Collection: Is There Anywhere Left in Europe That Hasn't Been Ruined?

The European tourist industry's great achievement - and its great tragedy - is that it has converted the continent's most beautiful places into products. Dubrovnik receives twelve cruise ships a day in high season. The queues for the Cinque Terre trails require timed entry tickets booked months in advance. Positano's narrow streets are gridlocked with Instagrammers photographing the view that has been photographed so many times it has ceased to contain any surprise. Santorini charges €22 for a glass of house wine at a caldera-view bar and both the visitor and the establishment have become complicit in an experience that bears almost no relationship to the life actually lived on the island.

This is not a complaint about other travelers. Everyone who goes to these places has the same legitimate impulse: they want to see something beautiful. The problem is structural. When beautiful places become fully known, they attract the investment and the footfall that preserve the beauty while destroying the quality of the experience. You can still get the photograph. You can no longer get the feeling.