Travelling to europe in May! HELP!

Hello im looking to travel to eastern europe for a week or so, but im unsure of the best place to go which is cheap, safe and has history. Don't really mind staying in one city for a week just need the get away!!

Will be great if anyone can point me in the right direction cheers!! :-)

OK. Well firstly, the whole of Eastern Europe is endless with history. Where to go depends on what your interests are.
Poland for so much WWII memorabilia, Prague for it's hundreds of churches, Moscow has a whole city bigger than Paris that is just one big lump of history.
You want cheap?? Then it has to be Bulgaria. Mountains and fantasy, try Transylvania (Romania). Me and my friend camped by Dracula's castle in a thunderstorm. Why?? Why not??
How about following some of the course of the River Danube?? It winds through more countries (10) and more capital cities (4) than any other river in the world.
The Black Sea Coast is spectacular in places too. Away from the tourist traps there are deserted beaches that you can have all to yourself.
I'm not even scraping the surface here. It's a region full of splendour like nowhere else on earth - and you can easily do 3 of the smaller countries in under 2 days. Different cultures and languages throughout.
I've been doing E.Europe for almost 20 years and still have a long way to go.
Just book it - and love it. If you need any tips on cheap travel - just let me know.

I did a 6week trip of Europe the year before last and we managed to squeeze in Bratislava, Budapest, Krakow and Prague.

Bratislava is a lovely place but really small with not much to visit, so i would leave that out. Ive heard Vienna is a great place to visit if you get the chance. I would definatly recommend to go to Budapest, its a very cool city, with great history and loads to explore.
If your thinking of going up to Krakow, i would recommend to visit Auschwitz, it isnt a pleasant place, but a great experience.

Prague is a fantastic city, with so much history, we went on a great day tour as we wanted to learn about the history and didnt have long. The tour opperator we used met on the main street, we met some great people on the trip as well.

Hope that helped, Have a great trip

Emma

Hi, rickdunn!
What part of Eastern Europe do you mean? And what do you prefer to do?
If you like to stay in one city for a week to look around - I'd recommend Prague (with maybe few days of rest in Karlowy Wary) or Budapest (you can also go for a few days to Balaton lake). Both cities are perfect but very different.
I would also highly recommend croatian coast with the perfect white-stoned beaches and lots of very attractive and interesting sights like for example Dubrovnik or Plitvice lake. You never forget your trip there!
Have a nice travel!

Hi rickdunn,
I'll agree with galka_mak (once again), Croatia will leave you breathless and wanting more. It has sea, fine weather, great people, fantastic food and drink and lots and lots of History both recent and ancient.
A couple of days in Dubrovnik followed by a visit to the very historic (birthplace of Marco Polo?) island of Korcula and all the while relaxing and having a really nice time.
Any extra info need just PM me.
Zaksame

Hi ,

I'm going to Austria & Czech in Mid May'09 for 2 weeks , joining ?

Hey. If you think Croatia will leave you breathless - take the short hop down the road to Montenegro. It'll blow you away. Work this one out.... It ain't in the EU, but uses the Euro. Stunningly beautiful country. Mad cheap too.

Prague is a beautiful city, it's cheap and safe as houses: Prague

Here it is on Google Maps If you change the view to "Satellite" by clicking the button top right, you can zoom in on the city.

Better still, download Google Earth That includes photographs and videos on the city and its surroundings. The photos are helpful to find the most popular areas. That way, you can plan to stay nearer to where you want to be.

There's also an organization called Couchsurfing which might appeal to you. Their FAQ page explains how it all works.

Have fun!

Regarding what Post #8# has suggested, please be very wary of couchsurfing. Look up on Google or Yahoo! vaggablogging.net and search for coughsurfing nightmares. It sounds thoroughly disgusting at times and these posts are from people that have done it. Take their advice - not the suggestion of others that haven't and have just found a couple of websites. A bed is safer than a couch - even if it costs more.... Any day - or night, when all the lights go out in a power cut.

Quoting Redpaddy

Regarding what Post #8# has suggested, please be very wary of couchsurfing. Look up on Google or Yahoo! vaggablogging.net and search for coughsurfing nightmares. It sounds thoroughly disgusting at times and these posts are from people that have done it. Take their advice - not the suggestion of others that haven't and have just found a couple of websites. A bed is safer than a couch - even if it costs more.... Any day - or night, when all the lights go out in a power cut.

I think if there had been any real complaints, the individuals concerned would have been removed from the site. But you can always check a person's references before deciding to stay with them. The system works in a similar way to buying something on eBay. If the seller is running a scam, it will be noted in the customer satisfaction link.

You can always contact the site owners for clarification if you're unsure about something.