Undiscovered destinations around the world?

[LOL!]

It's probably a little different in Slovenia now - they have a McDonald's for example (though we didn't sample it while there).

While Slovenia is not mentioned, I found this report of McDonald's in the Balkans interesting. The first in 1988 was after our extended trip.

McDonald’s in the Balkans: a brief history | BTURN

 

[savory]

Mauritius. If you are from France or S. Africa, you likely know the island. Most Americans do not. Worth a visit for sea/beach oriented things, good food, and relaxing. If you want to trade up, stay at one of the resorts.

 

[Nemo2]

Mauritius.

Regretted, (we had complimentary tickets), not taking a day or so to go from Saint-Denis to Mauritius, (it's only 140 miles), but we found so much to occupy us on Réunion......ah well, back to the bucket list.....

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, is it possible that some places are undiscovered because there's nothing to discover there?

 

[aja8888]

Well, is it possible that some places are undiscovered because there's nothing to discover there?

I've been to Norman Wells, NW Territories, Canada. Not a real touristy place, but very interesting. Plus, it has a museum.

I haven't been to Antarctica, though. I wonder if anyone here has been?

 

[Nemo2]

I haven't been to Antarctica, though. I wonder if anyone here has been?

Could be wrong, but seem to recall that sengsational has been there...but he's on the high seas right now so we can't get verification.

 

[FUEGO]

We did a day trip to Tallinn from Helsinki last month. It's a cruise port for large ships like Norwegian Getaway, which carries almost 5K passengers, so there's no way I'd call it undiscovered, though you may be able to pick an uncrowded day if you use the calendar at cruisemapper.com wisely. That said, the old town with its medieval walls and towers is a Unesco world heritage site and definitely worth visiting. We didn't get out of the old city other than to walk back and forth to the ferry since it was just a day trip, so I can't comment on the rest of the city or country.

I also liked Helsinki a lot, though Finland's prices are definitely more like its Scandinavian neighbors than its Baltic ones. We ate at a brew pub founded by a couple of Finns who brew their beer in Estonia because it's cheaper to import it than to make it at home. I do think Finland is less expensive if you get out of Helsinki and explore more of the countryside though. It's a beautiful place and I recommend spending some time there if you can fit it into a Baltic trip.

Kind of a bummer about the 5000 cruise passengers disembarking in Tallinn. I'm curious if that's just a few times per week or nearly every day. The cruise passengers really swamped Venice when we were there. Very nice first thing in the AM and in the evenings but during the day in the tourist area it was insanity.

I saw that Helsinki was a relatively short (and comfortable) ferry ride away from Tallinn and that's definitely an add-on that I would be interested in, at least for a few days.

 

[travelover]

I've been to Norman Wells, NW Territories, Canada. Not a real touristy place, but very interesting. Plus, it has a museum. ..........

I drove to Yellowknife NWT some years back. All it cost me was a set of tires.

 

[aja8888]

I drove to Yellowknife NWT some years back. All it cost me was a set of tires.

You got off easy!

 

[cathy63]

Kind of a bummer about the 5000 cruise passengers disembarking in Tallinn. I'm curious if that's just a few times per week or nearly every day. The cruise passengers really swamped Venice when we were there. Very nice first thing in the AM and in the evenings but during the day in the tourist area it was insanity.

I saw that Helsinki was a relatively short (and comfortable) ferry ride away from Tallinn and that's definitely an add-on that I would be interested in, at least for a few days.

Here's the schedule for cruise ships calling at Tallinn in August. You can see that most days have at least one ship, but there are some days with none.
Tallinn (Estonia) cruise ship schedule | CruiseMapper. (Click on the ship names to see how many passengers each one carries.) We were there on the 15th, when there were two ships in port, totalling about 5K passengers, and there were definitely a lot of people around. We weren't really trying to do a lot of things indoors though -- just wandering around town, admiring the architecture, grabbing lunch at a sidewalk cafe, exploring the outdoor market, visiting the churches, etc. If you wanted panoramic photos with no strangers in them, that was not going to happen, but it's not like we had to wait in line anywhere and the streets weren't so full we couldn't walk.

I also used this website for every city we visited in Scandinavia as they're all cruise ports. Even in a major city like Stockholm, you don't want to arrive at the Vasa museum after 10:30 if there are 4 ships in port. We saved the big tourist attractions for days when there were few ships, and on heavy ship days we did the walking tours from the Rick Steves guide book (and it's quite funny to see 3 or 4 small groups standing in front of a statue all reading the same book) or we took trains to the more outlying sites.

 

[Nemo2]

If you wanted panoramic photos with no strangers in them, that was not going to happen

One Sunday morning in Prague we got up at about 03:00 a.m., showered, ate, got ready, caught the streetcar and arrived at the Charles Bridge at 05:00 a.m.

There were a few drinkers heading home, and then for about two hours we had the whole downtown to ourselves. It was great.

 

[Gumby]

Lots of talk about foreign destinations, but we just found a nice spot right here in the USA - the Missouri Rhineland. Over Labor Day weekend, we flew out to Missouri for a wedding in Hermann. We drove down Missouri Route 94 from St. Charles to Hermann. The road is called the Missouri Weinstrasse due to all the wineries along the way. The road runs along the Missouri River and the Katy Trail, which is a rail to bike trail path that is about 200 miles long. We saw a number of people riding the trail and stopping at the bed and breakfasts that have sprung up at the little towns along the way. The scenery was attractive and it was not crowded at all. We enjoyed lunch and a tour at the StoneHill Winery in Hermann itself.

Missouri Wine Country | Missouri Wine & Missouri Wineries | MissouriWineCountry.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Rhineland#The_Weinstrasse

Katy Trail Missouri Trail Maps, Businesses, Events, Mileage, and more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katy_Trail_State_Park

 

[Bamaman]

We didn't allow enough time this go around, (we catch a transatlantic on Nov 06 from Civitavecchia), but we have our eye on Romania/Moldova down the road, (if I live long enough ).......also want to see Lithuania/Estonia/Latvia.

Romania is still so inexpensive to where you can afford to hire a driver to take you throughout the country. I have the name of such a driver if anyone would need it. He is highly recommended.

 

[BigNick]

I have a back-burner plan (that will probably remain there) to take jaded tourists to all kinds of small European towns that are just as nice, historic, quaint, cute, etc as the famous places, but half the price and one-tenth as packed with busloads of people. Besalú in Catalonia, Dambach instead of Riquewihr in Alsace, Vitré in Brittany, Bad Friedrichshall near Heilbronn in Germany...

 

[Nemo2]

I have a back-burner plan (that will probably remain there) to take jaded tourists to all kinds of small European towns that are just as nice, historic, quaint, cute, etc as the famous places, but half the price and one-tenth as packed with busloads of people. Besalú in Catalonia, Dambach instead of Riquewihr in Alsace, Vitré in Brittany, Bad Friedrichshall near Heilbronn in Germany...

Just one small glitch....some/most of us 'jaded tourists' prefer to go on our own, be on our own, and make our own way to such places without paying for a middleman.

(Good luck anyway!)

 

[Bestwifeever]

I have a back-burner plan (that will probably remain there) to take jaded tourists to all kinds of small European towns that are just as nice, historic, quaint, cute, etc as the famous places, but half the price and one-tenth as packed with busloads of people. Besalú in Catalonia, Dambach instead of Riquewihr in Alsace, Vitré in Brittany, Bad Friedrichshall near Heilbronn in Germany...

This is a great idea--we've seen some amazing places with "native" family and friends that are pretty far off the tourist radar and where virtually no one speaks English. We would never have found them otherwise.

By the time something is on our radar, it's on other people's too. Personally I never mind being perceived as a tourist because duh, I am, and whatever brought others is still there.

There's an awful lot of undiscoveredness out there outside Europe, btw--DS honeymooned in Argentina and Uruguay several years ago and loved it. I guess Europe appeals to more people?

 

[brett]

I doubt very much whether we would even consider an organized tour. It is why we tend to travel to some different places, often during the shoulder season. Some of our best travel experiences happened by chance.

Now, we seldom plan more than a few days in advance. We may have a flight arrival date and a departure date (usually open jaw), a two day reservation when we arrive and a reservation for the night before our flight home but that is typically the extent of it. We have a loose plan in between that is very much subject to change.

 

[Nemo2]

Some of our best travel experiences happened by chance.

Serendipity R Us.

 

[brett]

The extent of our winter trip planning. We fly to Singapore in Jan. We fly home from Manila in March.

We want to spend time in southern Thailand and then on to Philippines. As well as Singapore and perhaps Penang. We know we are limited to 30 days unless we get extended visas. The rest is up in the air. We have a general idea of where we want to go in the Philippines and will vet it with my mechanic (from Philippines) and another acquaintance who hails from there. After that we go where our trip takes us.

That is how we have traveled in the past and it works for us. Cannot imagine having a schedule that outlines each and every day where to go, where to be, what to see. I had enough of that during my business travel days.

 

[eastnortheast]

Thanks for this thread. I'm getting tired of mainland Europe, even during off-season. And I imagine my trip in a month to Korea and Japan won't be much better. I really do need to branch out some

Depends on where you go. Korea is not a huge tourist destination. I worked there for a while and just did not see huge numbers of tourists. Most Westerners (i.e. Americans) were with the military, and the 8th Army has recently relocated their HQ from downtown Seoul to a town about 1.5 hours south.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Kind of a bummer about the 5000 cruise passengers disembarking in Tallinn. I'm curious if that's just a few times per week or nearly every day. The cruise passengers really swamped Venice when we were there. Very nice first thing in the AM and in the evenings but during the day in the tourist area it was insanity.

Not to hate on cruises in general, but man...they sure do ruin a good place.

BCG mentioned Barbuda...talk about bumming me out. We were planning on a visit next May to enjoy the solitude it offered but so much for that idea.

 

[Totoro]

I have a back-burner plan (that will probably remain there) to take jaded tourists to all kinds of small European towns that are just as nice, historic, quaint, cute, etc as the famous places, but half the price and one-tenth as packed with busloads of people. Besalú in Catalonia, Dambach instead of Riquewihr in Alsace, Vitré in Brittany, Bad Friedrichshall near Heilbronn in Germany...

Durbuy, Dinant, Bouillon, Spa. All in Belgium. A bit touristy local, not international as far as I know.

 

[aja8888]

Not to hate on cruises in general, but man...they sure do ruin a good place.

BCG mentioned Barbuda...talk about bumming me out. We were planning on a visit next May to enjoy the solitude it offered but so much for that idea.

There will be lots of solitude in Barbuda if you visit it next May, or maybe lots of new construction to see!

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

There will be lots of solitude in Barbuda if you visit it next May, or maybe lots of new construction to see!

I do like solitude, but I like AC even better!

 

[FUEGO]

I have a back-burner plan (that will probably remain there) to take jaded tourists to all kinds of small European towns that are just as nice, historic, quaint, cute, etc as the famous places, but half the price and one-tenth as packed with busloads of people. Besalú in Catalonia, Dambach instead of Riquewihr in Alsace, Vitré in Brittany, Bad Friedrichshall near Heilbronn in Germany...

Great list - thanks

I thought about setting up a similar tour guide service. Identify the unknown spots and offer tours to those places. Seems like a nice niche to be in. Probably lots of wealthier folks who don't want to get trampled on in the crowds and wouldn't mind paying a premium (even though it would cost less to operate in low cost undiscovered places).