Twenty-two countries around one sea, with three thousand years of everybody conquering everybody else layered into the same towns. The easiest great region to travel and the hardest to see freshly.
What it is
A nearly enclosed sea with twenty-two countries on it, across Europe, Africa and Asia. Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey on the northern arc; Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt along the south; Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the Palestinian territories at the eastern end; and the islands — Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, Cyprus, Malta, the Balearics — which are a category of their own.
What binds it is not politics but a climate and a diet: hot dry summers, mild wet winters, olives, wheat and wine, and a set of ports that have been trading with each other since the Bronze Age. Everything here has been conquered by everybody. A single Sicilian town can show you Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman and Spanish layers within one street.
The overtourism problem, stated plainly
Several of the most famous places on this sea are being damaged by the number of people visiting them, and pretending otherwise does not help anyone.
Venice, Dubrovnik, Santorini, Barcelona’s old centre and Amalfi in August are, by the assessment of the cities themselves, past what they can absorb. Venice has introduced an entry charge for day visitors; Dubrovnik caps cruise arrivals; Barcelona has restricted new tourist accommodation. These are not gestures — they are responses to residents leaving.
You can still go. The useful adjustments are: go outside July and August; stay overnight rather than arriving on a day boat, because day visitors bring the crowding without the economic benefit; and pick the equivalent place that is not on the list. Trieste instead of Venice, Kotor’s back valleys instead of Dubrovnik’s walls, Naxos or Folegandros instead of Santorini, Girona instead of Barcelona. None of those are consolation prizes.
Seasons
May, June, September, early October are the correct months. Warm, swimmable from June, everything open, and manageable.
July and August are hot — 40°C is normal on the southern shores — and full, and expensive. Southern Europe also largely goes on holiday in August, which means locals are travelling too and some businesses close entirely.
Winter is underrated on the northern shore: Rome, Seville, Athens and Istanbul are all excellent in February with no queues, and the light is beautiful. The islands mostly shut.
The North African and Levantine coasts run hotter and their good months skew to spring and autumn more sharply.
The three coasts
The northern shore — Spain to Turkey — is the one that is heavily travelled, well connected by budget airlines and ferries, and where the classic sites are. It is easy: EU freedom of movement for a large stretch, good rail, and no meaningful language barrier for a visitor.
The southern shore — Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt — is a different trip, cheaper, and considerably less visited outside a handful of resorts. Morocco is the most straightforward entry point and one of the great travel countries. Libya is not currently travellable; Algeria is difficult but not impossible.
The eastern end — the Levant — has been shaped by conflict for a long time and current conditions vary enormously by country and by month. Check current government advice, which for this stretch actually matters.
Getting around
Ferries are the underrated part of the Mediterranean. Greece’s island network, the Italy–Greece and Italy–Tunisia crossings, the Spanish–Moroccan routes across the Strait — all of them are cheap, atmospheric, and turn a set of countries into one region.
Trains are excellent in Spain, France and Italy, patchy elsewhere.
Budget airlines make almost any pair of northern-shore cities a cheap hop, which is what created the weekend-break economy and much of the crowding.
Where to go instead
Albania’s coast and mountains, Puglia and Basilicata in southern Italy, Sicily’s interior, the Peloponnese, Turkey’s Aegean beyond Bodrum, Tunisia’s Roman sites, Corsica’s interior, and the Dalmatian islands away from Hvar. All are on the same sea, all are cheaper, and none of them are struggling under the weight of visitors.
More Regions
Southeast Asia
The region that taught a generation how to travel cheaply and is still the easiest place on earth to do it. Warm, connected, and far more varied than the circuit suggests.
The Andes
The longest mountain range on earth, running the length of a continent, with the altitude that shapes every decision you make about travelling in it.
East Africa
The Serengeti and the Mara, Kilimanjaro, the Rift Valley lakes and the Swahili coast — and the safari industry that sits on top of all of it.