Keys to Europe's unsung cities: skip the crowds in these 10 amazing destinations

Paris has the Champs-Elysees, New York has Fifth Avenue. Gdansk has the Long Mile, a simply spectacular collection of ornate centuries-old buildings such as the Artus Court and the grand Neptune Fountain. The splendour of the Long Mile is a reminder that this Polish port city was once one of the richest in Europe, and you will find yourself walking along it over and over again, in between visiting other sights such as the glorious town hall, the charming Mariacka Street, the Museum of the Second World War and the world's largest brick church.

Make sure you bring your appetite with you. Oviedo, the picture-perfect capital of the northern province of Asturias, is known for its extraordinary range of cheeses, from smokey Gamoneu to the rich Cabrales, a blue cheese matured in caves. Other typical treats include carbayones, pastries filled with almond cream, and the distinctive Asturian cider. Another thing to keep an eye out for as you wander through this 1000-year-old city: bagpipe bands. Yes, really. Like Scotland, Asturias treasures its ancient Celtic traditions.

If there's one place that sums up Plovdiv, it's the Centre for Contemporary Art: a showcase for 21st-century art housed in a 16th-century Turkish bathhouse. Plovdiv claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe (8000 years and counting) but while it is littered with history, it is also relentlessly modern. You can spend a morning exploring Roman ruins, then while away the afternoon in a neighbourhood like Kapana, packed with studios, boutiques, ateliers, cafes and bars where you can savour a glass or two of the local wine (much better than you might expect!).

In legend they were haunted by fearsome vampires, and even today Transylvania's Carpathian Mountains can feel intimidatingly wild. So it's a surprise to find this far-flung region of Romania is also home to a city as utterly charming as Brasov. Founded more than 800 years ago, Brasov is not just a great base for exploring the region but also a delightful place to spend a little downtime, thanks to its al fresco restaurants and its picturesque gothic, baroque and renaissance buildings. Don't miss the eye-catching Old Town Hall Square and Rope Street, one of the narrowest streets in Europe.

It's Italy, but not as you know it. The soaring peaks and lush valleys of South Tyrol don't just offer sensational skiing in winter and hiking in summer: they are home to a unique culture that blends Italian and Austrian influences. To make the most of the region's elegant capital Bolzano (also known as Bozen to the bilingual locals), savour a coffee and a krapfen, or doughnut, at one of the cafes in the Piazza Walther (where the annual Christmas Market is also held), be awed by the mighty cathedral, and stop in at the archaeology museum to visit tzi, the prehistoric mummy found in a glacier in 1991.

Few cities do old-meets-new as well as Aarhus on Denmark's Jutland Peninsula. For every enchanting vista of cobblestone streets lined with coloured houses, there is some eye-catching piece of contemporary architecture such as the landmark Isbjerget ("the Iceberg"). The city is a hotbed for design lovers: go window-shopping in the Latin Quarter, or take a dip in the harbour baths designed by the famed architect Bjarke Ingel. The ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, with its rooftop rainbow panorama by Olafur Eliasson, is simply dazzling.

They say that anyone who drinks from the Sebilj fountain, at the heart of Sarajevo's old bazaar, is destined to return to the city - and trust us, you'll want to be coming back. Set amid magnificent mountains (the hiking is great), Sarajevo has a fantastic east-meets-west vibe - this is a place where you can stroll broad European boulevards before exploring the traditional Ottoman bazaar. Don't miss the Tunnel of Hope for an insight into the grimmest episodes in the city's history, the four-year Siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s in which 11,000 people died.

Dogs and peacocks, gargoyles and frogs - you'll find them all on the facades of Riga's ornate art nouveau buildings. The city has one of the world's best collections of art nouveau which - along with the magnificent medieval buildings in the centre of the city - scored Riga a place on the World Heritage list. The parks and markets of the Latvian capital are also worth checking out, especially the sprawling Central Market. One of the largest in Europe, it is housed in five Zeppelin hangars. Get in quick, though - tourist numbers, although still relatively low, are starting to climb.

Laid-back Thessaloniki only gets about a quarter of the visitors that Athens does, but the lucky travellers who make it here are in for a treat. Start with the Roman Forum and the beautiful sixth-century Agia Sofia church, with gold-leaf-covered interiors that glow in the candlelight, before heading to the waterfront Thessaloniki Museum of Photography. Leave enough time for a trip out to the tomb of Alexander the Great's father outside town. The food scene is also lively: the city's culinary blend of Ottoman, Balkan and Mediterranean influences saw Thessaloniki anointed Greece's first UNESCO City of Gastronomy.

They do things differently in Rotterdam. Bombed heavily during World War II, then rocked by the decline of its once-mighty port, the Dutch city has rallied and turned itself into a powerhouse of urban reinvention. How many other cities do you know where you can take a stroll on a rooftop public park, go sightseeing on one of the city's electric sloops, and take a tour of a floating farm where cows graze contentedly? And if that's not enough, art lovers will be delighted by Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, the world's first publicly accessible art storage depot.