Where the ferry timetable is the itinerary
Island Europe
An island changes the pace before you arrive, because you have to wait for a boat. These eight are chosen for being genuinely themselves rather than resort annexes — a Baltic sand spit, a Hebridean distillery island, an Adriatic island closed to outsiders until 1989, and a Cycladic island that farms.
8 places across 8 countries · not an itinerary
Naxos
The Cyclades' agricultural heart: mountain villages, marble quarries and long beaches.
Vis
Closed as a military base until 1989 and undeveloped because of it.
The Aran Islands (Inis Mór)
Irish as a daily language, 1,600 km of dry stone wall, and a fort on an 87-metre cliff.
Texel
Dutch Wadden: dunes, seals, and mudflats you can walk across at low tide.
Islay
Nine distilleries, 3,000 people, and 50,000 wintering geese.
Victoria, Gozo
Malta's slower sister, with temples older than the pyramids.
Nida, Curonian Spit
A sand spit shared with Russia, where the dunes buried four villages.
Lofoten (Svolvær)
Granite peaks straight out of the Norwegian Sea, above red fishing cabins.
Not an itinerary
A theme is a way of seeing, not a route: these places are not in travelling order and most people take three or four of them, not all. For an order that respects distance, put the ones you want into the Planner.
Countries it crosses
Greece, Croatia, Ireland, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Malta, Lithuania, Norway