Pick any popular area, where tour buses prowl and hotels and restaurants charge a premium. Now shift your gaze slightly north, south, east, or west and you'll find an area that is undoubtedly just as attractive yet far less trammeled and, hence, less expensive. It almost goes without saying that, as with any strategy that takes you off the beaten path, this also offers you a chance to have a more unique and rewarding travel experience away from the madding crowds that infest the most popular areas.

Here are a few illustrations to prove the point. Millions of visitors descend each year upon the beaches and towns of Provence, yet relatively few venture further east along the Mediterranean coast to France's Languedoc region, also full of sunny beaches, roman ruins, mighty castles, fine wines, and pastel-washed medieval towns.

For every hundred tourists who drive the Ring of Kerry and kiss the Blarney Stone in Western Ireland, maybe ten head just north up the coast into County Clare, famed for its traditional music and dramatic landscapes--and perhaps only one or two of those might continue up into County Sligo, where postcard towns surround roofless abbeys and forlorn Celtic tombs top windswept hills.

Most visitors to Andalusia stick to the popular western half of the region along the Costa del Sol of the Mediterranean coast and the inland cities of Seville, Cordoba, and Grenada; few discover the charms of the eastern, Atlantic Ocean half of the region: the pueblos blancos string of whitewashed hilltowns, the ancient border town Jerez de la Frontera whence comes the world's sherry supply, pilgrim routes through stunning national parks, and the ancient city of Cadiz -- at more than 3,100 years old, the longest-settled human city in Europe.

In Germany, consider the castles of the Neckar River rather than those of the Rhine River, the towns of Franconia rather than those of Bavaria. In Switzerland, explore the eastern Appenzell region rather than following the crowds to Interlaken and the Berner Oberland to get your taste of the Alps.

This strategy of setting your sights just off-kilter from the tour bus routes can also work by degrees. Central Italy is a perfect example. Take Tuscany, a justifiably popular region, but a place where most tourism focuses on Northern Tuscany (Florence, Pisa, and Lucca) and the Chianti/Siena region of Central Tuscany. That leaves the Maremma in Southern Tuscany relatively unspoiled, discovered mainly by German bicycling groups.

But perhaps you're an old Italy hand who feels all of Tuscany is overcrowded and overpriced. Move one degree further out and to the east and cross the border from Tuscany into Umbria, a region that features many of the same attractions (medieval hill towns, Renaissance art, Etruscan ruins, picturesque vineyards) but is not nearly as popular and, hence, not nearly as expensive.

To those who say that even Umbria has already been discovered and is on a par with Tuscany, I say: continue out yet another degree, looking east into the regions of The Marches and, a bit to the south, Abbruzo. The hill towns and wineries continue, but the majority of tourists have turned back to seek out Rome or the Cinque Terre. These areas of Central Italy are still almost entirely yours to discover -- and at prices far below those of the Chianti in Tuscany.

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