Now past the summer of our discontent, we can fall in love with Europe all over again.

We’re seeing some light at the end of the economic tunnel and more Americans are booking trips to Europe, lured by the great values being offered by travel suppliers.

Europe is always energized when the air gets crisper, shaking off its summer lethargy to put on a new cultural season, open new attractions and organize a calendar of events to move, enlighten and delight. Here’s a taste of what’s on the agenda:

New Experiences, New Convenience, New Comfort


France and Germany are offering joint ”wine tours without borders” to Alsace and Baden. ”Cycling without Borders” is a new wine tour connecting the people, cities and landscapes of of Kaiserstuhl in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Alsace.

The region between the Black Forest and the Vosges Mountains offers many attractions including three iovernights in wineries in Germany and France, wine tastings, regional meals and rental bikes, starting at $480 per person (www.winetourism-baden-alsace.com).

In Spain’s Catalonia region, the grandly titled Center for Observing the Universe is a new astronomical park, a professional observatory that also offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the universe in its 70-seat planetarium with retractable dome permitting direct observation of the sky. The surrounding mountain ranges are ideal for hiking and biking.

Story Hotel (www.storyhotels.com) offers smart, stylish, friendly and affordable lodgings in downtown Stockholm, named Europe’s Environmental Capital for 2010 for its progress toward running free of fossil fuels by 2050.

Copenhagen is on the green route, too, with new CityCirkel electic buses running past tourist sites such as City Hall Square, Tivoli and the Round Tower. The Radisson Blu Royal is Denmark’s first five-star hotel to receive the Nordic Swan label. Also ”swanning” are the concert hall of the Radisson Blu Falconer and the Radisson Blu Scandinavia.

In Switzerland, the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz has completed a major renovation to become Europe’s leading wellbeing and medical health resort. Cyprus will open its new Larnaka International Airport at the end of November, heralding a new era for the island nation with this state-of-the-art facility designed to handle 7.5 million passengers a year.

New restaurants in Paris and Wales invite visitors to get high.

First, Nomiya@ArtHome (pronounced ”arome”) is a 24-ton glass and steel box placed atop Paris’ Palais de Tokyo. Equipped with an open kitchen and a communal table seating 12, it’s the hottest ticket in town until it comes down next July.

An online lottery scores a lunch or dinner reservation (or not) but and tours are offered to view the organic roof-top garden and the dining room with 360-degree views over paris.

Meanwhile, Mount Snowdon’s new visitor center and café in Wales (www.eryri-npa.co.uk) lets visitors discover the geology and ecology of England’s highest mountain while enjoying a cup of tea and the breathtaking views across Snowdonia.

Cool Doings

The third Vienna Design Week (www.viennadesignweek.at) takes place Oct. 1-11, showcasing creative work in product, furniture, industrial, graphic and experimental design events.

Not just for design professionals, it’s a user-friendly public happening throughout Vienna, with opportunities to shop, party and network. Visitors can also get around by bicycle, thanks to CitybikeWien, ecological but techy with information on bike stations and festival venues optimised for mobile phones (www.vdw.cbe.at)

Istanbul, which will be a European Capital of Culture in 2010, offers the 19th Akbank Jazz Festival Oct. 15-24 at clubs throughout the city, followed in Nov.-Dec. By the Efes Pilsen Blues Festival, now in its 20th year and a showcase for new talent (www.pozitif-ist.com).

Central Europe is giving a rousing finish to its year-long commemoration of the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989; full details available at www.gotocentraleurope.com. Oct. 24-26, Brussels launches its biennial Designers’ Trail where visitors can view exhibitions and installations by cutting edge Belgian designers, with new labels, established houses, famous and rising designers in thrilling juxtaposition (www.modobruxellae.be).

Budapest bustles, beginning with the Budapest Autumn Festival of music, dance and art, Oct. 9-18, followed by the Budapest Art Fair in the Mûcsarnok on Heroes Square, Nov. 19-22.

Now in its 15th year, the event showcases classical and contemporary fine arts and exciting programs from Hungarian and international galleries, harkening back to the grand old days of the Salon. Tatra Travel has an eight-day package including roundtrip air from New York, accommodations for six nights, daily breakfast, private roundtrip airport transfers and more for $949 per person before Oct. 31 and $799 Nov. 1-Dec 13.

Visitors touring the Loire Valley this November shouldn’t miss Euro Gusto, a new Slow Foods event Nov. 27-30. This will be a biennial festival celebrating the enormously rich European food culture and heritage (www.eurogusto.org).

Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier in southeast Iceland, is surely the ideal vantage point to enjoy the Aurora Borealis, nature’s annual light show from October through through March.

Icelandair has a four-night package ”Aurora Adventure” package from Boston, New York or Seattle from $1,429 per person, including guided Northern Lights walks along with roundtrip air, accommodations, breakfast and domestic roundtrip flights from Reykjavik (www.icelandair.us.)

What’s On at Museums

At The Hague’s Gemeentemuseum (www.gemeentemuseum.nl), the Cézanne-Picasso-Mondrian show (Oct. 17-Jan. 24) traces the foundation of modernism from Impressionism via Cubism through Abstractionism.

At Leuven’s newly refurbished M Museum, the masterpieces of one of the southern Netherlands’ most influential 15th century panel painters, Rogier van der Weyden, will be on view Sept. 20 through Dec. 6 (www.rogiervanderwyeden.be)

The Mona Lisa of science history is surely Galileo’s telescope, on view at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm (www.nobelmuseet.se) Oct. 10-Jan. 10.

In 1609 Galileo changed the world when he saw mountains on the moon, spots on the sun and four moons orbiting Jupiter. Starting Sept. 25 in Oslo, the Nobel Peace Center will feature “From King to Obama.” Photography, music, films, texts and sound recordings will recreate the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement that made Martin Luther King Jr., at 35 years old, the youngest of Nobel Laureates in 1964.

Borton Overseas is featuring a five-day travel package from $1,093 including air, hotel, entrance to the Nobel Peace Center and more (www.bortonoverseas.com).


The ETC is a marketing organization whose role is to promote Europe as a tourist destination and provide a range of information, research and electronic distribution services to its members. Members include Austria, Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine. For more information click on www.visiteurope.com

This story was published on 29 Sep 2009.