Basel

Basel is the pick for a summer weekend in the water. On hot afternoons locals float down the Rhine through the middle of town, clothes stuffed into waterproof swim bags, and four small ferries with no engines, pushed across by the river's current alone, link the two banks. On a rainy day the Kunstmuseum Basel holds one of the strongest public art collections of any city this size, from medieval altarpieces to modern masters. Switzerland is expensive, but the river, the ferries' views and the riverside steps where everyone gathers at sunset cost little or nothing.