What’s the cheapest but nice place to go in Europe?

Apparently Croatia is the spot to be. And Romania isn't all that bad.

Slovenia isn't expensive.

Yeah Croatia is supposed to be very beautiful. Knew a Croation woman once. A lovely person. Though have no idea about prices. A very long time since I've been in Europe. I imagine in the major cities I will have a severe case of sticker shock.

It's still going to be a flight over the Atlantic ocean even if you go to a country with a cheap cost of living it doesn't make the flight any cheaper.

If you are flexible with your dates and flying out of a major international airport you can find good deals though, there are budget airlines.

Also if you want to make a vacation cheap, stay in a hostel. Can save a lot of money on lodging.

My cousin took Turkish Airlines to Italy and it was really cheap. The problem is you have to fly to Istanbul first and then back to Europe. A very long trip indeed.

Staying in Istanbul is in itself great. Turkish Airlines is a nice airline.

R5, that'd be a rather short trip since Istanbul is in Europe. But Istanbul to Milan is just a few hours.

R7 half is in Europe, half is in Asia. Turkey is closer to Iran than England.

Yes, I qualified that in my signature line, R8.

Poland, especially Krakow and other cities other than Warsaw. It's very cheap, lots of history, old architecture, music, etc.

We go old country. We have no sun, only work. And cold soup. It’s real cheap.

SAS has really good fares from JFK (not sure about other US cities) to many Eropean cities if you don't mind changing planes in Copenhagen. It's an excellent airline, always a fantastic cabin crew.

Krakow Poland is a common answer for what's a good place to visit in Europe that will be very cheap.

Portugal is also very affordable, particularly if you do Porto rather than Lisbon.

Budapest is a great city, and very affordable.

2nd Portugal

What's cheaper and/or nicer - Buda or Pest?

Pest, more things to do.

Don't call me a pest, cunt.

If you think that is a witty retort R17, you’re a sophomoric idiot.

I don't like the vague set up to OP's query.

What does OP enjoy?

What season does he want to visit?

As is, this is just random thread creation with random useless stab in the dark answers.

My recommandation is to go the country or region that is going to offer you the most pleasure - that matches your interests. And budget wisely if money is tight.

If all you want is a beach holiday in Europe on the cheap, the entire Mediterranean coast from Spain to Turkey has all inclusive cheapo packages in "popular" towns. Which can be fun, if that's your bag.

"I go holidaying but where? Europe Mexico Islands? Nice and cheap but not too cheap no shit hole. Well?"

about sums it up.

Lithuania. Very conservative and homophobic but a beautiful and inexpensive country. They speak one of the oldest existing languages in Europe. Vilnius is purty and classy as hell, while Curonian Spit is one of the great natural wonders of Europe.

And while I didn't have the chance to lie with a Lithuanian my sources did tell me they're supposed to have huge peepees.

R21, did you meet any Vilnius school masters?

R2 Slovenia is SO expensive, touch grass and give your head a shake.

Outside of the summer season, Greece is affordable.

R23, not true. I was there last summer. Prices are very reasonable.

Adding to r21, those conservative European countries are full of horny gay men looking for fun and release. Same with Poland. If you dare to leave the relative safety of their cities and enter into their "gay-free" zone you can find so many hot young gay Poles desperate for attention and fun.

I'm not advoate for sex tourism, just noting the sex that can be had.

Istanbul is huge, beautiful and very reasonable, and Turkish Airlines has save award space for economy and business class flights you may already have enough points/miles to fly there.

*saver award space (award tickets that are super cheap)

Berlin always pops up on the list of very affordable world capitals. It’s one of my fave cities. Lots to do. Great transit system

R29, love Berlin as well. Great museums. And German men are hot.

Nordic countries are prohibitively expensive, as is the UK and big cities in Western Europe. That leaves Eastern Europe with caveats. Latvia and Lithuania are relatively cheap, but Estonia is not. Czechia is outrageous – especially Prague – but Slovakia is affordable. Not to mention that it's a very short distance from Bratislava to Vienna if you want to visit Vienna but not give an arm and a testicle to stay there.

Sofia is affordable, especially off season. If you rent a car, trips to the Black Sea (Varna, Golden Sands), Greece (Thessaloniki), Belgrade by car are doable. Croatia is relatively inexpensive if you don't want to stay at a hotel on the coast. I think Slovenia is overpriced for what it is, but it is still much less expensive than most other countries. Although I have been several times, I avoid Moldova and Romania out of a concern for personal safety. Nothing bad has happened to me, but I have always sensed danger while visiting there particularly as a solo traveler.

I spent a couple weeks in a very nice, very inexpensive hotel in Szczecin, Poland, which served as my base. I rented a car and drove the <2 hrs. to Berlin a couple times. It was summer and the commute to the Baltic Sea beaches was short. A planned day trip to Warsaw turned into an overnight due to time mismanagement on my part.

There are so many cheap places worthy of consideration! As long as you do not need five-star hotel service or city center location, and are willing to bypass big cities, that is. If you are monolingual, however, you might not enjoy the off-the-beaten-path locations.

Bosnia is very cheap.

In a deserted park, OP.

Why go to Europe when you can crack a box open of Swiss Knight in your own home? 🫕 🇨🇭 🥂

r29, my friends in Berlin are saying that it's 2x more expensive than what it used to be before the pandemic. I found Southern Spain very reasonable in May, it's probably the same now that the high season is over.

The Venetian and Paris in Las Vegas are super expensive.

Can second Krakow, Poland and Dubrovnik, Croatia. Really lovely and very cheap.

Third variable - not homophobic - disqualifies almost all of these. Spain still wins here: Alicante and Malaga.

Yeah its Croatia in general. But specially Split. The New town is thriving, and the old city including Dioclitians palace can be done for about 1/4 the price of actual ltaly, and honesty you can probably get a ferry over to Italy from there these days as well if you're that desperate.

Bodrum, Corfu, Capri, Monte Carlo, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Palma Majorca, Marbella - if you're a gorgeous American college boy willing to be friendly you'll travel very well and may go home richer.

I found a very affordable place for the winter in Torremolinos, just outside of Malaga. Malaga proper didn’t have much that I would consider cheap…it’s already been discovered and overrun by digital nomads, same as Valencia and Lisbon. You have to look a little further afield to find deals. Sicily also has some bargains for the off season.

It certainly isn’t Cape Cod in MA. Much cheaper to fly to Spain for a vacation.

A writer friend of mine, slut and prone to PnP, took an inexpensive rental in Sicily for the winter, to finish a book. He said it was colder than expected, the drugs were cheap, the men even cheaper, and it was turning into a death spiral.

Eastern Europe is very reasonable. Agree with previous posters regarding Krakow. Been there twice. I'd like to see more of Poland. Warsaw is not worth visiting, but our flight to Poland landed at Chopin Airport so we stayed there a few nights. The former Yugoslav Republics are beautiful, interesting and very inexpensive. Someone mentioned Bosnia (probably joking), but honestly Sarajevo and Mostar are very much worth a visit.

Why would a gay couple go to Poland or any other homophobic trash country? Spain is beautiful and not that expensive if you don’t stay in the big cities.

Norse has really cheap fares to Berlin & Oslo

Go in the off season or better yet the off off season.

Book a refundable hotel or hostel reservation as far in advance as you can. 10 month out would be pretty perfect.

As you get real close to leaving look to see if there are any really good prices on Non refundable. Best yet if it’s an intelligent well thought out opaque Non Refundable ( under booked hotel rooms at the last minute are often made available as opaque buys so as to not alert or upset previous buyers.)

Study air rates. Go to a top notch travel forum for advice.

Follow this advice and you could end up with a good deal in some place you have always wanted to go. London, Amsterdam, etc a chance. But not as good a chance if you pick somewhere not all that popular,

I also vote for Portugal.

R43 Plus, now they have fire ants in Sicily.

Slovenia sounds amazing! No specific reference, but I recently became aware of some very cool people from Slovenia online so I’m a bit interested. Good looking guys too

Slovenia is very pretty especially the capital. It's a small fairy tale city. You can combine it with a visit to Croatia.

I would look first at average costs per city either for hotels or for hotels and typical expenses.

Secondly, use Google Flights look at prices for flying your city to the cities that interest you from the first step.

The cheapest cities are not always the cheapest to reach. The cheapest places to reach are not always to the cheapest to visit.

[QUOTE] I'm not advoate for sex tourism

Sure Jan. And oh dear.

r43 tell us more about Sicily. I never even imagined visitng there because I'm not sure of the reception black Americans will get outside of the big cities, I know the African migrant crisis has caused a lot of racial resentment to rear it's ugly head in Italy. Visiting Sicily sounds fabulous, minus the drugs you mentioned.

The only place worth visiting in Sicily is the Four Seasons from the White Lotus season and that ain’t cheap.

I'm not interested in sex traveling either but I was picked up in the Roman Forum by another American. Don't know if that counts. We went to his pensione in the Campo dei Fiori a small market square. Never had heard of it. But I think there's an old Italian movie that takes place there with Anna Magnani.

Did the pensione have a Cockney signora?

R45 works for the Spanish Tourism Board.

How do you think this thread makes me feel?

Hungry?

The problem with Dubrovnik is it’s a cruise stop. I just looked at the schedule, and It’s almost impossible to find a cruise free day except until November. One cruise ship in port makes it very crowded. More than one is misery.

[R61] Dubrovnik is the Pearl of the Adriatic, but the tourists from the cruise ships really do take over during the daytime hours. I've been twice, once when it was still Yugoslavia in the early 80's, and again just a few years ago. It's worth a visit, but don't let it be the sole destination for your vacation. Other places in Croatia as well as Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina are worth seeing and very reasonable.

What about Andorra 🇦🇩?

If OP is talking about cheap flights from the United States then he should be aware that it costs more to fly to places that are cheaper to stay at.

Canaries - windy desert islands off Africa overrun with horny tacky European gays of modest means and often ample endowments or blown out fuck holes. Frankly sometimes the both.

Cheap is good, but also I'd like to visit a "road less traveled" kind of place. I was reading an article in the NYT about due to global warming, people were avoiding summer travel & choosing to travel all year around. So it would be nice to go some place not overrun by Americans, cruise ship passengers or drunk obnoxious hen party groups

The Azores!

”Azores“ always sounds like a sexually transmitted disease, to me.

Then don’t go. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Traditionally, no one is cheaper than the Scots.

R66, have you tried northern Italy? Trieste and Trent are generally off the beaten path to Americans. Trieste is a beautiful, small city and reasonable. More Austrian and German tourists than Americans. Trent and the Dolomites are great.

To save a few dollars, try hotels that are more popular with the nationals than the bigger international chains.

R55 Totally disagree. I’ve been to Sicily a few times and it has a number of beautiful areas. More Greek ruins than Greece (see Agrigento), nice small fishing villages and, of course, Taormina, which is lovely. Highly recommend it.

Did you mean Trento? Trentino-Alto Adige?

A great place…beautiful mountains and amazing food (Austro-German-Italian).

Thank you for that suggestion R71; I'll look into that!

Berlin and Barcelona are both fun.

Benidorm.

Moldova - but bring lethal personal protection.

I love you, R76.

[quote] What about Andorra 🇦🇩?

Such a let down because the people there are so depressed. They're so blue.

Mendora is beautiful this time of year and very reasonable. The crown jewels really are stunning. Moldavia is a tourist trap.

R80, does Moldavia have frequent massacres?

Rome is surprisingly affordable compared to other Italian cities like Milan or Venice.

I thought even the pensioni now are very expensive in Rome let alone the hotels. I wonder if they have now have air conditioning. Years ago I spent one of the worst nights of my life in one in a hellish august. Not a wink of sleep.

"More Greek ruins than Greece (see Agrigento)" - This is a completely nonsense statement.

[quote]does Moldavia have frequent massacres?

No worse than Texas, I imagine

Merthyr Tydfil

Isn’t Iceland supposed to be an inexpensive place to visit?

No

A friend just came back from a Sicily tour. She said the poverty in Agrigento is so oppressive she couldn't wait to leave.

Montenegro is lovely by the coast

Sicily Is full of hot money hungry men? Let me pack my bags and exchange my dollars for Euros. I can think of a few ways to spur their economy.

[quote] exchange my dollars for Euros.

The biggest reason why nowhere that uses euros is going to be truly cheap.

Either spend real money or stay home. Cheap pricks.

I just read that the mob runs Sicily with an iron fist. I wouldn’t want to mistake someone’s cousin for hit trade. Perhaps it’s best to avoid Sicily.

R92 huh?

Go to Sicily and you might end up dead and found in a car trunk. It happened to a sicilian friend's cousin. The back story I do not know only that the cousin's father committed suicide shortly after. Really fucked up. Like trying to fight a Mexican drug cartel. And the authorities are all bought off so you might as well be trying to fight off a bear shortly before hibernation.

Yes, R96, your worries are very well-founded indeed. In 2022, 9 U.S. citizens died in all of Italy of all causes.

In 2018, there were only 3! Something is very wrong!

This from a total of about 6.1M tourists and business travellers plus retirees, digital nomads, expats, students and other Americans who call Italy home, it's a grave concern. Steer well clear of Murder Central.

R95 Eastern Europe, the Balkans and some places in Central Europe (Poland, Romania..) are vastly cheaper than anywhere that uses the euro. It's just a fact.

I’m looking for a week away somewhere and it’s cheaper to fly to Ireland (east coast here) than go somewhere in the US.

Romania is not Central Europe. Neither is Poland, really.

[quote]Isn’t Iceland supposed to be an inexpensive place to visit?

No.

Try using google, R100. You know, a search like "What are the countries of Central Europe?" You'll come up with an answer like this:

In most definitions, the countries of Central Europe are Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary. In some definitions, Switzerland and Croatia would also belong to Central Europe, as well as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania.

Where is Romania in that list?

Poland is 100% 'Central Europe'. Romania could either fit in 'Central Europe' or 'Southeastern Europe' (but I would not categorise Romania as the Balkans nor Eastern Europe).

R103, most geographers agree that Poland is part of Central Europe, even though R100 thinks it's too far east.

Yes, what atlas is R100 reading?

Y’all baklas

I’ll give him some sort of benefit of the doubt and guess he is mixing up Eastern Europe with the old Eastern Bloc. 🤷🏻‍♂️. Or he’s 😵‍💫

Has anybody here ever been to Minorca/Menorca? I want to go, not because of the weather or the beaches, but because my British ancestors lived there throughout the 1700s. I want to search old churches and cemeteries and see if there's anything left of their being there. I understand it's really popular with British tourists and may be crowded and expensive, I'm not sure. Maybe there's a down season when I could go.

R104 I wouldn't say anyone is completely wrong as far defining the regions of the various countries mentioned. If you google Poland Eastern Europe, you will find all kinds of reputable sites saying it is part of Eastern Europe. Same thing if you look up Central Europe and Poland. It's geopolitical and even though the Warsaw Pact is long gone, the recent history is not forgotten. Prague is actually west of Vienna, but people, including geographers/travel writers will still consider Austria as Western Europe and Czech Republic as Eastern Europe (looking at a map, they look central to me). Romania is on the Balkan Peninsula and I've driven all over it. I've been to most of the Balkan countries and would be shocked to see any list of Balkan countries that does not include Romania. Maybe you're thinking of "Baltic" (further north, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania).

The Balkans takes into account two different concepts: the historical, political term and the geographical term. They may overlap but they are not the same thing.

R111 Rather like the way Eastern and Western Europe is interpreted. Some countries can be thought of as both Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Were you able to find any source that doesn't include Romania as part of the Balkans. I googled it a number of times and Romania is on every list of Balkan States I can find.

Wiki seems to hedge on including Romania —but take that as you may.

The German Ständige Ausschuss für geographische Namen (Standing Committee on Geographical Names), which develops and recommends rules for the uniform use of geographical names, proposes two sets of boundaries. The first follows international borders of current countries. The second subdivides and includes some countries based on cultural criteria. The following countries are included in their classification "Southeastern Europe":

Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Greece Kosovo Montenegro Moldova North Macedonia Romania Serbia In this classification, Slovenia and Croatia are included in Central Europe, Greece and Moldova in Southeastern Europe, and Turkey (East Thrace) outside of main Europe.

I can tell you that Switzerland is the most expensive. It's scary expensive.

I am right.

[quote] If you google Poland Eastern Europe, you will find all kinds of reputable sites saying it is part of Eastern Europe.

What reputable sites are they?

WarsawPact.org

Ruin ha!

r109, yes I was there at the beginning of June. It's lovely. Mallorca has British and German tourists, whereas Menorca has the French- they have been snapping up a lot of properties during/since the Pandemic and are pricing out the locals. We were there right at the end of low season, so it was not crowded and expensive. Lovely islands. The locals told us we came at the right time- the other good time to go is late August & September- it's the start of the slow season, and not as hot.

r120- I'll add the the dollar/Euro exchange is pretty good- .08 cents difference, and food there is inexpensive and consistently good. Wine is like 3 Euros a glass.

R117 Regions of Europe Northern Europe: Denmark, Isle of Man, Estonia, Faroe Islands (Denmark), Finland (incl. Åland Islands), United Kingdom, Guernsey, Ireland, Jersey, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Iceland, Sweden.

Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Russia (West of the Urals), Slovakia, Czech Republic, Belarus.

Southern Europe: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Croatia, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey (European part), Vatican City.

Western Europe Belgium, Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland.

According to the United Nations:

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is, as the name says, the eastern part of Europe. According to the United Nations definition, countries within Eastern Europe are Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine and the western part of the Russian Federation (see: European Russia map).

All these countries are using Eastern European Time (EET = UTC +2 hours) except Belarus (Minsk Time, UTC+3 hours), the Kaliningrad Oblast (UTC+3 hours) and the Russian Federation (Moscow Time UTC+4 h).

Eastern Europe, as defined by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), includes the countries of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, and Slovakia, as well as the republics of Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine.

I know, I'm cheating as they are using the same source: United Nations

I can find equal sources typing Central Europe Poland.

R121 I hope you know quoting the “difference in cents” is not how currency exchange works.

I hesitate to add this as some may laugh at it as a source, but I think it sums up well exactly why the different definitions of Eastern and Central are given. This particular source favors use of Central Europe for Poland rather than the UN's use of Eastern Europe.

I think Western understanding of "Eastern Europe" comes from the Cold War. Satellite countries of the Soviet Union were grouped together as "Eastern Europe," which included East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary. Everything else was "Western Europe." In the 1970s, "Central Europe" started being used to refer to Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. After the fall of the Warsaw Pact, Western perceptions shifted.

If Poland wants to claim that it's "Central European," why not? It's not refuted by a map. My German friends consider themselves "Western Europeans" no matter what anybody else says. Slovenians at my university fervently claim to be "Western Europeans," however, that strikes me as delusional. Whatever makes you feel better about yourself – go for it.

[quote]Has anybody here ever been to Minorca/Menorca? I want to go, not because of the weather or the beaches, but because my British ancestors lived there throughout the 1700s. I want to search old churches and cemeteries and see if there's anything left of their being there.

R109: Find-a-grave should work for Menorca and Mallorca. And there are indices of some or many larger cemeteries at least, published online and in print. The municipal cemetery in Mallorca dates from the early 19thC and is huge; it includes many English people, like Robert Graves. Minorca had an English cemetery.

Albania

And I second the suggestion of Montenegro.