Colorful cities exist around the world. When you’re traveling to new places, it’s the sites, scenes, people, food and cultural experiences that create your memories along your journey.
In every corner of the world, there are stunning, architecturally alluring skylines and mountainside villages that undoubtedly catch the wandering traveler’s eye. And, when combined with an added pop of color, multi-colored cities around the world are drawing in adventurers of all types.
The enticing nature of such places is that the approach is not one-size fits all. These vibrant destinations all offer something unique and share their own reasons for why they exist as they do. With hues as numerous as an artist’s paints and architecture that elicits the sentiments of the city it is in, we take a trip around the world to explore colorful places to see their history takes shape, with support from their color stories.
Our first stop brings us to Europe. Almost as numerous as the colors on the buildings’ facades, Wroclaw, Poland has a deep history of combining almost all religions and cultures of Europe. As the largest city in Poland, Wroclaw boasts a picturesque medieval market square with colorful townhouses and restaurants. With more than 100 bridges over the River Odra connecting the islands, many buildings date back to the 16th century. Boasting a deep history with a war-filled past, the colors elicit a hopeful feeling and help to paint a positive picture for a brighter future.
If you move west across the continent, you’ll land upon another vibrant wonder. Just 40 minutes away from Venice, Italy by boat, the island of Burano is an old fishing village known for its colors and lace work. After the houses were rebuilt with bricks, the residents started to paint them bold colors, which makes for a quaint and alluring waterside town with winding canals. Perhaps the city is so strikingly beautiful because there’s a process in place for residents to paint their home. As a resident in Burano, you must first send a government request to repaint your home, and they will advise the color you can paint depending on the scheme of your neighbors’ homes. Rich hues of lively fuschia, stunning turquoise, tangerine oranges and more make the quaint town come alive with energy. Its beautiful and brightly colored homes promote Burano’s largest industry, which is indeed tourism!
Not too far south and a little to the west, you can find yourself walking along cobblestone streets and narrow passageways that match the sky’s blue hue in the city of Chefchaouen, Morocco. Perhaps better known as the “Blue City,” the varying shades of cyan, turquoise, sky blue and more create a peaceful and stunning sight. While the reason for the blue walls isn’t definitively known, some believe it is to combat mosquitoes, while others say that the Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition painted the walls blue to remind them of heaven and the sky.
In quite a dramatic shift from Morocco’s Blue City, pretty pastels paint the town of Nyhavn in Copenhagen, Denmark in traditional fashion. As the most famously colored town, Nyhavn can be seen on most postcards from Copenhagen, but it doesn’t stand alone as the only color-filled city in the country. The harbor is lined with 17th and 18th century townhomes that boast restaurants, cafes and bars for busy tourists looking to stop in for a quick respite or long stay.
It’ll take a flight across the world to get to you to your next colorful destination. Narrow streets and tall, colorful buildings give Habana Vieja (Old Havana, Cuba) its postcard-like scenery. A mixture of brick and cobblestone paths line the city, and the liveliness of the city is felt through its bars, cafes and music filling the streets. Capturing the city’s history and unique feel is easy with its old automobiles lining the roads against pretty and colorful backdrops of art deco buildings.
As we move into California, nested along Nobb-Hill in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco sits a row of colorful houses known as the “Painted Ladies.” Whether or not you’ve seen them in the opening sequence of the hit TV show Full House, they are worth visiting in person to soak in the glorious view of Downtown and classic Victorian style of architecture.
Like San Francisco, Japan has a high centralized population with a one-of-a-kind culture. If you take a trip to Shinjuku, in Japan’s bustling city of Tokyo, you’ll witness how she juxtaposes with her peaceful population to provide an enticing experience for all who stop in. The neon lights and bright facades on skyscrapers faintly compare to New York Times Square, but the urban center boasts an even more dramatically busy thoroughfare and colorful scenery. The city’s neon center is even beautiful when it rains as it lights up and reflects against the wet ground.
There are numerous reasons why cities transform into a mixture of colors, and sometimes it’s an intentional strategy to create uplifting spaces in downtrodden neighborhoods. For example, in Pachuca, Mexico, a community project called the German Crew spent 14 months painting the hillside homes of Las Palmitas into a colorful array of what would have otherwise remained as lackluster dwellings. In an effort to brighten up the low-income, gritty housing, the muralists totally reinvented the city’s demeanor and enlivened the community while offering an inviting sight for travelers.
Colorful Cities Create Culture
While the colors of buildings may or may not be what initially draws you in to exploring a new destination, colorful cities are sure to leave a memorable impression in your mind and make for eye-catching photography.
There’s no doubt that such locations help to create enriching and exciting experiences. These beautifully colored seaside communities, mountainside villages and urban centers both inform and create atmospheres and cultural experiences for their native population and those who wish to explore surrounded by color.
Such emboldened sights draw in tourists from all corners of the world to power such cities with a culture of their own.