Forget Barcelona and that jam-packed Gothic Quarter, Madrid with the grand Belle Époque boulevards, and even pretty little Palma, with its soaring cathedral built as stout as a fortress: After visiting 11 out of the country’s 17 autonomous communities, and something like 23 different major cities, from the northwesternmost edge of Galicia all the way …

Looking for a genuinely underrated European city that is yet to be completely overrun by the masses? The capital of Serbia, Belgrade is dominated by a mighty riverside fortress, boasts plenty of hearty dinner outings that won’t set you back over $17 on most occasions, and most importantly, requires zero EES biometric checks this season. …

European autumn travel is completely broken. Millions of tourists blindly book flights to Bavaria or the Scottish Highlands. They overpay for boutique hotels and fight for parking spaces just to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers and look at a tree. It’s exhausting. It’s expensive. It’s entirely unnecessary. A recent global study by Icelandair analyzed the color …

Tucked away in the heart of Central Europe, with stunning medieval castles galore, lively beer gardens slinging pocket-change pints, and timeless Old Towns, Czechia has officially emerged as Europe’s fastest-growing destination among its top markets. Between May 2025 and April 2026, it saw an 18% year-on-year increase in air-travel bookings, outpacing well-established tourism hotspots like …

When most travelers think about chasing fall foliage, their minds immediately jump to the northeastern United States or the sprawling national parks of Canada. But Europe undergoes a spectacular, deeply underrated transformation every autumn. Autumn in Europe is my absolute favorite time to travel. The summer crowds vanish, the heat breaks, and the historic towns …

When you think of France, it’s probably the Haussmann-designed boulevards of Paris and the turquoise coastline of Nice that come to mind. They’re two of the country’s leading destinations, and they draw in tens of millions of visitors every year. With the insane level of crowding and the rising prices, however, perhaps it’s not really …

Ever been to Europe thinking you’d find the exact same cobbled, fairytale town you saw on that flying-dress influencer’s viral reel, only to be met with a ton of people and cramped, matchbox-sized B&Bs priced like a boutique hotel? They call the acute culture shock some tourists experience upon finding the real Paris falls short …

40+ European countries in, I’ve realized there are two sides to Europe: One where you get immaculately polished, postcard-perfect Old Towns and manicured riverfronts—and it might come with the inevitable downside of crowds and eye-watering prices—and another where it’s rough and gritty, occasionally chaotic, but not one bit less fascinating. If you’re not exactly keen …

Enough with the endless hours of queuing to get into any ancient landmark you can possibly name in Rome; the jam-packed canals of Venice you’d be lucky to see if you can get past the indistinguishable mass of selfie-takers; and the mid-at-best, $40 ossobuco in Milan. If you’re dreaming of an Italian getaway this season, …

Feel like Spain, Italy, and Portugal don’t want Americans anywhere near? No problem: this fall, you can fly nonstop from Newark to this gorgeous walled city in Southeastern Europe, dominated by mighty medieval fortifications, offering mild weather, beautiful turquoise seas, and virtually zero of the headline-grabbing anti-tourist protests seen farther out West. While cities like …

If you’re planning a trip abroad, especially to a country you’ve never been to before, it’s of course instinctive to start with the capital. They are (usually) a country’s most important destination for a reason: other than mere administrative hubs, they can be the cultural heart of a nation, with its highest concentration of landmarks …

Tired of the same old Paris–London–Rome circuit? For decades now, Americans have flocked into the same 3 European capitals for one of two reasons: either they genuinely didn’t know better than to flock into the same tourist hotspots over and over again, or they had no choice but to given the scarcity of Transatlantic flights …