Europe: Off the Beaten Track
Despite the wilting dollar, good vacations are still affordable
Skip the Ritz. Bypass London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Munich, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Athens. Head for the byways. Seek out country inns, auberges, Gasthauser, bedsitters, farms, pensions, pousadas and paradores. This is the year of the offbeat, off-beaten-track European vacation.
As a result of airfare deregulation, getting there has never been cheaper. In some countries, notably Portugal, Italy and Greece, the dollar will go farther than it did two years ago. And, while the greenback continues to wilt elsewhere, it can still be stretched to wrap a memorable, moderately priced vacation. In fact, for the traveler who will settle for country candles over city lights, who has an appetite for food and drink modest only in price, this kind of vacation can be more rewarding than the traditional tour of the fleshpots. It will take him to towns as old as civilization, to architectural monuments, archaeological sites and little-known museums, uncrowded beaches and country fairs, superlative fishing, golf, tennis, hiking, biking, train rides and other forms of exploration and conviviality that do not come with a $100-a-day hotel room. Says Rene Bardy, an official of the French tourist bureau: "What is asked of today's tourist is that he be more curious and clever than he used to be."
To be sure, most visitors will want at least to see the big cities, if not to tarry in them. Thus the Strategic American Traveler (SAT) is well advised to find pleasant bases within easy distance of capitals, at prices lower than at any stateside Holiday Inn. In many countries, excellent railroads and mass transit provide fast, cheap transportation, particularly if the visitor takes advantage of the low-cost passes available to foreigners.
Country-to-country tips from TIME correspondents:
PORTUGAL. YOU CAN AFFORD IT IN PORTUGAL, according to the travel ads. Depending on the it, e verdade! It's true. In the past five years, the escudo has been devalued against the dollar by nearly 90%, making Portugal Europe's greatest tourist bargain for Americans. Escudos apart, the Indiana-size country has always been one of the Continent's most charming retreats, with diversions that include sophisticated casinos and primitive villages, superb beaches, great architecture, hearty meals and good wine.
There are a number of package tours, notably "Sportugal," which include golf, tennis and big-game fishing, hotel room and rental car for seven days for $360, and a wine tour that takes the visitor through the vineyards to the great port houses of Oporto. The best way to see the country is to rent a car and stay at the attractive, state-run pousadas. Some of them are in modernized medieval buildings and cost around $27 a day for double room and bath. One of the handsomest, Pousada dos Loios, is in the south central town of Evora, famous for its Roman ruins and Moorish architecture. At some seaside villages the visitor can rent a fisherman's cottage for as little as $250 a month.
The cuisine is not haute, but it is plentiful and fresh, based largely on fish and pork--though the little-traveled Minho region in the far north, the so-called Garden of Portugal, produces tender beef and the celebrated vinho verde. A good three-course meal for two with wine costs $20 or less in better-than-average restaurants.
SPAIN. Though once-cheap Spain gets more expensive each year, enjoyable vacations are still to be had at reasonable prices. Away from overpopulated, overpriced resorts like Torremolinos and Benidorm, the Mediterranean coast is full of inexpensive surprises. One unspoiled Almerian village is Mojacar, a dazzling white nest perched on a hill some two miles from the coast, commanding panoramic views of the sea, valley and mountains, with excellent beaches near by. It has two three-star hotels, the Mojacar and the Moresco ($25 for a double with bath). Dinner for two at several good restaurants should cost $15 to $20, while the beach cafes will serve a lunch of fried fish, paella, salad and a jug of wine for half that. Farther up the coast are Puerto de Mazarron and La Manga del Mar Menor, which has a new casino and two championship golf courses. In most villages there are summer festivals, many celebrating the lively local folk arts.
Spain, like Portugal, has a superlative nationwide network of state-owned inns, called paradores, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. They are mostly in old castles, palaces or monasteries; all have good restaurants serving the specialties of the region and require advance registration. At Alarcon, for example, on the road to Valencia from Madrid, the Parador Marques de Villena is a 10th century turreted castle, where a lucky visitor may rent a tower bedroom for $22 a night.
ENGLAND. Sir Freddie Laker will get you to London for only $135 from New York City ($199 from Los Angeles), but the bargain stops there. Only stylites, vegetarians and teetotalers are likely to find affordable food and lodging in the capital these days (though first-rate theater tickets cost $10 or less). The answer is to take off for the incomparable countryside, its glowing market towns and villages, cathedrals, festivals--and friendly inns, pubs and restaurants.
One memorable escape route is the Coventry-Stratford-Cotswolds Loop, a drive of 200 to 300 miles that can take a leisurely three or four days, with scarcely a neon sign in sight. (A Leyland Mini rents for about $100 a week, unlimited mileage, and sips petrol as if it were rare brandy.) Coventry has risen nobly from the ashes of its 1940 bombing. Next to the surviving western spire of the late medieval cathedral stands the great modern cathedral with vertical thrusts of rose-colored stone and Graham Sutherland's striking altar tapestry.
A 13-mile drive south leads to Warwick and its castle, one of Europe's best-preserved medieval fortresses. The venturesome wayfarer might try the Zetland Arms Pub below St. Mary's Church, with clean rooms and the best breakfast in town for $11 a guest. Less than ten miles south is Stratford-on-Avon. Will Shakespeare is remembered shabbily in a lot of curio shoppes, but magnificently upheld by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Stratford Hilton (yes, Ophelia, there is a Stratford Hilton) and the Shakespeare charge about $65 a night for two. However, a room costs an unbelievable $12 at the Strathedon, and $15 at the Falstaff, noted for its robust meals.
On the loop back to London, the Mini practically drives itself through the lush hills and yellow stone villages of the Cotswolds. From Chipping Norton, one can espy an extraordinary edifice, half-castle, half-factory, called the Bliss tweed mill. Bliss it is: the 1872 mill weaves woolen fabrics for some of the world's great tailors and will sell them to the passer-by for about $10 a yard.
Another enticement out of London is the Stonehenge Spin, which not only takes in the great megalithic monument but leads also to Bath and Salisbury. The trip is best made by train.
An hour or so through the placid West Country from London, Bath in its heyday was the unofficial second capital of England, where royalty, bucks and dandies gambled, flirted and soaked in the mildly radioactive waters that gave the town its name. The springs (120DEG F) still gush a quarter of a million gallons a day as they did for the Romans, and for Richard ("Beau") Nash who came to Bath in 1705 and inspired the construction of its great Palladian crescents and squares of honeygold sandstone. Richard Brindsley Sheridan eloped from 11 Royal Crescent with Elizabeth Linley, whose family later employed a servant girl who was to become the scandalous Lady Hamilton, Horatio Nelson's lover; he lived here too.
Britain's only American museum is in Bath. The city's music and drama festival, from May 18 to June 3, is devoted mostly to baroque composers, but moderns like Janacek and Stravinsky are also performed. A small, comfortable hotel is the Richmond, near the Venetian-style three-arch Pulteney bridge across the Avon (double room with bath, about $30).
A slow train back from Bath stops at Salisbury (pronounced Sawlsbry), whose 13th century gothic cathedral boasts the tallest spire in Britain (404 ft.); it tilts 291/2 in. to the southwest. The cathedral houses the best-preserved of only four original copies of the Magna Carta, and the country's oldest working clock, which first tolled time around 1386.
The jolliest lodgings in the British Isles can be bed-and-breakfast in private homes. Reservations can be made through tourist information centers in most cities; a double room averages $20.
SCOTLAND. Short of spending an entire vacation in Scotland, the Strategic Traveler can take a fast train north to the Highlands for several days of fishing, hunting, golfing, sightseeing and walking on the moors. The braw, bonny Scots pride themselves on their victuals: venison and wild game of all sorts, salmon, trout, mackerel and Aberdeen Angus beef, which they seem to cook better than the Sassenachs can in the south.
Stately old Edinburgh is a delight, even--or particularly--outside the jam-packed festival season (Aug. 19-Sept. 8). Sir Walter Scott country and Loch Lomond make a good two-day excursion. A fine place to stay is Greywalls Hotel, 18 miles east of Edinburgh, in the Gullane area, which boasts ten golf courses. For a taste of the real Highlands, there is the rocky county of Ross and Cromarty, which rolls across Scotland from the North Sea to the Atlantic. Strathgarve Lodge at Garve offers deer hunting, fishing, golf and well-wrought meals on a 1,000-acre estate (double room with breakfast: $50).
IRELAND. The west coast is another of the world's beauty spots where dollars are still emerald green. It is caressed by the Gulf Stream, and the summers are usually mild and pleasant. At hostelries like the converted Kinsale monastery at the mouth of the Bandon River (double room: $50), history is in the air, but the comforts are strictly modern. Some west coast castles and stately homes have been transformed into hotels with swimming pools and tennis courts. The salmon and trout, as they say, are beggin' to be caught. No self-respecting village is without its choice of pubs, often with regular folk singing and dancing. A double room in a country inn costs around $30.
FRANCE. The good news is that the government is giving high priority to the tourist trade. The bad news is that 80% of all Frenchmen still insist on vacationing within France, most of them during July and August. Finding the unspoiled places is largely up to the individual. This means avoiding the Riviera and other trendy areas such as the Dordogne-Perigord, the summer festival towns like Aix-en-Provence, Avignon and Carcassonne.
Some of the best of la belle France is within convenient reach of Paris. Less than 200 miles south of the capital lie the vine-covered slopes of Burgundy. Rooms and restaurant tables are plentiful. The grands crus wines, especially those grown on the Cote d'Or, the Slope of Gold, and the Cote de Beaune can be sampled along with lesser vintages at wine caves or the many charming restaurants along the road. The great regional dishes are considerably less expensive than pallid Parisian versions of this essentially peasant food. The one-star Les Gourmets at Mar-sannay-la-Cote serves a $12 dinner.
The food, the wine and the sights complement each other. Chateaux and churches along the wine route from Dijon to Beaune are open all day and illuminated at night. Vestiges of the mother of medieval abbeys-the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul at Cluny, established in 910--still stand. Cluny, together with the 11th century Church of St. Philibert at Tournus and that acropolis of Middle Ages Christianity, the Basilica at Vezelay, along with Burgundy's 505 other churches, are among Europe's great treasures of romanesque architecture.
Burgundy is a region for meandering. Not surprisingly, the houseboat has gained great popularity. Ten companies have set up rent-a-boat fleets along the rivers and canals. For an average $550 per week, not including food and fuel, in July and August ($300 offseason) a family crew of four can drift through the region at 4 m.p.h., tying up along the way to picnic or sightsee. Local tourist offices list furnished houses renting from $175 to $550 a week for a family of four. Top price for a double room in the Chateau d'Igee is $45 a night.
Another summerlong delight is France's alpine Department of Savoie, an overnight train trip from Paris. Renowned ski resorts like Chamonix, Megeve and Val d'Isere offer competitive prices and an array of music and dance festivals, mountain climbs, arts and craft seminars and the regional cuisine. A bunk in a mountain hostel goes for around $4.50; a room at a fashionable resort for $37 to $52.
WEST GERMANY. Despite deutsche mark dominance, the Strategic Traveler can do surprisingly well. Rooms are not expensive in certain outlying areas that are themselves worth seeing and are close to major cities. An hour from Munich is Augsburg, home of the Holbein family, whose 1,000-year-old cathedral has the oldest stained glass in Germany. An easy train ride from expensive Heidelberg is Wuerzburg, a city of baroque architecture and prized wines. Another good base is Ruedesheim, convenient to the Rhine and the wine country. A three-hour boat ride from Ruedesheim to Koblenz costs $15 in modern steamers with breath-catching views of castles at almost every bend. A double room in a decent hotel costs between $25 and $35 daily; a pension costs about $10 per person, with breakfast.
Lower Bavaria in the southeast remains largely undiscovered. A lovely old city where the Danube, Ilz and Inn rivers come together, is Passau, a 2 1/2-hour drive from Munich. At the comfortable Weisser Hase a double room with breakfast is $43. Seventy miles up the Danube is Regensburg, Bavaria's first capital, where parts of the Roman wall still stand. The Regensburger Domspatzen (Sparrows of the Cathedral) are considered by many to be the equal of the Vienna Choir Boys.
AUSTRIA. The country is also best explored from small towns and villages near the crowded cities. Rural Austria can be an adventure for city children who think eggs grow in cartons. More than 4,000 farmhouses offer bed, breakfast and participation in farm life, all for between $5 and $8 a day. Village pubs serve solid, inexpensive fare, but some farmhouses allow guests to cook simple meals. The light white Austrian wine goes for $2 a two-liter bottle.
An Austrian curiosity is the 800-year-old Geras Monastery, which offers a wide variety of art courses from icon painting to, yes, nude studies. One-week courses cost between $80 and $100; a double room with shower and breakfast, $18 a night.
DENMARK. The Nordic countries are the most expensive in Europe. Here too, though, one can find $40 hotel rooms and low-priced lodging in pristine country within two or three hours of the capitals.
On Zealand, south of Copenhagen, is a Danish vacation village on a Baltic bay with both hotels and apartments for visitors ($37 a day for a double room; apartments with two to six beds for $260 a week). On the picturesque Isle of Mo/n near by, the east coast offers Dover-like white chalk cliffs, good beaches and weekly rates ranging from $150 for a double at a pension to $170 at a hotel.
NORWAY. The west coast, the fjord country, has some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe. Its main city is Bergen, which can be reached nonstop from New York City by SAS. A sophisticated city dating from Hanseatic times, Bergen in May and June stages a music festival, including concerts by famous pianists at Edvard Grieg's old home--on his piano. About a 90-minute train ride from the city is Voss, a winter ski center that is an ideal summertime base for exploring the fjords. Bus tours from Voss offer combinations of fjord and mountain during the almost endless summer days. An eleven-day coastal steamer trip from Bergen (from $200 per person) calls at a score of harbors, passes islands with millions of seabirds, and winds up at Kirkenes, next to the Russian border. Hotels in Voss charge $40 a night for a double, including all meals.
SWEDEN. The best deal is to rent one of 20,000 small modern cottages by a lake or mountain (from $149 a week for four). Next best are the nearly 400 hotels from the southern port of Malmo to the Lapland town of Abisko that belong to the Quality Cheque System, which guarantees reservations from town to town. A double room with bath or shower is $44 a night. The scenery can be idyllic in summer, especially in the southern province of Skaane, with its 200 castles; in central Dalarna, a land of quaint mountain villages, folk costumes, handicraft shops, birch forests and sparkling lakes; and in Lapland, shared with Finland, where national parks preserve the last real wilderness left in Europe.
FINLAND. Its 60,000 lakes and forests covering two-thirds of the land make Finland a nature lover's paradise. Savonlinna, in the southeast, with an opera festival during the last three weeks of July, is close to the breathtaking Punkaharju isthmus athwart Lake Saimaa. About 200 miles from Helsinki, the Savonlinna area has a number of holiday villages, where a cottage for four (with sauna, of course) rents for around $200 a week. Most villages have a restaurant where a hefty dinner without drinks costs a slender $9.
ITALY. Heading back into warmer climes, SAT will find that Italy still has tourist bargains. Stromboli, one of the Aeolian islands off the eastern coast of Sicily, boasts an awesome volcano and a dozen seaside hotels and pensions that charge from $28 to $48 for a double, some meals included. On another island, Panarea, a double room costs $18 at the Raya Hotel, where the chef-owner cooks dinner only when he feels like it; a nearby trattoria is cheap and good. The islands can be reached by ferry from Palermo or from Naples, which also has daily hydrofoil service.
MALTA. The offbeat Mediterranean island is soaked in history from ancient times to its heroic stand in World War II. From the warm yellow limestone buildings of Valletta to its deepwater bays and rocky coves, the 95-sq.-mi. island was filled with baroque buildings by the martial-monastic Knights of St. John, who ruled it for 268 years. The British left no legacy of haute cuisine, but some restaurants serve local dishes and good fish. Seaside hotels charge from $45 to $60 a day, double occupancy; each has its own tennis courts, pool and beach. At family hotels and pensions along the 85-mile-long coast, rates are as low as $20 for a double room with bath. There is a lively night life, and car rentals cost only about $9 a day. Gozo, reached by ferry from Malta, is said to be Homer's Ogygia, the isle where Calypso beguiled Odysseus. It is full of small, stone villages and semideserted beaches, and has a hotel, Ta Cenc, which charges $70 for a double room with all meals included at one of the best restaurants on either isle.
GREECE. With more than 5 million tourists expected this year, Greece has become too congested and polluted for many visitors. To remedy this, the national tourist organization is offering a stay in a "traditional settlement" far from the hubbub. These communities are all chosen because they have retained their original color; the refurbished houses rent for $105 to $350 a week. One such settlement is a fishing village at Fiscardo, on the unspoiled island of Cephalonia. The village, surrounded by cypress-clad mountains, has many small beaches and an atmosphere reminiscent of its piratical past. A double room in a private house is $9 a night. Restaurants serve traditional Greek dishes (moussaka, roast lamb in lemon), as well as fine lobster and the celebrated Robola wine ($2 a bottle). An increasingly popular island is Santorini in the Aegean, which is said to have been the legendary Atlantis. Donkeys and buses are the local transport.
On these islands and such ascetic resorts as Makrinitsa, on Mount Pelion in central Greece, the settlements offer little in the way of formal entertainment. Their purpose is to encourage tourists to live the natural life of villagers and draw deep from the country's historic wellsprings. Some may even learn Greek.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.