Europe's greatest hits get all the attention, but a poll of Condé Nast Traveller editors reveals a wishlist that ranges well beyond the obvious. Sure, the Northern Lights and Lapland make the cut — but so do wild horses in Bulgaria and a lazy month on an Italian lake.
Iceland leads the dream list, with a plan that mixes city and wilderness: days exploring Reykjavik, the world's northernmost capital, then out to Eleven Deplar Farm on the remote Troll Peninsula for a shot at the aurora away from city lights. Finland also makes a family case, with Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi and the striking new Skýra Retreat topping a parent's pre-Christmas trip, plus Swedish Lapland's Arctic Bath — a floating bird's-nest hotel just south of the Arctic Circle.
Albania is the surprise pick for closer-to-home adventure: a coastline that rivals Greece without the crowds, mountain hiking inland, and a base in Gjirokastër's old town at the tiny N'Sokak Hotel. Meanwhile, Bulgaria's Rhodope Mountains offer something rarer still — one of Europe's last genuinely wild regions, home to free-roaming herds including the critically endangered Karachan pony. Multi-day horseback rides there are led by qualified vets and built around spotting these animals in the wild.
Malta gets a well-timed nod, too. Valletta, once sleepy, has boomed since becoming European Capital of Culture in 2018, with new restaurants, boutique hotels in restored palazzos, and plans to pedestrianise streets as part of a bid to become a green city by 2030. Add nearby Gozo for terraced hills and old-school villages, and the island makes a compact, history-heavy escape.
The islands of Greece turn up twice — once as a pairing of Paros and Antiparos, ideally before the latter's planned airport and direct London flights change the vibe, and once as a proper hopping itinerary: Sifnos for food, Hydra for art, Milos for beaches, Skopelos for a Mamma Mia! moment, and far-flung Amorgos where goats outnumber locals. Elsewhere in the Med, Positano's legendary Le Sirenuse, opened by the Sersale family in 1951, remains the Amalfi fantasy for those willing to pay for it.
Two slower itineraries round things out. One is a month of lake living on Lake Garda — Italy's largest and Como's more relaxed neighbour — trading in trattoria dinners and hillside walks. The other is a full island-to-island Irish road trip: Dublin and the Guinness Storehouse, then south through Kilkenny and Kinsale to the Cliffs of Moher, north via Galway and Achill Island, and finally up the Antrim coast past the Giant's Causeway and Dark Hedges. Norway completes the list with a bottom-to-top drive from Oslo's food scene through Trondheim's waterside huts to the looming peaks of the Lofoten islands.
For travellers plotting a big trip, the takeaway is clear: the editors' picks favour places before the crowds arrive — Paros and Antiparos now, Albania's beaches now, the Rhodopes before the riding tours book out. Whether you want a family Christmas with Santa, a ferry-hopping summer, or a slow month by a lake, this list covers nearly every kind of European holiday worth saving for. — Condé Nast Traveller UK