For the ones who read the plaque.

GothGirlsGo is for people who'll build a whole trip around one cemetery. You read the plaques. Given the choice, you take the anatomy museum over the beach. You also want to know where to get a good drink after, which most guides never bother to tell you.

Most guides give the dark stuff a paragraph and a walking tour, then hurry you back to brunch. We run it the other way. Every city is split into where to stay, where to eat, what to see, and where to shop. Everything on the list is there for its atmosphere or its history. Nothing made it in to scare you.

What we go for is the pretty side of dark. Ossuaries, old cemeteries gone to moss, cabinets of curiosities, a cellar bar lit by one candle. We start with the cities you'd expect and keep going into the smaller ones nobody writes up.

Where we sleep

No hostels. Small B&Bs, old hotels that have seen things, crooked Victorian houses. Somewhere with a bit of history, a proper bar, and if we're lucky a ghost in residence. Quiet over loud, character over chain.

The flags

Every place gets an honest read, because a guide that likes everything tells you nothing. Solo-friendly means safe and easy on your own. Quiet means no hen parties. Adults only means what it says. And we flag when a place is touristy, overrun with kids, or one big party, even when it's still worth the trip. They're our calls, and they get sharper the more we go.

A note on the heavy stuff

Some dark places aren't a day out. Sites of genocide, torture, and real suffering are here only when they stand as memorials worth visiting, treated with respect, never as a photo op. When a place is grim, we say so first. Travel kindly, photograph respectfully, mind the dead.

Now go pick a city.

Choose a city