe. Notre-Dame Cathedral. There’s no easy way around these. But the thing a lot of people love most about Paris is what happens in between all of that.