Study/writing retreats in Europe
October 7, 2016 8:39 AM Subscribe
I am looking for places anywhere in Europe where I can spend 1-8 weeks at a time to work long, consecutive, undisturbed and isolated days writing my thesis. They should be accessible by public transport and within reasonable reach from an international airport. Ideally the places would be in idyllic nature settings, with the possibility of long, picturesque walks, and most importantly contain a bright, clean study space within the apartment/flat/house/room or an inviting, quiet and small library in the near vicinity. I am on a student budget so I'm thinking no more than €300/pw. I am thinking there must be somewhere that fits the bill in 'overlooked' countries like Slovenia, Hungary, or Portugal where my money would go further than obvious choices like Switzerland or Norway. Any suggestions for this odd, particular request? Just to clarify, I am looking for specific places rather than countries/regions.
Some of the Greek islands are sparsely populated. Chios, for example, is a 45-minute flight from Athens International Airport and has a main town of around 10,000 and lots of isolated bays. Outside of the summer high season rent is reasonable, food is cheap and delicious. The down side is public transport. There is a bus but times are unreliable. If you stayed somewhere like Karfas, you could rent a bicycle or scooter to get around quite comfortably. As a bonus, even in winter it's mild, with occasional days warm enough to take a dip in the sea facing Turkey.
Malta is also reasonably priced to fly to and eat, although I'm not sure about rent for one person as I've only stayed there with a family. Public transport is fine, and the two smaller islands are very quiet. You can take a bus to the ferry terminal between the islands or take a boat from Valletta to your destination. Warm, beautiful, arid, and the people are lovely.
I've also stayed in Sitges, not far south of Barcelona, and lived quite cheaply. There's a train station in the town that will take you directly from the airport, and it's in the middle of big park areas. It's touristy but off-season it's very quiet and placid. If that particular town doesn't suit, there are many such coastal villages within a reasonable distance of Barcelona.
posted by tracicle at 9:20 AM on October 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
Malta is also reasonably priced to fly to and eat, although I'm not sure about rent for one person as I've only stayed there with a family. Public transport is fine, and the two smaller islands are very quiet. You can take a bus to the ferry terminal between the islands or take a boat from Valletta to your destination. Warm, beautiful, arid, and the people are lovely.
I've also stayed in Sitges, not far south of Barcelona, and lived quite cheaply. There's a train station in the town that will take you directly from the airport, and it's in the middle of big park areas. It's touristy but off-season it's very quiet and placid. If that particular town doesn't suit, there are many such coastal villages within a reasonable distance of Barcelona.
posted by tracicle at 9:20 AM on October 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
In Portugal, you could try Aveiro. It's a one hour train trip from Porto and around 40 minutes from there to the airport (it's served mostly by low-costs, particularly Ryanair). Downtown has quite a few buildings in Art Nouveaux and Art Deco style, surrounded by a canal. I wasn't there long enough to see public transportation, but didn't seem good, however. Helps getting a place downtown, because it is very walkable and pretty for the most part. For a more pastoral setting, you could also try Braga and Guimarães, both also a short train trip away from Porto.
Or, you could even try Porto or the nearby suburbs. Even if downtown is being gentrified and turned into tourist traps, most of the north (inside the city and the suburbs) is far more affordable (rooms are available from around €150/month), and still with very good public transportation. There's two libraries, one of them in the middle of the Romantic gardens.
I walked all over and all around the place, and some places are horrible (basically, all of the eastern side), others are fun to walk, including the river promenade all the way from the historic center to the city park and a handful of parks.
posted by lmfsilva at 9:53 AM on October 7, 2016
Or, you could even try Porto or the nearby suburbs. Even if downtown is being gentrified and turned into tourist traps, most of the north (inside the city and the suburbs) is far more affordable (rooms are available from around €150/month), and still with very good public transportation. There's two libraries, one of them in the middle of the Romantic gardens.
I walked all over and all around the place, and some places are horrible (basically, all of the eastern side), others are fun to walk, including the river promenade all the way from the historic center to the city park and a handful of parks.
posted by lmfsilva at 9:53 AM on October 7, 2016
Best answer: My first thoughts were that you might like off-season resorts in cooler countries like places on the Baltic coast of Poland, or studio/1-bedroom flats in quiet third-tier cities that you can't fly to easily like Kassel or Evora.
I also thought you might enjoy staying somewhere a bit historic but still small and rural-ish and off the beaten path; in France, for example, this would be somewhere like Annecy nestled in the French Alps, or Colmar on the eastern flank of the Vosges.
Further east, what about the cities around the Carpathian or Tatra Mountains, like Brasov in Romania or Kosice in Slovakia? Both have enough happening to get you everything you want and relatively easy access from the rest of Europe, but are small enough to have easy access to stunning scenery nearby.
If you are open to AirBnBs, here are a few listings that would tick some, if not all, of your boxes; idyllic is a bit tricky to pair with accessible-by-public-transport, though:
- This very cheap flat near Debrecen University in far-eastern Hungary is a bus/rental car away from the gorgeous and under-appreciated Hortobagy National Park.
- This flat in the old town of Klaipeda, Lithuania, a short ferry ride from the incredible sand dunes of the Curonian Spit.
I also found this apartment in Gaucin, Andalucia and this houseboat in Mielno, Poland. They also have this great house in rural County Durham in the north of England.
If you can broaden your idea of accessible, though, you really have the whole continent to play with. Do you need wired internet, or would a pocket wifi/3G/egg thing work for you? Do you need an airport within an hour...or three hours? A train station, or would bus access to larger cities be enough if you had an initial taxi ride in to the place? I mean, virtually every town or village that has more than a handful of people will have a shop of some sort that can sort you out with the basics of self-catering, and you can also have things shipped in, presumably, if the place has postal service.
Finally, a tidy and well-maintained bungalow/vacation home with appropriate insulation would be very peaceful and probably very cheap off-season, but make sure it's built for the climate - I imagine anywhere south of the Alps, especially a vacation home on the Mediterranean, won't be very well heated if your work takes you into the winter months.
posted by mdonley at 10:08 AM on October 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
I also thought you might enjoy staying somewhere a bit historic but still small and rural-ish and off the beaten path; in France, for example, this would be somewhere like Annecy nestled in the French Alps, or Colmar on the eastern flank of the Vosges.
Further east, what about the cities around the Carpathian or Tatra Mountains, like Brasov in Romania or Kosice in Slovakia? Both have enough happening to get you everything you want and relatively easy access from the rest of Europe, but are small enough to have easy access to stunning scenery nearby.
If you are open to AirBnBs, here are a few listings that would tick some, if not all, of your boxes; idyllic is a bit tricky to pair with accessible-by-public-transport, though:
- This very cheap flat near Debrecen University in far-eastern Hungary is a bus/rental car away from the gorgeous and under-appreciated Hortobagy National Park.
- This flat in the old town of Klaipeda, Lithuania, a short ferry ride from the incredible sand dunes of the Curonian Spit.
I also found this apartment in Gaucin, Andalucia and this houseboat in Mielno, Poland. They also have this great house in rural County Durham in the north of England.
If you can broaden your idea of accessible, though, you really have the whole continent to play with. Do you need wired internet, or would a pocket wifi/3G/egg thing work for you? Do you need an airport within an hour...or three hours? A train station, or would bus access to larger cities be enough if you had an initial taxi ride in to the place? I mean, virtually every town or village that has more than a handful of people will have a shop of some sort that can sort you out with the basics of self-catering, and you can also have things shipped in, presumably, if the place has postal service.
Finally, a tidy and well-maintained bungalow/vacation home with appropriate insulation would be very peaceful and probably very cheap off-season, but make sure it's built for the climate - I imagine anywhere south of the Alps, especially a vacation home on the Mediterranean, won't be very well heated if your work takes you into the winter months.
posted by mdonley at 10:08 AM on October 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
I was also going to recommend rural Spain. There are a number of villages in the mountains around Malaga that can be reached by bus (you can fly direct to Malaga and it's super easy to get a train from the airport to the bus station), and in the off-season, holiday homes can be rented very cheaply (for well under your budget--even half of it). As mentioned above, do be sure there's a heat source--those old stone cottages can be very cold in winter.
posted by tiger tiger at 11:37 AM on October 7, 2016
posted by tiger tiger at 11:37 AM on October 7, 2016
Not a specific recommendation, sorry, but this sounds like the perfect fit for a monastery or covent stay. Search for 'stay at a European monastery' for a wide variety of options.
Sounds fabulous. Enjoy!
posted by hydra77 at 11:51 AM on October 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Sounds fabulous. Enjoy!
posted by hydra77 at 11:51 AM on October 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Depending on when you're going to be there you might look at the French or Italian Alps. Lots for sub-$40/night AirBNBs in Chamonix, Courmayeur, places like that (outside of ski season).
posted by mskyle at 1:07 PM on October 7, 2016
posted by mskyle at 1:07 PM on October 7, 2016
Response by poster: All great suggestions, thanks a lot everyone!
@mdonley:
Those are brilliant concrete suggestions - I love the Debrecen place. That's exactly the kind of place I'm looking for! What kind of search strategy did you use to find those? I don't need wifi or 3G, I have everything I need on my laptop.
I'm mostly struggling with finding specific, actual places - like specific AirBnBs. I'm unsure how best to find places!
posted by nagoya at 2:52 PM on October 7, 2016
@mdonley:
Those are brilliant concrete suggestions - I love the Debrecen place. That's exactly the kind of place I'm looking for! What kind of search strategy did you use to find those? I don't need wifi or 3G, I have everything I need on my laptop.
I'm mostly struggling with finding specific, actual places - like specific AirBnBs. I'm unsure how best to find places!
posted by nagoya at 2:52 PM on October 7, 2016
I have nothing to write but I'd like to hole up in that houseboat. Looks incredible!
posted by Bella Donna at 5:50 PM on October 7, 2016
posted by Bella Donna at 5:50 PM on October 7, 2016
Glad to be helpful! I sort of looked on a Google Maps map of Europe for cities near big wodges of green, then zoomed in to see what the green was and whether something was there on AirBnB. I also used to live in small-town Poland so the landscape wasn't totally unfamiliar. Often I would zoom into a city and get an idea of what was the going rate in the cutesy historical town centre, and then looked for a place in your budget in the suburbs.
The nice thing is that most AirBnBs are well reviewed, especially out of the main tourist areas. You might also want to look up the words "real estate" or "rentals" in the city's language and then search for that - like "nieruchomości Rzeszow" for rental/property agencies in Rzeszow, Poland, a smallish city in the Galician countryside. A brief email to them in English or even a phone call might yield results for a lot less than what AirBnB are asking.
posted by mdonley at 10:10 PM on October 7, 2016
The nice thing is that most AirBnBs are well reviewed, especially out of the main tourist areas. You might also want to look up the words "real estate" or "rentals" in the city's language and then search for that - like "nieruchomości Rzeszow" for rental/property agencies in Rzeszow, Poland, a smallish city in the Galician countryside. A brief email to them in English or even a phone call might yield results for a lot less than what AirBnB are asking.
posted by mdonley at 10:10 PM on October 7, 2016
I can't keep away from this question and now I want to spend my summer doing this even thought I don't have a thesis to write. All of these places are within your budget.
- rural house in small village on the northern bit of Mallorca
- funky studio on the Morbihan Gulf near Vannes in a gorgeous corner of Brittany
- this amazing wagon with trampoline near a national park near Arnhem in the Netherlands
- this farmhouse/cottage in the South Tyrol region of Italy with a stunning view of the Dolomites in the backyard
- a cabin/retreat above Innsbruck - this one has to be seen to be believed!
- bright/basic/cheap apartment in the centre of Kuressaare on Saaremaa, Estonia's biggest off-shore island
- "The "Tower" is special, anthroposophy, high energy nature house, with great view to Giant Mountain in Karkonoski Park, Lower Silesia, Poland. The architectural and interior design are based on natural materials from the region . It's great place for solo adventurers or couples that are looking for a quiet place to be alone with their thought, reading, writing, meditating, painting, swiming in the waterfall, listening to music, biking, runing or long walking in the beautiful forest surrounding."
- this hut/cottage in an olive grove and with its own veggie garden on Ugljan, a Croatian island near Zadar
- restored granary in the Andalucian Sierra Nevada
A bit further afield:
- volcanic-stone beach? house in the Azores with shared kitchen
- a studio between Mount Carmel and the Mediterranean 10 miles south of Haifa
- northern lights and sauna at this Lapland cottage in northern Finland
Good luck finding a place - I'd never be able to choose!
posted by mdonley at 8:42 AM on October 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
- rural house in small village on the northern bit of Mallorca
- funky studio on the Morbihan Gulf near Vannes in a gorgeous corner of Brittany
- this amazing wagon with trampoline near a national park near Arnhem in the Netherlands
- this farmhouse/cottage in the South Tyrol region of Italy with a stunning view of the Dolomites in the backyard
- a cabin/retreat above Innsbruck - this one has to be seen to be believed!
- bright/basic/cheap apartment in the centre of Kuressaare on Saaremaa, Estonia's biggest off-shore island
- "The "Tower" is special, anthroposophy, high energy nature house, with great view to Giant Mountain in Karkonoski Park, Lower Silesia, Poland. The architectural and interior design are based on natural materials from the region . It's great place for solo adventurers or couples that are looking for a quiet place to be alone with their thought, reading, writing, meditating, painting, swiming in the waterfall, listening to music, biking, runing or long walking in the beautiful forest surrounding."
- this hut/cottage in an olive grove and with its own veggie garden on Ugljan, a Croatian island near Zadar
- restored granary in the Andalucian Sierra Nevada
A bit further afield:
- volcanic-stone beach? house in the Azores with shared kitchen
- a studio between Mount Carmel and the Mediterranean 10 miles south of Haifa
- northern lights and sauna at this Lapland cottage in northern Finland
Good luck finding a place - I'd never be able to choose!
posted by mdonley at 8:42 AM on October 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
I can highly recommend both Prague (Czech Republic), Budapest (Hungary)!
In Budapest, you'd want to stick to Buda and the Buda Hills - it's quiet, picturesque as hell and only a 10 minute commute by public transit to to the start of the landscape protection areas, which extend ~ 30 minutes north to Szentendre/the Danube Bend and into Duna-Ipoly National Park. There a plethora of universities and affiliated libraries, the cost of living is cheap (Hungary kept their currency instead of switching to the Euro), and public transit is reliable/affordable (~30€ for a monthly pass).
Prague has a similar layout. ~10 minutes outside of the immediate city center, there's a number of wilderness parks following the course of a central river. Divoka Sarka is one of the largest and easiest to get to; if you want to stay close by, you'd be at the edge of Prague 6. The Czech Republic also retained it's currency, which keeps the cost of living down, there's a robust library/university system and transit is cheap (~20€ for a monthly pass) and reliable.
Both are destination cities, so there's very little language barrier and a full suite of modern amenities (hospitals, pharmacies, supermarkets) - not quite the rural you're looking for, but easy to navigate and a good safety net if you need it.
PM me if you want/need more specific details on a certain city/area; I've stayed a considerable amount of time in each. <3
posted by givennamesurname at 10:48 AM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
In Budapest, you'd want to stick to Buda and the Buda Hills - it's quiet, picturesque as hell and only a 10 minute commute by public transit to to the start of the landscape protection areas, which extend ~ 30 minutes north to Szentendre/the Danube Bend and into Duna-Ipoly National Park. There a plethora of universities and affiliated libraries, the cost of living is cheap (Hungary kept their currency instead of switching to the Euro), and public transit is reliable/affordable (~30€ for a monthly pass).
Prague has a similar layout. ~10 minutes outside of the immediate city center, there's a number of wilderness parks following the course of a central river. Divoka Sarka is one of the largest and easiest to get to; if you want to stay close by, you'd be at the edge of Prague 6. The Czech Republic also retained it's currency, which keeps the cost of living down, there's a robust library/university system and transit is cheap (~20€ for a monthly pass) and reliable.
Both are destination cities, so there's very little language barrier and a full suite of modern amenities (hospitals, pharmacies, supermarkets) - not quite the rural you're looking for, but easy to navigate and a good safety net if you need it.
PM me if you want/need more specific details on a certain city/area; I've stayed a considerable amount of time in each. <3
posted by givennamesurname at 10:48 AM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by moiraine at 9:03 AM on October 7, 2016