How many days do you need in a city?
Short answer
Three full days is enough for most mid-sized cities, four to five for a large one like Tokyo, New York or Mexico City. The useful measure isn't sights per day — it's neighbourhoods: plan one or two a day and count how many the city has.
Count neighbourhoods, not attractions
Attraction counts produce bad itineraries, because they encourage crossing a city four times a day. Neighbourhood counts produce good ones: pick two areas per day, walk between them, and accept that you'll miss things.
Rough guide
- Compact city (Lisbon, Split, New Orleans): 3 days
- Mid-sized with a day trip (Rome, Barcelona, Marrakech): 3–4 days
- Large and layered (Tokyo, New York, Paris, Bangkok): 4–5 days
- A region rather than a city (Bali, Iceland, Dalmatia): 7–10 days