Nathan Mitchell

I have the good fortune to visit Albuquerque for several weeks each year, and it is one of my all-time favorite vacation spots! Each time I visit, there are a host of new restaurants and breweries that must be evaluated, and I could eat green chile along with virtually every meal! Make sure to be ready for the traditional chili preference question: red, green or Christmas? Christmas, naturally, is a combination of both red & green chile. The best part of this quiz is that there are no wrong answers!

As a professional musician, I spent 23 summers performing in Europe, based in Austria. The country holds a special place in my heart and feels like a second home for me. In this two-week itinerary, I connect the highlights of Austria that would offer a good overview of this spectacular country.

Berlin is a wonderful and approachable destination, inclusive and accepting. It has a diverse population that brings together many different cultures, lifestyles, and foods. It's an amazing gastronomic destination as a result, showcasing fantastic food from countless cuisines. Berlin also has a vast and somewhat dark recent history—between World War II, the Cold War, and the Berlin Wall—that makes it an utterly fascinating place to visit for travelers of any age.

I’ve had the fortune to visit Munich more than a dozen times. It checks all of the boxes for me: world-class art, culture, history, the largest city park in continental Europe, beautiful architecture, and let’s not forget the Bavarian food and beer! It really has things to do, see, and eat for all ages! Prost!

Don't get me wrong—I’m not suggesting anyone skip the Mozart houses and "Sound of Music" tours, just please don't stop there. Salzburg's allure as a fairytale town with fascinating things to do and a vibrant musical history is only a very cursory introduction to the region. One of the best things about Salzburg is its convenience when used as a home base for a myriad of other incredible sights and experiences outside of the city of Salzburg itself. See my companion Salzburg guide linked below for the great things to see in the city, but here I am going to outline all the incredible things you can experience outside Salzburg on day trips, without even needing to leave your Salzburg hotel! If you rent a car, all of these are easy to get to, but there are also numerous organized tours I can recommend that will do the driving, arrange tickets, and organize everything for you. Driving affords the leisure of taking your time and visiting on your own schedule, but the scenery is so stunning that it's more enjoyable to be able to soak it in and enjoy the view rather than keeping an eye on the road and traffic.

Salzburg is a fairy tale: the charming Old Town surrounding the fortress on a hill, the birthplace of Mozart and the Sound of Music, and the jumping-off point to some of the most amazing castles and alpine sights anywhere. You can hit the highlights and see most of the major sights in a few leisurely days, but if you have time to make Salzburg a home base for a longer stretch, you’ll have a profoundly different experience.

After dozens of trips to Vienna and due to the city’s robust coffee culture, I can say with the utmost conviction that it is my favorite destination in the world to overcome jet lag. There are a few Starbucks locations scattered about, but the REAL Viennese cafés date back to the 1800s in many cases and are integral to the local culture. In addition to the affinity for caffeine, Vienna was the heartbeat of the Habsburg monarchy, capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for centuries and has been a cultural and artistic epicenter for as long. The Austrian capital’s history and lifestyle make it one of the most enjoyable cities to visit in all of Europe.

London’s Heathrow International Airport is one of the world’s largest and busiest airports, a gateway for traveling to and from Europe and around the world! I often run across flights that involve an overnight layover, which may seem daunting, but on a recent trip to Europe, I had the option of an all-too-brief connecting layover or a long 20-hour overnight stay. I chose to break my trip up, stay overnight and see how much of London I could see in half of a day. If you have more time to spend in London, there are a million things to do, but if you want to squeeze as much as possible into eight hours, here is your plan.