Off the beaten track holiday in Eastern or Central Europe

fufu_banterwaite

Hi

I'm looking at where to go on my summer holiday this year - and I always like to try places that are slightly different and off the beaten track a bit. Can anyone suggest anywhere? My criteria includes:

1) I'd like to try somewhere in Central or Eastern Europe (Countries I am thinking of include Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania.)
2) Somewhere near/on the coast with a nice beach
3) Somewhere not too touristy
4) Somewhere with a bit of history or interesting towns/sights near by.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Thanks

donglemouse

they don't really count as off the beaten track but for locations by the sea in the countries you mention, i'd recommend from first hand experience

croatia - dubrovnik & split
greece - santorini

Hobsons_Choice

Can't for the life of me remember the town in Albania we had a day trip to - but the trip went from Corfu Harbour. Lovely town, unspoilt, and a National Park within driving distance (coach went there) with Roman ruins.
I'm sure holidays (rather than day trips) would be possible, if not, stay in Corfu Town and visit!

skint_chick

I've visited the coast of Slovenia extensively and it's really nice and not full of 18-30s places. I can recommend Piran a lovely little town and there's buses to Pula in Croatia which has a Roman amphitheatre and lots of little hilltop towns like Motovun. You can take trips to caves and castles and stunning river valleys. I even went to Trieste and went to some lovely caves up in the hills above the city. If you'd prefer somewhere a lit bigger then Portoroz is also lovely. Albania is more of a place you'd go on an organised tour as outside Tirana I found people didn't speak any/much English and pointing and gestures only get you so far (just so you know I do speak lots of other languages just not Albanian)

Croatia is a beautiful country - if you don't want to be too touristy then try Krk or Opatija rather than Dubrovnik or Split - although they are fabulous with lots of history they both tend to be busy with tourists

Peccary

Are you looking to stay in one place?
the husband and I spent a glorious two weeks in Slovenia/Croatia travelling from Ljubjana to Dubrovnik via Lake Bled, Zagreb, Plitvice (spelling?) Split and Hvar Island. We went by bus and ferry and there were loads more places we could have visited, especially the islands of Croatia. Always though we would love to return one day with a boat!

fufu_banterwaite

Thanks for your suggestions everyone!

Skint_Chick - Piran sounds lovely - I will look into that.
Peccary - I am hoping to spend around four to five weeks travelling around that part of Europe and then settle down in one place for the last week or ten days. Your trip sounds fantastic!

bryanb

Hobsons_Choice wrote: »

Can't for the life of me remember the town in Albania we had a day trip to - but the trip went from Corfu Harbour. Lovely town, unspoilt, and a National Park within driving distance (coach went there) with Roman ruins.
I'm sure holidays (rather than day trips) would be possible, if not, stay in Corfu Town and visit!

The town is Saranda. Site is Butrinti

the_insider

Mlini in Croatia is beautiful. Little fishing village, not touristy but there are things to do if you want to (Island trips etc) and it's only 30 minutes on the bus from Dubrovnik. We stay at Apartments Tonkovic, they are amazing. Cheap, great view, amazing host. Highly recommended.

skint_chick

If you do decide to travel around a bit then Plitvice Lakes are amazingly beautiful, the Brijuni islands make a great day trip and all the islands along the Adriatic coast are lovely with little museums and scenic towns to wander around.

If you have as long as 4/5 weeks then you'd have time to do a tour of the main sights of Albania - there's quite a few tour operators do small group tours for 7/10days then work your way up the coast from Montenegro through Croatia and end up in Slovenia - depending on which airport you're flying to/from you could fly home from Ljubljana or Trieste or Pula.

You're lucky to have all that holiday time! I spent the summer after uni travelling around eastern Europe and it was amazing. I visited Latvia a couple of years ago and would love to spend some time in the national park/coastal area there. One of my friends is just back from holiday in the Transylvanian countryside so that's on my list too.

fufu_banterwaite

skint_chick wrote: »

You're lucky to have all that holiday time!

I am hoping to change job and negotiate a couple of months off inbetween! If I can do that then want to spend most of that time travelling Eastern/Central Europe.

Thanks for all the suggestions - I will look into Mlini too - it sounds very nice.