ADVERTISEMENTTravellers booking with budget airlines often see their arrival at a regional airport and extended journey to their destination as the price they have to pay for a low-cost fare.
Fly with a low-cost carrier to Paris and you’ll probably land at Beauvais-Tillé Airport some 85 kilometres northwest of the capital.
Book for Milan and you might arrive at Orio al Serio International Airport, closer to the city of Bergamo than to Italy’s fashion capital.
But instead of viewing this as an inconvenience, consider using it as a way to explore some of Europe’s unsung cities.
Wander canals and sip prosecco in Treviso, Italy
While budget airlines fly to Marco Polo Airport, the closest to Venice, you’ll likely find cheaper flights to Venice Treviso Airport.
If you want to go straight to the floating city, it’s a bus journey of over an hour. But just 10 minutes away by bus is the elegant centre of Treviso.
Treviso has its own canals flanked by patrician residences and overhanging trees. The central cobbled streets are lined with townhouses decorated with romantically faded frescoes while the grand Piazza dei Signori is home to the 13th-century castellated Palazzo dei Trecento.
The city is just half an hour away from the prestigious prosecco-making hills of Conegliano so its refined bars are perfect for a pre-dinner aperitivo of local sparkling wine.
Find medieval majesty in Girona, Spain
Girona-Costa Brava Airport might be the second closest to tourist hotspot Barcelona, but it is still 100 kilometres away.
As the name suggests, it’s a lot closer to the city of Girona, reachable by a 16-minute bus ride.
The medieval centre has architectural riches for the history buff, like the imposing remains of military fortifications, the labyrinthine Jewish Quarter and the majestic, pale stone cathedral.
If you’re there for the food - rich tomato-based fish stews and garlicky chicken and prawn mar i muntanya - meals out are around 25 per cent cheaper in Girona than in Barcelona, according to cost comparison site Numbeo.
Visit the erudite university colleges of Cambridge, UK
With five airports to choose from, flying to London is understandably complicated. Fares for Stansted Airport tend to be the cheapest but travellers have a 50-minute train or bus journey into the capital.
In half an hour by train, however, you can reach the city of Cambridge, famed for its centuries-old university.
With parks and riverside banks, Cambridge is rural and picturesque. The centre’s cobbled streets are crowded with cyclists and there are petite cosy cafes on every corner.
Walking down the main streets, you’ll spot rococo archways, Gothic spires and neo-classical colonnades belonging to university colleges dating from as far back as the Middle Ages.
For the most imposing, visit King’s College. Its chapel was built under the patronage of five different kings of England.
The nearly 90 metre-long building resembles a vast cathedral with kaleidoscopic stained glass windows, stone-carved heraldic symbolism and a mesmerising fan-vaulted ceiling.
ADVERTISEMENTAdmire architectural marvels in Beauvais, France
Beauvais-Tillé Airport may be branded as Paris-Beauvais for commercial purposes, but it is over an hour away from the French capital.
It is just a 15-minute ride on the local bus to the centre of Beauvais, however.
Beauvais might be a small city compared to Paris, but it packs a cultural punch. Its Cathedrale Saint-Pierre is the star attraction, a grandiose Gothic church with soaring spires and the world’s tallest vault.
It also houses a 19th-century astronomical clock with 52 dials showing the positions of the planets in the solar system and the current time in 18 cities around the world.
The fairytale-like episcopal palace for the Bishops of Beauvais is now the Musée de l’Oise. It houses a collection of ancient ceramics, archaeological artefacts, marble statues and 19th and 20th-century paintings.
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