Time for a few hidden gems to share the spotlight….
Many places hardly ever get anywhere near the limelight – while most of us head to the same few, year after year. We’ve always advocated venturing off the beaten path, and in this article I’ll introduce you to eleven of the best unexplored regions in Europe.
There are many different reasons why these parts of Europe have remained relatively undiscovered. Top of the list is our time poverty – we can’t get everywhere, much as we’d love to! Sometimes we travel through a region to get to our destination, never pausing to see what’s on the way. Other regions are just too remote, too far away from the main airports to reach.
But sometimes it’s worth making one of those overlooked places your destination. Abruzzo in Italy doesn’t have the big name sights of Tuscany – but it has so many of the things that make Italy magical, AND without the crowds. The English county of Herefordshire reminds me of England 50 years ago, a small-town world with half-timbered villages and the serene scenery of the River Wye.
Europe is becoming more over-touristed by the year. We can still travel, but it’s time we looked beyond the same few honeypots. And the regions I write about in this article offer you plenty of opportunities to broaden your horizons a bit more. Enjoy!
Alentejo, Portugal
Remote region with time-warped whitewashed villages, castles and much more
Alentejo is one of the most rewarding regions of Europe that I’ve ever visited. It’s located in the southern half of Portugal, with the Algarve to the south, the Spanish border (and Extremadura, see below) to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and Lisbon and Central Portugal to the north.
Its capital, Évora, is a quiet country town, albeit one with a multi-turreted Cathedral straight out of a fantasy tale. And the slender pillars of its magnificent Roman temple were hidden for centuries in the walls of the town abattoir.
We did our best Portugal road trip around the Alentejo, taking in the likes of Marvão, with its awesome mountaintop Castle, and the beguiling village of Monsaraz. We also stopped by at Elvas, one of the best border towns to visit in Europe, with its hugely impressive fortifications. It’s also just a few miles west of the Spanish border city of Badajoz.
One of the most enjoyable things about visiting Alentejo is wandering through the countryside. It’s full of thousands of groves of cork trees, their bark still prized by winemakers across Europe. And you’re never far away from a village with a medieval castle at the top of a hill.
And there are also some fantastic Alentejo beaches, from Zambujeira do Mar in the south to Vila Nova de Milfontes in the far north of the province.
Getting there: The Alentejo is a 1-2 hour drive from Lisbon, depending on which part of the province you’re planning to visit.
Where To Stay: Casa Dona Antonia – fantastic guesthouse in the heart of the historic village, with superb sunset views
Extremadura, Spain
Sun-baked beauty in the borderland home of the conquistadors
Extremadura – which borders Alentejo – is the least-known, least-explored region of Spain. Which for me has always made it one of the most intriguing.
Its climate is similar to that of Alentejo, with long winters and baking hot summers. It’s also sparsely populated, a land of formidable stone castles and whitewashed towns and villages, and small historic cities like Cáceres and Mérida.
Mérida’s Roman monuments are outstanding, with the iconic Roman Theatre and Temple of Diana. The Theatre is one of the great survivals of the ancient world, and was built under the patronage of the powerful general and statesman, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (who was also responsible for the Pantheon in Rome). The National Museum of Roman Art is another must-see, with an amazing collection of Roman mosaics, frescoes and other artefacts.
Mérida is an important stop on the Via de la Plata (Silver Route), a southern branch of the Camino de Santiago. It runs north from Seville to Mérida and the World Heritage city of Cáceres, before heading inland to Salamanca and northwest to Galicia and Santiago.
East of Cáceres, Trujillo is a stunning old walled town, one of the most beautiful small towns in Europe. It was home to two famous Spanish conquistadores, Francisco Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana, and Renaissance-era palaces of both families survive. It’s a also surrounded by a magnificent circuit of walls, and was defended by the imposing Alcazaba fortress.
The other main sight in Extremadura is the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe. It was built in the 13th century at the site of the discovery of a statue believed to have been hidden from the Moors for 500 years. When King Alfonso XI invoked the name of the statue at a battle he later won, he decided to fund a large monastery at the site. It became a major draw for pilgrims, and Christopher Columbus paid homage there after his maiden voyage to the Americas.
Getting there: The nearest international airports are Madrid and Seville, from where it’s a two- to three-hour drive to Extremadura.
Where To Stay: Hotel Ilunion Mérida Palace – 5-star luxury in a 15th-century palace on the city’s main square
Herefordshire, England
One of the most bucolic English counties, sprinkled with architectural treasures
Herefordshire is one of the most beautiful counties in England, and one of the least heralded. It’s just to the north of the Cotswolds, sits in the lee of the Welsh mountains of the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons), with the Midlands 50 miles or so to the northeast. It’s one of the most rural of English counties, and its one city, Hereford, has the feel of a small county town.
The most famous thing about Herefordshire is its cattle, and after that its apples and cider – much of the countryside is bright white with orchards full of apple blossom in springtime.
Yet this relatively quiet county played a big role in the history of British tourism. In the late 18th century, boat tours ran from Ross-on-Wye to Chepstow, with visitors stopping to paint picturesque river scenes – and the ruin of Tintern Abbey – along the way.
Explore further, and you’ll find a county packed with treasures. Symonds Yat is one of the most scenic stretches of the River Wye, a few miles downstream from Hereford and its superb Cathedral, which possesses an amazing 13th century map of the world, the Mappa Mundi, and a magnificent Chained Library.
The county has many beautiful ‘black and white villages’ – named after the half-timbered black and white houses prevalent in them, Weobley and Eardisland are two of the most picturesque, with a tiny fraction of the visitor numbers the honey-stoned villages of the Cotswolds receive. And Ledbury, on the road to the Malvern Hills, is a quiet contender for one of the most beautiful small towns in England, with an abundance of fine medieval houses.
And then there are the many superb churches in Herefordshire. My favourite is the remote Romanesque gem at Kilpeck, adorned with some extraordinary grotesque carvings. But there are also the likes of the 19th century Italian Romanesque All Saints Church at Hoarwithy, which could almost have been plucked from the plains of the Po Valley.
Getting there: It’s a 90-minute drive from either of the two nearest major English airports, Birmingham and Bristol.
Where To Stay: Castle House Hotel – 3-star in great location between River Wye and Cathedral
See Also: 10 Best Things To Do In Hereford
Abruzzo, Italy
As I’m writing this I’m scratching my head wondering why Abruzzo is still so undiscovered. It has the Apennine Mountains on one side, the Adriatic Sea on the other. It has formidable castles, dramatic mountaintop villages, gorgeous medieval villages, some fantastic beaches, and yet relatively few visitors.
The only reason I can think of is that there’s so much to see in Italy that you simply can’t get everywhere, so with neighbours like Puglia, Le Marche and Umbria it’s not such a surprise it gets overlooked. And if you’re only going to make one trip to Italy, you’re more likely to seek out the wonders of ancient Rome or the art treasures of Tuscany.
But Abruzzo offers so much of the best of Italy that you’d hope for. There are stunning old villages in the mountains like Scanno, Colledimezzo and Pennadomo. And for mountain lovers, the Rocca Calascio is the highest castle in Italy, 1,450 metres above sea level.
The coast – including capital Pescara – has plenty of beaches, and one of the best seaside bases is the town of Vasto. The town is also the starting point of the Costa Trabocchi, named after the many rickety fishing jetties along the shoreline.
Getting there: Budget carriers Ryanair and Wizzair fly to Pescara.
Where To Stay: Il Borgo di Rocca Calascio – apartments in centuries-old house a few minutes’ walk from the Castle
Vysočina, Czech Republic
Step back in time in the sleepy backwoods of Central Europe
This region of the southern Czech Republic straddles Bohemia and Moravia and is home to three World Heritage Sites. Yet its location – a few hours from Prague and two hours from Brno – means it only gets a trickle of visitors in comparison with the overtouristed capital.
The Vysočina isn’t a very long distance from Prague, but the time it takes to get there – especially by train – will put many people off. It’s only 70 miles (113 km) from Prague) but it takes almost 3 hours to get to the regional capital, Jihlava, and 3 ½ hours to get to Telč, one of the main reasons to visit the region.
Telč is a sleepy but stunning country town with one of the most beautiful squares in Europe, and a fine Castle to match. Náměstí Zachariaše z Hradce is the main draw, a long market square lined with stunning 16th-century houses, each with three arches on the ground floor. At one time the houses were all painted white, but they have long since been painted over in many different colours. The Square alone is worth travelling a long way to see.
Třebíč lies 35 km (22 miles) east of Telč , a short distance but a tedious 2-hour-plus train trip away with a change at Jihlava. The town is on the World Heritage list for its remarkably well-preserved Jewish Quarter and St Procopius Basilica, one of the mostg impressive Romanesque churches in this part of Central Europe.
The Vysočina is also home to a third World Heritage Site, the Pilgrimage Church of St Jan Nepomuk at Žďár nad Sázavou. This early 18th century church – with a surrounding flower-shaped cloister – is a blend of Gothic and Baroque, the hallmark style of Prague architect Jan Blazej Santini Aichel. He was also responsible for the World Heritage-listed Cathedral of the Assumption in Sedlec, Kutná Hora, in Eastern Bohemia.
Getting there: It’s a 2-hour drive or 3-hour train ride from Prague.
Where To Stay: Hotel Telč – superb 4-star a two-minute walk from the gorgeous main square
See Also: 22 Best Day Trips From Prague
Costa Vicentina, Portugal
Surfers’ heaven in the Wild West of the Algarve
The Algarve attracts millions of visitors to its beaches each year, but the vast majority of them don’t venture anywhere near one of its most fascinating areas, the Costa Vicentina in the far west of the province.
As you travel west along the Algarve, the character of the coastline gradually changes. The sandy coves with fairytale rock formations and caves eventually give way to wide sandy beaches pummelled by big-dipper Atlantic waves. And a couple of miles west of the town of Sagres, it culminates in the headland of Cape St Vincent, the south-westernmost point in Europe, which our ancient ancestors believed marked the end of the world.
The Costa Vicentina is a Parque Natural, so it’s protected from the over-development that has blighted parts of the Algarve coast to the east. The Costa Vicentina has a completely different vibe. The massive wild beaches – like Praia do Tonel near Sagres and Praia do Amado near Aljezur – are loved by surfers. And the area is also brilliant for hiking, particularly along sections of the Rota Vicentina, which runs along the coast and north along the Alentejo coast.
Getting there: The nearest airport is Faro, from which it’s less than two hours west along the A22 motorway and N125.
Where To Stay: Casa de Horta – apartments with bar a few minutes’ drive from Amado Beach
See Also: 22 Best Algarve Beaches
North East Wales
The hors d’oeuvre before the feast of North West Wales could easily be a main course by itself
If you’re travelling from the Midlands or northwest England, you have to pass through North East Wales on your way to Snowdonia, Anglesey and the superb beaches of the Llŷn Peninsula. It’s a pity that so many of us are too time-poor to stop by, even for a few hours, as there’s so much to see.
The dual carriageway A55 isn’t the best introduction to the area, but it’s the way most from the Liverpool and Manchester area travel. The A5 via Llangollen is a much better way to acquaint yourself with the area, passing the World Heritage Pontcysyllte Aqueduct before lovely Llangollen and its sublime scenery.
Wrexham has garnered a lot more attention in recent times due to the Netflix series about its football club, owned by two Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhinney). The town has a stunning parish church (St Giles) and a fantastic stately home (Erddig – owned by the National Trust), but it’s somewhere I’ve always stopped by briefly rather than use as a base, especially with Llangollen and Chester, just across the border in England, close by.
Llangollen is part of the Dee Valley and Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The former is a dramatic valley, the river carving its way through the landscape towards the English border. The Clwydian Range is a series of hills – some with ancient hillforts – overlooking the vast patchwork of fields of the Vale of Clwyd. The hikes along the ridge are superb, one of the highlights of the Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail.
And down in the Vale plenty more delights await. Denbigh is a fascinating historic town with a superb Castle and rare set of medieval town walls. Ruthin is one of the prettiest towns in Wales, with several medieval half-timbered buildings. And Rhuddlan is one of the finest castles of Edward I of England, part of his Iron Ring built in the late 13th century to subjugate the Welsh.
Getting there: The nearest airports are Manchester and Liverpool John Lennon. If you’re driving, the A5 and A55 are the most used roads into North Wales.
Where To Stay: Panorama Cottages – excellent self-catering option in the hills above Llangollen
See Also: Best Places To Visit In North East Wales
Lusatia, Germany
Lusatia is the south-eastern corner of Germany, with a sliver of western Poland, located next to the Czech border. It’s home to the Slavic minority now known as the Sorbs, and formerly known as the Wends. The region is divided in two – the hilly Upper Lusatia to the south, and Lower Lusatia to the north. It’s called Lausitz in German, Łuźyce in Polish and Lužice in Czech.
We visited this intriguing part of the world on several day trips from Dresden, the closest major city, an hour away by train. It has some beautiful medieval towns. Bautzen is wondrous, with a townscape of several medieval towers, and an Altstadt (old town) full of cobbled streets.
It’s home to the excellent Sorbian Museum, which tells the tale of the survival of this Slavic people under German rule for centuries. The name ‘Bautzen’ caused fear and consternation during the days of Communist East Germany, as it was home to the dreaded Gelbes Elend – Bautzen I prison, nicknamed the Yellow Misery. The main reminder of this to visitors is the Bautzen Memorial at the former Bautzen II, a Stasi (secret police)-run institution where political prisoners were held, often for years.
Half an hour along the track from Bautzen, the border town of Görlitz is one of the best places to visit in Eastern Germany. Its relative isolation meant that it was spared the ravages of the Second World War, so its historic core is remarkably intact. Its fame has gradually spread, initially among filmmakers drawn to the ready-made authentic pre-war backdrop. Check out my article on the best things to do in Görlitz for more inspiration.
To the north of Görlitz, and also straddling the Polish border, the park and palace complex of Bad Muskau is the region’s one World Heritage Site. The nearest city is the largest in Lower Lusatia, Cottbus, just across the state boundary in Brandenburg.
To the south, the textile town of Zittau is the main draw, and departure point for the superb steam train ride to Jonsdorf. The surrounding landscape, especially around the Oybin mountain and monastery, is close to, and reminiscent of, the Elbe Sandstone Mountains to the west.
Getting there: The nearest major city to Lusatia is Dresden, where you have to change for most trains, including services from Berlin. It’s a two-hour drive (or 4-hour train ride) from Berlin to Görlitz.
Where To Stay: Romantik Hotel Tuchmacher – luxury in a 16th-century house in Görlitz Old Town
See Also: 17 Best Places To Visit In Eastern Germany
Northern Hungary
For English-speaking visitors, Hungary is very much like the Czech Republic in that few venture beyond the capital to explore the rest of the country. People have begun to discover Lake Balaton in recent years, but the rest of the country, including the north, is still well off the beaten track.
The best city in northern Hungary to visit is Eger, a two-hour bus ride or drive northeast of Budapest. It’s had a varied sometimes turbulent history going back to the 10th century. Since then it has been settled by Walloons from what is now Belgium, been invaded by the Mongols (13th century) and occupied by the Ottoman Turks from 1596 to 1687. The 17th century minaret was the northernmost built by the Turks in Europe.
Much of the city was built in the 18th century, by which time Eger was under Habsburg rule. The Baroque old town came through World War Two largely intact, and there are several fine churches, including the Rococo Minorite church on the main square.
Eger is on the edge of the Bükk Hills National Park, and is also a major wine-growing town. It’s best-known for Egri bikaver, a punchy red that you often see on wine lists at restaurants around Central Europe. There are some great wine cellars to try it out a mile or so from the centre of town, in the Valley of the Beautiful Women (Szepasszony volgy).
The World Heritage-listed village of Hollókő is an hour west of Eger, and within reach of Budapest if you’re thinking about a day trip from there. The village – pronounced ‘HOE-loe-kur’ – was founded in the 13th-century but mostly dates from the 18th and 19th centuries, and is the best surviving traditional Palóc settlement. The houses have timber frames, and the plots of land are divided into strips – a custom dating back to medieval times.
Getting there: The nearest airport, Budapest, is two hours’ away.
Where To Stay: Kulacs Csarda Panzio – excellent guesthouse in the vineyards on the outskirts of Eger
Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Historic treasures abound to the west of the Elbe River
The German Land of Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt) has no shortage of outstanding places to visit. It has six UNESCO World Heritage Sites and one of the greatest concentrations of Romanesque architecture in Europe (and therefore on Earth).
So why is it so unexplored? Simply because of its distance from the main international airports. It’s two to three hours to the state from Berlin, with many destinations requiring a change of train along the way. Even from Leipzig, the nearest regional airport, it’s a couple of hours by train to some of the best places in Saxony-Anhalt to visit.
But take the time, and even in mad-dash mode, you can visit some of the most rewarding places in Germany along the way. There are enough things to do in Quedlinburg to warrant a two-day stay, more if you plan on a trip to the gorgeous half-timbered town of Wernigerode, an hour to the west.
But nowhere does half-timbered quite like Quedlinburg. There are up to 4,000 half-timbered houses in this beautiful medieval town, and it’s very popular with Germans. But word hasn’t really filtered through to the English-speaking world just yet. Check out my guides to the most beautiful streets in Quedlinburg to find the best of the late medieval houses. And my article on the best churches in Quedlinburg guides you around its superb Romanesque churches, dating back to the very beginnings of the idea of Germany in the 10th century.
The region is also cradle of the Reformation. Wittenberg – often prefixed with Lutherstadt – is where Martin Luther published his 95 Theses against the Roman Catholic Church in 1517, with an enormous impact on Christianity in Europe. A few miles along the Elbe, Dessau is the cradle of the Bauhaus architectural movement, and the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Kingdom, one of the finest designed landscapes of the late 18th century.
Saxony-Anhalt’s boundaries extend south beyond Leipzig, and there you’ll find one of the greatest churches in Germany. Take a look at my article on visiting Naumburg Cathedral, an astonishing late Romanesque and early Gothic church with some of the most famous sculpture from the Middle Ages, including the astonishingly vivid statue of Uta von Ballenstedt.
Getting there: The nearest airport for northern Saxony-Anhalt is Berlin, with most trains going there via Magdeburg. The smaller Leipzig airport is more convenient for the southern part of the state.
Where To Stay: Hotel Zum Bär – wonderful friendly hotel on the main square in Quedlinburg
Slavonia, Croatia
Croatia’s quiet corner and breadbasket, a world away from the crowds on the coast
Slavonia – which is the easternmost part of Croatia – is one of the cultural melting pots of Central Europe, It’s bordered by Hungary to the north, Serbia to the east and Bosnia-Herzegovina to the south. Compared to the stunning coast of Croatia, it barely gets a look in. And its setting for some of the earliest fighting in the 1991 War of Croatian Independence also set it back significantly.
It’s a mainly agricultural and wine-growing area with small towns, the largest of which is Osijek, the fourth largest in Croatia. It’s rich in rural and folk culture, and the bećarac singing common there is part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2011. It’s a humorous kind of folk song, much of which is often made up spontaneously at parties. Unless your Croatian is up to understanding puns. Like me, you probably won’t understand a lot of it!
Osijek is a natural place to start, a small city with a hearty helping of Baroque buildings typical of many cities in the former Habsburg Empire.
Dakovo is much smaller, but is home to one of the most iconic buildings in Slavonia, the imposing red-brick Romanesque Revival Cathedral. And just outside the town, the famous Lipizzaner horses are bred at the State Stud Farm, which has been in operation since 1506.
And anyone with an interest in European military history should pay a visit to the Habsburg fort at Slavonski Brod. It’s a brick Baroque beast of a fortress, built to defend the Empire on its southern flank. We saw several similar forts – at Vyšehrad in Prague, Jaroměř and Terezín – all of which are mightily imposing constructions.
Getting there: The nearest major airport is Zagreb, two hours away.
Where To Stay: Hotel Waldinger – one of the best hotels in Osijek
Best Unexplored Regions In Europe – Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide to some of the best undiscovered regions of Europe. And that it inspires you to venture a bit more off the beaten track.
If you’re looking for further inspiration for your travel to or around Europe, take a look at some of my other themed Europe travel articles here:
Most Beautiful Villages In Europe
Most Beautiful Streets In Europe
Most Beautiful Landscapes In Europe
Best Border Towns In Europe To Visit
Most Beautiful Beaches In Europe
Most Beautiful Castles In Europe
Most Beautiful Islands In Europe
Most Underrated Cities In Europe
Most Beautiful Squares In Europe
Most Beautiful Churches In Europe