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Eight alternative beach holidays to the Med – without the British tourists

Look further afield than the Mediterranean's most popular resorts and you'll be rewarded with space, beauty and, often, lower prices  

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The beach at Ramberg in Lofoten, Norway (Photo: VisitNorway.com)
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Britons cannot get enough of the beach. According to a recent survey by the travel association Abta, beach holidays are our most popular getaway, with 48 per cent of travellers polled enjoying one or more in the previous 12 months.

But with locals railing against overtourism in Europe’s coastal hot spots such as the Canary Islands and Mallorca, you might be looking elsewhere for your next dose of sun, sea and sand.

Luckily, from the cooler climes of the Nordics to the balmy shores of Tunisia and Calabria’s dramatic Ionian and Tyrrhenian coastlines – as well as further-flung tropical islands – there are plenty of less crowded beach destinations to consider. Here are eight alternatives where you can get off the beaten sand and find plenty of space to spread out a towel this year…

Reggio Calabria, Italy  

Picture yourself sipping on an Aperol spritz, the Mediterranean sun shining over the Ionian Sea, and barely a word of English heard on the beach. It sounds too good to be true in a country welcoming more than 60 million tourists every year, but you can still find this scene in Reggio Calabria, a seaside city in Italy’s lesser-visited southern toe, facing Sicily over the Strait of Messina.

Start with a leisurely stroll along the palm-fringed Lungomare Falcomatà seafront boulevard, lined with Art Nouveau architecture and offering views of Mount Etna (on a clear day)

Get in quick though, because Reggio Calabria is on the up, taking the top spot in Skyscanner’s 2025 Trending Destinations list, with a 541 per cent increase in flight searches between January and June 2024 compared with 2023.

Of the eight million overnight stays in the wider Calabria region in 2023, 80 per cent were domestic tourists, according to EU statistics, with visits concentrated in July and August.

Travel off-season and you will find yourself among Italians on Reggio Calabria’s long promenade, or on day trips to resorts such as Tropea, an hour and 40 minutes’ drive north, with dramatic cliffs and sandy beaches. Across the other side of the “toe”, the citrus-scented Costa degli Aranci is also a delight.

B&B at the Art Nouveau-inspired Hotel Medinblu in Reggio Calabria from £130, english.hotelmedinblu.com. Ryanair flies from Stansted to Reggio Calabria

Djerba, Tunisia  

Houmt Souk in Djerba Tunisia (Photo: Luca Pizzorno / 500px/Getty)

Lapped by Tunisia’s warm Mediterranean waters, North Africa’s largest island first featured on travellers’ radars when mythical “lotus eaters” enticed seafaring Odysseus and his crew ashore in Homer’s The Odyssey – legend has it that the island was Djerba.

Declared a Unesco Cultural Heritage site in 2023, this sunny island has become easier for Britons to reach thanks to easyJet launching flights from Luton and Manchester in November 2024. Roman ruins embroider Djerba’s interior, while white-washed minarets and historic synagogues mingle behind palm-fronted shores.

“The majority of bookings to Djerba are made on an all-inclusive basis. Travellers are drawn to the island’s beaches,” says Tony Hopkins, trading and development director at easyJet holidays.

The best beaches are found on Djerba’s western shores. Plage de Sidi Mahrez offers white sands and calm, turquoise waters, while Plage Yeti sits on a long sandy peninsula backed by a glorious lagoon.

Seven nights all-inclusive at the five-star Ulysse Djerba Thalasso & Spa from £404pp, including flights and transfers, with easyJet Holidays. Departures throughout the year

Lofoten, Norway  

Beach at Ramberg in Lofoten Norway VisitNorway.com Image via https://brandcentre.brandnorway.no/
The beach at Ramberg in Lofoten, Norway (Photo: VisitNorway.com)

Britons enjoyed almost 680,000 overnight stays in the Nordic destination in 2023, up from 570,000 in 2022, according to Visit Norway.

Despite the relatively high cost of travel in Norway, there are miles of empty beaches to explore in the country that has the second-longest coastline in the world, after Canada.

In the Arctic Circle, dramatic mountain peaks rise above colourful fishing harbours in the Lofoten archipelago. Norwegians previously have voted the chalky white sands of Hauklandstranda, near the town of Leknes, the best beach in Norway. Uttakleiv Beach (an hour’s coastal hike from Hauklandstranda) is home to white sands, rocky cliffs and a resident population of 22 people.

Don’t expect soaring heat to match the Med, with daytime summer temperatures ranging from 10-16°C. But do expect almost 24 hours of daylight during the phenomena of the Midnight Sun – when it doesn’t set below the horizon – between late May and early August. There’ll be plenty of time for gentle cycling trips, walking and long, lazy dinners late into the light night.

Norwegian Air flies from London via Oslo to Bodø, where you can hop on the ferry to Stamsund and transfer to Leknes. Alternatively, fly to Harstad/Narvik Airport in Evenes and take a bus or rental car south to Lofoten. Fjordside fishermen’s cabins at Lofoten Basecamp from £134, lofoten-basecamp.no

Yyteri Beach, Finland  

“Endless stretches of sandy beaches, wooden footpaths and distinctive dunes form Yyteri Beach, one of the longest beaches in the Nordics,” says Sasha Cummings-Kline from Visit Finland. She describes it as a year-round destination, with surrounding forests and nature reserves offering hiking and adventure activities suitable for every season.

Finland is home to a whopping 2,760 miles of coastline, for those willing to take the chance on Baltic summers, and untouched beaches abound. Fringed by pine trees rather than palms, the four-mile Yyteri Beach overlooking the Gulf of Bothnia is the pick of the bunch.

The tall dunes roll down to the white sands of Finland’s first Blue Flag beach, and, in summer, you will have hours of daylight to enjoy a secluded coastline. The elegant city of Pori, 20 minutes away, hosts a popular jazz festival in July.

If you are not a fan of cold-water swimming (though in long, warm periods, coastal waters can warm up beyond 20°C), check into the beachfront Yyteri Spa Hotel and stay toasty in the saunas and heated pools.

Doubles from £123, including breakfast, virkistyshotelli.fi/en/home. Flixbus operates direct buses from Helsinki to Pori, the nearest city. The train from Helsinki, via Tampere, is faster. From Pori, bus no 44 runs to the beach. Several airlines offer direct flights between the UK and Helsinki

Lake Skadar, Montenegro

The island of Grmo??ur, a former fortress and prison, can be found on the southwest side of Lake Skadar.
Caption: The island of Grmožur, a former fortress and prison on the southwest side of Lake Skadar (Photo: ccr_358/Getty/Moment RF)

Montenegro welcomed approximately 2.5 million tourists in 2024 – paltry compared with the 21 million who visited neighbouring Croatia.

Still, British holidaymakers are discovering the Balkan nation’s appealing Adriatic shores, with both easyJet and Jet2 launching direct flights to Tivat last year.

Surprisingly, the most secluded beaches await inland, around Lake Skadar’s shores. Straddling the Montenegrin/Albanian border, the Balkans’ largest lake is home to biodiverse wetlands, towering karst mountains and sandy beaches.

Stretching 500m along Lake Skadar’s shores, the white sands of Murici Beach are untouched by mass tourism.

Accessible only by hiking trails from a clifftop village, Godinje Beach offers the ultimate lakeside escape. Montenegro offers excellent value. Restaurant dinners cost around €10 (£8.50) per person and a pint of beer €2.50 (£2.10), a bargain compared with Dubrovnik, where a meal can set you back €30 per person (£25) and a beer €4 (£3.49).

Enjoy stunning views of Lake Skadar National Park from Eco Resort Cermeniza, where luxury villas are set around an outdoor swimming pool on a 200-year-old winery in the heart of the Montenegrin countryside. It’s a 40-minute drive to Podgorica International Airport and a 15-minute drive to Godinje.

Villas from £85 room only, cermeniza.com. Wizz Air flies from Gatwick to Podgorica and Ryanair flies from Stansted

Ras al Jinz, Oman  

Huge green turtle heading back to ocean. Unique hatching place in Ras Al Jinz, Sultanate of Oman.
Turtle heading back to ocean in Ras Al Jinz, (Photo: Chalabala/Getty/iStockphoto/Chalabala)

Dubai welcomed 17.5 million visitors in 2023. Neighbouring Oman, home to 2,000 miles of coastline and almost none of the skyscrapers, recorded just under four million tourists, according to the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism.

Fly into Muscat (direct flights from Heathrow from £480pp with Oman Air), and watch fiery sunsets from the palm-fringed sands of Qurum Beach after experiencing an authentic side of Arabian culture in the capital’s forts and souqs.

A three-hour drive south, stopping at sinkholes and wadis en route, brings you to Ras al Jinz, a Unesco World Heritage Site that’s the easternmost point of the Arabian peninsula, and one of the most vital green turtle nesting beaches in the Indian Ocean (between July and September).

Here, the pinkish sands of the sandy bay are lapped by the aquamarine Arabian Sea and a permit is required to visit the protected bay at night.

Deluxe rooms at Ras al Jinz Turtle Reserve, a short walk from the beach, from £188, including breakfast, rasaljinz-turtlereserve.com/en

Los Cabos, Mexico  

Arch of Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur in Mexico
Arch of Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur (Photo: Carlos Sanchez Pereyra/Getty/The Image Bank RF/carlos sanchez pereyra)

Britons are infatuated with Mexico, and Cancun placed number five on the British Airways “Hot List” as one of 2024’s most-searched destinations, in a report published by Globetrender.

Twenty million tourists also descended upon Cancun, and Quintana Roo’s wider Maya Riviera region – where you’ll find influencer-favourite beach resort Tulum – in 2023, so you might consider taking your next Mexican beach holiday further afield.

Los Cabos, a beach resort on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula popular with US holidaymakers, received just 3.86 million tourists.

Here, desert landscapes meet rocky coastal mountains that loom over white sand beaches like Playa el Medano, where you can sip on micheladas (a sort of Mexican bloody Mary, made with beer) and dine on fish tacos with a view of the Pacific Ocean.

Make a visit between mid-December and April, and you are in with a chance of seeing migrating humpback whales offshore, too.

Condor offers direct flights from Frankfurt to San José del Cabo from around £590 return. Alternatively you can fly via the US or Mexico City. Doubles at Mayan Monkey Hotel from £113, including breakfast, mayanmonkey.com

Flores, Indonesia  

Between January and July 2024, 7.75 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia. The vast majority headed for Bali, the South East Asian country’s most popular destination, but its other islands are begging to be explored – it is estimated that there are more than 17,500 of them.

Long-haul specialist Flight Centre suggests lesser-known Flores, an hour’s flight east of Bali, as an alternative. “Most travellers are well aware of Bali’s Padang Padang and Seminyak beaches,” says Elaine Learmonth, product leader at Flight Centre UK. “The island of Flores is a quieter retreat, with the greenest rainforests and freshest waterfalls. The white sand beaches are perfect for lounging under the sun.”

Learnmonth recommends Blue Stone Beach on Flores’s south coast, where volcanic sand is strewn with multicoloured pebbles.

Adventure-seekers can peer into the steaming crater lakes of Mount Kelimutu, while Labuan Bajo is the gateway to Komodo National Park, where manta rays glide through crystal-clear waters and Komodo dragons plod along pink-hued beaches.

Fly from London to Bali via Europe, the Gulf, Malaysia or Singapore. From Bali, Air Asia connects to Labuan Bajo’s Komodo Airport. Deluxe suites at the beachfront Sudamala Resort in Labuan Bajo from £111 including breakfast, sudamalaresorts.com/resort/sudamala-resort-komodo. Alternatively, Intrepid Travel offers nine-day Komodo & Flores Adventures, a group trip starting at £1,520pp, excluding flights, intrepidtravel.com

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