Cairo, Egypt
Floating casinos and neon-lit pleasure boats are a common sight on the Nile River in Cairo, Africa’s largest, most populous city. But just when it seems as though the river itself has been modernised to the point of gaudiness, a felucca’s lazy sail comes into view and the Nile’s ancient character is revealed.

Much of Cairo is rampantly urban, and the Nile is criss-crossed with bridges ferrying traffic to and fro. Yet despite the bustle, it is possible to find quiet places to stroll beside the river and stop for sweet mint tea or Turkish coffee. This is a Cairene tradition, as is lazing over a shisha (water pipe), particularly on summer evenings, when the Nile shimmers like a heated pool.

After Maghrib (evening prayers), the city comes alive with families, young couples and friends who like to promenade beside the river. Like the Seine, the Nile draws lovers — although in Cairo they are sedate and chivalrous.

While spring and summer bring a lassitude to the Nile’s festive pleasures, the occasional breeze from upriver is a reminder that the river’s beauty grows more haunting the further one moves away from urban sprawl. Eventually, following her waters, one is left to contemplate silence, palms trees and the slow, sure hours of Egypt’s great past. The Nile’s true face, it could be argued, is mysteriously veiled from the city dweller.

Prague, Czech Republic
Prague offers a combination of refined, dark-wool suit sophistication and the clunky architecture of a failed communism. It’s strange to see the crass, angular geometry of the latter amongst the quirky curves of what still retains some flair of a medieval town.

The other extraordinary characteristic of Prague is that, despite being an arena for intense political fisticuffs around which the rest of Europe burned, war has not touched it. For one of the smallest capitals on the Continent, the city has a lot of atmosphere — and it’s all accessible by foot.

The sense of claustrophobia and release is revitalising as you move from the close quarters of the town centre to the broad banks of the River Vltava, whose mellow, concave edge hugs the city centre. The main bridge spanning the river, the Charles Bridge, was completed in the early fifteenth Century. For almost half a century this structure was the only link between the two mighty Gothic gateways that link the two sides of Prague.

A stroll from the bridge along Mostecká Street will take you to the Prague Castle and the asymmetrical St Vitus Cathedral — a Gothic edifice of scary, twisted note. From the tiered Royal Gardens it is possible to see Prague’s best side: defiant church spires piercing the profile of russet roofs, the Vltava wending its casual way in the distance.

With all the suggestive literature that has been set in Prague in the past century (think 'Unbearable Lightness of Being'), being a single person in the café-ridden stretch between the river and the centre can be an experience of almost unbearable possibilities.

Bonn, Germany
Ludwig von Beethoven was born in Bonn and absolutely hated the place, but don’t let that put you off (nutty musical geniuses etc).

Another underrated metropolitan gem, Bonn is a beautiful city on the Rhine with a delightfully entertaining dual personality. On the one hand there’s the baroque Bonn, with its classical-music pedigree, its opera house (the, ahem, ‘La Scala of the Rhine’) and its impeccably maintained architectural heritage.

On the other hand there’s Bonn, the student city. Sure, students can be a bit boisterous but these are German students. And remember: with students come a rather enthusiastic nightlife. More than 500 pubs’ worth of enthusiasm, actually. The Alter Zoll (Old Customs House) beer garden, along the river bank on Elsässerstraße, is a favourite summer spot for a few glasses of Kölsch beer, as are the cafés around Kaiserplatz square.

Melbourne, Australia
Know the river, know the city. If Oxford’s Isis is pastoral, Belém’s Amazon chaotic, and the Neva in Saint Petersburg intimidating, then Melbourne’s Yarra is unapologetically genteel.

The city’s zeitgeist is a suburban hum, perfectly in keeping with the Yarra’s low-key, placid flow. It’s respectable. Ordered. Polite. And this harmony is mirrored in the rubbish-free shallows of the meandering waters.

This is not a bad thing. Not everyone wants an Amazon on their doorstep, a soup of belching logging barges and weird, undocumented fish species. On the Yarra you’re not going to spill your sundowner G&T or get run over by a water cowboy.

The Yarra gets its water from snowfall in the Australian Alps, from where it is cosseted down most of its course along the off-limits Mount Baw Baw Plateau and through the vineyards of the Yarra Valley (Antipodean home of Moët & Chandon).

From the moment it enters Melbourne, at the suburb of Chirnside Park, until it reaches the protected calm of Port Phillip Bay, its edges are fanatically maintained, indigenous green mixing with bicycle paths and the rolling lawns of the country’s top private schools. They row. They boat. They potter. And so can you.

Once below Swan Street Bridge, the Yarra becomes something of a stage. In March, it is the setting for the annual Moomba Festival, during which revellers waterski, wear silly costumes, sink floats and drink a lot of very good Yarra Pinot Noir.

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Published courtesy of Horizons

Varanasi, India
Nowhere else are the culture and history of a city so intertwined with a river. The Holy River Ganges — personified as a goddess, Ganga, in the Hindu religion — flows right through Varanasi, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.

Each year, more than a million pilgrims — and a fair number of tourists — make their way to the north-eastern province of Uttar Pradesh, the dwelling place of the Hindu Lord Shiva and a city of temples, learning, arts and literature. These pilgrims go to the Ganges in order to let it wash away their sins and cast the cremated ashes of their dead into the water. For to die in Varanasi is to reach nirvana, paradise.

Paddle boats and steamers are on hand to chug tourists and devotees across the river to visit the ghats — flights of steps leading down to the river. There are nearly 100 to choose from, with different ghats for bathing and cremation.

Beyond the riverbanks, the ghats give way to a maze of tiny alleyways brimming with large temples, small, colourful shops and a host of street eateries. The narrow passages make an auto rickshaw the second-best transport option next to walking. Just don’t get ripped off: the first price you will be quoted is invariably inflated. Learn to haggle with a smile, but don’t overdo it. India has a terrible poverty problem and those extra few rupees aren’t going to hurt you. Ask a friendly local what a fair going rate is.

Varanasi also plays constant host to festivals and melas (fairs), adding to its year-round fascination. Winter is mild yet summer can be an oppressive swelter.