That major American export, the tourist, is once again beginning to fan out across what Novelist Nancy Mitford's Uncle Matthew used to call "bloody abroad." The old familiar faces —collegian and schoolteacher, all-expenser and retiree—are about to turn up in the old familiar places, at the old familiar prices.
This year there will be more of them than ever. Airlines estimate an increase of about 25% over last year's record load of 683,000 Europe-bound passengers from May through September.* It is not just that hotels in Paris, London, Rome and Athens are jammed; even such once-obscure places as Portofino and Majorca are out of the question. This summer, Scandinavia is experiencing a big influx of those who, having already done the standard museums and churches, are ready for a fiord in their future, with smorgasbord and aquavit on the side.
And the search is more intense than ever for the Unspoiled Spot, where Those Who Know can get away from it all for a quiet taste of nepenthe with good food and a clean bed. It is more dream and less reality than ever. But there are still some.
> Vulcano, one of the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily, is compounded of black sand beaches and a wild lava landscape that looks like a modern sculptor's nightmare. The sea around it is an unbelievable sapphire, lined with small white polished stones, through which bubble numerous hot sulphur springs, which are supposed to work wonders on an amazing range of problems from acne to sex. And against this black and blue landscape are some 25 dazzling white Saracen-style houses built by rich vacationers, plus a hotel called Les Sables Noirs. Built around a flower-filled patio, Les Sables Noirs has 25 rooms with baths or showers and a restaurant where lobster and caviar are served to candlelight and the soft Sicilian music of two local singers. Most of the waiters and maids are English or Swedish students, who work there in exchange for three months' vacation. The island's telephones are cut off from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. And those in the know enjoy the highly civilized isolation (at about $9 a day, everything included, during July and August). Vulcano's visitors have included Alec Guinness, Adlai Stevenson—and Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, whose stay was unnoted by a single journalist or photographer.
> Yugoslavia has made a remarkable little summer resort out of Sveti Stevan, a 15th century town on a rock outcropping that rises dramatically out of the Adriatic and is connected to the mainland by a causeway that also serves as two splendid beaches. Once a fortress, then a fishing village, then abandoned entirely, it was transformed by the Yugoslav government in 1960 into a town-hotel to attract tourists from Europe and the U.S. The interiors of the old fishermen's houses in the winding streets and tiny flowered squares have been done over as comfortable modern suites with all the conveniences. The town is also equipped with an excellent restaurant that specializes in seafood.