Move over Amalfi, try Taormina
crowded Guinness tours of the capital.
The city is a great start or end point for the Wild Atlantic Way drive but is devoid of many of the Americancentric coach tours which infest the Ring of Kerry to the south. You’re closer to Ireland’s amazing fresh seafood and (obviously) the potatoes are on-point. Small pub doors lead to warrens of bands and bars off the city’s lanes and the craic is always good in this charming Irish city.
Been to berlin, better check out Budapest
Berlin is one of the most historically important cities of the 20th century … and don’t the crowds snaking along the capital’s eponymous wall just know it. History buffs and artists alike could instead head to Hungary’s biggest city as a remedy. The country’s chequered history with both Fascism and Communism is retold at the House of Terror museum.
The twin cities of Buda and Pest have kept their classic romantic looks despite the turmoil of the last century. For something more modern take a tour of the ruin bars, which sprung up organically in the cities empty loft apartments (they ooze cool but are far easier to get into than Berlin’s legendary Berghain nightclub).
Forget the Alps, go to Lake Bled instead
Whether in Switzerland, France or Italy, trekking to the iconic Alps hurts as much in the wallet as it does in the legs.
Luckily, this mountain range stretches into the formerly communist nation of Slovenia. Before it was famous for being the homeland of Donald Trump’s missus, the Slovenes’ best-kept secret was Lake Bled in the Julian Alps.
The township wraps around the lake, on which is a small island with a picturesque church. There’s no yodelling or raclette, but dumplings and cream cakes still triumph after days skiing in Kranjska Gora and Vogel fields, or exploring the Triglav national park. Italy’s Amalfi coast is synonymous with glamorous Europeans wearing white linen against their leathery skin, and the people like me who gawk at them. Positano and Capri heave in July and August, and the crowds can overshadow the beauty of this rocky outcrop on the Med.
So head south to where real Italians holiday. Sicily, specifically the pastelpainted town of Taormina, is in the shadow of Mount Etna volcanic smoke but lures romantics and adventurers alike.
Its old town is perched high above the Ionian sea and is adjacent to a Greco-Roman theatre still in use today for summer concerts.