12 places, each with its window to go.
12 Underrated European Cities That Are Still Cool
The cities Europeans love that Americans keep flying past.
The straight answer
The most underrated cities in Europe right now are Ghent, Ljubljana, Bologna, and Gdansk: all walkable, all cheaper than the capitals nearby, and all best in May, June, or September.
Skip the line in Paris and Barcelona for a trip, and go where the locals actually go: Ghent, Ljubljana, Bologna, Porto's quieter neighbors, and a string of small cities that deliver the canals, the food, and the old-town magic at half the price and a tenth of the crowd.
Every city on this list clears the same bar: it is beautiful, it is genuinely easy to reach, and it has at least one thing you cannot see anywhere else. None of them require a tour group, a timed-entry app, or a 6am alarm to beat a crowd that never really shows up.
The best window for almost all of them is the same: May through June, then again in September. You get open terraces, long evenings, and shoulder-season prices while the famous cities two hours away are already elbow to elbow.
Ghent
Ghent, Belgium
Bruges' beauty without Bruges' tour buses, plus one of art history's heavyweights: Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral. The Gravensteen, a moated medieval castle, sits right in the middle of town.
02Ljubljana
Ljubljana, Slovenia
A car-free center along the willow-lined Ljubljanica river, stitched together by architect Joze Plecnik's bridges, including the famous Triple Bridge. It is a capital city that feels like a college town on a Friday evening.
03Bologna
Bologna, Italy
Italy's food capital: tagliatelle al ragu, mortadella, and the Quadrilatero market streets, all under nearly 40 miles of UNESCO-listed porticoes. Climb the Asinelli Tower for the terracotta rooftop view.
Braga
Braga, Portugal
Porto's overlooked neighbor, one of Portugal's oldest cities, crowned by Bom Jesus do Monte: a baroque zigzag stairway of 17 landings climbing a forested hill, now UNESCO-listed. An hour from Porto by train.
05Gdansk
Gdansk, Poland
A rebuilt Hanseatic old town of tall merchant houses along the Long Market, the world's amber capital, and the shipyard where Solidarity was born, told brilliantly at the European Solidarity Centre.
06Trieste
Trieste, Italy
Italy's great coffee city and hometown of Illy, with grand Habsburg-era caffes and the Piazza Unita d'Italia opening straight onto the Adriatic. The white Miramare Castle sits on its own promontory just up the coast.
07Colmar
Colmar, France
The prettiest base on the Alsace wine route, with half-timbered lanes and the canal quarter called Little Venice. The Unterlinden Museum holds the Isenheim Altarpiece, one of the most powerful paintings in Europe.
08Kotor
Kotor, Montenegro
A walled medieval town at the end of a fjord-like bay, with fortifications climbing the mountain behind it to the fortress of St John. Do the wall climb at sunrise, before the day-trippers arrive, and you will have the bay to yourself.
09Valletta
Valletta, Malta
A tiny fortress capital built by the Knights of St John, where the plain facade of St John's Co-Cathedral hides a gold-drenched interior and Caravaggio's Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, the only work he ever signed.
10Utrecht
Utrecht, Netherlands
Amsterdam's canals without Amsterdam's crush, and something Amsterdam does not have: two-level wharves along the Oudegracht where old cellar warehouses are now waterside cafes. The Dom Tower is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands.
11Bergamo
Bergamo, Italy
Twenty minutes from its own budget airport sits the Citta Alta, a hilltop old town ringed by UNESCO-listed Venetian walls and reached by funicular. Order casoncelli, the local stuffed pasta, and watch Milan's crowds happen to someone else.
12Girona
Girona, Spain
Barcelona's smart-money day trip deserves the overnight: a cathedral with the widest Gothic nave in the world, one of Europe's best preserved Jewish quarters, and the Temps de Flors festival that carpets the old town in flowers each May.
Quick answers
When is the best time to go?
May through June or September for nearly every city on this list: warm terrace weather, long evenings, and shoulder-season prices. April and October work well for the Italian and Spanish picks; Colmar earns a special December mention for its Christmas markets.
Are these cities hard to reach from the US?
No, and that is part of the play. Bergamo has its own airport, Ghent and Utrecht are short train rides from Brussels and Amsterdam, Braga is an hour from Porto, and Girona is 38 minutes from Barcelona by high-speed train. Fly into the famous hub, then keep going one stop further.
How long should I spend in each?
Two nights is the sweet spot for most of these. Day-trippers see the postcard; overnighters get the evening squares after the buses leave, which in places like Ghent and Kotor is when the town is at its best.
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