Europe’s Most Underrated Travel Destinations

There are few travel destinations in Europe more underrated than Georgia, on the eastern end of the Black Sea. Anyone who makes the jaunt will be rewarded with ancient ruins, rich cuisine and rural villages with top-notch local wine. Tbilisi is a city so friendly that you’d think you were a local, and the country’s hospitality only increases the further out you go. Get Georgia stamped into your passport on this nine-day discovery tour.

For far too long, the island toe-cap at the end of Italy’s boot has been associated with little more than old mafia tales, but as season two of The White Lotus demonstrated, Sicily is a dreamy destination in its own right. The whole island can be explored on our eight-day adventure, which blends bustling street food markets with ancient cities, the volcanic slopes of Mount Etna and the heights of the Madonie Mountains with quaint coastal towns and the Aeolian Islands, not to mention the Unesco-listed Val di Noto region, home to the best gelato on the planet.

This Portuguese archipelago is about as remote as Europe gets, and our six-day tour of São Miguel, the largest island, is proof that the Azores are Europe’s premier adventure playground. You’ll cycle around and kayak on the two stunning crater lakes at Sete Cidades, hike around Furnas Lake, go abseiling down a waterfall and canyoning down mountain streams, as well as embarking on a whale and dolphin-spotting marine safari. Lower the heart rate with soaks in natural volcanic hot springs and cook a hearty cozido stew underground using only geothermal heat.