10 European Discoveries for 2021

On the horizon, there is light. The sun hasn’t risen yet, but it’s coming. Although it has never been more important (or harder) to continue staying home, limiting contact with others, wearing masks, and so on, it’s beginning to feel like 2021 may bring the “return to normal” — and the return to travel — that we all crave. It’s too early to begin planning trips, but it’s never too early to dream. So…where to?

The last several years, my New Year tradition has been to assemble a list of 10 European Discoveries. As we reach the end of a year of hardship, and face a new year of further uncertainty, I almost bailed on this idea. But we will return to Europe. It’s just a question of when. So I’ll keep with tradition — but with a new spin.

I believe that in the post-pandemic world, travelers will look for something different. Before COVID-19, we had gotten so busy, and so stressed by the crowds, that we forgot to slow down and hear the church bells — to savor those beautiful everyday moments of European life. (If I have a post-pandemic resolution, it’s to not make this mistake again.) Having renewed our appreciation for the incredible privilege of being able to go anywhere we want, we’ll seek opportunities to settle in, slow down, and be fully present in Europe. We’ll choose places just outside the mainstream, ones that reward patience and contemplation.

And that’s the theme of my 2021 European Discoveries: 10 places where you might want to settle in for a week, or a few, and really get to know a fascinating corner of our planet. I haven’t set foot in Europe in well over a year — with, I assume, several more months yet to go. It has afforded me ample opportunity to reflect on my 20-plus years of exploring Europe. And looking back on all of it, these are the places the burn brightest in my mind.

Where are you hoping to slow down and savor our world in 2021?

 

Soča Valley, Slovenia

I can think of few places I’ve missed more in 2020 than Slovenia. And for me, the most beautiful place in this incredibly beautiful country is the Soča Valley, where a turquoise river cuts a gorge deep into soaring alpine cliffs, just a few miles from the borders with Austria and Italy. Historians know the Soča Valley for its fierce mountaintop battles during World War I (this is where Ernest Hemingway was wounded while driving an ambulance). And contemporary travelers know it as an adventure-sports capital (whitewater rafting, canyoning, paragliding) and home to the restaurant of Ana Roš, the world’s best female chef. You can get a taste of the Soča Valley on a very busy one-day side-trip from Lake Bled or Ljubljana. But why not settle in for several days? Sleep at a tourist farm on a high-mountain pasture, wake up each day to the sun peeking over snowcapped mountains, and spend your breakfast (of farm-fresh eggs) deciding which breathtaking hike or scenic drive to do today.

 

The Markets of Provence

In September of 2019, my wife and I had a full week to unwind anywhere in Europe. Already exhausted from a packed and fast-paced year of travel, we opted for a quiet weeklong break in the South of France. Why? We wanted to savor the delightful market days (jours de marché) that hop from place to place around the bucolic Provençal countryside. In one week, we sampled seven different markets, each with its own personality. Yes, Provence is packed with other attractions: great sights and wine-tastings and gourmet meals and scenic hikes and hot-air balloon rides. But the markets are precisely the type of sensory super-experience we’re all desperate for after a 2020 spent very close to home. After living through a time when going to the corner grocery store feels like high adventure, imagine the thrill of strolling a lively town square, generously shaded by plane trees, as you choose a little wheel of cheese for your picnic from a mound of fragrant options, browse for just the right produce for a home-cooked Provençal feast, and bite into a strawberry that truly, intensely tastes like strawberry.

 

Budapest

I wrote the book on Budapest…literally. And yet, even after 20-some visits, I still can’t get enough of this grand city on the Danube. With each weeklong visit to update my guidebook, the list of things I’d still like to see and do gets longer, not shorter. The melting pot and de facto capital of Central Europe, Budapest’s unique urban culture mixes a respect for tradition with a cosmopolitan openness to creativity and innovation. It wins my vote for the hands-down best restaurant and nightlife scene in Europe. And yet it also has a stately elegance, with ornate turn-of-the-century buildings, inviting tree-lined plazas, and wooded hills ideal for nature hikes. (And don’t get me started on the thermal baths.) Last March, I had already booked my tickets for yet another visit to Budapest, and I couldn’t wait. That trip, of course, never happened. And by the time I finally get back there, the anticipation will be unbearable. I never know precisely what I’ll see, do, and learn in Budapest. But I know it’ll create lasting memories.

 

Iceland’s Ring Road

When we produced our Rick Steves Iceland guidebook, we included a “how to” chapter on Europe’s ultimate road trip: driving 800 miles on Highway 1 around the perimeter of Iceland, connecting astonishing scenery, geothermal hotspots, glaciers and icebergs, charming fjordside settlements, and warm and wonderful Icelanders. We covered the Ring Road generously in our book, even though we figured very few people would devote the full week required to do this trip justice. But maybe we were wrong. The pandemic has made National Lampoon’s Vacation-style road trips all the rage again. There’s never been a better time to rack up some serious miles through cinematic landscapes and have an honest-to-goodness adventure. And Iceland is made to order for “social distancing” as we tiptoe into the post-pandemic future. My Ring Road post covers the basics; if the photos and places intrigue you, forget about that “48-hour Icelandic layover” you’ve been contemplating…go all-in on the full Ring Road.

 

North Wales

Recently I had the joyful experience of driving around North Wales (roughly the triangle formed by Conwy, Caernarfon, and Ruthin) for several days to update our Rick Steves Great Britain guidebook. I adore Europe’s plucky, off-the-beaten-path cultural eddies, and North Wales tops the list. Along with offering a fascinating crash course in Welsh culture and language, this region is studded with towering stone castles that make you feel like a kid again, a rugged landscape of craggy mountains and slate rooftops, and cheery red dragons laughing down from every flagpole. And it’s compact, making it easy to see a lot from any one of a number of charming home bases. While less known than the Scottish Highlands or Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula, North Wales is every bit as fun, scenic, and culturally rich.

 

Maramureș, Romania

Years ago, my Dad and I went on a road trip through Romania, seeking traditional culture. When we came to Maramureș — ten long, potholed hours of driving north of Bucharest — we felt like anthropologists stumbling upon a place that time forgot. The rolling green hillsides are dotted with giant, tipsy haystacks. Rustic villages with mud roads — and more horse carts than cars — are lined with elaborate wooden churches and ceremonial gateways. Shepherds living in split-wood shacks make cheese like medieval peasants. And riverside settlements bustle with industry dating back to biblical times, from carpet-washers to fulling mills to to weaving looms to moonshine stills. This is not an “open-air folk museum” — it’s the real deal, Europe’s Amish Country. As our world changes at a dizzying pace — which only accelerated in 2020 — there’s no guarantee that Maramureș traditions will survive for much longer. (Teo Ivanciuc, an excellent local guide who helped us film our TV segment in Maramures, would love to show you around.)

 

Camino de Santiago, Spain

In the Middle Ages, pilgrims walked from all over Europe to venerate the bones of St. James in Santiago de Compostela, at the northwest corner of Iberia. This route — the Camino de Santiago — was largely forgotten over the centuries, only to be rediscovered in our own lifetime by travelers seeking an escape from modern life. After a year of deep soul-searching, there’s nothing like a four-week hike to clear the mind, synthesize all we’ve learned, and contemplate where to go from here. Begin in the green Pyrenees foothills of Basque Country, then walk across the arid plains of northern Spain, through villages and cities and across stone bridges from Roman times, before finally passing trough the wilds of lush, green, and rocky Galícia — all along the way, sleeping in rustic pilgrims’ hostels and following scallop shells through the wilderness. I’ve hiked bits of the Camino here and there (and I drove the entire route, end to end, to write a “how to” chapter in our Rick Steves Spain guidebook). But I’ve never been so tempted to do the full Camino the old-fashioned way.

 

Lofoten Islands, Norway

All my life, I’d seen this magical place in postcards and coffee-table books: soulful fjords with cut-glass mountains rising high above serene, deep waters, speckled with red cottages and almost no people. My wife and I decided we simply had to see this scene for ourselves. And when we finally made it to the Lofoten Islands — above the Arctic Circle and chilly even in August — we found it even more stunning than the photos. Getting to the Lofoten requires some effort (from Oslo, fly due north for an hour and a half), so you might as well settle in. The rugged Norwegians who’ve carved out a hardy life up here, hanging cod to dry on rickety wooden frames, are adept at introducing visitors to traditional lifestyles. Rent a rorbu (cheery cottage perched on stilts over the fjord) and spend a few days just tooling around, from the “capital city” village of Svolvær to the end-of-the-road cod-fishing settlement called Å. We home-based in Reine, perched on a flat rock in the middle of a fjord with the most stunning views in all of the Lofoten, and from there we ventured out to see everything the archipelago has to offer.

 

New Zealand

Sure, it’s not “European” in geographical terms. But for anyone who loves Europe, New Zealand feels strikingly familiar…yet excitingly different. (One afternoon, you’re punting the River Avon in Christchurch, as if you were in an English country garden; the next day, you’re swimming with dolphins at Kaikoura.) After years of hearing from our well-traveled friends about this seemingly too-good-to-be-true land, my wife and I finally spent a few weeks here in early 2019. And we fell instantly, hopelessly in love. Yes, the scenery is gobsmacking, and Lord of the Rings fans are in heaven. But New Zealand is so much more: a melding of Europe and Polynesia set amidst an entertaining landscape, where majestic glaciers rise high above steamy groves of ferns and palm trees. We loved sampling the local wine, craft beer, and third-wave coffee culture; learning about the indigenous Māori culture; and getting to know the wonderful Kiwis, who somehow manage to be well-organized and ceaselessly competent while remaining low-key and easygoing. Even before we came home, we’d already started Googling “How do I emigrate to New Zealand?” Now that the Kiwis (under the steady and compassionate leadership of Jacinda Ardern) have managed the pandemic better than anyone, this little island nation is sure to be flooded soon with more than its share of tourists…and transplants. Why not finally get down there soon,  ahead of the crowds? As soon as they open up to outsiders, New Zealand is at the top of our list of post-pandemic dreams.

 

Agriturismo Cretaiole, Tuscany

For years I’ve been singing the praises of a very special place to stay in the most beautiful corner of Tuscany. On a wooded ridge just outside Pienza, city mouse Isabella married country mouse Carlo and, together, they converted a traditional Tuscan farm into the best possible expression of an agriturismo — where visitors experience rural Italian culture and cuisine with modern comforts. With each visit, this place impresses me even more — and especially the vivid, perfectly orchestrated Tuscan experiences that Isabella creates for her guests: truffle hunts, pasta-rolling parties, olive oil appreciation classes, wine tastings, deeply meaningful nature hikes, and on and on. When I close my eyes and picture the one place I’d love to get back to as soon as I can, it’s spending a week — or more — at Cretaiole.

On my most recent visit to Tuscany, a few months before COVID-19 hit, Isabella showed me around her gorgeous new boutique hotel (La Moscadella), offering a similar Tuscan cultural experience with more luxury. But now that fine hotel, and the original farmhouse, sit mostly empty — one more tragedy in this year full of them. Whether it’s Cretaiole or some other perfect place you’ve discovered in your travels, small businesses are hurting right now. If you have the means to travel, as soon as it’s safe, consider booking a return visit. Helping to jump-start these businesses is the least we can do, considering all of the joy people like Isabella and Carlo have brought to our lives over the years.

I’m hoping that 2021 brings good fortune and a return to what we love, both for us travelers and for the people we meet on the road. Like all things, this too shall pass. And a year from now, if all goes well, we’ll be comparing notes about a whole new slew of discoveries for a new age of travel.

27 Replies to “10 European Discoveries for 2021”

  1. Thank you for sharing these Cameron – the evocative way you write about these places provides real joy with a dash of wonder. I want to visit all of these places now – Happy 2021!

  2. Ok, I’ve got two of these to do as I approach Eighty. So lucky I’ve been and stayed and heard the bells ring in the other places. Great Joys!

  3. You have the same list I do! Romania, Budapest (again) Iceland, Norway (beyond the fjords which are great on Hurtegruten) Spain, etc. My list keeps growing! Thank You

  4. My grandparents both left their Hungarian birth homes before the age of 18. I wanted to visit the villages they came from. Though research on Ellis Island and WWII military maps I found the locations. After visiting Budapest we traveled by car northeast to my grandfathers village near the border with Ukraine. I found cousins there who warmly embraced me and told me I was the first person to have come back from America. Then we set off for Transylvania. We found my grandmothers home down one of the long pothole filled roads in Romania. There we found a man who looked just like my father. It was an incredible experience. I have written the story down for future generations.

    1. I love this story, especially meeting the man who looked just like your dad. I hope your parents were able to go with you.

  5. Of these, Reine Norway is the most spectacular. I know that because Reine is the most spectacular place there ever has been. It is very / quite difficult to get to Oslo to Bodo then ferry across to Reine. The sun was only really fully out and shining for 8 hours but it was the most beautiful awe inspiring 8 hours of my life.

  6. THANK YOU!! for the information on Isabella and Carlo. We are looking forward to another trip to Italy and will definitely put them on our radar!

  7. I have set aside February for a “staycation” devoted to planning our next European trips when such travel is safe. Thanks for the list to add to my own.

  8. I already do the slow travel thing and it’s great. :D

    It’s not unusual for me to spend a few days in most places and up to a week in a big city. When I travel I usually pick a region or a country, depending on how much time I have, and focus on that rather than trying to cram in as many cities and countries as I can. When I’m visiting a place I take my time, exploring, getting off the beaten path, and enjoying the moment.

    People have often thought that my method of travel is strange (e.g. you went to Europe for a month and only visited Germany???) but I don’t care because I have always marched to the beat of my own drummer.

    Also, I’ve been to New Zealand and Australia and they were fantastic. I would recommend both. So many people focus solely on Europe that they forget there’s so much more to the world.

    1. Hi Evan, I could have been the author of your post for it’s exactly how we’ve traveled for close to 60 years, and how we’ll continue to travel as soon as we’re able to do so. I never have understood the “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium” travel style. I realize we’re lucky to have the time to really get to know a region but if a person does have the time, it truly is the best approach. (And Cameron, your Eastern European book was great; we adored Budapest. ) And as a wise man has said, “Happy travels.”

  9. I enjoy taking my time and enjoy each country thoroughly, either using Rick’s tour books or guided tours. I started world travel in 1969 using Europe on $5 a day and haven’t stopped. Thanks to Cameron (our tour guide) for a wonderful trip which included Slovenia and Budapest with Eastern Europe. I was so thankful 2019 was my Norway, Sweden and Denmark tour. I haven’t been to Romania and I need to consider going.
    New Zealand is one of my favorite countries and I would go back anytime! 3 1/2 weeks in New Zealand and 2 weeks in Australia and I only touched the surface of my exploring.
    My bucket list has narrowed as I will be eighty this year. Hope I can get to Japan and one state I left until I got old – Hawaii.
    I can’t wait to continue traveling and have been thoroughly enjoying Rick’s Monday Night Travel every week.

  10. My sister and I visited Australia and New Zealand in 2019, and completely agree with Evan that they were fantastic ! Absolutely beautiful scenery-from majestic mountains to fabulous beaches. And don’t forget Tasmania, a very special “gem” indeed !

  11. Hi Christine, We also were in Scandinavia in late 2019; our last trip before the pandemic. It seems like a lifetime ago.

  12. love the way you write, Cameron.
    I don’t like cold places(I’m a fair dinkum Aussie), living in Seattle-because I married an aeronautical engineer who I met in Toronto while he was working at de Havilland, who was from Egypt. That’s how I ended up in Seattle, where we were married.
    So I will prob never go to Iceland, Patagonia, no matter how photogenic.
    I did trek to Everest Base camp with my porter carrying my pack-but he didn’t like the cold either, or the food up higher than his village down near Lukla, but he wasn’t being paid till we came down again, so no choice. My Best Pilgrimage was Camino de Santiago, 6 weeks across Nthn Spain. Love that bridge, Puenta de la Reina, built by the Queen. Galicia, cool wet and green just like the Pacific Northwest. was there for grape harvest-Sept/October best time to walk. NewZealand, such hospitable people, not to mention all the grand tramping trips my friend from Wellington organized every 4 yrs when I visited!
    tuscanny hill towns….such a gem you described…I was there in ’66 with a Eurailpass.

  13. Hello, Cameron,
    On a snowy day in Kansas City, I was transported to Tuscany, Provence, Spain, Budapest, etc., by your blog. Thank you so much for advocating “slow travel”. It is the best way to go.
    For the travel hungry, imagination is a wonderful thing. Thank you again.
    2021 will be a better year.

  14. Muchas gracias por la lista. Tambien les aconsejaría a todos viajar a Camino de Santiago. Es un lugar precioso.

  15. The lead paragraph got me hooked when you said “church bells” and that reminded me of a week we spent decades ago in Aviano, Italy, staying with a friend in her walkup near the USAF base where she was stationed. The belltower, the espresso, the view of the snow-covered Dolomites…all brought back very vivid memories of slow, small-town Italy. Thanks for that.

  16. I also prefer “slow travel,” especially with my two young kids. We spent a week in London in 2019 for their first visit to Europe (they were 6 & 10), and had a great time. I don’t think we’ll make it overseas this year, but hopefully in 2022. I don’t know where though, there are so many amazing places to see! I have a very long wish/bucket list.

  17. Reading this reminds me of how starved we are to get back to Europe. (We’re hoping to go to Wales this year, but haven’t yet made any plans.) Three or four years ago we spent a 5 full days in Florence on our own, which we thought would be plenty of time to see it all. We were mistaken, of course. It really is a different kind of experience to spend several days in one place, and I wish we could do more of it.

  18. Cameron, I’m copying your blog to visit these places. In 2013 my husband and I drove all over the U.S. and visited 17 national parks, about 26 states and 2
    Canadian provinces in 66 days of car travel. It was a long 13,400 miles but we loved it. We stayed in small motels, did all of our photography in that town until noon, then drove to the next beautiful place with the help of onstar. We’d look ahead and decide where we were going to stop, then call onstar to help us make a hotel reservation for the night. (They need to showcase this gem on tv.) As the result of being the navigator most of the time, I retained a lot more of the trip. Our favorite place? Crater Lake Natl Park in Oregon. Breathtaking panoramas in early June, snow in the fields although it was 72, a lake so clear blue and deep, wind whistling quietly and no tourists! Forget Yellowstone with 5000 tourists just around Old Faithful. MY favorite travel tool? An old fashioned large paper Rand McNally US atlas of road maps. The atlas showed 44 natl parks at the top and the rest was history. We’d stop at old forts, Natl cemeteries, interment camps, anything that caught our eyes. Our country is vast and full of gems. Happy travels.

    1. My wife and I did the same across Canada to NFLD and back to Vancouver in our 2009 Honda Civic during 2017 when all the NTL parks were free to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation. That save us a bundle! Also … several trips to the US including a single circumnavigation from Washington to Maine, down to Key West, across to southern California and back up to Washington … in our trusty Honda Civic. Never a mechanical problem with that sucker. We always said, “if not now, when?” and unfortunately COVID proved us “right”.

  19. My wife is Hungarian and we bought an apartment in the northern suburb of UjPest for use during our visits. It’s located about a 10 – 15 minute walk from the last metro station on Line 3. Just outside our door is the synagogue as UjPest started pretty much as a Jewish settlement in the early 19th century since Isaac Lowry couldn’t get a permit in Budapest to build his shoe factory. As I walk by the synagogue a bas relief shows the “progression” (more like regression) of the efficient roundup of the Jewish population by the Hungarian Arrow Cross fascists in 1944, their incarceration at Auschwitz and eventual liberation by the Soviet Red Army. That’s the dark side and there is lot about today’s politics which distastefully resonates with that era. On the other hand the food (a REAL farmers market is only a 5 minute walk away for us) is incredibly good and puts most of our vegetables and fruit to shame (blueberries and corn are the exceptions). And the paprika … wow! You just can’t get the real stuff in North America. And the wine, and the palinka (plum brandy) my 83 year old mother in law makes from her plums (nothing else).

  20. My wife is Hungarian and we bought an apartment in the northern suburb of UjPest for use during our visits. It’s located about a 10 – 15 minute walk from the last metro station on Line 3. Just outside our door is the synagogue as UjPest started pretty much as a Jewish settlement in the early 19th century since Isaac Lowry couldn’t get a permit in Budapest to build his shoe factory. As I walk by the synagogue a bas relief shows the “progression” (more like regression) of the efficient roundup of the Jewish population by the Hungarian Arrow Cross fascists in 1944, their incarceration at Auschwitz and eventual liberation by the Soviet Red Army. That’s the dark side and there is lot about today’s politics which distastefully resonates with that era. On the other hand the food (a REAL farmers market is only a 5 minute walk away for us) is incredibly good and puts most of our vegetables and fruit to shame (blueberries and corn are the exceptions). And the paprika … wow! You just can’t get the real stuff in North America. And the wine, and the palinka (plum brandy) my 83 year old mother in law makes from her plums (nothing else).

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