The great thing about traveling is that there's plenty of room to still be inspired and surprised. Hidden gems come upon us when we least expect them. Sure there are destinations we painstakingly plan and research and look forward to. But other locations hit us like a sledge hammer when we least expect them.
On Reddit, travelers discuss the hidden gems they fell in love with despite barely knowing before.
One traveler kicked off the discussion, "One of my favorite memories was from about 4-5 years ago, when I went to Crete. Of course, everyone talks about Santorini, but I ended up in a small village called Matala, also known as the hippie city (I had never heard of it before then). Maybe it's more adapted for tourism now, but at the time it was almost empty in August. Locals would approach or just smile to me at the beach or in restaurants (where I had one of the best seafood meals of my life!). The streets were painted with art, and I even found a little anthem written by another traveler about the mythology of the place. Totally unexpected and it became one of my favorites."
Hidden Gems In Travel
This started a laundry list of people sharing their own hidden gems with each other. For one traveler, there's a couple of hidden gems in Europe that don't get the recognition they deserve. They wrote, "My favourite European countries are the Baltics. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have beautiful medieval towns that rival Europe's best and see just a fraction of the tourists. Prices are also super reasonable. I visited around Christmas and New Year. And it was a breath of fresh air."
Meanwhile, another person wrote, "Curu Wildlife Refuge in Costa Rica, got there in the early morning before any other tourist. There's the most beautiful beach I had ever seen (though to be fair I haven't seen very many) and I loved seeing all the wild animals. I went snorkeling too and hung out at the nearby island, it was amazing."
However, not all travelers bit at the chance to share. One traveler refused to share their hidden gems. They wrote, "I wouldn't dream of sharing hidden gems online anymore. I live in fear of Instagrammers and dread 'influencers' finding the undiscovered places. Even on this thread, there's a couple of places that I personally wouldn't be sharing for fear of more people arriving. My tip, use Google maps, explore."
