Top 10 Cheapest European Capitals 2018:
3. Podgorica, Montenegro
9. Belgrade, Serbia
10. Bucharest, Romania
И каунтадаун обратно со декскрипција
Hotel: $82.27
Meal: $15.08
Beer: $1.76
Taxi: $0.42
A hundred years ago the Romanian capital was called “Paris of the East,” a cultural jewel adorned in nouveau architecture and lush parks. Then a couple of wars, half a century of communist rule, and a devastating earthquake happened, and Bucharestlost a little of its luster. No matter, the city has restored many of the dilapidated buildings in Old Town, and walking through it you understand the old nickname. If you want over-the-top architecture, visit the biggest parliament building in the world, the three-million square foot Palace of Parliament, a testament to Nicolae Ceausescu’s opulence filled with marble and gold.
Hotel: $83.18
Meal: $14.88
Beer: $1.79
Taxi: $0.64
The party people of Belgrade certainly aren’t ones to waste a good geographic feature. The city sits at the confluence of two rivers, which are frequent homes of Splavs — floating nightclubs on the river. The loud, flashing, Champagne-spraying discos float by on the Danube and Sava, a cultural phenomenon that even non-clubgoers have to see. Belgrade is also rich in history and archeological sites, like the Belgrade Fortress where the rivers look white when viewed from the right angle. This phenomenon gave the city its name, which when translated means White City.
Hotel: $79.77
Meal: $13.46
Beer: $1.19
Taxi: $0.48
Though Bulgaria has become a budget-travelers dream with skiing and beaches both painfully affordable, the capital city is worth a visit no matter what your final destination. It’s home to the fifth-cheapest beer in Europe, whose hangover is easily cured with the continent’s fourth-cheapest coffee. Sofia is filled with golden-domed churches and archeological ruins, the most interesting of which is the open-air Ancient Roman City of Serdica, a site discovered when the city was excavating its metro nine years ago.
Hotel: $73.55
Meal: $17.64
Beer: $1.54
Taxi: $0.35
Wanna visit the last standing dictatorship in Europe? Then get yourself to Belarus, friend, where the not-quite-iron fist of Alexander Lukashenko has been overseeing the country since it began in 1994. Though aside from the large police presence, you’d never know this city was a dictatorship walking along the banks of the Svislach River, where bright churches reflect off the water and people jog by. The city was completely destroyed during World War II, so nearly everything was built from the Soviet occupation forward.
Hotel: $76.16
Meal: $12.87
Beer: $1.39
Taxi: $0.92
Stalinism: not exactly known for its colorful architecture. Which is why when Albaniafinally emerged from behind the Iron Curtain, it took much of the bleak, brutalist landscape of its capital and gussied it up with bright colors. The result were streets that look like communism meets the Caribbean, where staid old apartment buildings are done up in bright reds, greens, and oranges to give the city some life. Also worth visiting is the Pyramid of Tirana, an abandoned pyramid built by dictator Enver Hoxha’s daughter that’s now covered in colorful graffiti and political slogans.
Hotel: $74.15
Meal: $12.09
Beer: $0.97
Taxi: $0.18
Ignore for a second that beer in Chisinau is forever at college-happy-hour prices and stop to appreciate the truly great bargain in this city: transportation. The cheapest public transport in Europe costs only about 12 cents to ride, and taxis are a fat 18 cents a kilometer, also the cheapest. Basically, this means you can enjoy as much of that 97 cent beer and amazing wine as you want and won’t need to budget much for getting home. That’s… about the extent of the beauty of Chisinau as most of the city still looks like Soviet-era Eastern Europe.
4. Yerevan, Armenia
Hotel: $72.54
Meal: $12.60
Beer: $1.26
Taxi: $0.21
Few people have probably heard of Yerevan, and even fewer know it’s actually older than Rome. This 2,800-year-old city is a stark stretch of pink buildings set amongst a green forest with the Caucasian mountains off in the distance, the kind of city you see a picture of and ask, “Where is THAT?” Because the country has been politically troubled since the fall of communism, only after last year’s “Velvet Revolution” has Armenia had a government fostering creative businesses and tourism. So while the world isn’t beating a path here just yet, it’s only a matter of time before this becomes another hot Eastern European destination.
Hotel: $67.12
Meal: $14.63
Beer: $1.76
Taxi: $0.53
Like a lot of Eastern European cities, the architecture in the mountainous capital of Montenegro leaves a lot to be desired. But over the past couple of decades artists have spruced up the streets with graffiti, and there’s a vibrant café culture that makes Podgorica feel distinctly European. It’s also only about 30 miles from the Adriatic Sea and has mountain hiking trails that leave from the outskirts of town, so if you’re looking to explore the geographic diversity of Montenegro and want to enjoy the second-cheapest hotels in Europe, Podgorica is ideal.
Hotel: $70.34
Meal: $8.78
Beer: $1.76
Taxi: $0.59
It’s hard to pin down any specific reason why one would go out of their way to visit Pristina, but it does have some of the best coffee in Europe and the second-cheapest at $1.17. It’s also home to one of the few truly noteworthy examples of brutalist architecture at the National Library of Kosovo. It’s a series of blocks covered in metallic latticework, giving the look of a fort wrapped in an insect’s web from the outside and an almost prison-like feel from the inside. It’s been called the ugliest library in the world, but for fans of unique architecture, it’s definitely a must-visit.
Hotel: $62.91
Meal: $9.50
Beer: $1.90
Taxi: $0.48
Your cheapest capital in Europe is not surprisingly home to the cheapest hotel rooms, too, where a meal and beers will run you under $20, and you can probably do a full weekend for under $250. It’s one of the more surreal-feeling cities in Europe, where the neoclassical buildings along the Vardar River look hundreds of years old but only date back to about 2010. Skopje also literally has statues everywhere; it’s not at all uncommon for them to outnumber people on a street, and you’ll see 20 to 30 from any given point in the city. There’s also a Middle Eastern bazaar that actually is old, Europe’s second-oldest after Istanbul. And also a series of futuristic-concrete structures that look like Blade Runner meets Norma Rae. It’s cheap, visually alluring, and altogether a trip to visit. And it’s definitely Europe’s most entertaining city for the money. 