When I first ventured into Eastern Europe aged 19, it was 1998 and the Iron Curtain had collapsed a few years earlier.
The frugal budget my five friends and I took on our month-long Interrail journey went an absurdly long way, but we also had to deal with grubby Croatian hostels, railway stations that doubled as homeless shelters and hospitality firmly rooted in the dourness of the Soviet Union.
So much has changed in the intervening 27 years, and yet over this period my interest in the region – piqued by that early backpacking jaunt – has only grown stronger. I’ve been at least once to every Eastern European country.
Though what precisely defines Eastern Europe is a muddy question.
Some sources categorise it as being the Eastern Bloc; in other words, only including countries that were Communist during the Cold War. Meanwhile, other sources say that nations including Albania, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia are Southern European –not Eastern.
Confusingly, the United Nations defines the trio of Baltic state nations (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) as being Northern Europe, while also listing Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan as being part of East Asia.
For me, there’s nowhere so close to home that feels so different, offers so much natural beauty, serves up so much wonderful cuisine and gives you so much for such a small financial outlay.
Here are my favourite places . . . and a few to swerve on your Eastern odysseys.
HASSLE-FREE HUNGARY
Budapest never fails to beguile, and is the Eastern European city I’ve visited more than any other.
The Hungarian capital is an effortless introduction to the region, best experienced for first-timers with a stroll along the banks of the graceful River Danube before taking a trip to beautiful Lake Balaton.
A view of Budapest along the Danube River, with the Reformed Church and its distinctive patterned roof in the foreground
The grim vacation blocks that dominated the water’s edge on my first visit in 1998 are vanishing fast. They are being replaced by chi-chi boutique resorts and apartments as well as the world’s largest swimmable thermal lake, a few kilometres from Balaton.
This is an easy two-hour trip from Budapest by train (mavcsoport.hu) and, when you tire of the water, take a wander around the village of Tihany – a bucolic outpost festooned with nature trails, hill paths and thatched cottages.
TOP TIP: Top tip: Sample Hungarian wines in the atmospheric Tasting Table cellars in central Budapest (tastehungary.eu) run by the American food writer Carolyn Banfalvi.
BOOK IT: Four nights at the Continental Hotel, Budapest B&B from £39 pp, including return flights from Heathrow (britishairways.com).
LAID BACK LITHUANIA
You won’t feel much post-Soviet ennui in Vilnius, which is perhaps the most laid-back city in Eastern Europe.
It’s well worth spending a long weekend here ambling around the medieval maze of lanes and alleys, stumbling across Baroque churches while nibbling on a kibinai, Lithuania’s equivalent to the Cornish pasty.
Lithuania gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and is probably Europe’s quirkiest capital, too.
It has outdoor artworks and a boho vibe in the Uzupis district – which is a self-declared republic and has its own flags and constitution (which, quirkily, declares that ‘a dog has the right to be a dog’).
Indulge in the boho vibe at the Art Gallery in the Uzupis district
A bust of freewheeling spirit Frank Zappa (above) in Vilnius, and (below) a stark Communist counterpoint – a sculpture of Lenin in Grutas Park
In Vilnius, hunt down the tiny bust of the American musician Frank Zappa – who had no actual connection to the Lithuanian capital, other than that locals loved his freewheeling spirit. You’ll find it on the quiet street of K. Kalinausko Gatve.
Just an hour by train from the capital, Kaunas is famed for its doughnuts (called spurgos). But any sweet sensations may sour upon a visit to the Devil’s Museum, which contains more than 1,000 sculptures and representations of Beelzebub from around the world.
TOP TIP: Hire a car and drive two hours north to Grutas
Park, which is home to a huge collection of rescued Soviet-era statues and busts.
BOOK IT: Three nights at the Artis Centrum Hotel, Vilnius from £166 pp room only, including return flights from Luton (thomascook.com).
HISTORIC BOSNIA
It’s quite a feeling to stand at the exact spot in Bosnia and Herzegovina capital Sarajevo, where Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg.
If only the tyro-assassin had concentrated on the impressive view of the city from the Latin Bridge back in 1914 – instead of firing the shots that sparked the Great War.
Recovery from the conflicts of the 1990s continues at a rapid pace.
The Latin Bridge in Sarajevo – where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914 – sparking the First World War
Take in the crenulated peaks of the Dinaric Alps that rear above while drinking exceptional, slow-brewed coffee in bijou cafes and stepping into the lavish interior of the City Hall (the Vijecnica) with its mosaic glass and intricate gold and azure interiors.
Mostar is an easy day trip by train from Sarajevo. Here you can cross an exact replica of the 16th-century Stari Most bridge that straddles the Neretva River.
Once described as a ‘rainbow arch soaring up to the skies’ by a 17th-century Ottoman traveller, the bridge was destroyed in the 1990s conflict but has been painstakingly reconstructed.
TOP TIP: Hail a taxi to Sarajevo’s Tunnel of Salvation Museum to explore the city’s main connection with the outside world when it was besieged during the wars of the 1990s (mcsarajevo.ba/tunel-spasa).
BOOK IT: Seven nights at the Hotel Herc, Sarajevo from £337 pp B&B, including return Heathrow flights (lastminute.com).
EMERGING NORTH MACEDONIA
The capital Skopje is a pleasant enough city to while away a day or two, but the best of North Macedonia lies by the waters of Lake Ohrid.
The small city of Ohrid by its shores is one of the oldest in Europe. Its lake separates the nation from Albania.
Picturesque location of the church of St Jovan at Kaneo, Macedonia
A performer at a North Macedonia festival of music and dance
There are few more picturesque sites in the entire Balkans than the Church of St Jovan, precariously perched on a miniscule strip of land that pokes out into the pellucid waters near the village of Kaneo.
If time allows, take a day trip to Cave Vrelo (cavevrelo.com), the most accessible of the ten rock caves that make up the Matka Canyon.
These are some of the deepest caves in Europe and descending into the depths reveals a lair filled with immense stalactites and a sizable colony of bats. The space is so large the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra has performed here.
TOP TIP: Skip Skopje’s Arc de Triomphe rip-off, and head instead to the ciy’s Museum of Contemporary Art for an infinitely superior aesthetic experience (msu.mk).
BOOK IT: Seven nights at Hotel Granit, Lake Ohrid from £537 pp B&B, including return flights from Manchester (firstchoice.co.uk).
PULSATING POLAND
Although Warsaw has improved for visitors in the past decade, there’s no need to linger in the capital of this vast country too long.
The northern port city of Gdansk makes for a more interesting Polish introduction, with its medieval gates, pastel-coloured burgher’s cottages and looming shipyard cranes.
Medieval marvels can be found in the port city of Gdansk
Stroll down Wajdeloty Street in the hip Wrzeszcz neighbourhood if you need any grim generalisations about Polish cuisine to be blown away.
The Stacja Food Hall (stacjafoodhall.pl) located above an art gallery, is home to the wonderfully named Slaughterhouse, offering sublime takes on Polish classics such as devolay (breaded chicken with herbs and butter).
Catch a direct express train to Krakow in the south (journey time roughly six hours, polishtrains.eu), where you can saunter for days on end amid the Vistula riverside promenade, the palatial parks and the buzzy smaller bars in the historic Jewish quarter of Kazimierz.
TOP TIP: If you’re planning a trip to former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, take one of the guided trips from Krakow that last an entire day to do the experience justice.
BOOK IT: Five nights at the Wyndham Grand Krakow Old Town from £409 pp B&B, including return flights from London Stanstead. Book at tui.co.uk.
OFF-BEAT ROMANIA
Few nations had it harder than Romania during Communist times, but the sheer excess of the despicable Ceausescu regime simply cannot be avoided.
In Bucharest, the Palace Of The Parliament (cic.cdep.ro) is the second-largest administrative building in the world – only beaten by the Pentagon – and a tour here amid the acres of marble and gold offers an unmissable insight into dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s great folly.
Romanian national dress, worn at a summer festival
Away from the capital – which is interesting rather than lovable, perhaps – Timisoara is a full day’s drive away but worth the journey for its Art Nouveau palaces and glut of Baroque buildings which once earned the town the moniker of ‘Little Vienna’.
And though you may experience church overload on any Eastern European journey, any ecclesiastical fatigue is allayed by the remarkable Orthodox Cathedral here: a 300ft-tall Byzantine-influenced wonder replete with multiple turrets, frescos and porticos.
TOP TIP: Don’t bother with the naff Bran Castle in central Romania, which Vlad the Impaler never set eyes on, let alone lived in.
BOOK IT: Five nights at the Moxa Bucharest Boutique Hotel from £340 pp B&B, including return flights from Stanstead (tui.co.uk).
MYSTERIOUS MOLDOVA
Russian poet and playwright Alexander Pushkin hated his stay in Moldova, even writing verse about how unhappy he was. But I’ve noticed huge improvements in the infrastructure of this small nation since my first visit in 2006, where my presence was met with pleasure but consistent incredulity by locals.
Moldova is home to the Cricova wine cellar (cricova.md/ro), an underground store so vast it has its own subterranean streets named after the wines kept there, with vintages dating back to 1902.
The ornate Ciuflea Monastery in Chisinau, Moldova
The starkly contrasting Soviet era State Circus of Chisinau building
An easy day trip from the capital, the town of Cricova contains some spectacular (or hideous, depending on your aesthetic tastes) socialist-era architecture.
Back in the capital, none is more bizarre than the Chisinau State Circus building (circ-chisinau.md). Now reopened for acrobatic shows back in the capital, it looks from the outside like an old gas ring squashed inside a concrete cake.
TOP TIP: Pay a morning visit to the Central Market where you can mix with Moldovans stocking up on fresh cheese and extremely cheap vodka.
BOOK IT: Six-night guided tours of Moldova including all accommodation are from £745 B&B (lupinetravel.co.uk). Return flights from Luton to Chisinau from £99 (flyone.eu).
GORGEOUS GEORGIA
Home to the oldest grape varieties on the planet, it’s hardly surprising that Georgia’s lust for wine makes it consistently the most welcoming and hospitable country I have visited in all of Europe.
The region of Kakheti, an easy hour’s drive from the languorous and charmingly ramshackle capital city of Tbilisi, is the fulcrum of Georgia’s ancient wine industry.
You can expect a tasting session in vineyards such as Tsinandali (tsinandaliestate.ge) to last well beyond your time allocation and for it to be accompanied by heaving tables full of charcuterie and the ubiquitous khachapuri – insanely moreish leavened, cheese-stuffed, bread.
The Narikala fortress looks over Tbilisi, Georgia
While sightseeing, tuck into khachapuri – a celebrated cheese-stuffed bread
After you’ve spent a day getting to grips with delicious Georgian wines such as tsolikauri and saperavi, head back to Tbilisi, and its streets, which range from spruce boulevards to ancient nooks hewn from cliff faces.
Once known as the ‘Soviet Riviera’ for its popularity among the higher echelons of the Russian elite in the summer, this is a nation that embraces visitors with a genuine warmth and is exceptionally easy onthe wallet.
TOP TIP: Ride the sleeper trains from Tbilisi to the palatial Armenian capital of Yerevan. A first-class cabin sleeping two costs from £45 (railway.ge).
BOOK IT: Seven nights at the Tbilisi View Hotel from £513 pp B&B, with return flights from Heathrow (lastminute.com).
…BUT GIVE THESE A MISS
BELARUS – PUTIN’S PUPPET . . . AND FCO SAYS IT’S NO-GO
Being a close ally of Putin’s Russia hasn’t done Belarus any favours attracting tourists. The national airline, Belavia, is currently banned from UK airspace, and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office advises against all travel to the country.
ESTONIA – TOO MANY HEN AND STAG DOS
A victim of its own success, Tallinn, Estonia’s bijou capital, struggles to cope with the swaggering masses of stag and hen dos that swamp it for much of the year. The day-trip booze-cruisers from Helsinki stocking up on cheap grog don’t help either, creating a city that is now overpriced and overpopulated.
AZERBAIJAN – FANCY, BUT DIRE BEYOND BAKU
There’s a ‘showpiece city’ feel to the capital Baku, with its polished boulevards and buildings designed by Zaha Hadid and Sir Norman Foster. But the roads in the rest of the country are often in a dire condition, making travelling hazardous. Plus, Azerbaijan remains one of the last nations in Europe where British visitors have to pay for a visa in advance of travel.
