Where are some good non touristy places to go in Europe?

Question

My wife and I are going to Europe for our 10th year wedding anniversary and I would like to get out of the touristy places and really see real Europe life.

Answer 1

I think you will need to go to places some tourists go, for it to have hotels and restaurants.
But if you mean not many American tourists, most of Europe is your playground.

The big masses stay in towns like Paris, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Prague and Rome.
If you go to the smaller towns you will see less tourists, and if you travel on to the villages you will see not many tourists at all.
I have been traveling a lot in England and France, and most of the coastal regions are worth visiting with few tourists. (Of course, if you go in winter the weather is likely to be wet and miserable, if you go in July and August you will still see a lot of tourists, all Europeans go to these places themselves.)

Scandinavia, because it is expensive, is not as highly crowded.

The countries in the east, the former communist ones, are still less crowded because the service industry is not up to standard.
If you do not mind traveling in a country where the hotels are not on each corner and where a waiter in a restaurant may work just because he is paid and shows it, Slovakia is a good one, as are Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

But wherever you go in Europe, you will find some more tourists, even in the most remote, undeveloped areas in the worst times of the year.
Europeans do travel their own continent!

Answer 2

I agree...most of europe seems teeming with tourists!!!
I also agree that a car would be a good option in getting away from it all.....
For some possible options....maybe Croatia....ok tourist go there, but I'm sure you could find some less touristy places there....the coast is amazing!!!!!! Its cheap too compared to other places in Europe, the people are lovely and there are some really lovely places eg Zargreb, Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar are all good!

I went to an amazing area in France for a couple of weeks....there is really really lovely towns in the area around Cahors ( we stayed near Figiac)...Towns I higly recommend ( and ok tourists go there too, but you can see why)..St Cirq lapopie, Rocamadoour, Autoire...fairytale villages!!!
We hired a car and visted lots of other little towns all over the place....its near the Lot and....ummm forgot the other river in the area......more expensive, but wow!

Answer 3

Really hard to do unless you get a International Drivers License and rent a car while you are there. Best places are generally small towns away from any larger cities. Hop a train to what I consider to no where. When you enter a town that you think you would like get off and visit.

Answer 4

if you are going to europe in the summer & if you like the sea, rent a sailing boat and have a great time visiting croatian isles - just a small part of them is populated