Slovenia's Izola named Europe's most underrated destination

British media company Time Out has picked the Slovenian seaside town of Izola as Europe's most underrated holiday destination, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

Although this little medieval town is often overlooked in favour of the country's more famous spots like Lake Bled or the capital city of Ljubljana, Time Out travel writer John Bills finds that "Izola is where Slovenia's coast shines brightest".

"Izola is ideal if you're looking for a quiet, chill break," Time Out writes.

Bills calls it a "gorgeous fishing village" that is "positively dripping in Venetian elegance".

Its "narrow, winding streets hide delightful cafes, romantic restaurants, and scenes of everyday life that have long been lost to the coast's more mainstream destinations," he adds.

After Izola, the second most underrated place to go to according to Time Out is Machynlleth, a small Welsh market town, and the Dutch town of Tilburg came third.

Figures from the local tourist board show that Izola attracted almost 140,000 visitors from Slovenia and abroad in the nine months to the end of September, 4% more than in the same period a year ago.

While the town has traditionally drawn mainly local visitors, tourists from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Italy accounted for 37% of the over half a million nights spent at tourism accommodation facilities in the first nine months of the year.