Quieter places

Since I've been visiting crowded places off-season (it can even be winter), I've been finding the quiet places you're looking for.

I have a few examples, but the most memorable was at Lake Garda in January.
First, we got the super-duper luxury hotel, which is unaffordable in the summer, at a reasonable price. Of course, there are significantly fewer hotels open, but I don't stay in more than one anyway.
Second, only a few restaurants and cafes were open but these were exactly the one where the locals eat as well. A real bonus, as I was spared the bad tourist food. So we sat in the only cafe open on the waterfront in Salò, but we didn't need more than that.
Third, places like Sirmione, where you're usually squashed by the many visitors, were completely empty. I literally stood there with my mouth open.

Yes of course, not all boats are in use, and of course it's not bathing weather. But we were able to drink our coffee outside with light jackets, and we could see the snow-covered mountains to the north in the background. It was truly magnificent.

I’m in Romania right now, Frank. I’ve stayed in Timisoara, Sibiu, and Brasov so far. All of them would meet your requirements, with Brasov being the busiest.

Any major towns/small cities in Sweden that are not Stockholm, Malmo, or Gothenburg. Seriously it's so quiet on the main squares but it's full of locals at the same time, the people here are just very quiet, it's amazing.

In Portugal, I really liked Ponte de Lima, Viana do Castolo, Villa do Conde, and Barcelos.
For Spain, Burgos is great as is Logrono. Leon is nice, but too many partiers.

Both Burgos and Zaragoza seem to me cities that are undercrowded for tourism, yet pleasant to visit.

There are so many options available for people that want to see more than overcrowded hot spots. As Carlos said, there are so many places in Sweden that have not been overrun. There are a few in examples in a previous thread: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/sweden/and-the-most-beutiful-town-in-sweden-is

And Tartu in Estonia is a charming university town that deserves more tourists. And even in bigger countries there are quieter places. There are many charming smaller towns in Germany e.g., so the next time you're there you could spend a night or two in e.g. Bautzen, Görlitz, Torgau or Zittau.

Get away from large cities and do the countryside and towns and smaller cities.
We did three tours in Europe, one in Tuscany and Umbria; one in Ireland; and one in Devon and Cornwall, Britain.

We did visit Dublin in Ireland and Siena in Italy, but mostly we did towns and small cities. There were still many tourists, but nothing as bad a when we visited London after our Devon and Cornwall tour. In London we felt like part of a huge herd of cattle.

Earlier this year we visited Het Loo palace (former home of William III and Mary) in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, and we almost had the entire place to ourselves. It's a beautiful palace and great to visit for those interested in British or Dutch history. They've done some conservation work very recently and it's all looking great- nice gardens as well tho as it was January when we visited it was a bit too cold for us to spend much time outdoors. This was also the first place we've been in the Netherlands where people actually spoke to us in Dutch, as I think we were the only foreign visitors there- I find in places like Amsterdam people always (correctly) assume English.

It's not a small city but when we were in Bordeaux in early October last Fall it was busy, but I didn't get the sense many of the people were tourists. When we were at the Aquitine Museum we may have encountered 5 or 6 other people.

I'm glad you asked about this. Since I started traveling more often, it's been in fall, winter or early spring. This year, I'd love to get away somewhere for 2 weeks or so in the summer as well, but I don't want to deal with extreme heat or extreme crowding, both of which seem likely in June or July. I've been thinking maybe Albania or the Baltic area, but maybe I'll get another idea from following along here. Thanks!

have any of you found a place that was surprisingly quieter than you expected.

Almost EVERY place we visit in the off and shoulder season.

We're blessed to have flexible schedules, so can pick and choose when to visit places, and while we've recently gone to Norway in the height of summer, and Paris for my wife's July birthday, we are much more likely to visit in the spring or fall and most crowds - driven by family schedules - will be at home.

Sure, Paris or London or Rome or Madrid are "always" crowded, but it is RELATIVELY quiet in most major cities, and more so in most smaller regions, during the off and shoulder seasons. Some places require summer travel for optimum "weather" - thinking the Alps/Dolomites/Pyrenees, northern Europe, and other cooler weather places - but even those are already opening/closing in the shoulder season and can have spectacular weather for outdoor stuff, and are fine for museums and the like anytime of year.

Off season really helps with this as does getting far from cities.

Next week we head to Greenland and then Iceland. In Greenland, I know it will be pretty quiet, and in Iceland, since we have been so many times this time we are headed straight for the north just to be in a quieter area.

Numerous cities in France and Germany fit the bill of getting visitors , although 99% locals (if that counts) and are off the international tourist radar.

One such place I found super impressive and an absolute delight well worth spending more time and money based on my initial overview visit as a day trip this time from Hamburg (much better than from Berlin) is the city of Schwerin in the former Mecklenburg-Schwerin in eastern Germany.

It is in eastern Germany en route to Rostock and has a different "feel" to it, no doubt. Still, so what ? Schwerin is an absolutely lovely place.

Not only is the famous Schloß (chateau) but numerous other cultural sites are fascinating. In terms of history the tall and imposing military memorial, the Victory Column , from the War of 1870 is blatantly situated in front of the Schloß.

Bottom line: if a city or town is of paramount interest to me, I'm going , assuming I can find a decent train dep. not sold out, no matter if that city swamped by overcrowding, that's irrelevant.

Great question, I asked something similar after coming back from Heidelberg just after Easter holidays, it was delightful, inexpensive hotel right by the old bridge, and few tourists. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/looking-for-other-sweet-spots-that-avoid-the-worst-of-the-crowds-in-cities.

If you're in Sweden, come spend a few days in Uppsala, yes there will be a few tourists wandering around, but not that many. It's only 45 minutes from ARN airport.

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do NOT talk about Fight Club.

We found Pesaro on the Adriatic coast to be super quiet in late Sept-early Oct yet the weather was divine. Used it as a base and visited Urbino and Ravenna. 5-star hotel with a room overlooking the beach, at 1/2 the high season rate.

Bra in the Piemonte Region is delightful; visited in the autumn. Cuneo, visited on a day trip from Bra was locals-only as fair as I could tell. Had a nice lifestyle feel.

Hoping to find Ferrara in October to be largely uncrowded. At least that is what my research suggests.

Kandersteg in the autumn has never felt overrun to us. Although the buses can sometimes be crowded the city doesn’t feel “full” with crowded sidewalks and out-and-about in the trails we seldom saw anyone.

It's only 45 minutes from ARN airport.

Or 18 minutes if you take the train...

I'm not sure that I can say that the places I'm going to name were "quieter than expected" in a positive way, but instead, they met our sweet spot of having a location with things we enjoyed doing in the area, and a relatively lively town life, with good people-watching, but not swamped with tourists. We realized that for us, however, we prefer locations that have some number of tourists. Their presence supports more restaurants and cafes, which we like.

We've really enjoyed Ghent, Belgium; Espelette, France; Bayonne, France; Arezzo, Italy (and were luckily there on the opening day of the monthly antiques faire, which I loved); Modena, Italy. We visited one palazzo near Modena that was interesting to us, but so little visited that a museum guard followed us from room to room, rather than having a guard in each room. By the end, we felt like he was another family member! I like Canterbury, UK, as well.

Evora and Tomar, Portugal were lovely and we were glad we visited, but a little too quiet for us (we spent three nights in each place).

Narbonne, France, which i researched and chose as a destination, was a little too quiet. We did enjoy sitting at their cafes on nice days, along with the locals. Also, Pamplona, Spain (not during running of the bulls); it just didn't click with us.

For me Orkney and Shetland are quieter except on days when cruise ships are in. The cruise ship stops are posted so it's easy on one of those days not to go to the popular spots like Skara Brae (Orkney) or Jarlshof (Shetland).

Hoping to find Ferrara in October to be largely uncrowded. At least that is what my research suggests.

I was there for 3 nights last October. It was really pleasant and not many tourists! On a Friday night, there were lots of students out enjoying the town.

And yes, I would also say Urbino and Ravenna fit the bill!

Death Valley at night in the winter.

It's only 45 minutes from ARN airport.

Or 18 minutes if you take the train...

By the time you walk to the adjoining train station and wait for the next train, I would budget 45 minutes.

For Germany, will add the delightful towns of Büdingen, Gelnhausen, (with Burg Ronneburg) Limburg, Idstein, Marburg, Bad Homburg, Michelstadt, and Seligenstadt. They have some stunning churches and great architecture. Büdingen especially can easily rival Rothenburg as the walls and towers here are impressive.

I would suggest that the busiest cities have remarkable quiet but very interesting zones; zones as large as some of the towns listed above.

In Germany you can explore a small beautiful town just by mistake: if you travel to Rotenburg (Wümme) in state Lower Saxony instead of Rotheburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria - free from any overcrowding.

Another tip is to take a break between Hamburg and Berlin. Just interrupt your ICE train travel at Ludwigslust station and spend some time at one of the most unknown and unvisited palaces: Schloss Ludwigslust with beautiful cascades in front of it.

Finally any park bank in Berlin*s Tiergarten will help to escape from sometimes overcrowded capital of Germany. Or use the Room of Silence directly at Brandenburg Gate.