Europe’s Hidden Treasures
There are two Europes. The one of Paris, Rome, Barcelona and Amsterdam, which you know before you arrive. And the one of towns that have everything — history, architecture, a table worth sitting at — but that organised tours do not serve. The second asks for no more courage, only one more train.
What makes a town "hidden"
It is never a lack of interest. It is almost always accessibility: no international airport, a name that is hard to pronounce, or the shadow of a famous neighbour. Girona is thirty-eight minutes by train from Barcelona and receives a fraction of its visitors. That is not a question of quality, it is a question of habit.
The Iberian peninsula
Guimarães, in northern Portugal, is where the country was born — its first king was born there in the 12th century. The medieval centre is UNESCO-listed and crosses on foot in a morning.
Sintra, forty minutes from Lisbon, lines up palaces across a damp wooded mountain. Quinta da Regaleira and its spiralling initiation well are the strangest thing you can visit in western Europe.
Girona, in Catalonia, keeps the best-preserved medieval Jewish quarter on the peninsula, and a cathedral whose Gothic nave is among the widest anywhere.
Ronda, in Andalusia, is built on both sides of a hundred-and-fifty-metre gorge, crossed by an 18th-century bridge. Hemingway kept returning for the bullfights.
The Mediterranean
Matera, in southern Italy, is a cave city inhabited for millennia. Its Sassi, forcibly emptied in the mid-20th century as unfit for habitation, have been restored and UNESCO-listed. You can sleep in a converted cave.
Valletta is the smallest capital in the European Union — under one square kilometre — and among the densest in monuments. St John’s Co-Cathedral holds a major Caravaggio.
The Adriatic and the Balkans
Piran, on Slovenia’s few kilometres of coast, resembles what Venice was before the crowds: stone lanes, an oval square, a Venetian campanile.
Slovenia, Montenegro and Bosnia offer the best combination of value and absence of crowds in Europe today, with short distances and decent roads.
Central Europe, the Baltic and beyond
Czechia is not only Prague, Austria is not only Vienna, and Latvia holds in Riga one of the largest Art Nouveau ensembles on the continent. Further out, Tbilisi closes this list — and it is also the starting point of the Georgian wine route. It is covered in our Georgia wine route.
How do you get there from Quebec?
That is the real question, and the answer is simple: through a major city, then by train. None of these destinations has a direct flight from Montreal. Girona is reached from Barcelona, Sintra from Lisbon, Matera from Bari or Naples, Piran from Trieste or Ljubljana.
European regional rail is cheap, punctual and far simpler than it looks from a distance. It is what makes these towns accessible, not an extra flight. For Portugal, see also our Portugal guide from Montreal.
When should you go?
May, June, September and October. These towns have little accommodation, and the little they have fills in July and August despite their reputation as quiet destinations. In low season several sites cut their hours and some hotels close.
Organising the trip from Quebec
The formula that works: a major city for arrival and jet lag, then two or three of these towns linked by rail, then a return through the same airport. An adviser can validate the rail connections, which are the only technical point of this kind of itinerary.
Voyages AquaTerra holds a Quebec travel agency licence. Our clients are covered by the Compensation Fund for Customers of Travel Agents, under the conditions set out in the regulation. Call an adviser at 1-866-628-6241.
Several of these treasures also sit among the continent’s most affordable capitals: see our guide to Europe on a budget.
