Stoupa, Kea, Antipaxos and Karavostasi, included in the list of the best lesser-known European seaside resorts, as recommended by Telegraph’s experts.
Marina di Pisciotta, Italy
“Pisciotta is the kind of small, southern Italian coastal town that you have a picture of in your head, but often struggle to match in the real world. The old town sits on a hill just back from its seaside frazione or offshoot, Marina di Pisciotta. It’s a place of narrow lanes sandwiched between pastel-painted houses, ancient stepped alleyways leading to hidden chapels, small piazzas with their inevitable external fauna of old men in hats playing cards or simply watching the world go by.”
Budva, Montenegro
“Montenegro’s meandering coastline, backed by dramatic limestone mountains, gives on to the serene blue waters of the Adriatic. And while Croatia, to the north west, has grown in popularity, few Britons drive two hours down the coast from Dubrovnik to the ancient town of Budva. Founded by the Greeks in the fourth century BC, and then fortified during the Middle Ages, the town forms the heart of the “Budva Riviera”, which runs 22 miles from Trsteno to Buljarica, and is dotted with a series of sheltered coves and eight miles of sand and pebble beaches.”
Alacati, Turkey
“Sleepy and unspoilt, with low mountains hovering on the horizon, a tranquil turquoise sea, and narrow cobbled streets lined with cosy outdoor cafés and restaurants, the charming port town of Alacati offers an idyllic seaside break on the Turkish Aegean coast. Dating back to around the 14th century, the town is an unpretentious place, scattered with ivory coloured stone houses and rustic boutique hotels with old wooden doors and pastel-hued window shutters draped with purple and pink bougainvillea.”
Stoupa, Greece
“Mountainous and relatively inaccessible, Greeks consider the Mani peninsular to be wild and remote. In the Outer Mani, set amid olive groves, Stoupa sits below the rocky peaks of the Taygetos mountain range, whose highest point, Profitis Ilias, soars 2407 m (7896 ft). Built around three sheltered turquoise bays, Stoupa offers a peaceful retreat from modern day life, and plenty of inspiration to delve into the ancient myths of gods and nymphs, and the tales of medieval tower houses and blood feuds for which the region is notorious.”
Gabicce Mare, Italy
“Italy’s Adriatic coast is, on the whole, a very local place: a summer playground for Italian families. Ranks of colour-coded umbrellas mark the progression from one beach concession to another along interminable stretches of flat white sand; nondescript developments of high-rise hotels occupy the flat shoreline, overlooked by more ancient towns in the hillier hinterland.
“Gabicce Mare is a delightful exception to this rule. Intrepid visitors wanting more remote sands away from the beach umbrellas, can trek to secluded coves below the nearby hamlets of Fiorenzuola di Focara and Casteldimezzo: it’s an abrupt switch from order to wilderness.”
Patara, Turkey
“At 11 miles, unspoilt Patara is Turkey’s longest beach. Even more important, Patara has escaped the development that mars many lesser beaches around the Mediterranean thanks to the ruins of the once mighty ancient city from which the beach gets its name, and the resident Loggerhead turtles, a protected species which has been laying its eggs here for the past 40 million years.”
Guéthary, France
“Arrive in Guéthary, and you know the holiday’s going to have character. There is nothing vague or undefined about the French Atlantic coast as it bangs into Spain: this is Basque country. Cliffs, heathland and woods drop to beaches harder-won than the vast stretches of sand of the flat littoral zone to the north. The ocean rolls in over rocks, chucking surfers about like incompetent seals. Sea and sky are huge. The Mediterranean coast seems effete by comparison.”
Binisafúller, Menorca
“If your idea of beachside heaven is a secluded cove laced with pristine, silky white sand, knotted pines and clear, teal water, look no further than Binisafúller. Although you’re less than half an hour’s drive away from the airport in Menorca’s capital Mahon, you’d never guess; this really does feel like an idyllic island hideaway. Indeed you can’t really describe Binisafúller as a resort at all as there’s nothing here apart from the beach, a couple of traditional, whitewashed villas and a handful of wooden fishing boats bobbing peacefully.”
Salema, Portugal
“While much of the southern coastline of the Algarve has been built up, the far western end, which forms the Costa Vicentina Natural Park, remains unspoilt and is a protected area of natural beauty.
“The tiny town of Salema sits just a few minutes off the main N125 road that runs along the Algarve, and is dotted with small whitewashed houses with blue trim (to ward off evil spirits) and the latticed chimney pots characteristic of the Algarve. In nearby fields of wildflowers, storks nest on telegraph poles.”
Marettimo, Italy
The first time I stayed on the island of Marettimo, the owner of a bar by the dock took me aside. “You’re not going to write about this, are you?” he asked. He wasn’t threatening, just concerned. “We don’t mind visitors,” he explained. “But we don’t want tourists.”
That was years ago, and since then the word has spread. But the ethos remains the same. This remarkably green outcrop in the Mediterranean off the west coast of Sicily is a place for cultured, long-stay regulars rather than hit-and-run day-trippers.
Cavalaire-sur-Mer, France
At the end of the Corniche des Maures, Cavalaire is quite close to, and quite different from, St Tropez. The resorts share the same sun, sea and insouciance, but there floats over Cavalaire no air of billionaire exclusivity. Normal people are made to feel welcome, rather than damned lucky to be allowed in (Cavalaire brandishes its “Famille Plus” label with abandon).
Granted, there is minimal quaintness. If Cavalaire (population 7,000) was once a fishing village, it’s now a mainly post-war creation of apartments and modern-ish streets. But palms, pines and sea attenuate the effect, there’s holiday-time gaiety, the surroundings are soul-stirring – and appreciation of quaint is, anyway, a sign of age. Youngsters don’t care a fig for old towns and 14th-century chapels. They want activity – and Cavalaire has it.
Makarska, Croatia
Most visitors to Dalmatia head straight for the islands, but the Makarska Rivijera on the mainland coast, between Split and Dubrovnik, is home to some of the country’s loveliest stretches of beach. Running from Brela in the north to Gradac in the south, the riviera is 38 miles long and centres on Makarska.
Makarska itself is built around a deep sheltered bay, and backed by the dramatic rocky heights of Mount Biokovo (5,770ft), which acts as a buffer from the harsher inland climate. Biokovo’s sea-facing slopes are criss-crossed by well-marked trails, so besides swimming in the deep turquoise Adriatic, it’s possible to get in some hiking or mountain biking too.
Cirali, Turkey
Cradled between two pine-clad rocky spurs tumbling steeply down into the Mediterranean from the high mountains of the Lycian peninsula, the graceful arc of beach fronting the laid-back resort of Cirali is one of the most unspoilt in the Mediterranean. And it’s not just travel writers and the holidaying families drawn back to this unique spot year after year who think so. Just ask the endangered loggerhead turtles, sizeable numbers of which still swim ashore each summer to lay their eggs beneath the smooth, sun-warmed pebbles and coarse sand of this two mile long strand.
Ploumanac’h, France
For its entire length, the shoreline of Brittany is extravagantly indented, with each successive little inlet concealing another wooded cove or sandy beach. It’s at its most spectacular halfway along the northern coast, in the section known as the Côte de Granit Rose, or “Pink Granite Coast”.
The village of Ploumanac’h is the pick of several delightful seaside resorts that lie in this surreal rockscape of glistening rose-tinted crags, cliffs and misshapen boulders. Arrive when the tide is high, and you’re faced with an exquisite little crescent beach, overlooked by a couple of hotels, and facing west across an estuary that’s scattered with tiny islets.
Llafranc, Spain
Thanks in part to its geography – little coves chipped out of a rugged, hilly coastline – and in part to the filmstars and artists that frequented its beaches throughout the 20th century, the Costa Brava is an altogether classier sort of place.
At its centre is the perfectly proportioned Llafranc (pictured below), large enough to keep a family entertained on a week’s holiday, small enough to catch some peace and quiet. Outside the chaotic but short-lived high season (July and August), in fact, you’ll hear little more than the birdsong and the waves lapping on the rocks.
Viveiro, Spain
Viveiro has a population of around 16,000 – in the town and surrounding villages in the hills – but this number triples in summer when holidaymakers from other parts of Spain descend on the town, mostly staying in apartments in the urban sprawl beyond the historic core.
Most of Spain’s best beaches are on the north coast. Using Viveiro as a base, you could go to a different one every day of your holiday, driving for less than an hour too.
Or you could just stick to the beaches around Viveiro Bay, a teardrop-shaped inlet framed by hills covered in pine and eucalyptus trees.
Le Grau-du-Roi, France
There is a case to be made for isolated creeks, deserted beaches and dinky fishing villages unchanged in a millennium. But there is a quite separate argument for letting rip with a full-tilt seaside holiday – ice-creams, blow-up dolphins, a bit of noise, a lot of activity and a happy hubbub in streets, cafés, and also when the sun goes down. This gives youngsters the impression that they’ve found a place where things are happening. And it can be rewarding for parents, too, to be among people with their sunny sides out. Such considerations lead you to Le Grau-du-Roi.
Kea, Greece
Now that Athens has moved its airport away from the city and Piraeus, all the more reason to take the back door route to the islands. A morning flight, a short taxi ride to Lavrio and there will be time to look for Byron’s signature on the temple at Cape Sounion before catching the evening boat to Kea, with onward connections to the western Cyclades or Syros, hub of Aegean ferry schedules.
There is only one flaw in this fine plan for an island-hopping tour. Kea is such a seductive and peaceful place, you may not make it past first base.
Porto Selvaggio, Italy
The Salento peninsula in southern Puglia is the Cornwall or the Galicia of Italy: a seagirt place of ancient and insular cultural traditions, not all of them diluted into tourist attractions. In some Salento villages they still speak Griko, a Greek dialect that may be the only living remnant of Magna Grecia, that swathe of southern Italy colonised by Ancient Greece back when the Romans were still living in huts.
Although the Salento is not the undiscovered territory it was 30 years ago, it still seems apt, in this land’s end, with its flat inland plain covered in ancient, gnarled olives, that there should be a secret bay with the evocative name of Porto Selvaggio, or “Wild Harbour”.
Ile de Porquerolles, France
One of three islands, collectively known as the Iles d’Hyères, Porquerolles, at just over four miles long and around two miles wide, is intimate in scale. Its beaches are diminutive, too. I paddle the length of Notre Dame in just a few minutes. The fragrance of eucalyptus and pine hangs in the air with nothing to compete against it. There are no beachside shops or cafés pumping cooking smells into the air. Building on the island is tightly regulated, mainly forbidden.
Mónsul, Spain
Mónsul is just one of a string of spectacular unspoilt beaches in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar natural park in the province of Almería on the southern tip of Spain. The cliffs undulating along the coastline are all different colours – rust, orange, ochre, mustard, mauve, black, grey, white – because each one is the vestige of a separate volcanic eruption. All along the coast there are watchtowers and fortresses, built over the past 1,000 years to fend off pirates and other invaders.
Cala Gonone, Sardinia, Italy
It’s Cala Gonone’s very inaccessibility that forms a good part of its appeal. Not so long ago you could only reach this insulated Golfo di Orosei resort on Sardinia’s cliff-sided eastern coast from the sea, but things have moved on and nowadays there’s a neat road tunnel bored through the wall of mountains that separate it from the rest of the island. Once emerged from the tunnel, travellers are confronted by a steep plunge to the coast, and the spectacle of undeveloped coastline stretching out of sight to north and south.
Praia do Martinhal, Algarve, Portugal
“The end of all the inhabited earth” was how Strabo the Geographer described this coast in the early days of the Roman Empire.
Praia do Martinhal, or Martinhal beach, is one of the finest swathes of sand you reach just before the promontory of Sagres. Here the stark, 18th-century fortress that dominates the clifftops is thought to have been built on the site of Henry the Navigator’s famous school of navigation, Vila do Infante.
Voutoumi, Anti Paxos, Greece
It’s impossible to resist flipping off your sandals to feel the pearl-coloured sand between your toes the minute you step off the boat and onto Anti Paxos. After the pebbled beaches of Paxos, Voutoumi, with its spectacular turquoise and indigo waters, clifftop surroundings and welcoming tavernas, takes some beating.
Es Grau, Menorca, Spain
A fence consisting of nothing more than a single rope tied around wooden posts divides the beach at Es Grau from the low dunes of the S’Albufera des Grau nature reserve. Sprawling up the north-eastern coast of the island, this wetland area around a 1.25 mile-long lake, S’Albufera, is the main reason why Menorca was made a Unesco Biosphere Reserve more than two decades ago, a happy decision that has saved most of the island from excessive development.
Ile de Batz, France
There’s something about driving off a cross-Channel ferry on a sunny French morning that makes you want to head straight on south for the rest of the day. Do that at Roscoff, though, and you’ve missed a holiday under your very nose: the Île de Batz, and the wonderful Grève Blanche beach stretching along its east-facing shoreline.
Cíes Islands, Spain
Locals call the Cíes Islands the “Galician Caribbean” or the “Galician Seychelles” and I could see why. A group of boys were running towards the shore, shrieking as they plunged into the water. The scene may have looked tropical, but the sea was obviously pretty refreshing, shall we say, reminding me that I was indeed in north-west Spain.
Stretching for some 1,300 yards (1,200m) between Monteagudo and Faro islands, Rodas is the longest beach on the Cíes archipelago and by far the nicest. The boats that bring visitors from the Rías Baixas in summer dock at a jetty at one end of it, and some people just flop onto the soft, powdery sand and don’t move all day.
Karavostási, Greece
You have to really want to get to Karavostási – tucked away several kilometres off the main coastal highway between busy Sývota and Párga – but the journey is worth it. The beach here, cradled between two headlands, is an appealing 500 metres of sand, giving on to a rich blue sea. Straight ahead, you’ll glimpse the southern tip of Corfu on the horizon, and the capes of Sývota just to the right.
Ribadesella, Spain
It’s a well-guarded secret that Spain’s most beautiful beaches are tucked away on its untamed and unspoilt northern coast. Nowhere does this ring truer than in dramatic Asturias, where bold rocky cliffs cascade down into the wild waters of the Bay of Biscay, the jagged Picos de Europa soar up just a few miles inland, and sandy strands entice surfers and sunbathers alike. Spaniards have long been in on the local scope and, come summer, seek out the sun on the 200-plus beachy coves sprinkled along this superb, emerald coastal stretch.Right in the heart of it all is the friendly, unfussed fishing town of Ribadesella, carved in half by the mouth of the Sella river and fronted on the west side by golden, graceful Playa de Santa Marina.
