Travel bloggers are sharing their three favorite travel secrets in a game of Tripbase Blog Tag. The goal is to eventually compile an amazing list of recommended destinations. I am honored to have been nominated to participate by my friend and fellow travel blogger, Amy at The Q Family Adventure Blogs. 

Shhh…here are my favorite hidden gem destinations…

Lerici, Italy

Lerici’s harbor

I discovered lovely little Lerici during a Disney Mediterranean Cruise in 2007. Our ship docked at La Spezia, from which most cruisers bus a couple of hours inland to Florence for its renaissance art or to Pisa for its leaning tower. Since we had just tackled Rome in a day, and because my husband and I were traveling with our then two-year-old daughter, Karissa, we avoided the long drive to these popular destinations and instead opted to take a short boat ride to lesser-known Lerici.

Picture-perfect cappuccinos in Lerici

The boat ride to Lerici afforded gorgeous shoreline views of Cinque Terre and Portovenere in the distance. We pulled into Lerici’s darling little harbor with its battalion of toy boats bobbing in the water and a castle perched on a hill overlooking the town. The rain sprinkling from an overcast sky provided the perfect excuse to duck into a café for cappuccinos. When the rain let up, we wandered the quaint cobblestone hillside streets, winding in and out of offbeat Italian clothiers and antique stores.

A tiny park in Lerici

We stopped in what may be the world’s smallest park to let our toddler run free for a bit before resuming our uncharted discovery of the town. We rewarded Karissa for good behavior with a spin on the town’s unassuming carousel before loading up on more cappuccinos and taking another boat to La Spezia for lunch. We could have found our way to the castle, I suppose. But, really, a visit to Lerici is not about seeing sites. It is about walking to where the road leads you and taking a new path as it appears. It is about enjoying the world as it unfolds before you.

Montpellier, France

Montpellier’s main square, La Place de la Comedie

Whenever I tell someone I lived in France during my junior year of college, they assume I lived in Paris. No, mes amis, I lived in Montpellier in the Languedoc region of Southern France. The lan-gue-what?! Not many Americans make a point to visit Languedoc – a region perhaps best known as being the worst for growing wine in all of France.

That’s me in front of the fountain, Les Trois Graces
(The Three Graces), during a return trip to Montpellier in 2004

But here’s what the French know. They know Montpellier is a cosmopolitan town filled with universities to which students from around the world flock. They know Montpellier’s very walk-able downtown is filled with shops with the latest fashions. They know the town’s large center square, La Place de la Comedie, is one of the prettiest you’ll find in all of Europe. The square is surrounced by cafes perfect for people-watching and is flanked by a gorgeous opera house at one end and the tree-lined Esplanade Charles de Gaulle, at the other. In the summer, the beaches just outside of town are filled with French and foreign tourists seeking sun and sand at a more affordable price than what can be found to the East along the French Riviera.

The modern architecture of Montpellier’s Antigone District

If you want art and monuments, go to Paris. If you want history, head to Normandy. For castles, the Loire Valley. For wine, Burgundy or Champagne. Skiing, Grenoble. Posh beaches, Cannes. But if you want to visit a French city with a youthful vibe and an international flair, where old world tradition and architecture collide with modern day…you must go to Montpellier.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), Minnesota

A misty morning in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) is over 1,000 lakes in a million acres of wilderness located in Northern Minnesota. Motorized boats are not allowed. There are no hotels or indoor plumbing. This is what you do. Get a permit and choose a point of entry. Follow tiny squiggly lines on a map, trying to decipher if that clump of rocks ahead is the island in the picture. Paddle all day long in your canoe, stopping for a lunch of PB&J if you must, or fresh walleye if you’re lucky. Portage from one lake to another, carrying a forty-five pound pack on your back and a canoe on your head, back and forth over land and around un-passable rapids.

A mama moose and her calf in the Boundary Waters

I have seen a wealth of wildlife the few times I have visited the BWCA with my dad. I spied on a mama moose with her calf wading through the water, pausing to take sips from the lake. I paddled past a family of playful otters that popped their heads up and peered at us, as if to say, “Whatcha doin?!” I braved a shower of fluorescent green frogs leaping from mucky black mud and into my canoe. (Have I mentioned that I have a phobia of frogs?) I witnessed a bald eagle soaring above my head, pausing to listen to the “swoosh…swoosh” of wind whipping through its wings. I have seen snakes, mice, bunnies, squirrels, and birds of all kinds. My brother and my dad even had a showdown with a bear once, but that is their story and I’ll leave it for them to tell.

Minnesota’s State Bird, the Common Loon, on one of the many lakes in the BWCA

I have heard the haunting call of loons, which sounds like a cross between a wolf’s howl and a wind flute. It is at once the loneliest and the most beautiful sound in the world. Instead of having hollow bones like most birds, these prehistoric creatures have solid bones. This extra weight restricts their habitat to the large lakes of the North, where I have watched these magnificent black and white speckled birds take off from the water, flapping their wings furiously until their bodies began to slowly rise and skim the water, and finally they soared through the air.

Camping here takes planning. And the right gear (which, if you’re like me, and you don’t camp much, you can rent from an outfitter). And more planning. And some skills – like how to pitch a tent and how to hang up your food pack at night so you don’t attract bears. I have neither of these skills, but I can follow directions like a champ. I suppose I could go car-camping sometime. I could probably manage that. But after camping in the Boundary Waters, it would seem like cheating.

A typical Boundary Waters scene

For me, wilderness does not have cars or electricity or, for the most part, other humans. Camping means miles and miles of still water, trimmed by prickly triangles of pine, jutting up into the sky and back down again into the water’s reflection. It smells like emerald green, mixed with the sweet scent of crisp leaves slowly turning soft and sinking back into the earth. It’s a nighttime so black that the bright twinkling of stars in the sky are literally all that can be seen. There is no noise beyond the gentle lapping of water, the buzz of mosquitoes wishing they could enter your tent, and the footsteps of some woodland creature padding past your campsite, all punctuated by the sweet melancholy sound of loons calling out to each other, looking for reassurance that they are not alone.

You can download free TripBase Travel Secrets eBooks packed with hidden gems and travel tips like these from me and other travel writers. My story about Lerici can be found in the Italy Travel eBook (as an EDITORS PICK!), my story about Montpellier, France is in the WorldWide Travel eBook, and the story about the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota is featured in the United States Travel eBook (as an EDITORS PICK!). TripBase will donate $1 for every eBook downloaded to CHARITY: WATER to provide clean drinking water to those in developing countries. Plus, the eBooks are FREE! So…what are you waiting for? Download now and make a difference!

What are your favorite secret travel destinations? Have you visited any of my favorite hidden gem locations? Please leave a comment below!

Here are my nominations for five fabulous bloggers to join in fun and share their travel secrets:

• Meryl Pearlstein, creator of Travel & Food Notes and Fodor’s New York author, who writes for Gayot.com and has written for New York Magazine and the Boston Herald.
 • The Vogel Family, authors of A Wayward Journey, a blog about the adventures of a family of four as they peddle their way around the world on bicycles.
• Andrea Fellman, creator of Savvy Sassy Moms, a site that offers tips on travel, navigating motherhood, and more.
• Glennia Campbell, whose blog, The Silent I, is about family travel adventures, both foreign and domestic.
• Lisa Bergren of The World is Calling, a blog that chronicles the travels of the Bergren family.

For more information on this topic see:

• Camping & Outdoor Pursuits

• How to Travel Like a Local

• Learn Travel Secrets & Help Those in Need Get Clean Drinking Water…for Free!

• Top 10 Most Popular Travel Mamas Blog Posts – Year One