The best European destinations for cheese lovers

Be honest: do you choose your holiday destination based on how well you think you’ll be able to eat there? Or better yet, do you first decide what you want to eat during your trip and only then look at where you can actually find it? Welcome to the club. On your ticket today: destination CHEESE. These are the best European destinations for cheese lovers.

Oh god, cheeeese: we really can’t get enough of it. Cheese: the unshakable rock guarding the gateway to veganhood (although these days there are some seriously progressive vegan cheesemakers), the only thing you really need alongside a good glass of wine, the divine gold in a thick, greasy grilled cheese sandwich – and just think, there are so many places around the world where people put their all into making it! And you can go there and eat allll that cheese! So here’s a lovely list for cheese lovers!

The best European destinations for cheese lovers

Asturias, Spain

Alongside the famous sidras poured spectacularly into glasses from a great height, you can eat Cabrales, a blue-veined cheese that connoisseurs say is at its best in spring. That’s when the cheese, otherwise made from cow’s milk alone, is also available blended with sheep’s and goat’s milk. Follow it up with a date, and you’re all set.

La Mancha, Spain

Let’s head down to La Mancha, where Manchega sheep provide the milk for the world-famous Manchego cheeses. Slightly spicy, salty, and oh so delicious as a tapa with a cold beer.

Normandy, France

The birthplace of Camembert, masters at transforming milk into incredible creaminess (butter! Crème fraîche!) but hey, you had us at camembert. They churn out eighteen million Camemberts a year there, and that delicious runny interior you get when you take it out of the fridge well before serving – do you know what they call that? The Camembert is crying. Now that’s what I call beautiful.

Loire Valley, France

We could go on endlessly about dozens of cheeses from all over France and how delicious they all are, but unfortunately we can’t stay on holiday forever and have to move on. We’ll choose just one more: goats’ cheese from the Loire Valley, work your magic for us please! Those gorgeous fresh cheeses with a protective layer of ash around them, a razor-sharp Sauvignon alongside, rolling hills all around you, sigh…

Pagazzano, Italy

You love Gorgonzola and don’t mind a little pilgrimage. Then head to Pagazzano (although the town of Gorgonzola near Milan also – without proof – claims to be its birthplace) to swoon over the Arrigoni cheesemakers, renowned for their spicy and sweet Gorgonzola cheeses.

Reggio Emilia

You need a little certainty again, so travel on to the area around Parma. There it is absolutely certain that only the provinces of Modena, Parma and Reggio Emilia (and parts of Bologna and Mantua) are allowed to put their stamp on the official Parmesan cheese as we know (and adore) it. Naturally, you have that Microplane in your suitcase, so wherever you are, you can generously sprinkle everything with this star ingredient.

Gruyères, Switzerland

We don’t need to add anything to that, do we? You pack your hiking boots and go lie yodeling against a green ridge with a piece of bread and your cheese, or, equally irresistible: tuck into raclette!

Pag Island, Croatia

You’re in the mood for a less conventional cheese holiday destination, so you hop from the Croatian mainland to the little North Dalmatian island of Pag. Here you’ll find 40,000 sheep (compared with 7,969 inhabitants), and they eat the grass that, like the entire island, is permanently covered with a thin layer of sea salt. This gives the cheese made from their milk a wonderfully distinctive flavor.

Cheddar

You cross the North Sea to find out what Brexit actually means for you as a food traveler, but mainly because deep down you know that those orange plastic slices you’ve occasionally seen lying on a cheeseburger can’t possibly be the real deal. Once there, you discover that the truth lies in a delicious, intensely sharp, pale-yellow, crumbly lump of happiness.

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