Westerland, Germany

After a century of promoting itself as the principal resort on Sylt, WESTERLAND has more or less destroyed itself. The progenitor late-1800s spa resort has been replaced by concrete holiday-blocks and the sand dunes vanished long ago beneath paving slabs. What it has are all the facilities of a fully-fledged holiday mill – shops, restaurants, banks and supermarkets along pedestrianized main drag Friedrichstrasse, the latter two in short supply elsewhere on Sylt. As the hub of the public transport network it's also unavoidable. Its saving grace is a beach that's as fine as anywhere else on Sylt despite the spirit-sapping "Fun-Beach" moniker. Should you be stuck between buses on a rainy day, you could visit the Sylter Welle (10am–10pm daily; € 11) indoor pool and sauna complex behind the beach on Sandstrasse, or fifteen minutes east of the centre on Gaadt is an aquarium (daily 10am–6pm; € 12) of tropical and North Sea fish.