The European year
March in Europe
6 recurring fixtures, 1 country at their best and 4 in the quieter shoulder — which is usually where you should be going.
On in March
At their best in March
Peak season: the weather works, everything is open, and so is everyone else's calendar.
Quieter, and often better, in March
Shoulder season. The Journey Planner scores these upward rather than downward for exactly this month.
Cyprus
The last divided capital in Europe, on an island of Byzantine churches and mountain wine.
Finland
Forest, lake, sauna, silence — and a design tradition that came out of all four.
Türkiye
A city on two continents, and a Mediterranean coast with more classical ruins than Greece.
Vatican City
The smallest state in the world, at 0.49 square kilometres, and one of its largest art collections.
Where we would actually send you
Quiet places in countries that are in shoulder season this month — the intersection of the two things that matter. The drawing is where those six are, on one frame. Drawn from Natural Earth 1:110m admin 0 countries, public domain.
Omodos & the wine villages
Cobbled mountain villages growing indigenous grapes nobody else has, around a 12th-century monastery.
Inari
The centre of Sámi Finland, on a lake with three thousand islands.
Porvoo
Red ochre warehouses on a river, and Finland's second-oldest town an hour from the capital.
Savonlinna
A 15th-century castle on an island in the middle of Saimaa, which hosts opera in its courtyard each July.
Edirne
The Ottoman capital before Istanbul, in the European corner, with Sinan's masterpiece mosque in it.