Photo by haberlea

In this weekend’s edition of the Wall Street Journal we eagerly lapped up Stan Sesser’s “The New Way To Do Europe.” Sesser’s lengthy service-oriented article is devoted to Europe’s “undiscovered gems”—cities and regions just off the tourist track that can be easily visited from London on budget airlines.

Sesser focuses his article on three cities Girona (Spain), Olbia (Italy), and Wroclaw (Poland—see above), providing transportation, accommodation, and dining suggestions for each. He also produces capsule coverage of an additional ten destinations: Balaton (Hungary), Bari (Italy), Bergamo (Italy), Bilbao (Spain), Carcassonne (France), les Iles d’Hyeres (France), Split (Croatia), Stavanger (Norway), Sylt (Germany), and Westport (Ireland). All lovely, though we wonder what Hamburg’s schicki-mickis might make of the idea that Sylt is in any way undiscovered territory.

While we would have loved to see Sesser go farther east, this type of round-up is exactly the sort of article that makes us happy. Stories like Sesser’s offer essential encouragment for Americans hurt hard by the weak greenback—not to mention budget-hungry travelers of all stripes.

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