Forget Paris and Rome — These 10 European Towns Are What Travel Was Supposed to Feel Like

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We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you … you’re just helping re-supply our family’s travel fund.

Here is a thing that has happened to me in Paris: I waited 45 minutes in line to see a painting I could barely glimpse over a wall of strangers, paid €22 to eat a mediocre crêpe in the shadow of a monument, and spent 20 minutes on a sidewalk jammed with selfie sticks. It was not, by any measure, what travel is supposed to feel like.

Here is another thing that happened to me: I drove through the gates of a medieval hilltop village in Portugal, found a wine bar with three tables and an eighty-year-old man pouring local Alentejo red, and had the most extraordinary dinner of my year for €18. Nobody from the internet was there. The stones were 800 years old. The local cat came and sat on my lap.

That is what travel is supposed to feel like. Here are ten towns that still deliver it.

10 European Towns That Americans Are Finally Discovering

Tübingen, Germany

Country: Germany | Cost Level: Moderate | Best Time: November-December for the Christmas market, or May-September

Tübingen is a medieval university town 30 minutes south of Stuttgart, and it is one of Germany’s most beautiful places that almost no international tourists visit. Half-timbered houses rise above a river, centuries-old churches anchor every turn, and the cobblestone old town feels genuinely lived-in rather than preserved for tourists — because Tübingen University has kept it a working city of students and scholars since 1477.

• Holzmarkt — the main market square surrounded by half-timbered buildings
• Stiftskirche St. Georg — Gothic church with sweeping views from the tower
• Neckar River punting — flat-bottomed boat tours along the river
• Tübingen Christmas Market — one of Germany’s most atmospheric, far smaller and more genuine than Stuttgart’s or Cologne’s

Getting there: 30-minute train from Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof. Stuttgart is a 1-hour flight or 3.5-hour train from Frankfurt.

Motovun, Croatia

Country: Croatia | Cost Level: Low | Best Time: June-September, or October for truffle season

Motovun sits on a hilltop above the Mirna River valley in Istria — Croatia’s northwestern peninsula — looking like something out of a movie set. It is a medieval walled village surrounded by oak forests, and those forests are why food lovers make the pilgrimage: Istria is one of Europe’s most significant truffle regions, and Motovun is the center of it. In October, truffle hunters and their dogs walk the forests at dawn.

• The Romanesque church of St. Stephen and its adjacent bell tower — climb it for views across the valley
• Truffle tasting at local restaurants — fresh white truffle pasta runs €20-30 in season
• The town walls — walk the perimeter for panoramic views of the Mirna valley
• Motovun Film Festival — held every July, small and atmospheric

Getting there: Rent a car from Pula or Rijeka. Motovun is about 30 minutes from Poreč and 45 minutes from Rovinj, both beautiful Istrian coastal towns.

Isola San Giulio, Italy

Country: Italy | Cost Level: Moderate | Best Time: April-June or September-October

Lake Orta is one of Italy’s best-kept secrets — a small, deep lake in the Piedmont region just west of Lake Maggiore. It lacks Lake Como’s celebrity cachet, which means it also lacks Lake Como’s prices and crowds. The crown jewel of the lake is Isola San Giulio, a tiny island (barely 275 meters long) accessible by a 5-minute rowboat from the village of Orta San Giulio.

The island is home to a Benedictine abbey, a Romanesque basilica dating to the 12th century, and a single winding path around its perimeter called the Via del Silenzio — the Path of Silence — lined with meditative phrases carved into stone. It is genuinely one of the most peaceful places in Europe.

• Basilica di San Giulio — free entry, extraordinary frescoes
• The Via del Silenzio walk — 10 minutes around the island, completely transformative
• The village of Orta San Giulio on the mainland — medieval piazza, excellent restaurants
• Sacro Monte di Orta — a UNESCO hilltop sanctuary above the village with lake views

Getting there: 1-hour drive from Milan or 1.5-hour train to Orta-Miasino station.

Alberobello, Italy

Country: Italy | Cost Level: Low-Moderate | Best Time: April-June or September-October

Alberobello, in the Puglia region of southern Italy, contains something you genuinely will not believe until you see it: hundreds of conical stone buildings called trulli, clustered together in white-domed streets that look exactly like a fairy tale. The UNESCO-listed trulli zone contains over 1,500 of these structures — some dating to the 14th century — and many have been converted into shops, restaurants, and accommodation.

• Rione Monti district — the largest concentration of trulli, magical at dawn before the tour groups arrive
• Trullo Sovrano — the only two-story trullo, now a museum
• Staying overnight in a trullo — several are available as short-term rentals from €60-120/night
• Orecchiette with ragù at a local trattoria — Puglia’s signature pasta, €8-12/plate

Getting there: 1.5-hour train from Bari. Bari has direct flights from major European cities. Combine with nearby Matera for a southern Italy itinerary.

Meteora, Greece

Country: Greece | Cost Level: Low-Moderate | Best Time: April-May or September-October

Meteora is one of the most dramatic landscapes on earth — a plain statement that requires no hyperbole once you’ve seen it. Enormous rock formations, some rising 400 meters straight from the plain of Thessaly, are topped by Eastern Orthodox monasteries that monks climbed to by rope nets and baskets for centuries. Six monasteries remain active today. The sight of them — stone walls growing organically from the top of impossible spires — is genuinely beyond description.

• Monastery of Great Meteoron (Megalo Meteoro) — the largest and oldest, founded in the 14th century
• Monastery of Varlaam — best frescoes of any Meteora monastery
• Sunrise hike — the trails between monasteries are walkable at dawn when the tourist buses haven’t arrived
• The viewpoints — multiple photography spots offer different angles on the rock formations

Getting there: 3-hour train from Thessaloniki or 4.5-hour train from Athens to Kalambaka, the base town. Rent a bicycle or join a guided tour to visit the monasteries.

Monsaraz, Portugal

Country: Portugal | Cost Level: Very Low | Best Time: March-June or September-November

Monsaraz is a medieval walled village in the Alentejo — Portugal’s vast, sun-baked interior — that sits on a ridge above the plain like a crown. The entire village is enclosed within medieval battlements and contains a population of roughly 800 people. Streets are cobblestone and white, the wine in the local restaurants comes from the surrounding Alentejo estates at €3-4 per glass, and the number of international tourists on any given weekday can be counted in the dozens.

Ten kilometers away, the Cromlech dos Almendres is one of Europe’s most significant megalithic monuments — Portugal’s answer to Stonehenge, predating it by 2,000 years, and visited by almost nobody.

• The medieval castle and its views across the Alqueva reservoir and Spanish plains
• Cromeleque dos Almendres — 95 standing stones in an oval formation, ~10km away, extraordinary and almost deserted
• Local Alentejo cuisine: açorda, migas, black pork
• Local wine tasting — Alentejo produces some of Portugal’s best wines at extremely low prices

Getting there: 2.5-hour drive from Lisbon. No train service — a car is necessary. Best combined with Évora (30 minutes away), a stunning UNESCO-listed city.

Fiskardo, Greece

Country: Greece | Cost Level: Moderate-High (but beautiful) | Best Time: May-June or September

Fiskardo is a small Venetian harbor village on the northern tip of Kefalonia island in the Ionian Sea. It survived the catastrophic 1953 earthquake that destroyed most of Kefalonia, and as a result its Venetian-era architecture is intact — pastel buildings, stone quays, the sparkling blue-green Ionian Sea, and fishing boats rocking gently in the harbor. It’s undeniably lovely.

• The harbor walk at sunset — one of the most beautiful scenes in Greece
• Seafood at the harbor restaurants — grilled octopus, sea bream, fresh calamari
• Day boat trip to nearby Ithaca (Homer’s Odyssey island) — organized tours from Fiskardo
• Swimming at Emblisi Beach — a short walk from the village, crystal clear water

Getting there: Fly to Kefalonia airport (there are seasonal direct flights from the UK, Germany, and Athens). Fiskardo is 1.5 hours from the airport by car.

Pérouges, France

Country: France | Cost Level: Low | Best Time: Year-round (Christmas season is magical)

Pérouges is a medieval walled village 30 kilometers northeast of Lyon that has been continuously inhabited since the Middle Ages and looks almost completely unchanged. The cobblestone streets are slightly curved (medieval urban planning favored curves to slow wind and intruders), the stone houses are centuries old, and the village’s famous galette de Pérouges — a flatbread cooked with butter and sugar, served warm — is the best thing you will eat for €6 in Europe.

• The Ostellerie du Vieux Pérouges — a hotel and restaurant operating since the 14th century
• La galette de Pérouges — buy it warm from the place des Tilleuls
• The town ramparts — a 30-minute walk around the perimeter walls with countryside views
• Used as a filming location for numerous period films and TV shows — see if you recognize it

Getting there: 40-minute drive from Lyon or 50-minute combination of regional train and bus. Easy day trip from Lyon, which has a major airport.

Krka, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Country: Bosnia & Herzegovina | Cost Level: Very Low | Best Time: April-October

Bosnia & Herzegovina is one of the cheapest countries in Europe and one of the most overlooked — which is a genuine shame because the landscape is extraordinary. The Krka River canyon (not to be confused with Krka National Park in Croatia) flows through a region of dramatic waterfalls, medieval fortresses, and Ottoman bridges.

Bosnia is a place where a full restaurant meal with wine costs €10-15, where accommodation runs €25-40/night, and where the history — complex and relatively recent — gives every visit genuine weight. The old city of Mostar (2 hours from Split by bus) is one of the most beautiful and emotionally resonant places I have ever walked.

• Stari Most bridge in Mostar — UNESCO, rebuilt after destruction in 1993, heartbreaking and beautiful
• Kravice Waterfalls — a stunning natural cascade 40km from Mostar, often compared to a miniature Plitvice
• Blagaj Tekke — a 16th-century Dervish monastery built at the base of a cliff above a river spring
• Bosnian coffee and baklava in the bazaar — mandatory

Getting there: Direct buses from Split (Croatia) and Dubrovnik run multiple times daily. Bus is $15-25 each way.

Matera, Italy

Country: Italy | Cost Level: Moderate | Best Time: April-June or September-October

Matera is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth — the Sassi (cave dwellings carved into a ravine) have been inhabited for perhaps 9,000 years. For much of the 20th century the Sassi were considered a national embarrassment — impoverished cave communities whose residents were relocated by government order in the 1950s. Today the same Sassi are UNESCO-listed, have been converted into some of the most extraordinary boutique hotels and restaurants in southern Italy, and served as the setting for James Bond’s No Time to Die.

Walking through Matera at dusk — the golden stone glowing, cave churches carved into the ravine walls, the silence broken only by bells — is one of those travel experiences that recalibrates everything. It costs almost nothing to visit, the food is excellent and cheap, and it is genuinely unlike any other place on earth.

• Sasso Caveoso — the older and deeper of the two main Sassi districts
• Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario — a furnished cave house museum showing how families lived in the 1950s
• Chiesa rupestre di Santa Lucia alle Malve — a cave church with Byzantine frescoes
• Staying overnight in a converted Sassi cave hotel — a surreal and beautiful experience from €80-150/night

Getting there: Nearest airport is Bari (1.5 hours by car or bus). Direct buses run from Bari twice daily. Matera has no train station — a car or bus is required.

The European towns on every travel list are there because they’re worth seeing. But the towns on this list are worth feeling — and that is a different thing entirely.