{"id":486211,"date":"2026-03-20T17:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/486211\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T17:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:34:14","slug":"this-historic-celtic-city-is-officially-one-of-the-most-underrated-places-to-visit-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/486211\/","title":{"rendered":"This Historic Celtic City Is Officially One of the Most Underrated Places to Visit in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK\u2019s tourist hotspots are hotspots for a reason – they\u2019re world-leading museums, hyped restaurants, centuries-old monuments and much more besides. But sometimes, it\u2019s worth shunning the teeming crowds of London<\/a>, Amsterdam<\/a> or Paris<\/a> and heading for a lesser-known\u00a0part of the world instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Time Out\u2019s travel team has put together a list of Europe\u2019s most underrated destinations<\/a> for 2026. The list features places flowing with history and culture, from Plovdiv in Bulgaria, one of Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, to Ghent<\/a> in Belgium, home to the world\u2019s most stolen piece of art.\u00a0One UK city also made it into the top ten for 2026: Northern Ireland\u2019s Derry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If\u00a0you\u2019re a fan of the\u00a0Channel 4 comedy\u00a0Derry Girls,\u00a0the city is probably already on your radar for its enormous mural of Erin, Orla, Clare, Michelle and James, and\u00a0notable locations featured in the show (many of which are also attractions in\u00a0themselves).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Derry
\nPhotograph: Shutterstock <\/p>\n

Derry\u2019s two standout monuments are its city walls, which were completed in 1618 and are the only completely intact city walls in the county, and its nineteenth-century Guildhall, where Bill Clinton delivered his historic peace speech (as depicted in\u00a0Derry Girls).\u00a0Time Out contributor Richard Franks\u00a0adds\u00a0that \u2018to really get under Derry\u2019s skin\u2019, visitors should take the one-hour walking tour led by\u00a0Martin McCrossan City Tours<\/a>. He also recommends\u00a0the \u2018excellent\u2019 Walled City Brewery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year happens to be a\u00a0particularly\u00a0major one for the city. In April and May, it\u2019s hosting the 25th anniversary edition of the City of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival, with live music taking over the city across five days. Then in October, Derry Halloween, a\u00a0carnival\u00a0widely regarded as the largest Halloween festival in Europe, will mark its\u00a040th\u00a0birthday with four nights of costume parades, fireworks, storytelling and live music.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And if you visit the city in June, you may see a huge fleet of majestic ships lining the marina for the Foyle Maritime Festival. As part of that there\u2019ll be circus performances, street art, live music, on-the-water activities, family friendly workshops, continental markets and\u00a0food stalls. Suffice to say, Derry\u00a0know how to throw a good\u00a0knees-up (there\u2019s its huge St Patrick\u2019s Day revelries in March, too) .\u00a0<\/p>\n

See Time Out\u2019s full guide to Europe\u2019s most underrated destinations here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Plus:\u00a0The surprise UK city that just beat Berlin and Amsterdam in Time Out\u2019s 2026 ranking of the best cities in the world<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stay in the loop:\u00a0sign up to our free Time Out UK newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s tourist hotspots are hotspots for a reason – they\u2019re world-leading museums, hyped restaurants, centuries-old monuments and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1422,59,57,58,50,1423,1420,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-486211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-news-city-life","tag-things-to-do","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}