Suggest me a Tourist City

What this tool does

You fancy a city break, a few days somewhere with good food, sights, and atmosphere, but you cannot settle on which city. This tool decides the starting point for you. It suggests a tourist city at random, so you have a real place to look into rather than an endless mental shortlist that never resolves.

Press the button for a city. Press it again for another. Ask for a few at once to compare a short list. It is a way to spark ideas rather than a finished plan, so once a city appeals, check the practical side, the season, the cost, and how far it is, which the sections below cover.

How to use it

1. Number / Quantity. How many cities to pull at once, from 1 to 100.
2. Generate. Pulls a fresh city, or a fresh set if you asked for several.
3. Starts with, Contains, Ends with. Optional filters that whittle the list before it picks. Leave them blank to draw from everything.
4. Copy. Sends the current cities to the clipboard as plain text for your notes.

A city is on screen as soon as the page opens, so there is always somewhere to consider.

How it works

The list is a fixed set of cities and destinations, and each press draws one at random, with no repeats inside a single set when you ask for several.

The filters let you aim. Contains keeps any entry with your text in it, so typing spain brings up Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, and more, while another country narrows it the same way. Starts with looks at the first letter and ends with at the last.

What it draws from

It pulls from a list of around two hundred destinations worldwide, overwhelmingly cities, from the great tourist capitals like Paris, London, and Rome to lesser-known gems such as Gothenburg, Salzburg, and Cuenca. There are a handful of islands and regions in there too, but the bulk are cities, which suits a city break.

If you also use the Place to Visit tool, you will spot the same list behind both, since a great city to visit is a great city to visit either way. This one is framed around choosing a city for a short trip, and the filters help when a particular country or region is already on your mind.

Why picking a city stalls you

There are so many appealing cities that comparing them properly feels impossible, so people loop through the same few names and book none of them. It is the freeze Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper captured in a 2000 study, where shoppers given two dozen jams to sample bought far less often than those given six. Plenty of good options, and we struggle to land on one.

Barry Schwartz called the broader effect the paradox of choice, where abundance leaves us less settled rather than more. A random city hands you one real place to weigh instead of the whole field. Reacting to a single destination, picturing a few days there, is far easier than holding a hundred cities in your head at once.

Choosing a city that fits the trip

City breaks reward matching the place to your mood and your dates. Think first about what you want from it, since some cities are made for history and museums, others for food, nightlife, architecture, or simply wandering, and the right pick depends on which you are after. Mind the season, because a city can be delightful in spring and stifling or crowded in peak summer, and prices swing with it. Keep the travel time sensible for a short trip, since a long-haul flight for a long weekend rarely feels worth it, and check whether you need a visa. Weigh the cost of getting there and staying, as some cities give you far more for your money than others. Use a pick to start, then test it against those, and the city break plans itself.

Questions people ask

Is it free, and does it save anything?

It is free with no sign-up, and nothing is kept. The picks run in your browser, so copy a list before you leave.

Can I get a few options at once?

Yes. Set the quantity to the number you want, up to 100, and press Generate for that many different cities in one pull.

How is this different from the Place to Visit tool?

They share the same list of destinations. This one is framed for choosing a city for a city break, while the Place to Visit tool is broad travel inspiration for anywhere in the world.

Can I narrow it to one country?

Type the country into the Contains box and the list trims to its cities, which helps when you already know roughly where you want to go.

References

1. Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper, "When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000, the study behind choice overload. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11138768/
2. Barry Schwartz, "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less", his talk on how more options can lower satisfaction. https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_the_paradox_of_choice