An alternative to Prague and touristy Central Europe: 13 fairy-tale, quiet places

Those who dream of fairy-tale atmospheres often set their sights on the same destinations: Rosslyn Chapel besieged after The Da Vinci Code, Prague's Charles Bridge crossed at a shuffle in high season, Vienna's Hofburg with queues at the ticket windows. And yet Central Europe is full of equally evocative corners where you can move at your ease. This is a considered guide to an alternative to Prague and the most crowded Central Europe: thirteen places across Bohemia, Austria, Hungary and Romania chosen because they stay livable, photogenic and walkable without being jostled.

Staying in Prague

Let's start with Prague itself, because there's no need to abandon it: you just change neighbourhood. A few steps from the Castle, the pastel lanes of Nový Svět were once home to Tycho Brahe and are today one of the quietest parts of the city, cobbled and free of shops. Descending towards Malá Strana, behind an anonymous gate on Karmelitská opens the Vrtba Garden, a terraced Baroque garden that almost no one seeks out despite being two hundred metres from the tourist flow. In the Old Town, the basilica of St James guards a mummified arm hanging by the entrance — the legend of a punished thief — and has a spectacular Baroque interior that is almost always empty. For lovers of ancient stone, the Romanesque Rotunda of St Martin at Vyšehrad, with an 18th-century cannonball embedded in its wall, is the oldest building in the city and stands in a panoramic park. An hour away by train, finally, Sedlec offers the other face of Kutná Hora: a Gothic Cistercian cathedral that most visitors skip as they rush to the ossuary.

The charm of Vienna

Vienna works the same way: everything revolves around the Ring, but the real treasures lie in the side streets. The Heiligenkreuzerhof is a Baroque courtyard belonging to the Cistercian abbey set within the Innere Stadt, an acoustic oasis a couple of steps from St Stephen's Cathedral. Also in the historic centre, the Ruprechtskirche is the oldest Romanesque church in Vienna, tiny and wrapped in ivy. Those travelling with children or seeking total calm can head up to Döbling, where the Japanese garden designed by Ken Nakajima at Setagaya Park offers ponds and maples far from every itinerary. And for lovers of layered history, beneath the Hoher Markt you can visit the houses of the legionaries of Vindobona, Roman remains under the floor of the modern city.

The calm of Budapest

Budapest is perhaps the capital where the alternative pays off most. On the Rózsadomb stands the türbe of Gül Baba, an octagonal 16th-century Ottoman mausoleum, the northernmost place of Islamic pilgrimage in Europe, today surrounded by a restored rose garden. At the foot of the Gellért, the Budai Arborétum is a free, little-frequented university botanical garden. In the 19th district, the garden-suburb of Wekerletelep is a neighbourhood of cottages in the Hungarian national style that seems designed for a fairy tale; while in Kőbánya the church of St Ladislaus shows the Art Nouveau genius of Ödön Lechner far from the spotlight of the centre.

Quiet Romania

To close, Romania is the continent's great reserve of quiet wonder. In Bucovina, the monastery of Voroneț — nicknamed the "Sistine Chapel of the East" and a UNESCO site since 1993 — has its exterior walls entirely frescoed in the celebrated "Voroneț blue," with a Last Judgement covering the whole western façade. In Transylvania, the medieval citadel of Sighișoara is still inhabited within its walls, with its clock tower and pastel-coloured houses. In the rural north, the Maramureș preserves UNESCO wooden churches with tapering steeples and an authentic peasant life. And for the most curious there remains the Banat, a multiethnic borderland where German, Serbian and Hungarian villages coexist.

The common thread of these thirteen places isn't remoteness, but choice. Rosslyn Chapel or the centre of Prague remain splendid: the point is to understand when and where to go. Visit the great capitals early in the morning or in the evening, favour the shoulder seasons between April and October, and add at least a couple of these stops to your itinerary. You'll get the same fairy-tale atmosphere with half the crowd — and with the time to really look.

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