‘The perfect place to unwind’: Travellers recommend their favourite uncrowded destinations in Europe

Kansas City is synonymous with barbecue, but if you’re visiting just for the burnt ends, you’re missing out on the ever-expanding, diverse menu of flavors that KC dishes up daily – so save room.

It’s all about the heat come July, with the northern hemisphere’s sizzling summer temperatures adding an extra shine to some of the world’s most popular travel destinations.

The joys of traveling solo are endless. It is freeing to explore new places alone—you can go where you please, eat when you want, and enjoy quality time with yourself uninterrupted. The interest in solo travel has been slowly rising for a while, in tandem with the desire for deeper, slower, more connective travel. For many, solo travel is the perfect way to achieve this—it provides an opportunity to trust your instinct, go with your gut, and get lost in the experience. You rely on yourself rather than on others’ whims or desires.

I've been writing about my family's travels for over a decade and traveling for even longer. I'm also an introvert who gets easily overwhelmed by crowds and finds energy in moments of quiet solitude.

Saltburn-by-the-Sea boasts a magnificent beach and plentiful ice-cream, coffee bars and a burgeoning arts scene. Among the highlights has to be a stroll along the Grade II-listed pier and hopefully a ride down the UK’s oldest water-balanced cliff tramway (still closed at time of writing after a fire in January, but being repaired). Head for lunch at the superb Seaview fish restaurant, which has views across the bay. Walk off the meal as you wander through beautiful Valley Gardens for the flora and fauna and smuggling history from the 18th century. Later, perhaps visit the Ship Inn, an 18th-century pub right on the beach, for a sundowner with a view. David Cowling

Ahead of World Oceans Day on 8 June, fresh additions to the Florida Keys Eco-Experience Trail pass are helping visitors to connect with, and protect, the natural environment of the 125-mile-long island chain. The free, mobile-exclusive digital pass enables travellers to find and check in at local businesses while exploring the Keys’ environment and wildlife. Launched in January and created by the Florida Keys Tourism Council and technology company Bandwango, the Eco-Experience Trail pass includes more than 60 geo-tagged, bookable activities and sustainability initiatives.  After accessing the pass, users can explore state parks and nature tours, wildlife centres and refuges as well as eco-adventures in the waters of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which protects the continental United States’ only living barrier coral reef.

Most visions of Marrakech include a bustling city, a medina filled with souks and shoppers, donkey carts and scooters—yet there is more than frenetic chaos to this vibrant destination. Just a mere 15 minute-drive away one can relax into the sensorial charms of places such as The Oberoi Marrakech—a palatial, private retreat that feels more like an ancient Moroccan palace than a resort.

Nepal is small in size but it’s big on variety. Best-known for its mountains, the Himalayan nation also contains historic towns, wildlife-filled national parks, Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage sites, tea fields and much more. 

Perhaps no destination on Earth packs as much punch into its relatively small surface area as Menorca. The second largest of the Balearic Islands, at one-fifth the size of Mallorca–its high-profile neighbor to the southwest in the Mediterranean Sea–the isle’s mere 270 square miles belies its almost innumerable gifts, which span the natural to the cultural, and virtually everything in between.

Airports in Italy are trialling new security and boarding technology that will mean passengers do not have to show their documents to get on a flight.

Home to some of the world's most iconic natural landscapes, New Zealand's South Island—or Te Waipounamu, in New Zealand's Indigenous Maori language—offers a dazzling array of visual wonders. Although it is about about 25% larger than New Zealand's North Island, it's home to less than a quarter of the country's population.

The natural world is full of wonders, but is there anything more mesmerizing than swimming at night in a sea glowing with bioluminescence? Or spying on flickering fireflies in woodland as they dance through the air?