WHERE TO GO FOR THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS
"Ignotis errare locis, ignota videre Flumina gaudebat, studio minuente laborem."—(Ovid.) I nAvE been invited to set down some suggestions where to go for the summer holidays. No one can claim to be a real traveller who does not love to get away from the beaten track. One result of the drawing closer of the world in point of time, owing to scientific discovery, is the levelling up of mankind ; national idiosyncrasies and customs are vanishing and in their place we have a dull monotony ; the same sur- roundings, the same waiters, the same food, for the well-to-do globe-trotter demands a uniform standard of comfort in the hotels of each place and the hotel-keeper has but responded. To make the most of our holidays we should as far as possible seek to get away from the centres frequented by English- speaking tourists, and visit those places where we can study the life of the country itself. Too frequently we allow ourselves to be influenced by the fact that the months of August, September and October are the " off season in many centres. Another deterrent is the fear that the weather will be too hot. As an old traveller who has spent many years wandering in five continents, may I suggest that no one should ever allow him- self to be prevented from visiting the place he fancies for either of these two reasons ? Unless you are one of those unfortunate mortals, possessed by the herd instinct, who delight to foregather with their fellow-countrymen when on their holidays and to meet the same people then as during the rest of the year, why bother about the season ? By visiting many places out of season you will save yourself much money, avoid your fellow-countrymen and receive increased attention and civility at the hands of the natives. In Europe where the climate is so variable the probability of a prolonged heat wave is unlikely, and if the British traveller visiting foreign countries in midsummer will conform to local conditions, will dress suitably, do his sight-seeing early in the day and remain indoors for two or three hours at midday indulging in a siesta After his luncheon, he will in all probability spend a pleasant holiday at a considerably lower cost than in the season.
And now for an attempt to answer the Editor's question : " Where would you recommend readers of the Spectator to go ? " My recommendations must be divided into three categories : Class 1, those who have only two or three weeks available ; (2) those who have from five to six weeks ; (3) the more fortunate mortals who can spend three or four months on their summer wanderings. There is a very wide choice for those who do not desire to be out of England for more than three weeks. Switzerland is, of course, a country which calls at every season of the year, and those who only know it in the winter will find an entirely different world. French Switzer- land, with Geneva as a centre, German Switzerland, with Lucerne or Zurich as the radiating point, the Engadine or Italian Switzerland beginning with Locarno or. Lugano and including the Italian Lakes make pleasant variations. The mistake many people make in Switzerland or elsewhere is that they try to fit too much into their three or four weeks. They would derive much more benefit from their holiday if they made it a rule not to stop in more than two different places each week. While Switzerland is, according to the guide- books, " Europe's Playground " par excellence, and the English-speaking world takes possession of the larger hotels, it is still possible to find many places off the beaten track where the visitor can find comfort at reasonable prices in hotels or pensions not exclusively patronized by Anglo- Saxons. To the golfer who is tired of British links and British caddies a delightful holiday can be spent going the rounds of
several Swiss golf clubs, of which the oldest established is the ,Engadine, an eighteen-hole course started in 1898. The newest courses are at Thun, Lugano, Geneva and Engelberg. For those who desire the minimum of railway travel to get to their destination there is a variety of choice. First and foremost a holiday in Holland or Belgium, or both combined, where the journeys seem ludicrously short to anyone
accustomed to North American conditions, and yet in a V 0 .1d,
especially in Holland, entirely different from our own. Let the wanderer armed with one of Mr. Lucas's delightful hand-
books take as his centre the Hague or Amsterdam. If he has the time and the inclination, let him take a trip up the Rhine as far as he can go, and then return through Beligum ria Spa, the banks of the Ourthe, Brussels and Bruges. Near at hand, and hence most popular with British visitors, arethi various French travel centres and plages, many of which have now excellent golf links as an added attraction. Every year the number of English visitors to Normandy and Brittany and, nearer still, Dieppe and Pas de Calais, is increasing. But the
traveller with more enterprise might head southwards for the Loire, making Tours his centre for the Châteaux district, or for Avignon and delightful Provence, or yet further for the Basses Pyrenees, starting from Biarritz--then enjoying its Spanish season—to St. Jean-de-Luz, Pau, Lourdes and Bagneres-de-Bigorre.
A journey up the Rhine will probably have the Black Forest as its objective where quiet, invigorating air and the healing pine forests with a wonderful network of tracks through mountain and valley make a strong appeal. The local tourist-verein has an excellent system of marking the main tracks or trails so that the stranger need never lose his way. Certainly the forests of Central Europe, such as the, Black Forest, the Thuringer Wald, the Erz-gebirge, the forests of Czecho-Slovakia and Bavaria and the Carpathians open up delightful vistas for those who like walking and desire to escape from the all-invading motor.
For one who loves the sun and blue skies and does not mind heat, Italy and Sicily or Spain and Portugal conjure up pleasant days of dolce far :dente. The lover of sea travel will enjoy the delightful trip down the Dalmatian coast from Venice or Trieste via Cattaro and Ragusa to Corfu. And if he has the time the traveller would be well advised to " stop over " from one steamer to another at Ragusa and visit Mostar and Serajevo, places of gloomy memory but offering many attractions to the visitor with its medley of nationalities. If the traveller has the time he will be well advised to continue his journey southwards to Athens, and thence through the Sea of Marmora to Constantinople.
The wanderer who prefers northern climes has also many alternatives. A tour full of interest and variety is to spend two or three weeks in Norway, and unless he desires to spend his whole holiday in that attractive land, to proceed from Oslo (Christiania) to Gothenburg in Sweden ; hence by way of the Gotha Canal to Stockholm, one of the cleanest towns in the world, with delightful surroundings of lake and pine-clad islands, and thence across the Baltic to Abo and on to Helsing- fors, the capital of Finland. There are few more delightful sea trips in Europe than the three weeks' tour of the Western Fjords of Norway from Bergen to North Cape and on to Spitzbergen.
Those fortunate individuals with several months at their disposal can visit Canada, the United States, South Africa or South America in comfort. The holiday-maker who cannot get away till the end of August can spend a delightful " fall " in Newfoundland, Eastern Canada and the Eastern United States. To enjoy the wonderful weather of the North American " Indian summer " and the autumn colourings, which defy description, he should not return till early November. A three months' tour to South Africa, nearly half of it at sea, is an excellent way of spending a holiday. Indeed, we are only waking up by degrees to the great possi- bilities of South Africa as an Imperial holiday ground. Lying half-way between Great Britain and Australia, it should attract an ever-increasing number of visitors from both countries. In Cape Province is to be found all the charm of
the old world, while further afield are the arresting problems of a new country and the chance of studying racial conditions. If any reader of the Spectator would like advice where to go and how best to get there, or any other travel suggestions, I shall be happy to supply them. Letters should be addressed "Viator," c/o the Spectator, 13 York Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 2. VIATOR.
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