The best lesser-known European seaside resorts, recommended by our team of travel experts

1. Marina di Pisciotta, Italy

"Twenty years ago, I promised the friend who told me about Pisciotta and its Marina that I would avoid writing about it. But surely there must be a statute of limitations on such vows? And in any case, the Pisciottani are so simpatici, and business is still so slow outside of the canonic Italian beach months of July and August, that I can live with the small betrayal.

"Pisciotta is the kind of small, southern Italian coastal town that you have a picture of in your head, but often struggle to match in the real world. The old town sits on a hill just back from its seaside frazione or offshoot, Marina di Pisciotta. It's a place of narrow lanes sandwiched between pastel-painted houses, ancient stepped alleyways leading to hidden chapels, small piazzas with their inevitable external fauna of old men in hats playing cards or simply watching the world go by," describes Telegraph Travel's Lee Marshall.