Autumn vacation: 10 sunny travel ideas in Europe
LANZAROTE / SPAIN
Wind from the front
Black stones and wild sea: I am sitting on the beach of the village El Golfo (completely free hotel!) Let me blow through and watch the sun go down. My last evening? but fortunately not my last on Lanzarote. As so often in my life, I could not decide: small boutique hotel on the stormy west coast or generous facility in the east? I booked both. The first days I spent in the delightful "El Hotelito del Golfo" (nine simple rooms), sat on the terrace at the small pool during the day, made excursions, had dinner in one of the beach bars? and after a few days I was actually looking forward to the pool bar, people, jetty and wellness in the stylish "Hesperia" in Puerto Calero (335 rooms). Again, you will find in the off season always a quiet corner. You can walk directly from the hotel on the cliffs, there is a small artificial sandy beach, and the dinner you have to worry about. It was a perfect match for me!
NIKOLA HAAKS
STAY
El Hotelito del Golfo, The small hotel has sea views from almost every room, a beautiful sun terrace with pool and unbeatable value for money. DZ / F from 75 Euro (El Golfo, Avenida Mari? Tima 6, Tel. 00 34/928/17 32 72, www.hotelitodelgolfo.com).
Hesperia Lanzarote, Modern facility, almost alone in a small bay near the port of Puerto Calero. Wellness area, sports courses, various pools, into the sea can be reached via a long jetty. DZ / F from 124 Euro (Puerto Calero, Tel. 00 34/828/08 08 00, www.hesperia-lanzarote.es).
SARDINIA / ITALY
Island of the hearts
Rolf loves his four-wheel-jeep, but even more our guide loves all the places in the Supramonte mountains on the east coast of Sardinia, where scenes from the movie "The Bible" were filmed on Monte Corrasi in the 60s and Rolf turns us into one Shepherd, who serves sausages and suckling pig at wooden tables. Boatwoman Lisa, who accompanies us on a maritime pleasure party to the most beautiful beaches of this island side, is similarly in love with Sardinia. You can reach coves like the Cala Luna or the Cala Mariolu only hiking over mountain tops or just over the water? which prevents mass casseroles. As well as the region between Olbia and Orosei, a little further north, looks so wonderfully overslept in large parts, that one has almost scruples to recommend them.
HARALD BROWN
© mitchFOTO / ShutterstockSTAY
Sentido Orosei Beach, Spacious, modern, friendly, with huge pool and private sandy beach. DZ / VP from 314 Euro; with Thomas Cook there are cheaper package deals, z. Eg 1 week in a double room incl. Flight from 990 Euro per person (Orosei, Via de Mare, Tel. 00 39/078 49 80 09, www.oroseibeach.it).
EXPERIENCE
Golfo di Orosei Boat Trip, The tour with Lisa can be booked in the "Sentido Orosei Beach", from 35 euros per person in the big ship.
Barbagia Jeep Tour, Over the mountains, including suckling pig meal at the shepherd from 80 euros per person (www.barbagiainsolita.it).
WEST SUSSEX / ENGLAND
Nest for nostalgics
This guy at Castle Chocolates on Tarrant Street, for example: While wrapping walnut and orange fudge, he says he was a banker and was rich and fed up. He wanted to do something real, something for the heart. Just ... fudge, ingenious caramel sweets. He fits Arundel, this 3500-soul place, known for its medieval castle and gothic cathedral. Above all, Arundel is so full of rural-English coziness that my soul swells. At the antique shop in the shop of Spencer Swaffer. For scones and tea in "Cockburn's Tea Room". A pint in the "Kings Arms". In the park. This is old England. The good old one.
STEPHAN BARTELS
© Sue Martin / ShutterstockSTAY
West Dean College, There are also hotels in Arundel, but for a real experience you should drive 20 minutes and rent yourself at West Dean College. In the guest wing of the art school you live like the students and have breakfast in their cafeteria. The old walls and the West Dean Gardens are fantastic! DZ / F from 84 Euro (Chichester, West Dean, Tel. 00 44/12 43 81 13 01, www.westdean.org.uk).
SHOPPING
Pallant of Arundel, From Lemon Curd to Cheddar to Shortbread and Pickles, this delis has all the food and drink we love from England in a picturesque setting (17 High Street, www.pallantofarundel.co.uk).
POTSDAM
Nice as a museum
In the restored Potsdam I like to feel like in an open-air museum: splendor! Gold! Alabaster white sculptures! Castle Sanssouci! Dutch Quarter! And now Gerhard Richter is there too: autumn light flows through the skylight of the Museum Barberini and finds itself in the sweep of the abstract "red-blue-yellow" again.Over 90, sometimes never exhibited works of the artist are presented? And now, in autumn, the exhibition is a perfect travel reason: Brandenburg's capital is more fun than in summer, because it is not hot outside, but saturated warm and the queues have dissolved. On a tour to hidden backyards, I see magical half-timbered houses and I am pleased: Potsdam is a very lively museum.
HEIDE FUHLJAHN
STAY
Hotel at the big orphanage, The former military hospital shines with a simple design and as a training company for socially disadvantaged young people. DZ / F from 95 Euro (Potsdam, Lindenstraße 28/29, Tel. 03 31/601 07 80, www.hotelwaisenhaus.de).
EXPERIENCE
Museum Barberini, The Gerhard Richter exhibition "Abstraction - from the 1960s to today" can be seen until October 21st. Admission 14 euros (Potsdam, Humboldt str 5? 6, www.museumbarberini.com).
Backyard Tour. Discover hidden farms on Fridays for two hours. 9 Euro (meeting point: 4 pm, Tourist Information Am Luisenplatz, Luisenplatz 3, www.potsdamtourismus.de).
SALZKAMMERGUT / AUSTRIA
Dollhouse Idyll
The austrian picture of my sons comes from the "Miniatur Wunderland" in Hamburg. There, "Austria" is modeled after Hallstatt, the picture-pretty town that squeezes itself on a narrow strip of coastline between towering mountains and the 125-meter deep, even in midsummer ice-cold lake. In fact, Hallstatt is so doll-like, that crowded in the narrow streets of Asian travel groups, even a "drone ban zone" was set up, after cheeky tourists had the things fly into flats. We make our way to Obertraun, to the quieter side of the lake, and enjoy the view of Hallstatt and the rock faces that rise all the way to the shore. yes, that looks just as nice in the "Miniatur Wunderland", but here there is autumn sun and spicy air for free!
ANJA HAEGELE
STAY
Seewirt Fencer. Alpine-modern, good breakfast with regional products. DZ / F from 68 Euro (Hallstatt, Marktplatz 51, Tel. 00 43/61 34/82 46, www.seewirt-zauner.at).
ENJOY
Steegwirt, Award winning Wirtshausküche, z. B. Gamsgulasch with walnut sparrows for about 17 euros. Beautifully situated on the lake, overlooking the Dachstein. Brand new, there are four pretty rooms, double / single from 96 Euro (Bad Goisern, Au 12, Tel. 00 43/61 35/83 02, www.steegwirt.at).
EXPERIENCE
Giant, On the Krippenstein bizarre formations of ice are magically illuminated. Admission: 34,50 Euro incl. Gondola ride (Obertraun, Schönbergalm, www.dachsteinsalzkammergut.com).
VALENCIA, SPAIN
Tourists outnumbered
On the southeast coast of Spain, autumn is mild during the day, and in the evening you can still sit outside. But above all, are we tourists? unlike the crowded Barcelona? not only outnumbered now. A highlight: Where once the Tu? Ria had its riverbed, today pulls a nine-kilometer-long park right through the city? perfect for cycling! It passes under bridges, past water features, trim-grounds and picnic areas. I turn off to the old town, marvel at the magnificent cathedral, try paella and horchata, an ice-cold milk drink made of tigernuts, in the Art Nouveau market hall, and stroll along beautiful old facades in narrow streets. Back in the park, the futuristic "City of the Arts and Sciences" welcomes me at the end of it: like the essence of a distant galaxy, the white buildings that house museums, opera and aquarium rise above turquoise-blue pools. Tomorrow I will walk along the palm-fringed promenades of the city beaches, the bikini ready in my pocket. You can swim in Valencia until November!
NICOLE SCHMIDT
STAY
Hotel Neptuno, Great location on the promenade of the city beach Malvarossa. DZ / F from 97 Euro (Paseo Neptuno 2, Tel. 34/963 56 77 77, www.hotelneptunovalencia.com).
EXPERIENCE
Cycle, Valenciabikes offers daily tours, about 3 hours 25 euros. Only hire 15 euros / day (Paseo de la Pechina 32, Tel. 00 34/650 62 14 36, www.valenciabikes.com).
Lower Silesian / POLAND
Cozy instead of hip
In Cieplice is just market. In front of the yellow and white plaster facades of the town houses, there are small stalls with products from the region to the right and left of the street, including lots of honey and the right beekeeping tool if you want to be active yourself. Yes, that's what hipsters do in Berlin, too, but the former Bad Warmbrunn, that was the name of the place until 1945, is the exact opposite: namely likable, unfashionable. The fact that the Polish and German aristocracy met in the Hirschberg valley for a summer holiday has been around for quite a while? In the 18th and 19th centuries the area at the foot of the Krkonoše Mountains was very popular. Also some locals came by linen trade to wealth and built strong. Thus, numerous castles, allegedly more than on the Loire. Especially relaxed, let yourself be explored by bike. Anyone who wants can stay in a different castle every day.Between Lomnica and Janowice it is possible to negotiate an altitude difference of just 52 meters over 20 kilometers. It is here, as I said, quite comfortable.
ANTJE KUNSTMANN
STAY
Pa? Ac Pakoszo? W (Wernersdorf Castle), Family mansion from the 18th century, lovingly renovated to a five-star hotel. DZ / F from 103 Euro (Piechowice, U. Zamkowa 3, Tel. 0048/756 12 63 46, www.palac-pakoszow.pl).
EXPERIENCE
Bike tours, Many hotels in the Hirschberg Valley offer rental bikes for their guests. There is a regular rental in Jelenia Go? Ra; Touring bicycles approx. 12 Euro / day (Jelenia Go? Ra, Pension Sobiesz, ul. M? Yn? Ska 12, Tel. 00 48/500 28 57 85).
MALLORCA / SPAIN
Silently
Sometimes you have to stay to experience something wonderful. A family that has celebrated in the shade of the old holm oak on the 543 meter high Puig de Randa, stashed the remnants of the picnic in baskets. And then it is very quiet, up here at the monastery Nuestra Sen? Ora de Cura. I have lodged in one of the simple, beautiful rooms where monks used to live in cells. The complex is manageable: a little church, a convent for Franciscan, a souvenir girl and a modern restaurant with arcades, where I'll eat suckling pig roast later. But now I sit for a while on my box seat and enjoy the magnificent view: in the distance the bay of Palma and at my feet the city of Llucmajor. How nice that everything is so far away!
ANNA M. LÖFKEN
STAY
Monastery Santuari de Cura, On the Puig de Randa, spacious rooms and Mallorcan restaurant, eg. B. kids (about 17 euros). DZ / F from 69 Euro (Puig de Randa, Tel. 00 34 / 971/12 02 60, www.santuaridecura.com).
A? LAND ISLANDS / FINLAND
Alone at the Baltic Sea
The Viking Line ferry leaving for A? Land Islands on Friday evenings is packed with people, but we're almost the only ones leaving the ship in Mariehamn on Saturday. The other passengers used it as a party location and are now recovering on the way back to Stockholm, without even having looked outside. Bad luck, because A? Land is pure relaxation: only 29,000 inhabitants are spread over some 60 inhabited islands, connected by bridges and dams, of the much larger archipelago between Finland and Sweden. Infinite space, silence, and very, very much space for cycling. In between, you can visit Kastelholm Castle or Bomarsund Fortress and stop off in Landcafe? S every now and then. If that gets too lonely, one dedicates oneself to the sights of the contemplative island capital Mariehamn. And who can not have it lonely enough? He rents his own skerry. There are more than 6500 mini-islands here.
SONJA NIEMANN
GET THERE
Viking Line, The ferries operate three times a day from Stockholm to Mariehamn. Tickets from 8 euros (www.vikingline.de).
STAY
Arkipelag, The largest hotel in the archipelago even has a nightclub? and nice rooms, all with balcony. Double / F from 138 Euro. (Mariehamn, Strandgatan 35, Tel. 00 358/182 40 20, www.hotellarkipelag.ax).
NORDERNEY
Coldness warms the heart
As the six-degree cold water hits the skin, my endorphin secretion explodes. I can only stand the waves of the North Sea for a few minutes, but the effect lasts for hours. "It definitely makes you awake," says Karin Rass? what sounds like understatement with this 1000 electric shock feeling. The climatic therapist offers airbathing on the beach on the island, and? for the intrepid? the equivalent in the wet. And most of all in the cold months. Fortunately, you can also warm up nicely on Norderney, for example in the elegant Bauhaus setting of the bathhouse, in the finest Thalasso treatments or in the 42-degree warm Feuerbad. Or in the freely accessible Conversationshaus, which is as comfortable as a good English club? including well-stocked library and leather chairs. As you like to obey the instructions of Karin Rass, which recommends: "After the second freezing back into the warm!"
MEIKE SCHNITZLER
STAY
Inselloft, Actually, you would not have to leave this hotel, so cozy are the furnishings and fireplace room and so delicious the products of their own bakery and the food in the restaurant "dining room". If you also book one of the penthouses with breathtaking views of the sea, you will never want to leave. DZ / F from 186 Euro (Norderney, ladies trail 37? 40, Tel. 049 32/89 38 00, www.inselloft-norderney.de).
EXPERIENCE
air therapy, The alternative practitioner Karin Rass offers strengthening with the forces of the climate on Norderney (Mühlenstraße 1a, Tel. 049 32/991 13 13).
