The European year
October in Europe
11 recurring fixtures, 11 countries at their best and 25 in the quieter shoulder — which is usually where you should be going.
On in October
Areni wine festival
Areni
Baku Jazz Festival
Baku
Truffle season and fairs
Motovun, Istria
Tbilisoba, the city's festival
Tbilisi
Tokaj harvest
Tokaj
Truffle season and its fairs
Alba, Piedmont
Notte Bianca
Valletta
National Wine Day
Chișinău
Skopje Jazz Festival
Skopje
Northern Lights season begins in earnest
Tromsø and Finnmark
Second investiture of the year
City of San Marino
At their best in October
Peak season: the weather works, everything is open, and so is everyone else's calendar.
Armenia
The first state to adopt Christianity, in 301, with monasteries in gorges and a mountain it can see but not reach.
Azerbaijan
Fire that comes out of the ground, a walled medieval city, and oil money spent on architecture.
Cyprus
The last divided capital in Europe, on an island of Byzantine churches and mountain wine.
Georgia
Eight thousand years of winemaking, its own alphabet, and mountains higher than the Alps.
Italy
A country invented in 1861 out of places that still think of themselves first.
Malta
Three inhabited islands of limestone, holding temples older than the pyramids and a city built by knights.
Moldova
The world's largest wine cellar, measured in kilometres, under one of Europe's least visited countries.
Portugal
Europe's western edge, facing an ocean it once mapped, with the oldest fixed borders on the continent.
Spain
Several countries wearing one flag, with the second-highest average altitude in Europe.
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.
Quieter, and often better, in October
Shoulder season. The Journey Planner scores these upward rather than downward for exactly this month.
Albania
Closed to the world until 1991, and now the least developed and least expensive coast on the Mediterranean.
Austria
An imperial capital with a small country attached, most of it vertical.
Belgium
Three languages, six governments, the best beer in the world and a genuine talent for not explaining itself.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Where the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian worlds meet in one street, and the 1990s are still within touching distance.
Bulgaria
Thracian gold, Orthodox monasteries, rose fields and the cheapest good skiing in Europe.
Croatia
A thousand islands, a Roman emperor's palace still lived in, and lakes that fall into each other.
Czechia
The most beautiful city in central Europe, and a country that drinks more beer per head than any other.
France
The most visited country on earth, and still mostly empty fifty kilometres from anywhere famous.
Germany
Sixteen states that were separate countries within living memory, and still behave like it.
Greece
Six thousand islands, of which two hundred and twenty-seven are inhabited, and a mainland almost nobody visits.
Hungary
A thermal-water capital on the Danube, a language related to almost nothing, and sweet wine that outlived empires.
Kosovo
Europe's youngest country by both age and population, with medieval monasteries and a mountain trail into two neighbours.
Liechtenstein
Twenty-five kilometres long, ruled from a castle on the hill, and walkable end to end in a day.
Luxembourg
A fortress city on a gorge, a wine river, and free public transport across the whole country.
Monaco
Two square kilometres of rock, casino and Grand Prix circuit, wedged between France and the sea.
Montenegro
A drowned river canyon that looks like a fjord, with black mountains straight up behind it.
Netherlands
A country built on purpose, mostly below sea level, and cycled end to end.
North Macedonia
One of the oldest lakes on earth, a bazaar that never stopped trading, and a capital that rebuilt itself in marble.
Romania
Saxon fortified churches, painted monasteries, and the largest population of brown bears in Europe.
San Marino
The world's oldest surviving republic, on a limestone crag with three towers on the ridge.
Serbia
A confluence capital with the best nightlife in the Balkans, and monasteries frescoed eight hundred years ago.
Slovakia
The smallest high mountains in Europe, more castles per head than anywhere, and hardly anyone looking.
Slovenia
Alps, karst caves, vineyards and 46 kilometres of coast, all within two hours of each other.
Switzerland
The most expensive country in Europe and the one that most reliably justifies it.
United Kingdom
Four nations, one small island group, and an argument about all of it that has run for a thousand years.
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.
Gjirokastër
A UNESCO-listed Ottoman town of stone-roofed tower houses on a steep hillside under a castle.
Theth
A valley village of stone houses with no road in until recently, a lock-in tower, and a waterfall above it.
Dürnstein & the Wachau
A blue baroque tower over the Danube, terraced vineyards behind, and the castle where Richard the Lionheart was held.
Dinant
A citadel on a cliff over the Meuse, a bulbous cathedral below, and the birthplace of the saxophone.
Blagaj
A dervish monastery built against a cliff at the source of the Buna, where a river comes out of a cave at full size.
Travnik
The Ottoman viziers' capital for 150 years, under a fortress, with a coloured mosque and a spring beneath it.