August is peak summer, and that means knowing where to go. The smartest August destinations are those that genuinely thrive in the heat, cities whose warmth is an asset rather than an inconvenience, where the long evenings are made for terraces and al fresco dining, and where the crowds, while present, are part of the spectacle rather than something to escape. Here are five cities that we recommend for August:

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen in August is the Scandinavian summer at its most enjoyable: warm but not oppressive, the city's canals and harbour swimming areas full of locals, and the long daylight hours giving an extraordinary amount of time for exploration. Tivoli Gardens is fully operational, the Nyhavn waterfront is lined with outdoor tables, the city's food scene, consistently regarded as one of the finest in Europe, is at full capacity, and the cycling culture that defines daily life is particularly appealing in the summer months. Copenhagen is one of the most liveable cities in the world, and August really highlights this.

• Hotel d'Angleterre has stood on Kongens Nytorv, the city's grandest square, since the 18th century and remains the definitive luxury hotel address in Copenhagen. The 89 rooms and suites are immaculately maintained in a grand style without feeling stuffy. Denmark's only indoor hotel swimming pool is in the basement, and the Balthazar champagne bar serves over 200 different bottles. The hotel's position on Kongens Nytorv puts you within walking distance of Nyhavn, the Royal Theatre, and the city's best shopping streets. 
• A more contemporary place to stay is Villa Copenhagen housed in a beautifully restored early-20th-century post office building near the central station. The high ceilings, original architectural details, and period ironwork of the former sorting hall have been transformed into one of the city's most striking hotel interiors, and the rooftop pool overlooking the city is exceptional. The 390 rooms manage to feel both spacious and well-designed, which is a considerable achievement.
• Park Lane Copenhagen is a smaller, more intimate hotel in the Frederiksberg neighbourhood, with a garden that is one of its great assets in August. The rooms are elegantly furnished, the service is personal, and the neighbourhood (just west of the main Vesterbro area) gives a more residential experience of Copenhagen than the main tourist quarter.
• Hotel Skt Annae occupies a row of 17th-century baroque townhouses between Nyhavn and the Amalienborg Palace, in one of the most historically significant parts of the old city. The 145 rooms were designed by the acclaimed Copenhagen firm SPACE Copenhagen, with an aesthetic inspired by the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi; think sober, refined, and very much of this place. The rooftop terrace is a strong asset in summer, and the location between the canal and the palace is hard to beat.

Montreal, Canada

Montreal in August is the city at its most lively and celebratory. The festival season, which includes the Jazz Festival, Just for Laughs, and a string of neighbourhood street festivals, runs through the summer, and the warm evenings bring the city's terrace culture (which is more French than it is Canadian) into full swing. The food in Montreal is exceptional: the city's blend of French culinary tradition, Jewish deli heritage, Italian neighbourhood cooking, and a newer wave of international restaurants makes it one of North America's most serious dining destinations. The Old City, Plateau-Mont-Royal, the Mile End, and the Latin Quarter all offer distinct and equally rewarding versions of what Montreal is.

• Hotel Epik occupies a building that dates back to 1723 on cobblestoned Rue St-Paul in Old Montreal, surrounded by museums, galleries, and some of the city's best restaurants. The rooms are intimate and well-appointed, with exposed brick walls and wooden floors that suit the building's age. The staff's knowledge of the neighbourhood is one of the hotel's genuine assets.
• Hotel St Paul is a more architecturally ambitious property in Old Montreal, an early 20th-century Beaux-Arts building that has been transformed into a design hotel of considerable sophistication. The rooms combine original architectural grandeur (think high ceilings, marble, substantial proportions) with contemporary furnishings, and the lobby, with its alabaster fireplace and minimal aesthetic, is one of the most striking in the city.
• Auberge du Vieux Port is Old Montreal's most characterful hotel, occupying an 1882-built property on the waterfront with timbered ceilings, pine floors, and stone-and-brick walls that carry genuine historical weight. The 45 rooms are individually appointed, the rooftop terrace with its views over the St Lawrence River is one of the best spots in the city in August, and the staff's warmth is repeatedly noted by guests. The Tap Room restaurant on the ground floor draws a neighbourhood crowd as much as hotel guests.
• Hotel William Gray is a larger, more contemporary hotel in Old Montreal that connects two historic buildings with a striking modern design. The rooftop terrace pool is one of the most desirable spots in the city in summer, and the hotel's restaurant, Maggie Oakes, is among the better steak restaurants.

Istanbul, Turkey

The city's position straddling Europe and Asia, its 2,000-year history as a capital of successive empires, and the sheer density of extraordinary things to see (Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar, the Bosphorus) make it one of the great cities of the world to visit at any time of year. In August, Istanbul is at its most alive, with evening boat trips on the Bosphorus, rooftop restaurants working at full capacity, and the neighbourhood restaurants of Beyoglu and Kadikoy full of locals eating late into the night. The heat requires some adaptation — the middle of the day is best spent inside a museum or a hamam — but the mornings and evenings are glorious.

• Ajwa Hotel is a five-star Ottoman-style hotel in Sultanahmet, the heart of the old city, within walking distance of the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and Topkapi Palace. The interiors draw on the finest Ottoman craftsmanship, with hand-painted ceilings, carved stone, silk furnishings, and a hammam. It is a hotel that takes its Ottoman heritage seriously and executes it with great skill, and the position in Sultanahmet is unrivalled for the historical sights.
• Ecole St Pierre Hotel occupies a converted French school building in the Galata neighbourhood, on the European side of the Bosphorus just below the Galata Tower. The building's original character (high ceilings, arched windows, stone corridors) has been preserved and combined with contemporary Turkish design. The neighbourhood is one of Istanbul's most interesting, with independent galleries, bookshops, and cafés, and the rooftop has great views over the Golden Horn.
• Empress Zoe is a small, long-established boutique hotel in Sultanahmet, known for its walled garden, a remarkable rarity in the heart of the old city and for the warmth of its management. The hotel occupies a row of historic buildings, including a 15th-century hammam, and the garden, with its roses, jasmine, and ancient walls, is one of the most pleasant outdoor spaces in central Istanbul.
• SuB Karakoy is a design hotel in the Karakoy neighbourhood on the Golden Horn waterfront, one of Istanbul's most rapidly evolving areas. The building's industrial heritage has been preserved in the interior design, concrete, steel, and exposed brick, combined with luxury contemporary furnishings. The rooftop pool and bar have direct views of the Golden Horn and the old city skyline beyond, and the neighbourhood's galleries, restaurants, and market are all within walking distance.

Bucharest, Romania

Bucharest is one of Europe's great underrated destinations, a city of extraordinary contrasts: the megalomaniacal grandeur of Ceausescu's Palace of the Parliament (the second-largest administrative building in the world), alongside some of the finest Belle Epoque architecture in the Balkans; a restaurant and bar scene that has emerged with remarkable speed over the past decade; and a cultural life, museums, galleries, opera, jazz clubs, of real depth. Bucharest is warm in August; the terraces of the old-town neighbourhood of Floreasca and the redesigned Herastrau park area are full in the evenings, and prices remain dramatically lower than in comparable Western European capitals.

• Corinthia Grand Hotel du Boulevard occupies one of the finest Belle Epoque buildings in Bucharest, on the city's answer to the Champs-Élysées, in a building that opened as the Grand Hotel du Boulevard in 1866 and has been meticulously restored. The grand staircases, coffered ceilings, and period details of the original hotel have survived, and the 147 rooms and suites are among the most elegantly appointed in the city.
• Ecletico Villa is a smaller, more intimate option: a boutique hotel housed in a restored early-20th-century villa in one of Bucharest's quieter residential neighbourhoods. The interiors combine original architectural detail with contemporary art and carefully chosen furnishings, and the atmosphere is that of a hotel put together with a strong personal aesthetic.
• The Marmorosch is a spectacular conversion of a 1912 bank building in the centre of Bucharest, with the original monumental banking hall preserved and turned into the hotel's centrepiece bar and lounge. The 55 rooms are designed to a high standard, and the building's extraordinary Beaux-Arts architecture with marble columns, ornate plasterwork, and a soaring glazed ceiling makes it one of the most dramatic hotel interiors in Romania.
• Conacul Coroanei is a manor house hotel outside the city, set in grounds that provide a genuinely rural contrast to Bucharest's urban energy. For those who want to combine a city stay with something quieter, it offers an attractive counterpoint.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh in August hosts the world's largest arts festival, and it is an extraordinary thing. The Fringe, the International Festival, the Book Festival, the Film Festival, the Tattoo on the Castle esplanade; the city fills with performers, audiences, and a creative energy unlike anything or anywhere else. The comedy alone — every major comedian in the English-speaking world comes to the Fringe — is worth the trip, and the theatre, music, and visual art programmes are of the highest quality. The city is busy to the point of crowdedness, but that is part of it: Edinburgh in August is one of the great shared cultural experiences in the world, and the city itself — the Castle, the Royal Mile, Holyrood Park, the Georgian New Town — is one of the finest in Britain.

• 100 Princes Street occupies one of the most enviable addresses in Edinburgh, overlooking the Scott Monument and the Princes Street Gardens, with the Castle on its rock above. The building is a former private members' club with 30 individually designed rooms and suites, each with a different aesthetic, and the service is of the intimate, highly personal kind that only a small hotel can offer. Having the Princes Street Gardens and a direct view of the Castle from the building make it genuinely special.
• B+B Edinburgh is a Victorian townhouse hotel in the West End, on a beautiful Georgian terrace, with ten rooms individually designed in a style that is simultaneously classic and adventurous. The breakfasts are notably good, the staff is warm, and the hotel's position near Haymarket station and the festival venues of the West End makes it a practical as well as an attractive base.
• Eden Locke is a design-led aparthotel on George Street in the heart of the New Town, offering studio and one-bedroom apartments with kitchen facilities and a strong contemporary Scottish design aesthetic. The communal spaces — a ground-floor café and bar — are open to the public as well as guests, and the George Street address puts everything within easy reach.
• The Scotsman Hotel occupies the former offices of The Scotsman newspaper on North Bridge, in a building of considerable grandeur that offers views over both the Old Town and the New Town. The 69 rooms range from compact to genuinely spacious; the spa has a remarkable pool set in the building's original stone vaults; and the North Bridge Brasserie is a reliable restaurant.

Still not sure?

• Explore all our suggestions for the best places to stay in Edinburgh,
• Expand your search to other cities in Europe, like Paris and Bath,
• Or, contact one of our friendly Gurus for personalised advice.