Help! Little fishing village, near to beach, not touristy - help me find the holy grail!

[ExistentialThreat]

Me, 46, grumpy, tired. Likes: culture, being warm, peace, little cafes, walking, off the beaten track. Dislikes: crowds, all-day-breakfast type of places, resorts, everyone being English, tourist traps
DH, 47, grumpy, tired: Likes: not having to drive anywhere, having a quiet beer, tasty food. Dislikes: tourist traps, other people
DD, 6: Likes: swimming, exploring. Dislikes: 'forced fun' (holiday clubs etc)

We would like a direct, low cost flight (3.5 hours max); a place to find an AirBnB or similar (self catering not hotel); with a pool - guarenteed sun.

Budget is an issue - looking for somwhere pretty cheap on the ground.

Last year we went to Marrakesh and had a great time. Looking for something else this year.

I'm going round in circles looking at Morocco, Montenegro, Greexe, Turkey. Can anyone help?!

Agree - Collioure will be heaving in summer. It is gorgeous though.
Sicily has some lovely little towns. We liked Selinunte on the south coast, which has a beautiful beach and a few places to eat.

Agree

Stari Grad Town on Hvar

Portocolom, Majorca. 👍

Ayvalik

There are lots of beautiful, quiet fishing villages in The vendee in France. We really loved it.

Maybe it's time to have a different type of holiday.

Can you ditch the beach?
We had some lovely holidays in Belgium and Germany.

Beautiful historic towns, good food... and plenty to explore! But, you'd need to be mobile- car is almost essential for getting around. (We'd done some areas in Germany by public transport...)

This was the first place I thought of! Beautiful beach, small and relatively quiet even when we visited mid summer. Also another vote for Cabanas Tavira but we were advised by our apartment owners to prebook restaurants as they do get busy. We managed to do this a few days in advance each time and in between times we bbq'd in the apartment. Nearby Tavira is easily reached by bus and whilst busy is beautiful and interesting

How about Albania?

Kalkan in Turkey or Arenel de Castell in Menorca

Koroni - fly to Kalamata.
https://www.travel.gr/en/experiences-ee/long-weekend-in-koroni-greece-medieval-atmosphere-magical-sunsets/

Would you consider the ‘East Neil’ of Fife, impossibly picturesque small fishing villages along the Fife Coastal Path. The larger Anstruther for the lifeboat station, good selection of ships and the Anstruther Fish Bar’s brilliant fish and chips

if you could be sure of the weather it would be a major tourist trap by now.

Santa Luzia. Two miles from Tavira (eastern algarve) Very quiet but walkable/cyclable to Tavira. Beach access by boat or little train, lovely restaurants, an amazing friendly bar, with a brilliant owner, train in Tavira if you want to get anywhere else in the Algarve, no noise. Just lovely.
We go twice a year and do very very little but that's what it offers!

Also - plenty of places with pools!

@ElizabethVonArnim yep - I said earlier if you like site seeing that the mainland is a better bet- Peloponnese is very lovely -

Es Grau in Menorca

Lake Annecy or the villages around. Fly to Geneva and than an hours journey. Lovely lake surrounded by mountains. There’s ’green Beaches’ , (ie grassy areas) where you can sunbathe next to the lake.

Actually just remembered Fornells in Menorca- that’s very nice indeed , quite upmarket , but originally a fishing village and def not egg and chips kind of place -

Thank you all so much! Definitely a few places here to research. I love the idea of Koroni @ElizabethVonArnim and also of Skopoles @Crikeyalmighty. I'm also very open to Albania @CharlotteCChapel if you have any specifics?

Now I'm off for the fun job of trying to triangulate flights / accommodation / DH.

Keep 'em coming!

Tavira, Portugal

We had a very nice relaxing time in Kassiopi in Corfu. Transfer is a fair way but lovely scenery along the way. Beautiful harbour with nice restaurants and three beaches to choose from

Opatija or Rijeka? Probably don’t fit your criteria 100% but worth looking in to.

I loved it there. Asos is stunning too. We also did a day trip to Ithaca from Kefalonia which was beautiful and very peaceful. The main town Vathy was nice, but we also visited a little village called Kioni which had the most beautiful little harbour.

Cala Figuera in Mallorca? We stayed in Cala d'Or years ago which is tourist central obviously, but I remember doing a boat trip down the coast to Cala Figuera and a few fishing villages which were very quiet and pretty

@stickybear Cala figuera is lovely -Al it like a fjord

Lake Bled in Slovenia I found to be beautiful and peaceful - great for swimming.