8 Underrated Destinations Cheaper Than the Obvious Choice

Split from £49 one-way on easyJet from Gatwick is one of the most criminally underused routes in Europe right now. Dubrovnik in September 2026 is running £110-plus one-way on the same airline, for a city so rammed with cruise ship day-trippers that you're basically queuing to look at a wall. Split gives you the same Adriatic coast, Roman-era old town, and ferry access to the islands, for about half the price.

Kotor in Montenegro is the one to watch if you want the dramatic bay scenery without Dubrovnik's price tag or its crowds. Ryanair fly to Tivat from Stansted from around £39 one-way, and Tivat is literally 20 minutes by taxi from Kotor's medieval walls. A week's accommodation in Kotor still costs less than three nights in Dubrovnik's old town, and the bay views from the fortress walk are arguably better anyway.

Be straight with yourself about the bag situation on both routes. Ryanair's checked bag fee to Tivat will add £25-40 each way if you're not travelling light, and easyJet to Split charges similarly. Pack a carry-on and you're sorted.

Tirana from £59 one-way on easyJet from Gatwick makes it officially the cheapest European capital to fly to and to exist in once you arrive. A decent meal with wine in the Blloku district costs under £12. The city is genuinely surprising, colourful communist-era buildings painted in bright blocks, a buzzing cafe culture, and mountains you can day-trip to for almost nothing. Rome this is not, and that is very much the point.

Wizz Air fly to Skopje from Luton from around £29 one-way, and from Skopje you can reach Ohrid in North Macedonia by bus in under three hours for about £5. Ohrid sits on a vast lake with Byzantine churches carved into cliffsides, a Roman amphitheatre, and almost no British tourists. Compare that to Dubrovnik or Santorini in peak season and you'll wonder why you ever bothered.

Ohrid has no direct UK flights yet, which is both its main inconvenience and the whole reason it's still worth going. The Skopje transfer is easy enough, the bus station is central and coaches run regularly. Go before the direct routes arrive and the Instagram crowd follows.

Tbilisi return from around £180-230 on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul from Gatwick is one of the best-value city breaks you can do from the UK right now. Georgia's capital has a wine culture dating back 8,000 years, sulphur bath houses where you can soak for under £10, and a food scene that will absolutely ruin you for normal supermarket cheese. Istanbul Ataturk is a smooth connection, usually two to three hours layover, and Turkish Airlines' economy product is a step above most European low-cost carriers.

The alternative most people book is somewhere in Western Europe for more money and less originality. Flights to Barcelona or Lisbon in peak season routinely hit £150-200 return, at that price, Tbilisi is a no-brainer for anyone with a few extra days and a sense of adventure. Pegasus Airlines also serve Tbilisi via Istanbul from Stansted from around £160 return if you're flexible on dates.

Visa requirements for Tbilisi are simple for UK passport holders, no visa needed for stays up to a year, which tells you everything about how welcoming Georgia is as a destination. The one honest downside is the flight time, around five to six hours total with the connection. Worth every minute of it.

Madeira from £49 one-way on easyJet from Bristol is better value than Lisbon in almost every measurable way. The island has year-round mild temperatures, September sits around 24°C, dramatic levada walks through laurel forest, and a food and wine culture that doesn't need a queue of tourists to validate it. Lisbon in 2026 is genuinely expensive now: accommodation costs have roughly doubled in four years, and you feel it.

TAP Air Portugal fly to Funchal from Heathrow from around £89 one-way if you prefer a more direct option with a slightly better seat. Jet2 also cover Madeira from Manchester from roughly £65 one-way. Three nights in a good central apartment in Funchal will cost you less than a similar place in Alfama these days, and the island genuinely rewards slower travel.

Palermo from £39 one-way on Ryanair from Stansted is the Sicily argument made simple. Rome in September costs you a small fortune in accommodation alone, and you spend half your time in queues for things that are admittedly brilliant but exhausting. Palermo gives you Arab-Norman architecture, street food at Ballarò market for under £3 a plate, and the kind of chaos that still feels alive rather than performed for tourists. Wizz Air also fly to Palermo from Luton from around £35 one-way, making it one of the cheapest sun routes available from the UK right now.

Atlantic Airways fly to the Faroe Islands from Edinburgh via Bergen from around £220-280 return, which is not cheap, but then nothing about the Faroe Islands is cheap. What it is, is completely unlike anywhere else you will ever go. Dramatic sea cliffs, puffin colonies, grass-roofed villages, and approximately three other British tourists on the whole island. Go before the travel press fully catches on, they're starting to, and prices will follow.