This week’s travel dream: New destinations in the Old World

Croatia: Tahiti on the Adriatic?

It’s time American travelers realized that “Croatia came in from the cold a long time ago,” said John Henderson in the Los Angeles Times. “I never thought I’d compare any square kilometer of Eastern Europe to Tahiti,” but the bright turquoise waters off Croatia’s Kvarner Islands look like nothing else, and the islands’ quiet harbors offer the chance to return to another time. Located in the northern Adriatic, the Kvarners were largely untouched by the bloody 1990s war in which Croatia secured its independence. They survived that upheaval just as they had Mussolini’s fascism and Tito’s communism, and now they seem like “a different world in more ways than one.” Deep forests “sprinkled with red-tiled cottages” lead to labyrinthine villages “right out of ancient Rome” where tiny restaurants serve up “centuries-old recipes.” One minute, you’ll be strolling a secluded beach listening to the distant bray of a donkey; the next, you’ll be buying homemade Croatian brandy from a “pretty woman” on the cobblestones. Such is “island life—Croatian-style.”

Ukraine: A towering castle city

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Looking across the “gaping stone canyon” at Kamyanets-Podilskyy, I imagined what it felt like to storm this ancient walled city centuries ago, said John Pancake in The Washington Post. Just standing in front of this imposing stronghold in southwestern Ukraine gave me a “sinking feeling, as deep as the gorge” surrounding it. Kamyanets-Podilskyy has repelled “nearly a millennium’s worth of invaders” hailing from as close as Scythia and as far as Mongolia. Today, though, this “enchanting” place welcomes visitors. After a six-hour train ride from Kiev, all I needed was a $2 entry fee to get inside the massive earthen walls of the city’s most ancient fortress. I clambered up turrets and towers and peered into the hole where debtors were kept if they couldn’t pay their bills. Afterward, I wandered down the cobbled streets of the old city to see the Windy Gate, where “a breeze had the audacity to pluck off Peter the Great’s hat in 1711.” I spent hours inside the old city hall, which now houses three small museums and the ruins of a 15th-century Armenian church. Ukraine is home to more than 300 citadels and castles, but Kamyanets-Podilskyy may be king of the mountain.

Finland: Quirky Turku

Turku is one of Finland’s “most inviting” cities, but no one outside northern Europe has heard of it, said Joshua Hammer in The New York Times. That’s starting to change, now that it’s been named by the European Union as one of 2011’s two Capitals of Culture. Turku, which has been “one of Nordic Europe’s best-kept secrets,” appears ready for the challenge. For five centuries—until Russia took power in 1809 and made Helsinki the new capital—it was Finland’s “most important city.” Today it’s an “artistic haven,” and the yearlong cultural festival it’s staging will feature happenings as unusual as an exhibit of artist-created saunas and a choreographed event that’s being called “accordion wrestling.” That “quirky sensibility” is visible throughout the city as it prepares for the spotlight. Life on a Leaf, a whimsical artist-designed house with curved walls and teardrop-shaped windows, has become “something of a local landmark.” Even a onetime public lavatory has “come back to life” as one of downtown Turku’s many bustling pubs.

Italy: In with Ischia’s in crowd

Lovebirds Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton made Ischia famous way back in 1961, but Americans mostly missed the early rush, said Lorenzo Carcaterra in National Geographic Traveler. This island off the coast of Naples has since drawn celebrities from Truman Capote to Gwyneth Paltrow, but you don’t have to be part of the glitterati to create “warm memories” on this low-key hideaway, known for its thermal baths, southern Italian cuisine, and white-sand beaches. “Nothing disturbs the restfulness” at Giardini Poseidon, the most famous of the island’s thermal spas. “Thousands flock here” for hot mud baths and soothing massages. Peace can also be found on the quiet shores of Maronti beach, where the “only sounds beyond the lapping of the waves are the soft ballads sung by strolling musicians.” After soaking in the relaxing rays, find a seat at one of the restaurants hugging the water. Ischia has “kept alive the simple cuisine of its past,” so a meal here is like “going back to another decade, sometimes another century.” Such specialties as rabbit in a thick red sauce with pasta recall the days when locals created dishes out of whatever they could catch from either land or bay. Evenings on Ischia always come to an end at Bar Calise, where locals, both young and old, gather for conversation, an amaro or two, and the island’s best pastries.