Secret European Villages -- obscure for the sake of obscurity?
 

http://www.travelandleisure.com/slid...ropeanVillages

Did they choose this list because these relatively obscure places are obscure or because they're obscure but deserve to get more attention?

They certainly are off the beaten track, pretty hard to get to. They're often hours by car or train from more well-known destinations.

Anyone been to any of these places?

Just another list from websites that cannot think of anything useful to say :-)

I've been to St. Mawes, but only for a brief stop on a driving tour.

I've been to Roundstone, Folegandros and Kotor.

I don't know about some of the others -- but none of the three in the UK are at all 'obscure'.

My son was married n Terschelling and sail there at least once a week. We have been plenty of times. It is an island with more than one village. Obscure to those who think the Netherlands consists of Amsterdam, and maybe Haarlem and Delft, but not obscure to millions of Dutch, Germans and other Europeans.
As for the three in the UK being obscure well, they clearly have a different definition of obscure to me (and Janis ;) ).

on Terschelling. Getting used to the keyboard on my new laptop!

No place that's on a map can be a secret. And the ones on this list that we've been to were easily reachable by car.

I've been to Staufen. It's a very pretty little town.

I think it's a good article, it's a way to give people some ideas of different places to see. Who needs another article about Paris, London, etc.

The article doesn't call them obscure, but any small town is not going to be that well known on the tourist track, with a few major exceptions. Many of them aren't that hard to get to, you just usually need a car for a lot of them. But many I saw aren't hours and hours from a train stop.

Terschelling is 2 hours 10minutes train and a 45 minute ferry journey from Amsterdam.

To be clear, I was calling them obscure.

They all seem to require at least a couple of hours of transit after landing at a major airport.

I dare say such distances would keep them off many popular day trip lists from major tourist destinations.

It may have been scrb11 who called them 'obscure' . . . but the article called them 'secret' which would seem even more off the beaten path than merely <i>obscure</i>.

Lavenham or St Mawes are hardly 'secret'.

Bolgheri isn't obscure. The row of trees between Bolgheri and the seaside route inspired a 19th century poet, Carducci, and almost all Italians older than 40 years had to learn the poem by hearth in primary schools.

I know also Norcia, Giornico and Hall in Tirol.

Lavenham indeed is not obscure nor a sleepy undiscoverd village - at least not when I was there - yes few folks think about taking the train and bus link from London to this cute village with half-timbered edifices but obscure it ain't- Terschelling either nor is Hall in Tyrol - the only three I have been to or heard of.

such an idea is at best a quioxtic quest - there are zillions of obscure villages which are obscure because they may be quaint have little to see and do.

Bolgheri isn't obscure, and it certainly is not "obscure for the sake of being obscure." It is internationally known to wine lovers as the producer of Super Tuscan red wines.

Bolgheri is also very easy to get to. About a 30 minute drive from Pisa airport, or you can take a train and brief bus or taxi ride.

Norcia is extremely well known to food-focused travelers, both for its salume and its truffles. Throughout Italy, a first class pork butcher is often termed a "norcino", reflecting the fact that for many years only the very best pork butchers in all of Italy came from there.

Norica is also not much off the beaten track in Italy. It is less than an hour's drive from Assisi, one of the most visited towns in Italy.

I would not describe either Bolgheri or Norcia as "villages." When it comes to size, they are towns. Villages in Italy are much smaller than both of them.

I should correct my post to say that Norcia is not much more than an hour's drive from Assisi.

St Geniès is about 1 km. from the main road between Sarlat and Montignac (Lascaux).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/4927525510

I've been to six.

I have only been to a few of them.

1) Kotor, Staufen, Hall in Tirol are not villages. They are towns.

2) These (see above) and Giornico are maybe sort of (more or less) off the beaten track, but not pretty hard to get to. Giornico e.g. is just a short train ride from Locarno or Lugano. Staufen is just a half hour from Freiburg and little under an hour from Basel. Hall in Tirol is just an 8 minutes train ride from Innsbruck. Giornico is little over an hour from Lugano or Locarno.