Sleep behind ancient stone walls, wake up in an elegant four-poster bed and explore a private estate. We can introduce you to the best castles to rent. From five-star luxury to budget-friendly rustic experiences, each one has its own fascinating history.

● Schlosshotel Klink

Germany

€96 per room, per night (room only)

Hotel Schloss Klink stands directly beside Lake Müritz, a 5-minute walk from the boat harbor. Built in 1898, many of the elegant rooms feature wooden beams and sloping ceilings. There are five on-site restaurants, a large spa and an indoor pool with lake views.

● Castello di Bibbione

Italy

€99 per room, per night (room only)

Castello di Bibbione is set between Florence and Siena with views of the Chianti hills. The rustic apartments feature wood-beamed ceilings and terracotta floors, and each comes with a fully-equipped kitchenette with a dining area. In the summer, you can relax in the outdoor swimming pool or garden. Wine tastings can be arranged, and bikes are provided free-of-charge.

● Augill Castle

England

￡180 per room, per night (bed & breakfast)

Free cancellations

Augill Castle is located in the upper reaches of the Eden Valley and is a mere 10 minutes’ drive away from the beautifully picturesque Yorkshire Dales. This is very much a family retreat and, as such, the castle owners can offer an informal and relaxed castle experience, creating memories that adults and children alike will never forget.

● Highlands Castle

USA

$600 per room, per night (room only)

Highlands Castle is located in Bolton Landing in upstate New York, offering views of Lake George and the Adirondack Mountains. Accommodation includes a seating area and, in some cases, a dining area, terrace and kitchen. Guests can enjoy swimming, boating, kayaking, hiking, golf, tennis, horse-riding and diving.

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One sunny morning, my wife and I piled the kids into the car with a hope that my memory was reliable. We went out looking for my trees.

About 25 years ago, I started working as a tree planter in Northern Ontario. I would have planted several thousand a day, every day, for weeks and weeks. I worked every summer for six years, which added up to over 500,000 trees. While we were planting, we talked about what our trees would be like when they grew taller. The small trees were no longer than my thumb. It seemed unlikely that our trees would last more than a day or two.

Eventually, I stopped the car and stared at the clear blue sky and treetops softly waving. I walked toward them.

They were so tall and solid, much bigger than I thought they would be. There were so many of them, waving soundlessly in the wind like they were welcoming me. Row upon row of fully grown, healthy pines left me speechless. They spoke of that time of my life, in 1995, when I was strong and young in my mid-20s.

I walked among them, listening to the sound of the wind in their high branches. Humbled and moved, I never had such a strong sense of my impact on the world.

I felt a quiet presence and at home among my trees, as if they had been waiting for me. What was unclear and unlikely had grown specific and very real. What I had held in my hands had grown into a towering forest surrounding me.

My kids ran to join me.

“You planted all these?” asked my 10-year-old son, Forest.

“I planted more than this every day. And this is where your name comes from,” I told him.

Together, with my 6-year-old son River, we walked deeper into the woods and spotted a clearing. We emerged suddenly into the open space and I felt even more at home than in the forest I’d planted. It was more familiar, this open space where I had once spent thousands and thousands of hours.

If you were to rate the most walkable cities in the world, what would you look for? Would it be how shaded the sidewalks are? How many benches there are along the way to your destination? Or maybe how close you are to shops or local attractions?

Well, the researchers at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), located in New York. US, wanted to know which of the world’s cities were the best for pedestrians (行人). So, they did just that.

To determine which cities were the most walkable, they rated cities based on factors such as how close citizens were to car-free areas like public parks, how close citizens lived in relation to schools and hospitals, and how short their journeys were overall.

According to the study, they found that the most walkable cities in the world are London, Paris, Bogota and Hong Kong. Overall, London was at the top of the list, outranking (超过) nearly 1, 000 cities around the world on these key factors.

“In order to provide safety and inviting walking conditions for all city residents, it is essential to shift the balance of space in our cities away from cars, providing more travel options for people,” CEO of ITDP Heather Thompson told the magazine Cities Today. She continued, “We have so much to gain-from cleaner air to better health to stronger local economies and deeper bonds within communities, and we all need that now more than ever. ”

Unfortunately, it seems that very few cities make pedestrians a priority, though.

“Our city streets across the planet are already full of cars. If you really want to see the worst for walkability, it is the really sprawling (杂乱无序伸展的) cities of the US, ” commented Taylor Reich, a research associate at ITDP and the primary author of the guide to making cities more walkable.

So, what can cities do to make their streets friendlier for pedestrians?

“There’s no one secret sauce; there’s no one thing you can do to make a city walkable, ” Reich said. “It’s many decisions that are made at all levels from individual streets all the way up to the city design.”