The off-the-beaten-track staycation destinations where Europeans go on holiday

There’s a reason you won’t find the Portuguese in the Algarve nor the Spanish on the Costa del Brit; here’s where the locals take their staycations, says Mark Jones

Sorrento is stripped of tourists in the off-season (Getty)

I was in a cafe in an Italian town late at night drinking Negronis. And here’s the thing: everywhere you looked, there were Italians.

Not the most revelatory story you’ve read this year, maybe. But here’s some context. The town was Sorrento. Its principal industry is tourism, followed by selling limoncello to tourists, followed by knitwear. (The knitwear is mainly bought by tourists.)

But that night there wasn’t a Korean face, an American voice or a Russian oligarch to be seen, heard or gawped at. The place was still full of tourists, mind: Italian tourists. That’s because it was midwinter. And in midwinter, Sorrento becomes an Italian town.

Domestic European tourists follow two tried and tested rules. One: don’t be ruled by the weather, especially the hot kind. Two: there might be overtourism in your country, but it will always be concentrated in a few pockets. You just find your own pocket.

So here’s a pocket-sized tour of domestic tourism in some European countries. It’s not based on statistics and it’s certainly not based on what the travel industry is selling. It’s based on something far more reliable: people’s real experiences.

France

Top pick: the Bay of Arcachon. Bordeaux is going great guns, La Rochelle and the Ile de Re are reliably full of imbibing Britons – and that’s before we even get on to Nice, Cannes, Biarritz and the other coastal honeypots. In between, the Bay of Arcachon has been having a pretty quiet time since Napoleon III set it up as a resort in 1857.

The Bay of Arcachon hasn't been discovered by Brits... yet (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The bourgeoisie have been making first and second homes among the hills, beaches and forests there ever since, and there’s a quietly chic infrastructure of guesthouses, family restaurants and estate agents to serve them. The oysters are the best in France.

My other pick? The Lot Valley. It still hasn’t been Dordogned.

Italy

We’ve spoken about the off-season – that’s the time for the Amalfi coast. Even Pompeii looks as if a volcano has just hit it. How about summer? Hands up how many non-Italians know or have been to: Gaeta, Sperlonga, Terracina, the Monte Argentario, the Maremma, Garfangnana, Marche and the island of Giannutri. Exactly.

The idyllic island of Giannutri (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Spain

There are places where you can be reliably certain to find Spanish tourists avoiding a) the heat and b) northern Europeans. The northern coastal communities of Galicia and Asturias are two, but the cool valleys and hidden beaches of Cantabria get my vote. Just as Russians have their dachas and Swedes their log cabins, so Spanish either have or dream of having their casas de campo – and they could be anywhere, as long as you’ve never heard of it.

Cantabria is an under-the-radar pocket of Spain (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

I’m also going to honourably mention my home province of Axarquia. Despite being less than an hour from Malaga, it’s comparatively – that word is important: this is southern Spain – undiscovered by foreign tourists. Old money Malaga people have houses and elderly relatives there.

Portugal

You could start in the middle: the Alentejo, the biggest province in Portugal and the least visited. It’s hot and dry, the earth is red and there are little surfer villages like Zambujeira do Mar – at times you’d swear you were in Australia. The Lisbon smart set head to the Troia peninsular in the north: but for most Portuguese it’s an opportunity to rent a cottage, drink wine and forget a place called the Algarve exists.

Zambujeira do Mar bears a resemblance to Australia (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Germany

Germany is a nation of avid domestic tourists, which is just as well given the fact the rest of Europe seems to have forgotten its romantic forests, civilised towns and clean Baltic beaches. That’s where many German visitors go: to the northern state of Mecklenburg, with its German Riviera and Mecklenburg Swiss (the Lakeland).

Mecklenburg, the German Riviera (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

British mainstream tourism more or less started with Thomas Cook trips to the Black Forest in Victorian times, but you’ll struggle to find many Brits there today. More fool them, as Germans of all ages, shapes, sizes and income levels enjoy the hiking, biking and scandalously underrated food.

Greece

While #Santorini has over 5 million Instagram posts and counting, at the other end of Greece and the other extreme of touristic saturation, you have the Zagori. Two hours west from Thessaloniki, this is a mountainous border region of jaw dropping canyons, handsome villages and very fine 18th-century bridges. Greeks with a passion for open air and local food have discovered it; not many foreigners have. For Athenians, it’s elegant Spetses and the land of their ancient enemies, Sparta, on the Peloponnese.

Central Zagori has fine bridges and gorges (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Netherlands

Amsterdam is an overtourism case study waiting to be written. But the Dutch don’t find it hard to get on their bikes and give their English a rest in the endless beaches and plentiful seafood restaurants of Zeeland. And closer to Amsterdam itself, you have the locals’ daytrip hotspots of De Hoge Veluwe national park and the island of Texel.

(Getty/iStock (Getty/iStock)