Best Places in Europe to Escape the Summer Crowds
With the “super dollar” making it cheaper to visit Europe than ever, the continent’s most famous destinations may be overrun this summer. If you want to experience Europe with a little elbow room, we’ve rounded up some world-class cities, small towns, and natural wonders most tourists won’t be visiting in 2015.
Scottish Highlands
(Photo: Jacqi/Dreamstime)
In the Scottish Highlands, endless heather-covered moors undulate under misty skies and men and women with thick brogues share a laugh between drams of whiskey. Explore the southern edge of Cairngorms National Park, Britain’s largest national park, using Blair Castle as your jumping-off point. The traditional seat of the Dukes of Atholl, this classic, stark white castle set amid the lush green rolling hills has hosted a variety of important guests throughout history, including Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Victoria. Tour this 13th-century castle, which boasts the last remaining private army in Europe. Next, enjoy the outdoors as the Scots do through country sports. Saunter along rugged tracks on sturdy Highland ponies or fish for salmon or wild brown trout along a peaceful Scottish hill loch or rushing river. Modern adventurers may also choose to travel by mountain bike or Land Rover. Just down the road, Scotland’s smallest traditional distillery, Edradour, beckons adult guests for a tour and tasting to soothe muscles and warm up after a day outdoors.
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Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
(Photo: Mikhail Markovskiy/Dreamstime.com)
One of the oldest villages in the Czech Republic, Cesky Krumlov, a three-hour bus ride from Prague, is set in a valley in Bohemia south of the Blansko Forest and circled by the Vltava River. The village grew up around the 13th-century Gothic castle of the Lords of Krumlov, which has 40 buildings and palaces, gardens, and turrets and today is a major performing arts location. The cobblestone streets of Cesky Krumlov’s Old Town are lined with Gothic, Baroque, and Renaissance buildings housing art galleries, cafes, and quaint B&Bs. One of the best ways to experience the town is to take a ride down the Vltava on a wooden raft.
Antwerp, Belgium
(Photo: Lonely Planet)
Antwerp is an inland port, a 40-minute drive north of Brussels, with a world-class sense of style. Whether you’re looking for imaginative architecture, the most inspiring new art galleries, or a great selection of vintage and second-hand clothing, Antwerp will likely send you home with something surprising. The Zuid (“south”) district is the place for art lovers; here, you’ll find the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (featuring an exquisite collection of paintings by Baroque-era Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, such as “The Adoration of the Magi”), galleries of contemporary art, and a thriving cafe culture. Running north from the square in front of the museum, Kloosterstraat offers a stretch of cool antique shops that often boast mid-century design finds alongside older pieces. Het Steen (“old fort”) was originally built in the early Middle Ages to defend against marauding Vikings.
Dürnstein, Austria
(Gregor Semrad/Courtesy Durnstein Hotel)
On the banks of the Danube, in the shadow of a castle from the Middle Ages, Dürnstein (an hour’s drive from Vienna) is one of those impossibly quaint towns where everything, from the red-tiled roofs to the baroque clock tower to the winding cobblestoned alleys, seems lifted straight from the Brothers Grimm. Just an hour downriver from Vienna, Dürnstein is an under-explored retreat and a gateway to the surrounding Wachau valley, a grape region prized for crisp, dry Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners. To experience the area like a local, take a seat inside a Heuriger, a cozy tavern that sells only indigenous wines, namely those from the most recent harvest. Authentic establishments hang fir branches above their doorways to welcome the thirsty, while Schrammelmusik (traditional fiddle-and-accordion folk music) plays from within. Although the Wachau is known for its grapes, it is the Marille (apricot) that sets the region apart. In early April, the valley erupts in pale-pink blossoms, and the fruit begins showing up in strudels, pork dishes, and Marillenknödel (apricot dumplings rolled in butter-toasted bread crumbs). Wieser Wachau Shop & Café, with locations throughout the valley, sells apricot soap, schnapps, and marmalade.
Birmingham, U.K.,
(Photo: Angie Smith)
Birmingham is a foodie hot spot in England’s heartland, a two-hour drive northwest of London. These days, this city is all about innovative cuisine and locally sourced ingredients. The Balti style of cooking Kashmiri curries – in small, artisanal batches rather than in one enormous pot – was developed here in the 1970s, and an entire district, the Balti Triangle, serves up tasty varieties at bargain prices at restaurants such as Al Frash. Celeb chef Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italian dishes out heaping plates of wild-rabbit tagliolini and crab spaghettini. And for contemporary riffs on classic English dishes, there’s a lot to love about, well, Loves; Steve and Claire Love’s waterfront restaurant has been wowing U.K. food critics with dishes like (vegetarians, avert your eyes) Warwickshire venison and Gloucestershire pig’s head.
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Split, Croatia
(Photo: Tupungato/Dreamstime)
In Split, a three-hour drive northwest of capital Dubrovnik, history comes alive on the Mediterranean. Roman emperor Diocletian built an amazing palace here, completed in A.D. 305, and to this day the city has one of Europe’s finest collections of Roman ruins. From Diocletian’s day to the present, Split has done an exceptional job of preserving its past, making it a first-rate destination for immersing yourself in living history – even in the face of the civil war that rocked Croatia in the 1990s. This UNESCO World Heritage Site invites you to balance your beach-going and nightlife with visits to its Roman ruins, medieval forts, Romanesque churches dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries, plus Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque palaces and other noteworthy buildings; a historic district, archeological museum, and of course the ruins of Diocletian’s palace round out the historical offerings.
Binn, Switzerland
(Photo: Switzerland Tourism-BAFU/swiss-image.ch/Lorenz Andreas Fischer)
Life moves slowly in the village of Binn, and that’s by design. Years ago, the residents of this tiny Alpine town (pop. 150, two and a half hours from Bern) decided to stave off development by preserving the surrounding valley as a park. Today, instead of the posh ski resorts and multilane highways in much of southwestern Switzerland, Binn remains a time capsule of village life. Gravel lanes wind between neat pine chalets. Flower boxes filled with geraniums hang from every window. The town’s 16th-century bridge is traversed by hikers and goats instead of cars. Up the Binna River, visitors will find even smaller hamlets and picture-perfect meadows, where they can spread out a picnic of local wine and raclette cheese and listen to the cowbells ring down from the high pastures. About a mile from Binn along mountain trails, the riverside Restaurant Imfeld is a timber chalet at 4,983 feet with a terrace overlooking the Alps. Hikers can stop in for fresh trout and Valais air-dried beef – repared by rubbing salt, herbs, and spices into raw beef and leaving it to dry in a wooden barn for at least six weeks.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany
(Courtesy: Berthold Werner/Wikimedia Commons)
Germany’s so-called Romantic Road, which slices north to south through the southern German state of Bavaria, earned its name for its string of stunning castles. But most of the region’s bastions are stand-alone tourist attractions, not thriving municipalities. A charming exception is Rothenburg ob der Tauber (a three-hour train ride from Munich), a red-walled town set up on a hill above the Tauber River. It has all the pastoral views and scenery of the Romantic Road’s other castle stops yet has a strong civic pulse, too. Walt Disney was so taken by the town, in fact, that he used it as inspiration for the village in the movie Pinocchio. An earthquake destroyed the castle’s main tower in 1356, but the town’s red-roofed medieval and Renaissance houses have endured for centuries and were fully restored after World War II. Visitors can tour the castle’s stone towers-protected beneath covered walkways-and stop by its base, where crafts shops sell everything from antique clocks to handmade garden gnomes. Cuisine is celebrated here in a way it isn’t in larger German cities like Frankfurt or Berlin, let alone in castle canteens elsewhere. You may come here for the shining armor, but you’ll return for the delicious renditions of Bavarian comfort foods (more spätzle, anyone?
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Trémolat, France
(Courtesy: Janice Bowen)
One of the quaintest towns in Europe, Trémolat sits on a horseshoe-shaped bend in the Dordogne River and is dominated by a fortresslike Romanesque church that dates back to the 11th century. But the highlight of the town is farm-to-table restaurant Les Truffières. Yanick Le Goff oversees a classic ferme auberge, a working farm that serves the food it grows. Plates like barbecued duck, garlic-and-goose-fat soup, and house made foie gras are paired with local wines like a lavender-tinged aperitif or a rosé. The surrounding area is best known for its dark oak forests, hillside vineyards, medieval châteaux, Stonehenge-like megaliths, and, of course, the prehistoric cave paintings at Lascaux with haunting images of bison, horses, and traced human hands estimated to be an astounding 17,000 years old.
Palmanova, Italy
(Photo: Antos74/Dreamstime.com)
Founded in 1593 as a stronghold of the Venetian Republic, this UNESCO World Heritage town was built in a unique, 18-sided octadecagon shape. When viewed from above, the fortress community looks like a delicately made paper snowflake, with streets radiating out of the structure like sunbeams. Tucked into a valley with a lagoon running into the Adriatic Sea, the land surrounding Palmanova yields high-quality Chardonnay while the local waters are stocked with mullet, sea bass, and other delicious fish. In town, look out for the symbol of a leafy bough, or a frasca, hanging outside of restaurants to pinpoint ones serving regionally sourced food, such as the classic Venetian dish baccalà, made with dry-salted cod. At night, the city’s earth-and-stone defensive works are lit up like a movie set.
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