Interesting and different places to visit in Europe

[Ozgirl75]

So, my family is coming back to the U.K. for a year, and one of the main things we want to do is travel and explore Europe.
We've already pulled together some places that we want to go, but I’d love to get some different ideas of interesting places that I might not necessarily have thought of. So, eg, I’d like to go to Barcelona but are there other places in Spain that are also lovely but less well visited?
Not necessary off the beaten track but more just, different places. And also, your must sees?

We enjoyed Tallin in Estonia and it’s easy to hop over to Helsinki too. In Spain we enjoyed Valencia .

Ooo, yes, that’s the kind of thing I was hoping for. Valencia I’ll look at and Helsinki was on our list as we have work there so a side trip to Tallin would be awesome.

Glencoe in Scotland is amazing, and if you like James Bond, go to Glen Etive, where part of Skyfall was filmed.

Also the Glenfinnian viaduct is in the area, which was made famous by the Harry Potter films.

That sounds lovely! Where do you fly into for Glencoe? Glasgow?

Seville. One of my favourites.

I enjoyed Bilbao when I went a few years ago.

Sounds like lots of lovely places in Spain then. I don’t know how I’ll choose!

Definitely Seville.

The best places in Spain travelling north to south are: San Sebastián, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Toledo, Ronda, Granada (Alhambra).

I agree with Seville and Tallinn. Also try Montenegro, Gothenberg, Ghent, or if you have time then drive around Slovakia.

I live in southern Spain and there are some stunning cities to visit in Andalucia. Seville is beautiful, Granada is worth a visit for the Alhambra Palace, Cadiz is lovely but often overlooked as is Malaga. Other places worth seeing are Ronda, Jerez and Cordoba. Avoid the summer months though as summer in Andalucia is ridiculously hot!

If you like Spain, the Andalucian cities are a must and could easily fill a week or two if you haven't been before.

We went to Granada, Seville and Cordoba a few years ago, along with walking El Caminito del Rey.

We flew in and out of Malaga due to flight availability and did all of it on public transport except driving from Malaga to Granada via El Caminito del Rey. We stayed in Granada and Seville and went to Cordoba on a day trip from Seville.

There's also Ronda and Mijas, and other smaller white villages like Casares and Gaucin, but we've been those on a few other holidays. Plus Malaga is worth a visit in it's own right. Also Gibraltar is worth a visit, as are Jerez and Cadiz.

Ha ha, great minds @Notmybloodymonkeys

Valencia is lovely, travel round Denmark, Italy - so many places- Sicily, Bologna, Florence, Loretta, Imola...
Not sure when it comes in but remember you'll need the new travel document

Proof that Andalucia is the best! ☺️

I loved Zagreb and Ljubljana; so much history and wonderfully compact to walk around.

kind of depends how much time you have really….

would be a shame to miss out on the great European cities though unless you’ve done them before. Rome is magnificent.

On a completely different theme, if you like slightly old fashioned outdoorsy, the Isle of Man is nice for a few days (avoid the TT and Motor GP periods unless you really love motorbikes).

I really enjoyed Jerez in Spain, and staying in Avignon in France was also fab - Nîmes and Orange both accessible from there by train and Avignon is on the Eurostar direct from London.

Both too hot for me now in midsummer though.

Cádiz in Spain. Fly into Jerez. It’s a wonderful place.

I’d recommend central and Eastern Europe. Slovenia is gorgeous, especially Lake Bled. Romania, Hungary, Czechia and Poland are all very different but have lots to see - gorgeous towns and cities, lakes, the Baltic coast in Poland, mountains, castles…

Finland is very underrated - beautiful and accessible.

Stockholm is top of my list of capitals to return to with the kids.

Sarajevo every time

Lots of nice recommendations in western Europe so far but I will add Albania as a slightly different option, some beautiful places like Theth and Valbona, gorgeous beaches at ksamil and historical towns like Berat. Driving a bit mad though! Actually, I'd recommend the entire Balkan coast from Slovenia down to Greece. Bosnia is beautiful too! Meteora in Greece is amazing too.

Porto is a great city to visit.

Bordeaux and Arcachon.

We’ve also done Biarritz / Bayonne, across the Pyrenees to Bilbao and San Sebastián and along to Santiago de Compostela and Fisterra.

Balkans is amazing. Croatia and Slovenia already mentioned. Sarajevo is an amazing place to visit, and you can do great rafting in the Bosnian mountains. In Serbia you could visit Belgrade, and I there are other regional towns like Nis with some great history. Skopje in Macedonia, with a visit to beautiful Lake Ohrid (great Roman ruins). Montenegro- Kotor is great to visit and the sea is like a bath. Durmitor National Park is breathtaking. Also Bulgaria - amazing mountains, lovely Black Sea coast and visit Plovdiv for some of the best preserved roman history anywhere.

Gdańsk in Poland was a fascinating city break - excellent museums, beautiful streets, fantastic food - really worthwhile for a long weekend

Slovenia for a road trip was beautiful.

Salzburg I think is the most beautiful city in Europe

Malta is well worth a visit, lots of history from prehistoric monuments to Knights Templar history to WW2 history. It's a very small island with a lot packed in.