Bustling cities with buzzing culture are great, but not the most relaxing way to spend your precious holiday. If you’ve had a hectic time at home or work, sometimes you just want peace, tranquillity and solitude. If this sounds like you, you might want to consider a more secluded destination for your next holiday. Here are some of the best:
1.) Lefkas
With sapphire blue seas and unspoilt land, the Greek island of Lefkas has traditional charm, green valleys and long sandy beaches. Its sheer white cliffs and relatively small size, makes the island easy to explore, and a perfect getaway where you can relax from the privacy of a tiny taverna with a locally-caught fresh seafood meze.
2.) Douro Valley
Douro Valley is a beautiful and tranquil region of Portugal famed for its delicious locally grown food and wine. Home to charming small villages ripe for exploration, you’ll fall in love with the unhurried pace of the Douro people.
The unspoilt land, traditional whitewashed houses with sun-baked terracotta rooves will make you feel like you could be enjoying this stunning Portuguese countryside at any time in the past few hundred years. Even though it’s not a seaside location, secluded villas with private pools will satisfy any familyseeking the benefits of the beach.
3.) Barbados
Barbados enjoys a well-deserved reputation as an island paradise, but is also an incredible destination for history lovers. 17th century sugar cane plantations and rum distilleries offer an intriguing glimpse into its colonial past, but if history is not your strong-point, then there’s no need to worry. Barbados also offers beautiful diving locations where you can explore the sunken, fire-damaged ship, Stavronikita. Barbados’ beaches are breath-taking, and feel designed to help you relax in luxurious seclusion.
4.) Mount Koya
The aforementioned destinations are holidays that are focused on you enjoying the beautiful landscapes and culture, but Mount Koya offers a very different type of seclusion. Mount Koya is located in a tranquil wooded area south of Japan’s Kyoto. It is the headquarters of the Shingon school – an ancient Buddhist sect that remains one of the most popular Buddhist schools in Japan.
Mount Koya is home to over 100 temples and monasteries, and is one of the best places in the world to experience a stay in a Buddhist temple. You can stay in a shukubo, a temple lodging – a traditional Japanese accommodation with paper walls and simple furnishings. It allows you to get a taste of the traditional lifestyle of Japanese Buddhist monks – it doesn’t get more peaceful and secluded than that.
5.) Lanzarote
Lanzarote has landscapes that will amaze you. This Canary Island has sunshine all year round, and so many sandy beaches that you are sure to find one unoccupied. With secluded and luxurious villas with private pools on offer, your holiday to Lanzarote will allow you to relax in private but also invite you to explore the beautiful surroundings. Its inland volcanic mountains are the perfect place for some world-class hiking with just you and the family!
Whether you want to relax and do your own thing, or explore what exactly other intriguing cultures have to offer, these top 5 destinations allow you to do so in peace.