Most Underrated European Cities?
What are some of the cities off the main London-Paris-Rome-Venice-Florence type beaten path that surprised you or were a lot more - the often smaller cities that you enjoyed but which don't get that much hype and aren't on many foreign tourists' itineraries.
Just list - no comments please Mine: Lyon, La Rochelle, Strasbourg, Nancy, France Antwerp, Gent, Belgium Haarlem, Holland Cacares, Salamanca, Spain Porto, Guimaraes, Nazare, Coimbra, Portugal Bern, Switzerland Regensburg, Bamberg, Celle, Germany Bratislava, Slovakia Bristol, Salisbury and Winchester, England Luxembourg City, Luxembourg Cork, Ireland Lund, Sweden Potsdam, Germany (the city) |
Verona comes to mind. It's fairly well known, I guess, but you rarely see it mentioned among the top destination cities in Italy.
It's the first European city I ever stayed in, and still one of my favorites. A great place to wander around and soak in. |
Last trip I fell for Lviv in Ukraine (I almost hate to mention it, because it's not really on the tourist trail yet).
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In addition, I liked
Auxerre, Fr Kientzheim, Fr Naples, It Praiano, It Haarlem, ND Roskilde, DK Odense, DK Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød, DK Helsinki, Finland ((I)) |
I like Olomouc in the Czech Republic.
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Olmützer Quargel, yummy! :-)
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Strasbourg and Colmar in France
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Trier and Tubingen, Germany
Dinan and Loches, France Naples |
Yaroslavl, Russia
Tricarico, Italy (for sentimental reasons) Jerez de la Frontera, Spain |
Namur, Be., Maastricht, Neth., Oostende, Be., Cesky Krumlov, Cz., Dubrovnik, Cr. I think you can throw the whole country of Portugal in there...
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I would add:
Antrim Coast, N Ireland and repeat: Bratislava, Slovakia. Outside Europe: Christchurch, NZ |
I would include York amongst several others already listed.
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Cuenca, San Sebastian-Spain
Evora-Portugal Not a city but the Perigord region-France Western side of Sicily |
I would say Tallinn (Estonia), Bucharest (Romania), and the Metz-Nancy-Strasbourg (France) triangle.
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I don't see much talk here about Budapest though I know many go there. I really enjoyed my trip there---same with Vienna. Again, a very major city but not one that I hear people get particularly worked up about (unlike Paris, Rome, etc.)...
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Katie, I think Budapest gets plenty of good press here (from me, among many). Some of the other places nominated surprise me because I think they are generally highly rated.
I'll nominate Rennes and Saumur, revealing my preference for France as a destination country. |
I've been to Budapest twice and enjoyed it, but I can't imagine telling anybody that it is a must. Nor overrated Prague, for that matter.
I would say that Marseille is extremely underrated, especially since so many people claim that it is horrible because of "immigrants"! |
but still Vienna and Budapest are places non-veteran tourists don't all that often seem going to - Prague and Munich get many more foreign tourists i believe and though they are great places so are Vienna and Budapest.
As for thinking some of the places mentioned get a lot of ink - only relatively to the mega tourist cities it's lost in the shuffle for say folks planning first or second trips to Europe. Basically any city besides London, Paris, Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Venice, Munich and Amsterdam and a very few others are the focal points. And though they are all great places in season it's generally from one tourist mob scene to another - whilst other cities may be more relaxed and just as interesting. |
I'm not sure why "just list... no comments" - - aren't comments worth something to explain?
And likewise, to dissent? Anyhow, others are offering some comments, so I will too... Agreeing with candidates proposed earlier: Gent - - loved it; hope the Hotel Erasmus will never change (but I fear it will - - some perfect things can only get less perfect) Dissenting: Lyon - - wasn't there long enough... not as long as one might like to visit, but I found it very difficult to negotiate by car, even hard to get out of town (a Friday afternoon, driving towards Chambery - - maybe that was the problem). Remember: this is a BIG city. Luxembourg City - - once again, maybe too much of a spot impression, as I only stopped ther for supper one night, nearly a decade ago, but it seemed to match notions that others had planted in my head: high-priced, relatively charmless. Odense - - went seriously looking for the charm, but I feel like I never found it My candidates (some of these are fairly small, but hopefully they qualify as cities)... Thaxted, UK - - pleasant to look at, and a fantastic Indian restaurant whose name I have since forgotten Stirling (Scotland), UK Etretat, France Paimpol, France Biarritz, France Dijon, France - - all the reasons that I thought I would like Lyon seemed to be there in spades for Dijon, and I didn't even give it a proper visit Turin, Italy - - shhh... don't tell anybody; this deserves to be number one behind the "big three" in Italy destinations (though everyplace in Italy deserves to be number one behind the big three, doesn't it?) Trento, Italy - - one of the best day trip destinations I ever had Graz, Austria - - if Vienna seems too "cold" or formal for you, and Salzburg seems too touristy, then come discover Austria here. Seu d'Urgell, Spain Luebeck, Germany Weimar, Germany Ulm, Germany - - sorry to learn that this is now a hotbed of jihadism, but maybe you wouldn't encounter it if you don't go looking for it. Jelenia Gora, Poland - - maybe this was just a really good day (day trip), but I wasn't pleasantly surprised at ease of getting around, nice to look at it, even without specific tourist attractions, and quite manageable without any meaningful Polish on my part (beyond usual tourist, please, thank you), and not because we encountered many English speakers either; German was slightly useful. Best wishes, Rex |
Where to begin:
Stockholm Bergen Trondheim Oslo Jyvaskaala (Fin) Tashkent/Bukhara/Samarkand (Uzbekistan) Suzdal (Russ) Konstanz (Ger) Triberg (") Potsdam (") Brasov, Sighishoara and Iasi (Yash), (Romania) Varna and Sofia(Bulg) Antalya, Pammukale (Turk) Krakow The Tatra region of Slovakia Ronda (Sp) Gibraltar Pau and Biarritz area (Fr) Another vote for Strasbourg, Colmar Caen and Bayeux Chamonix Spa (Belg) Lake District (Eng) Belfast Galway Out of Europe: Several others, but this is restricted to Europe. Stu T. |
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