Six Eastern Europe holiday destinations to dodge high-season crowds
From Albania to Ukraine, the eastern half of the European continent offers an antidote to the overrun, conventional crowd-pleasers of France, Italy and Spain
August is the highest of high-season months for holidaying in Western Europe. Companies, shops and restaurants shut down, freeing up the frazzled citizens of countries such as France, Italy and Spain, who flock to beaches, swarm into mountains and pack out national parks.
Montenegro, a Balkan gem of crystal lakes and soaring peaks
Many Western holidaymakers continue to overlook “new” Europe, put off perhaps by recollections of the cold war era. Times have moved on, however, and established Eastern European sun-and-sand favourites Croatia and Montenegro are finding themselves competing with underrated and undiscovered holiday spots in countries as diverse as Latvia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Romania.
So skip the traffic jams in Italy; the “no vacancies” signs in Parisian hostel windows; and head instead to Serbia’s Tara National Park or the cobbled streets and fortified walls of Bulgaria’s Veliko Tarnovo.
Here are six under-the-radar destinations that are unlikely to be swamped with sightseers in August.
Ukraine
