Summer travel: European beach destinations

by Matthew Firestone on

With the summer holiday season just around the corner, it’s never too early to start planning your escape to the beach. For many Americans, this means balmy Floridian shores, the sun-kissed Californian coast, far-flung Hawaiian islands or hedonistic Caribbean resorts.

But if you’re looking for a slice of culture alongside your generous helpings of sea and sand, then consider escaping to one (or several) European beach destinations. A quick jaunt across the pond is all that separates you from basking in glorious Mediterranean climes.

The French Riviera is arguably the most glamorous destination on the continent, but the surprising diversity of European beaches easily caters to travelers of all budget levels. Therein lies the real appeal as you can seek out whatever wave-lapped strip of land that happens to take your fancy.

On that note, we’re proud to kick off our summer travel round-ups by highlighting five European beach destinations that we can’t stop thinking about. Although this list is by no means exhaustive, we’re hoping that it inspires you to dig out the swimsuits from your closet’s nether regions.If your bags are packed with beachwear, flip flops, an absorbent towel and the proper amount of skin-healthy sunscreen, then you’re ready for the following locales:

Barcelona The capital of Catalunya, the second most populous city in Spain and home to the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind when you think European beaches. But the city is actually hemmed in by a series of attractive beaches, including the mile-long Playa de la Barceloneta.

Although it’s definitely not the most beautiful beach in the bunch, Barceloneta wins in the category of convenience. It’s actually accessible by metro, which provides ample opportunities for urban denizens to tomar el sol or ‘drink the sun.’ Best part: tapas bars line the beach, ensuring that you’re never too far away from a glass of wine, flaky bread, dried meats, ripe cheeses and all manners of cured olives.

Nice While there are certainly glitzier destinations along the French Riviera (we’re looking at you, Saint-Tropez!), Nice is distinguished by its rich cultural heritage – and fantastic seafood. The old town is home to a series of pedestrian-built squares lined with alfresco cafes and bistros. Menus pay homage to the local proverb: ‘Fish are born in the sea, and die in olive oil.’

The beach itself is fronted by the Promenade des Anglais or ‘Promenade of the English,’ which was commissioned by wealthy English vacationers in the 18th century. Today, La Prom (as it is affectionately known by locals) is perfect for a leisurely stroll while staring out into the azure expanses of the Mediterranean. C’est Magnifique.

Balearic Islands This archipelago floating off the southeastern coast of Spain is comprised of fifty major and minor islands including Majorca, Minorca, Formentera, Cabrera and Ibiza. The geography here is dramatic, with rocky coastlines punctuated by sheltered swaths of postcard-perfect sandy beaches.

Ibiza in particular is regarded as Europe’s ultimate summer clubbing destination. The island plays host to some of the world’s top chill-out bars and dance clubs including Cafe del Mar, Space and Pacha. From June to October, this is where you’ll find the top DJs on the electronic music scene, not to mention thronging crowds of party-crazed revelers.

Sardinia Although Sicily is Italy’s most famous island destination, when it comes to beaches you need to head a bit further west out to sea. Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean, has a history of human occupation dating back to the Phoenicians. Here you’ll find ruined cities of Punic columns and colonnaded streets in addition to stately medieval settlements and a few modern commercial hubs.

When it comes to beaches, Sardinia is most definitely a heavy-hitter. The coastline is rough and rugged, with immense caverns that have been slowly carved out by the pounding surf. In gentler stretches, powder-white strips of sand nestle protected grottos and tranquil lagoons. Outside of the resort towns, you can cruise ocean highways in the seat of your favorite Italian sports car.

Greek Islands Something of a right of passage amongst the backpacking set, island-hopping in Greece is all about the pursuit of pleasure. From slow-lunches of feta-strewn salads to late-night tumblers of anise-scented ouzo, Greece is quite literally a feast for the senses.

For those in search of bronze glory, there are more than 6000 Aegean, Ionian, Cycladean and Dodecanese islands to choose from. But if we had to narrow it down a bit more, we’d focus on the following: Mykonos for its beach chic, Kos for its seclusion and serenity, Corfu for its elegant vistas, Santorini for its artistic inspiration and Crete for its archaeological underpinnings.

Hvar For a taste of up and coming Europe, look no further than the northeastern shores of the Adriatic Sea. Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast is fringed with pine forests, dotted with red-tiled cities and defined by curvaceous bays and floating islets. Prices are on the rise following the introduction of the euro, yet Croatia still remains an affordable corner of a generally expensive continent.

Anywhere in Dalmatia will do you some good, but we’re personally hooked on Hvar. This limestone island is drenched in sunlight, scented with lavender and home to a burgeoning wine industry. Don’t miss Dubovica Beach, which lies next to a stone-hewn village that appears to have leapt out from the pages of a fairy tale.

Did we leave out one of your favorite European beach destinations? Most likely as there are far too many noteworthy spots to list in one blog post. But that’s why we’re inviting you to chime in and let us know what we missed. Be they classic tourist spots or veritable hidden gems, European beaches might just be some of the most enviable destinations for summer travel.

** All images are courtesy of the Wikicommons Media Project **

Bizarre foods: European “delicacies,” by country

by Laurel Miller on

What constitutes “food” is relative, depending upon what part of the world you call home. In Asia, pretty much anything on no (snakes), two, four, six, or eight legs is up for grabs. Europe, however, has its own culinary oddities, as detailed below. Got maggots?

Iceland
Hákarl: Fermented, dried Greenland or basking shark. This tasty treat is prepared by burying the beheaded and gutted shark in a shallow hole in the ground for six to 12 weeks. Unsurprisingly, the end result is considered noxious to pretty much everyone on the planet aside from Icelanders.

Norway
Smalahove: Boiled lamb’s head, traditionally served at Christmas. The brain is removed, and the head salted and dried before boiling. Because they’re the fattiest bits, the ear and eye are eaten first. More fun than a wishbone.

Sardinia (yes, it’s in Italy, but this one deserved its own listing)
Casu marzu: This sheep’s milk cheese has maggots added to it during ripening, because their digestive action creates an “advanced level” of fermentation (also known as “decomposition”). Some people prefer to eat the soupy results sans critters, while the stout of heart go for the whole package. Be forewarned: according to Wikipedia, irate maggots can propel themselves for distances up to six inches. Here’s fly in your eye.

Northern Sweden or Finland
Lappkok: This charmingly-named concoction consists of blodpalt–a dumpling made with reindeer blood and wheat or rye flour–served with reindeer bone marrow. Well, Santa’s herd had to retire sometime.

[Photo credit: Flickr user fjords]

Sweden
Lutefisk: This dried whitefish treated with lye is beloved by Scandinavians and their American Midwestern ancestors (let’s just say it’s an acquired taste). It’s traditionally served with potatoes or other root vegetables, gravy or white sauce, and akvavit.

Scotland
Haggis: Who doesn’t love a cooked sheep’s stomach stuffed with its lungs, heart, and liver, combined with oatmeal?

Poland
Nozki: Literally “cold feet,” this dish of jellied pig’s trotters isn’t as repulsive as it sounds. The meat is simmered with herbs and spices until falling off the bone, and set in gelatin. Think of how much fun this would be as a Jello shooter.

Ukraine
Salo: The cured fatback of pork is actually quite delicious, and similar to Italian lardo when seasoned. It’s chopped and used as a condiment, or eaten straight-up on bread. Plan your angioplasty accordingly.

England/Ireland
Black (or blood) pudding: Technically a sausage, this mixture of animal blood (usually pork), spices, fat, and oatmeal or other grains is surprisingly good. It’s served uncooked, fried, grilled, or boiled. Sound bad? At least it’s not called Spotted Dick.

Italy
Stracotto d’asino: A northern Italian donkey stew, often served as a pasta sauce. Donkey and horse are eaten throughout Italy, but this particular dish is a specialty of Veneto, and Mantua, in Lombardy.

France
Tête de veau: You have to love that the venerable French culinary bible, Larousse Gastronomique, describes this dish of boiled calf’s head as, “a gelatinous variety of white offal.” Mmm. While there are many different preparations for the classical dish, it was traditionally served with cocks’ combs and kidneys, calves sweetbreads, and mushrooms.

Eastern Europe
P’tcha: A calves’ foot jelly enjoyed by Ashkenazi Jews throughout this part of Europe. It’s uh, high in protein.

Germany
Zungenwurst: This sausage is made of pork blood and rind; pickled ox tongue, and a grain filler, such as barley. It’s available dried, or can be browned in butter or bacon fat before eating. And bacon makes everything better.

Netherlands
Paardenrookvlees: Culinarily-speaking, the Dutch usually cop grief for their proclivity for pickled herring and eating mayonnaise on their french fries. That’s because most Americans don’t know this smoked horse meat is a popular sandwich filling. Trust me: Seabiscuit tastes pretty good.

Greece
Kokoretsi: Lamb or goat intestines wrapped around seasoned offal (lungs, hearts, sweetbreads, kidneys), threaded onto a skewer, and cooked on a spit. You know what’s good with grilled meat? Meat.

[Photo credits: black pudding, Flickr user quimby;lutefisk, Flickr user adam_d_; kokoretsi, Flickr user Georgio Karamanis]


Discovery Adventures travel company debuts 2011’s Discovery Channel-inspired trips

by Laurel Miller on

Armchair traveler red alert! Discovery Adventures is offering eight new Discovery Channel-inspired cultural trips for 2011, including Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Japan, and East Africa. Explore archaeological sites near Athens, visit wineries in Tuscany, safari in Kenya, or soak in hot springs in the Japanese Alps. Trips are limited to 16 people, and run from eight to 15 days. Accommodations range from boutique hotels and inns with local character to eco-lodges.

Discovery Adventures has teamed up with adventure travel industry leader Gap Adventures and non-profit Planeterra to offer travelers more opportunities to positively impact the lives of communities around the world. Each trip provides travelers with an opportunity to visit destinations (often traveling by traditional modes of transport such as rickshaw or elephant) and interact with local people in an ecologically-responsible manner. In addition to your guide, you’ll be accompanied by local historians, archaeologists, artisans, and naturalists. Time to get off that Barcalounger!

[Photo credit: Flickr user Arno & Louise Wildlife]

Schengen and the disappearance of European passport stamps

by Alex Robertson Textor on


Creative new use for border crossing posts at German/Austrian border.

In the late 1980s, an American spending a summer traveling across Europe with a Eurailpass would see his or her passport stamped possibly dozens of times. With a few exceptions, every time a border was crossed, an immigration agent would pop his or her head into a train compartment, look at everyone’s passports, in most cases stamp them, and move on. Every Eastern Bloc country required visas, some of which could be obtained at the border and others of which had to be applied for in advance.

Today, an American can enter the Schengen zone in Helsinki, fly to Oslo and then on to Amsterdam, proceed by train through Belgium, France, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, then by bus to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and then by ferry back to Helsinki before catching a flight to Athens and landing in Greece without once needing to submit a passport to a border guard’s scrutiny.

The development of the Schengen agreement across Europe has altered the geopolitical map of the continent in many ways. For tourists, the development of the Schengen zone has simplified travel by drastically reducing the number of times a passport can be checked and stamped as national borders are crossed.

The Schengen Agreement is named after the town of Schengen in Luxembourg. It was here in 1985 that five countries-Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, West Germany, and France-signed an agreement to essentially create borderless travel between them. A model for this agreement had been created years before by the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), which eliminated border controls back in 1948. The Nordic countries also did away with internal border posts, in 1958.

In 1995, the five original Schengen countries plus Portugal and Spain inaugurated the zone. In 1997, Austria and Italy joined. Greece followed in 2000 and the five Nordic countries joined in 2001. In late 2007, nine more countries joined the Schengen zone; most recently, Switzerland signed up in 2008.


Abandoned border crossing between Slovakia and Hungary.

Today, 22 European countries are part of Schengen. Every European Union country (save the UK, Ireland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus) belongs. Other members include EU holdouts Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland. The European microstates present a few complications. Monaco’s borders are administered by France, which makes the tiny principality a part of Schengen, while Liechtenstein’s accession, approved by the European Parliament in February, is pending. San Marino and the Vatican are de facto versus official members, while mountainous, landlocked Andorra remains outside of the zone altogether.

There are five EU countries not currently part of the Schengen zone. The UK and Ireland (as well as the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) operate a Schengen-like agreement called the Common Travel Area. Neither country is obligated to join the zone.

Romania, Bulgaria, and Cyprus, however, are all bound by treaty to eventually join. Romania has fulfilled all the criteria for joining Schengen and Bulgaria is close to fulfillment as well. These two countries will accede together, likely later this year. Cyprus presents a more complicated situation given the division of the island between the Republic of Cyprus in the south and the largely unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north.

With the coming accession of the Western Balkans to the European Union, the Schengen zone will almost definitely continue to grow. Might it one day cover the entire landmass of Europe? Check back in two decades.

[Images: top image Flickr | Mike Knell; middle image Flickr | jczart]

Five lesser-known European islands

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Last June, we published a list of four European islands that float under the radar: Porquerolles, France; Fasta Åland, Finland; San Domino, Italy; and Vlieland, Netherlands.

As far as we’re concerned, it’s not too early to start making summer travel plans to get away from the crowds. Here are five more beautiful yet lesser-known European islands that don’t get a ton of press. They’re scattered across the continent, from England to the Azores and from Greece to the Baltic Sea.

1. St. Agnes, Isles of Scilly, England. St. Agnes, one of the Isles of Scilly, is the southernmost inhabited bit of England. Temperatures are moderate and pleasant year-round. The beaches and shoreline are more reminiscent of the Caribbean than of the popular imagination of England. You can spend your time walking around the island, visiting the lighthouse, and relaxing over a pint at the Turk’s Head, England’s southernmost pub. St. Agnes can be reached by ferry from the main island of St. Mary’s.

2. Corvo, Azores, Portugal. The smallest and northernmost of the remote Azores, Corvo is an isolated place. The island boasts a stunning verdant caldera with two crater lakes. It is also well-known as a birdwatching spot. Food lovers should enjoy Corvo’s local handmade cheese, distinctive corn bread, and larded tarts made with rock grass. Corvo can be reached by air on SATA Air Açores.

3. Kasos, Greece. Situated between Crete and Karpathos, Kasos is a sparsely populated dot on the map at the southern end of the Dodecanese Islands. Greece being Greece, the island has several remarkable beaches on offer, though these are not the whole story. Its five villages are home to scores of delightful churches. The island also maintains a busy festival schedule throughout the year. The festival of St. Marina, held on July 17, is the most important summer season festival event. Ferries connect visitors to Kasos from Crete and Piraeus, and Olympic Air links the island to the outside world by air.

4. Bornholm, Denmark. The Danish Baltic Sea island of Bornholm lies far east of the rest of Denmark. The bucolic island is packed with attractions. Among these is Hammershus, the largest castle ruin in Northern Europe, which dates back to the 12th Century. Bornholm is also a hub for arts and crafts, and hosts an annual Culture Week festival in September. Bornholm can be reached by ferry from Køge (Denmark), Ystad (Sweden), Kolobrzeg (Poland), and Sassnitz (Germany). There are also air links from Copenhagen on Cimber Sterling as well as sesonal connections to Billund (Cimber Sterling) and Oslo (Widerøe).

5. Hiiumaa, Estonia. This quiet western Estonian island is full of picturesque rural corners: old churches, lighthouses, little forested islets, and beaches for swimming and sunning. Hiking is a big draw here, and there are also opportunities for horseback riding and kayaking. Prices are very reasonable here, as Estonia remains an affordable destination. For budget-friendly accommodation on Hiiumaa, consider booking a room at the delightful Allike, where double rooms begin at €50. Hiiumaa can be reached by air from Tallinn with Avies and by ferry from the mainland and the neighboring island of Saaremaa.

[Image of St. Agnes: Flickr | Carlton Browne]