Favorite destination not covered by RS

I really enjoy the Lake Constance area of Germany. Relaxing , beautiful, good cafes, reasonable in cost, still w/ historic architecture. Lots of German families seem to visit. Also a great first or last stop when flying in or out of Zurich Airport.

I enjoy the Orkney Islands and Perthshire in Scotland and Rick doesn't cover these parts of Scotland. Pam

Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

The Asturias region of northern Spain. It is completely different from the southern part of the country - mountainous and green, mostly public land, with lots of hiking and beautiful shorelines.

Bologna and vicinity for the food and architecture. Anything on the Adriatic coast of Italy for the beauty of the area -- its where many Italians go for vacation.

The Bodensee/Lake Constance and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany. Leuven, Ghent, Antwerp and Hasselt in Belgium... well, most of Belgium. Utrectht and Breda in the Netherlans.

Bologna, Italy (for the food, markets and porticos) and the Cappadocia region of Turkey (for the exotic landscape, cave cities to explore and hiking trails.)

Unless he's added it recently - Sicily wasn't covered when we went a few years ago. He does a Sicily tour and I used some of the details from the tour page to pick out some places to research. I used info from the travel board at fodors.com for most of it. Sicily was really like it's own country - VERY different from the other parts of Italy that we had visited, very wonderful.

And also Cornwall and Southwest England wasn't covered when we visited. It is VERY much an "off the beaten path" kind of area but I recall that it wasn't covered because you couldn't reach it easily by train/public transport. We used rental cars for both Sicily & Cornwall.

We had a lovely trip to Sardinia. The people were friendly, the scenery was stunning, the food was delicious, handcrafted items (rugs and pottery) were beautiful and reasonably priced, and we heard no English at all outside the major cities.

Romania. One of my favourite places in Europe is the Transylvania area. I loved that it was not very touristy as compared to other places, so maybe it is a good thing that it isn't in the guidebook :)

Good question! Ravenna in Italy, for its treasure trove of Byzantine churches; Aachen, Germany for Charlemagne's palace chapel; Cologne, for its Dom, Church of St. Ursula, and beautiful modern-art Museum Ludwig; and Trier, for the Roman ruins. Though Rick Steves talks a lot about hidden gems, he seems to stick to stereotypical tourist areas in Germany such as Bavaria, Munich, and of course Neuschwanstein Castle. Northern Germany has a lot to offer in terms of art, architecture, and scenery (the Harz Mountains are gorgeous).

Forgot also Vilnius, Lithuania.

The Taunus Mountain area just north of Frankfurt.

Great little towns with cobble stone streets, half-timbered houses, fun local fests like Jousting Tournaments or Medieval Christmas markets, original old castles, city walls, and palaces, great views, lots of Roman stuff as this entire area has been declared a UNESCO site as it was the boundary for the Romans.

Towns up here would be Kronberg, Bad Homburg, Königstein, Bad Soden, Idstein, Schmitten, and a bit farther out, Marburg or Büdingen. Those are just a few of the many places that are certainly off the beaten track, but which offer sights that I think a lot of people on this forum are looking for, just minus the tour buses and the myriad souvenir shops.

I would also add in Mainz. Beautiful, ancient city, great Roman ruins and one of the most impressive cathedrals around. I like this one much more than the one in Cologne, plus it is a whole lot older. Visting St. Stephens with its' Chagall windows will take your breath away too, but I am guessing Rick has never walked in there, otherwise he would be sure to put it in his book. Maybe some day.

The Harz mountains, an island of pine covered "mountains" rising from the otherwise flat plains of Northern Germany. Steeped in witchcraft.

The real Black Forest - Bad Herrenalb, Bad Wildbad, Calw, Freudenstadt, Alpirsbach. Baden-Baden, in my opinion is faux Black Forest.

The Oberallgäu in SW Bavaria. The closest to real Alpine experience you will get in Germany.

Berchtesgaden, a very enjoyable National Park in the SE tip of Germany, a place Rick, for some reason, pans.

Why are these destinations not covered in RS guidebooks? I have no idea.

They are, however, some of my favorite places.

Yes, to be sure...Marburg an der Lahn. What RS does not cover is a number of smaller towns in Germany, and especially, one of my top favourites, Potsdam.

The Salzkammergut region (outside of Hallstatt) and Saxon Switzerland in Germany. The Germans and Austrians know about these places and vacation there a lot. Not a lot of "sights", but great places to visit nonetheless.

Michael, Interesting question. There are parts of Cornwall that I think deserve more press and I don't think Rick speaks about Oxford very much. I don't think it was mentioned at all in my 2009 book.
James, England is an Island and not part of the continent of Europe. To what continent do the Philippine Islands belong? Or the Hawaiian Islands. Tho part of the United States they're not part of the North American Continent.

Hi,

The Italian Dolomites, in particular Alta Badia and the beautiful old town of Brixen/Bressanone. Alta Badia has unsurpassed Dolomite scenery and Brixen is simply a charming old town. Funny, we didn't care for RS recommendations of Bolzano and Castelrotto at all.

Also in Italy's South Tirol, the Vinschgau/Val Venosta region. I haven't seen this many castles in one area outside of the Rhine, plus gorgeous alpine scenery and plenty of vineyards.

In Austria: the Zillertal, the Oetztal, Heiligenblut and Zell am See.

Paul

Geologically (and even culturally), Iceland is considered part of Europe, so England sure as hell must be European as well.

Yes, England is part of Europe.

Yes, England is part of Europe.

Geographically, yes. In every other way, they don't seem to be in any rush. :)

While touristy in many other ways, the Greek islands can be wonderfully remote and cheap. Though much discussed, the ETBD org just doesn't have the resources, and the area is well covered, but is still a great diversion.

Reading through the responses I am now unsure what is meant by the question. One a GAS tour, we did visit the Lake Constance area. It was a short stop (long lunch on the lake and a little free time) and it is gorgeouoos. Greece is covered by a ETBD tour and it is very popular. Like others mentioned, I don't know why southern England (Devon, Dorset, Cornwall, Lands' End, etc) are not covered. Since Scotland was dropped from the Best of Britain tour it seems like southern England should be included in the Best of Britain.

So much for this topic!!!

"Is Hawaii part of North America? Politically, its part of the USA (as is Guam), but geographically, neither are."

The Hawaii argument is silly. The Hawaiian Islands are 2500 miles from the coast of North America. England is less than 25 miles from continental Europe at it's closest point. I can argue that 25 miles is close enough to say it is part of a continent. 2500 miles is just silly.

So, using the argument that an island not attached to a continent, makes it not a continent, would you say Manhattan is not a part of NA. How about the barrier islands off the Carolinas? How about Marthas Vineyard or Nantucket? Nantucket is 30 miles from Cap Cod. Is it not a part of NA?

The U.K. certainly is part of the continent of Europe!

This is easy to verify with a Google search. You will find site after site that includes it as part of the continent of Europe (worldatlas.com, nationsonline.org, etc.). I have never seen a source that didn't include it.

I would be interested to see someone produce a source that excludes if from being a part of Europe.

Caceres, Spain: a truly lovely place with one of the most beautiful and intact medieval centers I have ever seen. The city (a World Heritage EUNESCO site) is tucked away in the Extremedura section of Spain, which is usually overlooked by tourists in favor of Andalusia, which means it is blessedly quiet and unspoiled.

Many people who are residents at England, talking about their travel to a country in Europe (France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, ...) say "I travelled to the continent". They travelled from the island Britain to the continent Europe. Some islands are not part of a continent.

In defence of Ron, I have an old copy of "the Romantic Poets" with a foreword by W.H. Auden who writes (after talking about Napoleon at length) to the effect that … "Europe is simply those lands that were conquered by the forms and ideals of French poetry. That is why England does not and cannot consider herself truly a part of Europe." (pardon my paraphrasing since the book is at home on my shelf and I'm now at work).

It's one of my favorite bombastic quotes, but it does have a degree of truth to it. I have met many Euro-sceptic Brits who don't really consider themselves part of the continent and the opinion is a long-standing thing. If we allow for the argument that, politically, these things are self-defining to a degree, then, yes, historically Britain has been hesitant to identify itself as being completely a part of Europe. A better analogy than Hawaii may be Texas. Many Texans, I am told, still have the outlook that they are a land apart from the rest of the U.S.

Favorite spots not covered by RS. I agree with Berchtesgaden. But my newest undiscovered gem is the town of Spitz in the Wachau. Every bit as charming as Duernstein but with less than half the tourists! (Its a small town. You go for the quaintness and the views of the vineyards and the Danube. The wine is darned good too.)

Regarding the discussion of geography, most students of the discipline look at the subject from one of several aspects: physical, cultural, political, historical, industrial, agricultural, etc; not just from the fifth grade viewpoint of what's hooked to what.

To assert that physical connection is the only essential element of 'geography' is to not understand the nature of the beast. If attachment/land mass were the sole criteria, there would obviously be no case for both europe and asia. And the barrier islands could not possibly be part of north america.

You cannot deny that the UK is historically and culturally part of europe. Go back a bit in history and you'll find that some French dude whumped England and took it over. Pretty soon, the English king then owned a good chunk of France. So much for the importance of a narrow strip of water.

My first masters was in east asian industrial geography. (Do not try this at home, it is not a source of great wealth.) I had to learn just as much about Japan and the Phillipines as I did about China and Korea.

Even the field of physical geography has no concern with things being visibly connected -- drain the ocean a bit and, presto, the UK's all hooked up again just like it used to be.
It's been a while since I've looked at a definition of the word, but, dollars to doughnuts, the notion of physcial connectivity does not feature prominently.

Valencia is not covered in the RS Spain guidebook (although there is info available on the web site). We really enjoyed this city and don't know why it is missed in a book on Spain.

Our history, culture, language and social conventions are shared with other European nations. Depending on which time in history you look at they would include Italy (Roman), Scandanavia, Norman, German ( both anciant and modern, we have a royal family of German descent).

So I see myself as English living in on a European island. Plus of course the EU which I am comfortable to be part of, it is just a continuation of our history, but others are not.

Iceland and the Faroe Islands, because of their wild, natural beauty.

Tarragona, Spain, definitely. We fell in love with that city -- huge amounts of charm and culture. I'd also like to see mention of the Balearic Islands ... I know that there's an association of wild partying with them, but they are also beautiful and have some signifcant areas of interest to calmer, more docile tourists, too :)

Iceland would be nice, too!

Cuneo in Piedmont, Italy. A very prosperous middle class city full of character and wonderful restaurants and bars. Check it out on wikipedia. .My husband and I happened upon it for a comfort break and stayed the night with the intention of returning sometime for a longer stay

My husband and I are photographers and we really love France. We started going to Burgundy even before Rick was into it. What we really love is driving to areas of France... and other countries that we have never been. Last year on the way down to Provence on the A6 we stopped at the market in Louhans. This market has all the food and clothes etc, but is known for the place chefs and others get their ducks, chickens, rabbits etc. It was very interesting to see people come and pick out their dinner . It was a very French market and was sooo interesting . Then we decided to explore the other side of the A6.... wine country... and drove over to St. Julien de Civry where 4 people are renovating the Chateau Vaulx. Had a wonderful meal and weekend in places most people never see.That is one of the reasons we love having a car.Next year we are going to explore the Var more and the Aveyron area.

Italy; Sicily, Puglia, Sardinia. Great Italian areas without a lot of people like us; tourists.

There is much splitting of hairs on this site. Many trying to impress. Whether Rick Steves' guidebooks don't cover some areas is irrelevant except to marketeers.

"There is much splitting of hairs on this site. Many trying to impress. Whether Rick Steves' guidebooks don't cover some areas is irrelevant except to marketeers."

I have no idea what this means.

It means Bill never wanted to go to any of these places and then looked in vain for information about them in a RS guidebook. In other words, only marketing people think these places are worth visiting, cause if Rick doesn't have them in his book, no reason to go there?

Well, that is what I think he meant. I could be wrong.

I was under the impression that the "why" asked in the question was "why is it your favorite non-RS covered destination"? NOT "why is it not covered in RS."

At any rate, I saw Rick Steves speak in Cincinnati earlier this year, and he discussed some of the reasons why some places are listed and some are not. It sounds like it's an involved process involving transportation, the fragility of the area, and other things.

I also found it interested that he said India is his favorite country, but has no plans to publish a guidebook for that country.

There is no really good definition of 'continent'. The commonly used definition is that of a contiguous land mass, but that begs the europe/asia problem since these two are generally treated separately. Islandss are obviously not contiguous.

If the focus on continents were nixed and shifted instead to geographic regions, this digression would come to an abrupt halt. The Phillipines would fall neatly into Asia and the UK into Europe.

For the record, the field of physical geography does not focus on continents or land conectivity and only addresses the subject peripherally. For a boring discussion, see physicalgeography.net.

Bill : I did not say a complaint about Rick Steves' guide books. Michael asked people to mention some places in europe (not mentioned by Rick Steves) that they liked being at. I think the guide books written by Rick Steves is not the topic of this question posted by Michael. The topic is : other places in Europe that were liked by some people who went there.
If you are not interested in that question, why did you read the replies in this discussion thread ?

Ron's take above is exactly how I took Michael's original question. I was really excited to see the question, because this is a lot what I'm looking for when I come to the site.

I have only respect for Rick Steves and the way he's made European travel easy to approach for those who are just getting started. But after you experience the great places he covers, I'm interested in knowing of places that other people have enjoyed when they travel further afield. I've gotten a lot of great suggestions from people when I've asked about going "off the grid." Isn't that one of the benefits of this site?

"For a boring discussion, see physicalgeography.net."

I think the geography portion of this thread has achieved "boring discussion" status.

Michael, to get back on topic, Wales is my favorite place not really covered by RS. He mentions some of the places on the eastern side near England, but this is a wonderful place to get out in the countryside and wander. I love their farm B& B's, the markets in the small towns and being in places where English isn't spoken-until you open your mouth and then all of a sudden the language switches. My sister and I spent a glorious day driving around Anglesey Island with a survey map searching out prehistoric ruins. Some meant a walk across farm land on public paths and with no people around-only animals.