One thing RS says is that if a traveler wants to avoid the big crowds and big expensive places go to some of the smaller second cities of a country. For example, instead of visiting Paris, visit Lyon.
Should RS have a new tour "The Second Best of Europe"
I think I could develop a much better title than --- second best. But on the other hand Paris is Paris and nothing is similar -- same for Rome.
Some of the tours that focus on lesser known areas, like the Basque tour, the Eastern France tour, South of England, Bulgaria, etc., could be considered second best by that definition. I see them as tours for people who have already seen the major cities, and want to go deeper.
Stan has a good list above. The Village Italy Tour sprang to my mind immediately as an example.
Dave, Village Italy was the first one I thought of, as well. Best of England is another, although it does spend a few days in London. South Italy, Villages of South England, and Eastern France also fit the description. Probably the Andalusia tour would be another example, although we have not yet taken that one.
Excellent points.
No need for The Second Best of Europe after all. I stand corrected.
I was thinking of that RS statement a couple of weeks ago when I was in Porto, Portugal. Unfortunately, it was just as crowded as Lisbon- but in the opinion of all four in our travelling party, much better than Lisbon. Perhaps in some cases, we need to start looking at 3rd best.
In the case of the France, maybe Bordeaux needs to be added to the mix. There is an RS tour that includes a couple of days in the Dordogne region, but after 8 days there that included one day in Bordeaux I'm convinced a 7-10 day tour is easily doable. When I think about it, the France guidebook could easily be twice the size of he didn't narrow things down.
Perhaps "Lesser Known Europe" would work.
