Hi What are the cheapest countries for tourism in Europe Thanks a lot
My brother (who lives in Scotland) swears blind everything is cheaper in Ireland when he comes here. YMMV
The Baltic states, I’d guess. We went there backpacking last summer (Lativia, Lithuania, Estonia + Finland (not really a Baltic state)). Although they aren’t as cheap as they used to be, with the influx of Western European stag-do’s, they’re still insanely cheap compared to British prices. Three of us got a half hour train journey for 27p total to see a concentration camp in Latvia.
The word from fellow backpackers was that Poland was even cheaper.
Ireland definitely isn’t the cheapest. Eastern Europe will beat everywhere else. Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia. According to people I’ve spoken to, Romania is even cheaper than them.
I’ve heard that the Baltics are nowhere near as cheap as people expect.
The Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania are probably the best starting-points.
Czech Republic is pricier now than it used to be. The Baltics rock, but aren’t really cheap any more.
You might look at Slovakia, Hungary (although Budapest is going to be more expensive), and the Balkans. Albania is inexpensive, but for a reason. Other destinations can be cheaper in the off season.
A list of countries I visited in October:
The Netherlands
Italy
Germany
Austria
France
Belgium
The cheapest for me personally (acommedations, food, sight seeing) was Austria.
I have also been to England and Switzerland, which are notoriously expensive.
To be honest it’s not so much where you travel, it’s how you travel. If you don’t splurge, look for deals, and be careful with your money then you could travel anywhere cheaply. (cheap is relatively speaking, I could travel cheap to New Hampshire and save myself a grand by skipping Florence, but that’s not the experience)
If you would like I will wander back to this thread again and post some tips that I found helpful, as well as good travel sites that fellow dopers before me aided me with.
As I am thinking about a europe backpacking trip this summer, I just want to pop in and request those tips, please!
We are off to Slovenia in April . This is supposed to be cheap. Though only a small country (the size of Wales or Israel) it has the beautiful capital city of Ljubljana (like Prague, but on a smaller scale), stunning mountain and lake scenery, and a small (30 mile) coastline which containing the two towns of Koper and Piran that have been compared in beauty to Dubrovnik. So lots of things to see in a small area.
Forget the Eurail pass (or whatever else it is called). Take coaches for international travel (at least two of the Baltic states aren’t connected via a train route, Eurolines coaches in the Baltic states) and trains when travelling domestically (see my earlier post). Book at least a day in advance.
Don’t stay in the Zoo hostel in Berlin. Stay at Generator. There’s a great hostel in Riga owned by an ex-member of the Australian bobsleigh team. The trip across the water from Talinn to Helsinki really isn’t worth it other than to say you’ve been to Finland (sorry, Finns!).
I went backpacking last spring. Went to Bulgaria and Romania, both of which are ridiculously inexpensive places to visit. As far as travel goes, buses are often faster than trains and are very very cheap (don’t go Eurail!). Food, souvies, accomodations, also very affordable (lots of locals hang out at the train stations offering homestays - you can haggle and get great prices - but they are quite persistent and annoying, and some of the places I stayed were rather questionable). Hungary was also pretty cheap. Croatia is getting a bit touristy now, so prices there are going up. Go now while it’s still affordable (it’s an amazing country, so don’t miss it anyway). Bosnia, Serbia, & Montenegro - cheap. And then DON’T go to Switzerland or to the UK if you’re on a budget. Nope nope nope…
I agree that it really depends on how you travel, rather than where. That said, the UK, Ireland, and Norway are not the best places to visit on a budget. Of course, prices go down if you stay out of the big cities. Western Ireland was very affordable and I had an absolutely wonderful time there.
I’ve been to Estonia twice - once in '98 and once in 2001 and it was ridiculously cheap. A pack of soviet cigarettes was $0.20, name brands were 5 or 10 cents more. A .5 liter beer was $0.60, a decent meal was $2 or so. A pizza delivered to your door was $6, a prostitute was $20/hr IIRC (I didn’t partake.)
I have a friend who has family there, though, and he says things have gotten much more expensive. How much more I don’t know - if everything has doubled it’d still be cheap.
Bulgaria is really, really cheap. If I go to my local restaurant and get a personal pizza and a soda, that’s 3 lev (about US$2). A movie ticket is 2 lev. A loaf of bread is .45 lev. Since the average income is US$200, it pretty much has to be this way or everyone would starve, but it’s cool for foreigners from more expensive places.
I should add the caveat that hotel rooms are about twice as expensive for foreigners than they are for citizens (and resident aliens like moi).