Article: Australians Are Flocking to Eastern Europe

[AFF Editor]

Australians Are Flocking to Eastern Europe is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Australians Are Flocking to Eastern Europe

More Australians than ever before are travelling to Eastern Europe. Why are destinations like the Balkans becoming so popular with tourists?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Do you prefer travelling in Eastern or Western Europe? Leave a comment or discuss this topic below!

 

[CaptJCool]

Never ventured into Eastern Europe before this year

The additional countries in the Schengen Zone made border crossings a breeze - I would expect for people who want to stay 4-6 months in Europe then the Balkans enables them to do so

And yes, it’s way cheaper to accomodate and eat there… I reckon we did dinner (schnitzel, pork knuckles etc with drinks around $50 for 2 (sure Africa was $25 for 2) while you’re lucky to get any kleingeld out of $100 in Western Europe let alone hotel per night rates…

 

[luxury-lizard]

Mr LL and I travel to Europe at least once a year (2024 was The Canary Islands and Spain) but usually it's Germany, Switzerland and Austria - a few cities but mostly in mountain villages for summer hiking. Most tourists are "locals" - prices are comparable to what you would pay in Australia. Our choice is influenced by having friends and family in Germany and Mr LL speaks German. Our one and only visit to Eastern Europe (Croatia) ended in a bit of a disaster - our holiday unit was broken into (we lost passports, credit cards, jewellery, cash, car keys, house keys, clothes, suticase,....) - just replacing stolen passports caused a major disruption to our plans. The owner of the unit (brand new with full security) blamed it on "itinerant gypsies" from "Eastern Europe".

 

[SYD]

When I was of backpacking age, the former Yugoslavia was a bit problematic. Getting between Italy and Greece required a bit of back tracking flying or you could take the infamous ferries from Bríndisi to a random Greek port…

Alas, I missed the boat getting to Debrovnik before the rest of the world got there (all at the same time).

Croatian Overtourism: Dubrovnik Has 27 Tourists Per Inhabitant - Total Croatia

Croatian overtourism has been a hot topic for years now, and Dubrovnik just keeps on popping up in negative headlines.

total-croatia-news.com

 

[jase05]

We love both West and East and have driven fairly extensively around both across many trips.
Will probably look at another road trip in Eastern Europe next year at some time if we can squeeze it in

 

[Scash]

We have a Balkans trip planned for next year and will be visiting most of the Balkan countries. We have previously travelled around Western and Central Europe, plus parts of Eastern Europe, and loved all of it. The appeal of Eastern Europe for us is going to places that are "less touristy", more authentic and cheaper!

 

[RooFlyer]

I was a traditional Western Europe /?Nth America traveller until I was about 50 and then I happened to visit Poland. After that I was hooked on the east and moved further and further eastwards in my travels. Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, the Balkans, Turkiye and I kept going east to Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran & the Stans. Then I met myself coming from the East .

So now I’ve restarted in the west with Britain, France etc. oh, except for a couple of the 10 Balkan countries I missed out on, which I’m doing next year.

 

[auriga]

Give me Asia any day!

 

[Gold Member]

In Matt’s article he states that (my bolding):

“And there are lots of cheap flights available on budget carriers like easyJet, Ryanair, Eurowings and British Airways.”

Oh you’re dark, Matt But you could easily have added all the other so called Full Service European Airlines for that matter too.

 

[burmans]

Big fan of Eastern Europe, 1/3 the price of Western, plenty of great historical sites and despite the ‘flocking’ mentioned here, usually a lot less tourists than equivalent Western European sites ( well except maybe Prague). Good food and drink, a bit stodgy at times but it seems to me they are rapidly increasing the quality.

In fact was thinking of Eastern Europe for the where to go that’s not overrun by tourists thread.

 

[CaptJCool]

Big fan of Eastern Europe, 1/3 the price of Western, plenty of great historical sites and despite the ‘flocking’ mentioned here, usually a lot less tourists than equivalent Western European sites ( well except maybe Prague). Good food and drink, a bit stodgy at times but it seems to me they are rapidly increasing the quality.

In fact was thinking of Eastern Europe for the where to go that’s not overrun by tourists thread.

When we were in Prague
We stayed at a hotel out of the city centre booked on Wantas hotels
It was decent


And A$100 a knight

 

[tikitourer]

I've been to many of these countries over the last 10 years. Driven around w ith zero problems whatsoever. English is widely spoken, accommodation reasonably priced and excellent food and restaurants.
My favourite experiences were during 4 weeks driving though Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and 4 weeks driving though Romania. The Transfaragasan and the even better Transalpina are spectacular drives in Romania.
Beware though...many of these countries are not in "Eastern" Europe. Eastern Europe is a carry over from the Communist times when the West referred to all of these countries as Eastern Europe...34 years or so later we ought to know which are in Central Europe and which are in Eastern Europe. If you get it wrong, the locals won't hold back on reminding you.

 

[[email protected].]

Australians Are Flocking to Eastern Europe is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Australians Are Flocking to Eastern Europe

More Australians than ever before are travelling to Eastern Europe. Why are destinations like the Balkans becoming so popular with tourists?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Do you prefer travelling in Eastern or Western Europe? Leave a comment or discuss this topic below!

Having done Western Europe so many times over decades, I have been visiting Eastern Europe often since the end of Covid, enjoyed doing so to the point of regretting not to have visited Eastern Europe earlier. So much to enjoy, people, culture, history, the beautiful charming old towns un-spoilt by so called progress, currently, none of the hordes of tourists now flooding Western Europe, cheaper top accommodation, very few if any visa requirements. I now have the urgency of seeing so much more before the touring world wakes up to what is on offer in Eastern Europe. That also applies to Central Asia, of which, recently, I went to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan this year as part of my revisit to Eastern Europe. Travelled solo and had no issues.

 

[VPS]

I've been to many of these countries over the last 10 years. Driven around w ith zero problems whatsoever. English is widely spoken, accommodation reasonably priced and excellent food and restaurants.
My favourite experiences were during 4 weeks driving though Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and 4 weeks driving though Romania. The Transfaragasan and the even better Transalpina are spectacular drives in Romania.
Beware though...many of these countries are not in "Eastern" Europe. Eastern Europe is a carry over from the Communist times when the West referred to all of these countries as Eastern Europe...34 years or so later we ought to know which are in Central Europe and which are in Eastern Europe. If you get it wrong, the locals won't hold back on reminding you.

And welcome to AFF

 

[VPS]

Having done Western Europe so many times over decades, I have been visiting Eastern Europe often since the end of Covid, enjoyed doing so to the point of regretting not to have visited Eastern Europe earlier. So much to enjoy, people, culture, history, the beautiful charming old towns un-spoilt by so called progress, currently, none of the hordes of tourists now flooding Western Europe, cheaper top accommodation, very few if any visa requirements. I now have the urgency of seeing so much more before the touring world wakes up to what is on offer in Eastern Europe. That also applies to Central Asia, of which, recently, I went to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan this year as part of my revisit to Eastern Europe. Travelled solo and had no issues.

Welcome to AFF - suggest you change your user name to not an email address (if indeed it is)

 

[Flashback]

Have done considerable travel around eastern Europe, most of it in a rental car. Easy to do and cheap to drive, stay, eat etc. Cannot recommend it thoroughly enough. There were loooooads of Aussies in Bosnia and Herzegovina last year the 2 times I visited.

 

[Seat0B]

Beware though...many of these countries are not in "Eastern" Europe. Eastern Europe is a carry over from the Communist times when the West referred to all of these countries as Eastern Europe...34 years or so later we ought to know which are in Central Europe and which are in Eastern Europe. If you get it wrong, the locals won't hold back on reminding you.

Yes we learnt this very quickly on our last visit to Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary, which all wanted to be acknowledged as central Europe. We really enjoyed these places - but also enjoy traditional western European destinations too, where we try to visit less popular/less iconic destinations. Our next trip will visit Spain and Portugal.

Seat Son has sparked our interest in many of the eastern European countries like Bulgaria and Romania, which he has visited frequently, so we will put them on the future travel plans.

In 2025, we are also planning to visit Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, which I have always described as Baltic countries.

And welcome to AFF!

 

[Seat0B]

Having done Western Europe so many times over decades, I have been visiting Eastern Europe often since the end of Covid, enjoyed doing so to the point of regretting not to have visited Eastern Europe earlier. So much to enjoy, people, culture, history, the beautiful charming old towns un-spoilt by so called progress, currently, none of the hordes of tourists now flooding Western Europe, cheaper top accommodation, very few if any visa requirements. I now have the urgency of seeing so much more before the touring world wakes up to what is on offer in Eastern Europe. That also applies to Central Asia, of which, recently, I went to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan this year as part of my revisit to Eastern Europe. Travelled solo and had no issues.

I totally agree with you about getting there before these places join the list of places that are overrun with tourists.

Seat Son has also sparked our interest in "the stans", having raved about visits he has made to both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and his excitement about a planned visit to Kyrgzstan later this year. He lives in the Middle East which is surprisingly close to these destinations (and also to Eastern Europe) and has a zest for "off the beaten track" destinations. We are looking forward to visiting some or all of these places sooner rather than later. Our travel schedule has unfortunately been disrupted first by COVID and then by a serious health issue. But we are back in the saddle again now and looking forward to it all.

I'd like to see a Trip Report (TR) from you about Eastern Europe and Central Asia when you have the time.

And welcome to posting on AFF.