European beach destinations

Two weeks ago I was in Mexico, inspecting new resorts in the Cancún area, all of them with beautiful beaches. They are, of course, a prime draw for tourism, especially North Americans and Europeans who might live in chillier climates and want to get away from the winter. In our hemisphere, Mexico competes with many Caribbean islands for beach-bound travelers, and indeed, we’ve sent clients to some excellent beaches in places like the Turks & Caicos, the Dominican Republic, the Caymans, St. Lucia and many more.

            Many Europeans like to stay closer to home, though, when it comes to beach vacations, and now a lot of Americans are discovering that Europe has some excellent beaches, too. Recently, a U.K.-based company, Quotezone, ranked the continent’s most popular beaches, factoring in natural beauty, air temperature, calmness of the water and, of course, cost. Here are the top ten beaches in Europe, starting with number 10:

·         Plage de Palombaggia, Corsica. This French island in the Mediterranean has Caribbean-worthy beaches, with this one being its most popular. It’s also the most expensive on this list, costing about $250 for an overnight stay with food and drink.

·         Bournemouth Beach, England. We don’t normally think of “beach” and “England” in the same sentence, but this sprawling beach, tucked between cliffs on the southern coast, not far from the Isle of Wight, offers warm waters rare in the U.K. and a bustling pier.

·         Playa de Maspalomas, Gran Canaria. Spain’s idyllic Canary Islands offer diverse beaches made of black or golden sand. This one is known for its lighthouse, rolling dunes and warm waters.

·         Praia da Falesia, Portugal. This historically significant country is climbing the lists of many Americans who travel to Europe, and this beach is worth a visit. Sandstone cliffs, bright blue water and lots to do make this beach one of the best on the continent.

·         La Pelosa Beach, Sardinia. The Italian island is the second-largest in the Mediterranean and offers a picturesque getaway for travelers, especially for those looking for beaches. This one is popular to the point where advance registration is required before you can dig your toes in the sand.

·         Zlatni Rat, Croatia. Translating to “Golden Horn,” this is a triangle-shaped beach on the Croatian island of Brac that extends into the Adriatic. As the tides and swells change, the beach changes its shape. It’s also relatively inexpensive. A one-night stay with food and drink is just over $100.

·         Elafonissi Beach, Crete. Greece’s largest island has been beloved by travelers for centuries, with this beach being one of Europe’s most famous. Calm azure waters greet the traveler year-round, but it does get crowded.

·         Portoroz Beach, Slovenia. Another Balkan beach on the Adriatic Sea, this pebble beach fronts a popular resort area, with a beautiful promenade for strolling. Like its Croatian counterpart to the south, it’s inexpensive, too, yet another reason why the Balkans are gaining prominence as destinations for U.S. travelers.

·         Mellieha Beach, Malta. This historic island in the middle of the Med offers the second-rated beach on our list, a sheltered bay with gentle and warm waters. It’s the largest sand beach on the island and popular with families from both Europe and North Africa.

·         Nissi Beach, Cyprus. Our top-ranked beach is on yet another Mediterranean island. Cyprus is just south of Turkey in the eastern Med, and this beach has it all: warm weather and water temps, calm waters, and a small island nearby that adds to the ambience. A one-night stay here will run you about $114.

 

Ready to hit the beach as part of your next European trip? Almost all of these are year-round destinations, and we can get you there. Give us a call and start packing the sunscreen!

 

 Overlooked vacation destinations

The summer is going by fast—it’s now less than two weeks until Labor Day—and we’ve been busy booking travel for our clients well into 2026 and even ‘27. Just about everything is popular: cruises, Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico, adventure travel. You might think that there aren’t any new places left to visit. Well, you might want to reconsider that. Let’s take a look at three destinations you might not otherwise think of. We’ll start with the closest.

·         Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Perhaps you’ve never been to Europe and aren’t quite ready to take that first transatlantic flight. You’ll stay over dry land—except for a brief time over the Great Lakes—by visiting Montreal, one of the most historic and interesting cities in Canada. Founded by French explorers in 1642, the city retains much of its French heritage with a charming mix that includes British and even American influence. (The U.S. tried to annex Montreal and all of Canada twice, during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, but gave up when the British and Canadians proved a little too resistant to the idea.) You can fly direct from Minneapolis and be there in less than five hours. Once there, you’ll find Montreal to be a pedestrian-friendly city with efficient public transportation, not to mention nearly 700 miles of bicycle lanes. The historic Old Montreal district is home to art galleries, museums, restaurants and quaint hotels. If you speak even a little French (the official language of Quebec), c’est magnifique! Start your day with a bagel, available everywhere and a source of local pride; they’re boiled in honey water before being baked in wood-fired ovens. For a midday snack that really is a full lunch, order poutine. After dinner, the city offers a thriving night life. Coming home from Montreal isn’t as daunting as the long flight back from Frankfurt or Rome or Amsterdam; just five hours back to Minneapolis, and you’ll be home with half your day still to go.

·         Cuba. For more than a half-century after American troops helped liberate Cuba from Spain in 1898, the Caribbean’s largest island was a hot destination for U.S. travelers, especially those interested in Havana’s night life and gambling. That all changed around 1960, after Fidel Castro’s communist revolution. Official U.S. tourist travel to Cuba was banned in 1963, but restrictions were eased somewhat in 1999, allowing “people to people” travel. While the larger issue of full access to the island by Americans is a perpetual political football being kicked around in Washington, U.S. citizens can still travel to Cuba and enjoy the island’s vibrant culture and natural beauty. One of the ways that’s growing in popularity is the bicycle tour, which my husband and I are considering for 2025. Several Cuba-based companies offer tours that cover different parts of the island, but if biking isn’t your thing, there are many other tour opportunities waiting for you. Cuba welcomes millions of tourists every year, with about one-third of them from Canada, which has always maintained full diplomatic relations. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s chief trading partner, the island nation realized that it had to move its economy more toward tourism. Cuba scored some initial successes in renovating hotels and resorts to attract more Europeans and Canadians, but then tourism slowed somewhat. Today, the Dominican Republic draws more visitors than Cuba, but the “Pearl of the Antilles” still has much to offer. Americans are allowed to travel to Cuba if they meet the requirements for one of twelve categories of legal travel, such as visiting family, journalism and religious work. One of the categories is “Support the Cuban People,” which allows tourists to qualify by engaging in activities as benign as visiting marketplaces, cultural sites and interacting with local residents (which is always a good idea anyway). And Cuba is relatively cheap. Renting an Airbnb house in Germany can run into the hundreds of dollars per night, but a casa particular in Cuba can go for as little as $15-20 per night.

·         North Korea. Well, okay, this one’s a little way off the radar for most Americans, but the government of the Democratic People’s Republic announced last week that it would resume international tourism to its northeastern city of Samjiyon in December, and possibly the rest of the country in 2025. After years of strict Covid-related border controls, North Korea appears ready to start opening up, or as much as its government will allow. International flights to Pyongyang resumed last year. So far, most of the foreign tourism has come from Russia. Samjiyon, by the way, is where the government has been building what it calls a “socialist utopia, a model of a highly civilized mountain city” with new apartments, hotels, a ski resort and commercial, cultural and medical facilities. DPRK-based tour groups are putting together itineraries now, hoping to entice North American visitors to the “Hermit Kingdom.” But be advised, our State Department still has a level-4 “do not travel” advisory for North Korea travel, saying there is a “serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. nationals.”

Well, that might be a little too adventurous for me, but Montreal and Cuba sure do sound tempting, don’t they? Give us a call, and we’ll help you plan your trip while you brush up on your français or Española…or maybe both! 

         Sue Tindell

 Titanic II set to sail in 2027

It was touted as the most magnificent ship ever built, virtually unsinkable, with technology and passenger comforts that would revolutionize ocean-going travel. When the original Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, with a full complement of 2,224 passengers and crew, everybody thought a new era had begun. Five days later, an iceberg sent the ship to the bottom of the North Atlantic. Nearly 1,500 people perished.

            We know the story of the tragedy primarily from the movies. The 1997 film Titanic won 11 Oscars and was one of the biggest box-office hits of all time, featuring real footage of the shipwreck, which had been discovered in 1985. Since then, numerous submersible expeditions have retrieved thousands of artifacts from the site, which is over 12,000 feet below the surface. Among the items salvaged was a gold pocket watch belonging to John Jacob Astor IV, who was the wealthiest passenger on the ship’s ill-fated voyage; the watch sold at auction earlier this year for some $1.5 million.

            Many of today’s cruise ships are far bigger than the Titanic, both in terms of physical size and the number of passengers they carry. Of course, 21^st-century vessels have technology far beyond what was available in 1912. Modern radar would’ve seen the iceberg a long way off, allowing for the ship to steer clear. If the original Titanic had been equipped with radar—which was still some 30 years in the future—the ship might still be afloat today, if only as a museum.

            Well, someone thought, why not build another one? That’s what Australian billionaire Clive Palmer intends to do.

            Palmer, who made his fortune in mining, has been working on Titanic II for more than ten years. He first announced his plans in 2014, saying he had “enough money to build the Titanic ten times over.” Work on the ship was suspended in 2015 after a payment dispute between one of Palmer’s companies and a Chinese firm dried up funds that Palmer, evidently, was not willing to replace with more of his own. He re-launched the project in 2018, targeting 2022 as the year the new ship would have its maiden voyage. Then came Covid.

            The billionaire met the press again last March, saying that “I’ve got more money now,” so Titanic II is back on schedule. Now its maiden voyage is set for June 2027. Palmer is serious about it, he says. “It’s a lot more fun to do the Titanic than it is to sit at home and count my money.” He’s still looking for a shipyard to build it, though, with construction scheduled to start next year.  Palmer plans to have contracts signed by the end of this year and estimates the 56,000-ton ship will cost between $500 million and $1 billion. By comparison, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, which carries nearly five times the number of passengers and crew combined as the original Titanic, cost $1.86 billion.

            Palmer says he is hiring some of the world’s foremost ship designers for this project, with the intent of re-creating the original Titanic’s features, such as interior spaces, cabin layouts, the ballroom, swimming pool and Turkish baths. And it would have more than enough lifeboats for everyone on board. The original ship had only 20 lifeboats, able to accommodate barely half of the people on board at the time of the sinking.

            The Australian magnate cited the award-winning ’97 movie as part of his inspiration for the project. At the center of the story, besides the ship, are star-crossed lovers Jack and Rose, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. (Jack was from Chippewa Falls, by the way.) Palmer said their love story was “one that touches the hearts of everybody.” He hopes his new ship “can act as a catalyst to reinvigorate some of those values that we’ve got, which will hopefully lead to peace.”

            Will Titanic II actually get built? If it does, and it indeed sails in 2027, we’ll surely be  able to steer our clients to the new ship’s gangplank. In the meantime, there are many other ships sailing the world, and we can help you get on board any of them. Give us a call!