By 2050, it’s thought that travellers will no longer be heading to overtouristed areas like Barcelona – rather, today’s lesser-travelled destinations will be seeing higher tourist footfall.
But who says you have to wait until then to discover someplace new? Not us, and certainly not Riviera Travel. In fact, the cruise operator has just crunched the numbers (provided by Eurostat for 2023) to find out which destinations in Europe have the fewest tourists.
So where’s the best place to head for a blissful, crowd-free break? Topping the list of Europe’s least-touristy destinations is Luxembourg, which saw tourists spend 3.4 million nights there in 2023. For context, Spain saw a whopping 484.9 million. While Luxembourg has lush, hiking-friendly countryside and the Ardennes forest, pretty gorges and a lovely capital city, the tiny nation is overshadowed by France, Germany and Belgium.
In second place was Latvia, where tourists spent 4.3 million nights in 2023, and in third place was Estonia, with 6.3 million. And while those visitor numbers sound peacefully low, another reason not to sleep on the Baltics is the region’s affordability – check out the cheapest cities to visit in Europe this year (there’s lots of overlap).
These are Europe’s 10 destinations with the fewest visitors
- Luxembourg
- Latvia
- Estonia
- Malta
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Bulgaria
- Romania
- Hungary
Did you see that these European destinations could be getting a Wetherspoons?
Plus: Here’s what travel will look like in 2050, according to Adventure.com.
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