Ideas for traveling in the off season

We pretty much always travel to Europe (mainly Italy) in the off season unless having to fit in a kid's school schedule, an opera performance, a class, or seeing gardens.

I think of November and March as being equivalent off-season months for crowds, weather, daylight hours, and places being closed between the tourist season and a big holiday season.

So, looking at where we've been, I'd recommend going to Puglia rather than to the Amalfi coast in March. We are headed back to Puglia in October --- that's how much we enjoy the whole area! Much easier to get around, and, from what I've heard about the Amalfi coast, a greater variety of more interesting food.

And if you like the feeling of having towns all to yourselves, Puglia still has the traditional all-afternoon rest period when even churches are likely to be closed. Restaurants were open for lunch and dinner. The only hint of crowds we ever saw in Puglia were during Easter weekend. Beautiful sea views, if that is what interests you about the AC.

There is plenty of information about specific towns to visit in Puglia, plus the nearby cave town of Matera in Basilicata. Here's a thread about hiking in Puglia: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/puglia-hikes-walks

Here are a few of our off-season trips, partly to show that there are many weeks' worth of things to do in Puglia:

2013 Rome >Puglia ... October 18–November 4

2015 Milan >Puglia>Naples>Rome ... October 25–November 18

2018 Puglia >Rome>Siena ... March 27–April 15

2018 Liguria (west of Genoa) >Piemonte ... November 8–December 6

2021 Umbria >Rome ... November 3–December 9

I was in Iceland a couple of weeks ago. There were hardly any crowds, prices were down, no waiting for anything, and I even got to see the Northern Lights from my hotel balcony in Reykjavik.

Scotland is also much quieter this time of year.

Just one comment on the above. I agree with it except that daylight hours aren’t equivalent between March and November. Much more in March because that’s when an equinox is whereas Nov is two months after. A random example, Paris; about 12 hours of daylight in mid-March, compared to mid-November, about 9 hours.

I'll take the crowds and keep the warm.

Another vote for Iceland. We love it in the off season and 4 of our trips have been in the late fall and winter. It has so much to offer and many places you would have mostly to yourselves.

We loved our trip to Malta in January. The weather was nice. There was plenty to do.

Slate is absolutely right about the daylight, but here's a funny thing --- I was completely unaware of the "short" days in Italy in winter until I read it being a possible problem on this forum several years ago. Maybe because they are also short in Minnesota in winter, but I think really because in Italy it doesn't seem to matter that it is evening or night --- people (including little kids) are out and about having a good time or just strolling, restaurants are open late, stores are open, and it feels very safe and fun to walk around.

As you can tell, we would be more happy in a blizzard than in a boiling hot crowd.

I just wanted to add about visiting Puglia in March. I just got back and had a good time. But there were only 2 out of 6 days the sky was blue, so the ocean I saw was gray. The long afternoon shut downs can get boring so it is the best time to be on the road traveling. On a Friday and Saturday night, everyone in town is out so it is lively!

I visited Sicily last year in March and had a fantastic time. I had been to Italy before but never Sicily and had expected it to be arid and brown but it was not, it was beautiful. At one point I thought it was so green it could be Ireland then we drove by some almond farms just in bloom and I thought I was in a Van Gogh painting. Not crowded and prices for food, meals very reasonable. Many cool sights to see.

Santorini and Crete never completely shut down and are very interesting places that probably are pretty darn nice without the throngs. Won't be too cold either.

There's not much to do on the Amalfi Coast if the weather is bad and the coastline stays fogged in for several days. We experienced this firsthand in 2023. Actually, it was unprecedented days of rain in May! March will probably have more days of wet weather. Just something to consider. Good luck!

You don't need to go to arctic places during winter to get away from crowds.

Often, and in many places, just go a week or a few weeks before/after peak season and the crowds will thin out or be gone entirely. I hate crowds and do my best to avoid them. I have increasingly found much more happiness in destinations that are not the biggest tourist magnets, but even in too-popular places, just a few weeks can make all the difference.

Our best-ever trips in recent years have included:

• Corsica in September. No crowds at all.
• Kyushu in May (just a few days after Japan's very busy "Golden Week"). No crowds at all.
• Malta in September/October. Virtually no crowds, once you went a few blocks away from the cruise ship docks.
• Azores in September. No crowds at all.
• Ireland (the west and southwest) and the Faroe Islands (all over) in July. No crowds at all.
• Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania in July. No crowds at all, except in a few blocks of Tallinn's and Riga's old centers. Elsewhere, crickets.
• Sardinia in September/October. No crowds at all.
• Spain, Portugal and Morocco in September. No serious crowds.
• It was warm enough to swim - sometimes for hours, sometimes just briefly - in almost all of these places (we didn't swim in Ireland or the Faroes - I'm not that crazy).

It helps if you steer a course for places than have not had a TV show glamorizing and Instagramming them (so, no guarantees about Paris, Sicily, pretty much most of Italy, and Thailand...Thailand seems crowded to me year-round, and that was before The White Lotus...). I think Prague is always crowded (even at 4 am on a Wednesday in October...).

I agree with what David says- every year we do a Mediterranean beach holiday in mid September. This is right after children go back to school (in the UK, anyway), and the weather is still warm enough to go in the water, so it's still nice but much less crowded. It's still considered "high season" so restaurants, hotels, etc are all still open, too. The weather can get a bit more changeable towards the end of the month, tho, and you're more likely to see some rain.

Cinque Terre, Rome, London, Paris, Venice, Florence, Madrid, Barcelona, Dubrovnik aren’t just the front doors to Europe, they are the Grand Entrances to Europe and as a result you do have to be creative to avoid the crowds.

If that is getting old and you want the freedom to travel year-round, maybe go to the coast when the coast is at its best, then maybe its time to expand your net. Great cities like Bucharest and Sofia and Sarajevo and Lviv and Odesa and Kiv (soon we hope). Mountain experiences like Slovakia Romania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Albania. The coasts of Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Montenegro. Amazing cultural experiences like Sarajevo, Ulcinj, Plovidv, Sighisoara, Nessebar, Chernivtsi, Kosice.

I'll take the crowds and keep the warm.

I agree. I don't want to fight shoulder season weather, cold or rain.

i find it not too difficult to work around summer crowds. Mostly I plan to see "minor" sites between 11am and 2pm and hit major sites first thing in the morning or later in the afternoon. It seems tours are creatures of habits and while tours are eating breakfast, herding tourists onto tour busses, I am already half way through enjoying the major site. When tours have sent people on "free time" in the afternoons, crowds begin to wear thin later in the afternoon as people start heading for cafes and afternoon drinks. Doesn't work for me every time, but it does seem to fit a pattern.

Iceland for New Years Eve is unequaled. The Reykjavik hinterland hills dressed in thinly sprinkled powdery snow, the vapours of the thermal cauldrons rising into the wintry star-spangled sky at a leisurely pace. Never are the Icelandic sagas more alive and the Viking Age closer to the waking world. Don't be afraid of the dark.

Threadwear, I am with you on this one.

Going to the Adriatic and not being able to go to the beach because its too cold. Or at least see the life of others enjoying the beach and sun. Silly, why go. Or, cant go to Spain because the heat kills people. Lots of living souls in Barcelona last time I looked. Wonder how….. copy them and enjoy. The crowds!!!! Sure, but these are RS Travelers not “tourists” they know better than to go to places like Hallstatt and Cinque Terre, right? That’s why RS tours go to backdoors….. or at least avoids the weeends and gets an early morning start.

Judge much? Why fly for nine hours for…a beach.