Did you know that there are more than 800 cities in Europe? A good proportion of them are painfully pricey — wonderful to visit, yes, but rather too impactful on the piggy bank. Despair not, though, because there are far more lurking at the other end of the spectrum, beacons for the budget-conscious traveller. We’ve plumped for places which are easy and cost-effective to get to — be it by air or rail — and replete with good-quality hotels offering good-value rates. Factor in free attractions, tip-based tours and the ease of exploring on foot, and voila: you have Europe’s best affordable short breaks.
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This article contains affiliate links, which may earn us revenue Ortakoy Mosque in Istanbul ALAMY According to the Post Office’s Holiday Money Report 2024, Turkey remains one of the world’s cheapest destinations thanks to a continued fall in the value of lira. You can economise further by using an Istanbulkart transit card during a long weekend in the country’s captivating cultural capital. The card discounts every tram, metro, Bosphorus-crossing ferry or funicular ride as you tick off tourist attractions: multi-domed mosque Hagia Sophia, opulent Topkapi Palace and the vaulted Grand Bazaar’s pipe or pottery markets. Istanbul also offers some of Europe’s most affordable dinners: a meal for two people frequently costs just £15. Sub Karakoy is an anonymous 1980s block turned sharp design hotel — and has modest rates to boot. • Best hotels in Istanbul Tirana’s New Bazaar area ALAMY Just as Albania is firmly on the rise tourism-wise, so is its likeable capital. Mountain-framed Tirana has interesting museums in former communist bunkers, mural-dotted boulevards and a good clubbing scene, while the Dajti Ekspres cable car (£12 return) ascends one of those peaks for breathtaking country views. Having wandered along pedestrianised streets below brightly coloured buildings, you can eat filling Balkan cuisine for a song — a pound usually buys two triangular, cheese or beef-filled bureks — and sip cups of coffee for about 60p. Hotels are similarly economical, typified by the central, four-star Mondial and its rooftop swimming pool. • Best things to do in Albania Cycling beside the Enormous Crocodile at Cardiff Bay GETTY IMAGES Each year, the Post Office also directly compares on-the-ground costs — drinks, evening meals for two with wine, three-star accommodation, sightseeing and transport — for city breaks in more than 30 destinations across Europe. Cardiff offers some of the best value in Britain. The Welsh capital is 32 per cent cheaper than Edinburgh and much cheaper than pricey London and Belfast. The fantastic National Museum and open-air St fa*gans National Museum of History offer free admission, while it’s easy to walk or cycle along Cardiff Bay past landmark buildings, around Bute Park below the castle, or centrally, in search of street art. In a grade II listed building near Cardiff Bay, the Coal Exchange Hotel has typically reasonable rates. • Best things to do in Cardiff Krakow old town ALAMY Poland’s second city is perfect for a cheap city break filled with sightseeing. Among the many must-see spots are its Wawel Royal Castle, one of the world’s first Unesco world heritage sites, and St Mary’s Basilica, where each hour is marked by a trumpet call. Try also to fit in time for people-watching on Market Square; even there, a plate of pierogi dumplings and a pint of Pilsner should bring change from a tenner. Shuttle buses for sober day-trips to Auschwitz begin at £5 return; otherwise you could just wander past palaces and bars in the old, narrow-laned heart of Krakow. Typifying Krakow’s affordability, the classy Grand has 64 antique-filled rooms, a Viennese café and a piano restaurant. • Best things to do in Krakow Café life in Lisbon GETTY IMAGES Occasionally, western Europe can be cheap too. In 2024, the Post Office ranked sun-soaked Lisbon as the continent’s second best-value city, its status boosted by low accommodation prices: a two-night stay in three-star digs will set you back £132 on average. Budget travellers can accomplish two things by eating petiscos (Portugal’s take on tapas) in taverns: not just saving dosh, but fuelling themselves for walks up the city’s seven hills to the miradouros — azulejo-tiled viewpoints. Bouncing atop baroque cobbles, wooden trams are £2.50 per ride; 40-minute trains serve the sandy beaches of Cascais and free-to-roam Parque Marechal Carmona, where peaco*cks strut about. Brown’s Central Hotel, which hosts art exhibitions and regular live music, has 84 cool, contemporary rooms. • Best things to do in Lisbon Considering both flights and accommodation, another recent study proclaimed Romania’s capital Europe’s cheapest city break. That’s good news for clubbers, creatives or hipsters bound for the “new Berlin”, as Bucharest is frequently tagged. Yes, it can sometimes be gritty and traffic-choked — but then comes a gorgeous green space, a vegan café serving perfect pizzas, a sky bar or a winsome old Orthodox church hiding in plain sight. You’ll also find the world’s second largest administrative building, with only America’s Pentagon outstripping the Palace of the Parliament for its unsubtle size. Dinners, routinely scoffed on garden or pavement terraces, are easily limited to £10 per person. The blindingly coloured bedrooms at Vilacrosse Boutique Inn are available at reasonable rates. • The best underrated cities in Europe to visit Foch Street and Sainte-Anne church in Montpellier, France ALAMY Montpellier is a curious old (and new) mixture. On the one hand, it has an aqueduct, France’s first botanical garden and a butterscotch-coloured vieille ville. But, then again, you’ll find modernist urban architecture to rival Rotterdam, the cool photography museum Pavillon Populaire and Christian Lacroix-designed tram liveries. For every leafy square, there’s a hip boutique; for every petanque-playing old man in a beret, a chic student in vintage culottes. Crucially, a flat, seven-mile cycle path, past vineyards, puts the beach in reach — expect to pay around £35 for a day’s hire — and it’s free to enter the gothic cathedral. Close to focal Place de la Comédie, Hotel d’Aragon lays out complimentary breakfasts on a glass-roofed veranda. • The best twin-city breaks Gaudi’s Casa Batllo in Barcelona ALAMY Yes, that Barcelona. Various factors render the avant-garde Catalonian capital and its Gaudi confections unexpectedly conducive to a parsimonious weekend. Multiple airlines fly direct from the UK, driving down flight prices. Metro lines connect to the airport and everything is within walking distance if you don’t mind a decent stride. Many museums open for free once a month. The sandy beach isn’t subdivided into clubs with entry fees. Numerous purse-friendly restaurants, from Asian tapas to brilliant bistros, dot the city; so too does a stellar line-up of well-priced hotels, spanning the chic&basic chain, independent stays in well-to-do Eixample or bigger, rooftop-pool affairs. In the latter category is Hotel Motel One, set beside Ciutadella park, not far from the Gothic Quarter. • Best things to do in Barcelona Bratislava’s Blue Church GETTY IMAGES Common around the Slovak capital, zemiakove placky are fried, garlicky potato pancakes which are sold for just a pound or two. Goulash here is correspondingly reasonable, and a pound buys most pints of beer. One-way flights can be as cheap as £44; such stupendous value is wonderfully at odds with the grandeur of Bratislava. Draped along the Danube like a sleeping cat, its winding, patisserie-peppered old town and cheerfully hued Blue Church (officially the Church of St Elizabeth) seduce visitors below a rectangular castle complex. An equally good lookout point is the riverbank’s futuristic UFO Tower, to whose 95m-high observation deck you can travel by speedy lift for roughly £6. Bratislava’s many permanently moored “botels” are terrific value. The Dunajsky Pivovar throws in a pool and private brewery for good measure. • 24 best city breaks in Europe for 2024 St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia GETTY IMAGES One of Europe’s oldest cities, Sofia is built on top of now-excavated Roman ruins. Despite the rotundas and arched streets, Bulgaria’s capital remains criminally underrated, even among eastern European city breaks. Those who do visit find a beguiling place where functional, sombre Soviet blocks overhang gilded golden churches, and where nodding your head means no while shaking it indicates yes. That’s near-impossible to remember after glasses of rakia, a fiery fruit brandy, which traditionally follow dinners. Talking of which, expect to spend no more than £10 each on three courses with wine, even if eating just steps from gold-domed Alexander Nevsky Cathedral — one of the world’s biggest churches. Expect candles, exposed brick and imaginative lighting at the central R34 Boutique Hotel. • Best affordable ski resorts in Europe Riga Central Market, Latvia ALAMY Not only are the five pavilions of the Riga Central Market a wonderland of unfamiliar fruit and gingerbread cookies, but you can buy hot samsas (stuffed savoury pastries) for lunch for about £1.70. Cash-conscious travellers will also delight in the free music on central Dome Square and the Latvian capital’s extraordinary bounty of art nouveau buildings. The cobbled old town is equally winsome, and booze in its many bars are inexpensive. For something different, spend little over a tenner to paddleboard along the Daugava River or ride a cheap train for 15 miles to the white-sand beach resort of Jurmala. Recently refurbished, the Ibis Riga Centre is very fairly priced given its convenient location. • Best Christmas markets in Europe Sarajevo old town ALAMY Sarajevo has emerged from its war-torn years looking remarkably good. That’s particularly true of the atmospheric, charming original centre, which hosts coppersmith workhouses and homely teahouses. Those, along with a mixture of churches and mosques, underline how multicultural Bosnia’s capital is — as does a local cuisine with Balkan, Turkish and Mediterranean elements. Engagingly small, the hilly city is constantly cobbled, making comfy shoes essential. The choicest hill is Vidikovac, a trudge up which should conclude in sunset-watching and dinner at the bargain namesake restaurant. Trams cost about a pound per ride and it’s only twice that for on-the-go lunches involving a cevapi, or Bosnian kebab. Inside a central, Austro-Hungarian-era building, the modern, minimal Hotel Colors Inn throws in free breakfasts. • Best affordable holiday destinations in the world Ljubljana’s city centre GETTY IMAGES Summer’s the best time for a thrifty short break to the capital of Slovenia. It’s when a number of free festivals are held on open-air stages — make room in your diary for events such as the Ana Desetnica street-theatre festival from the end of June, the July jazz festival and Nights in Old Ljubljana Town in late August. You’ll also find cafés set up on leafy riverside terraces, and parties in old sugar factories. Pretty, compact andcar-free (save for electric taxis) as part of its “Vision of Ljubljana 2025” project, the city is easy to stroll or cycle using free-to-hire bikes, though you’ll probably want to fork out £5 for a return funicular ride up to its lofty medieval castle. Behind its art deco exterior, Hotel Cubo serves great food next to the old town. • Best places to go for a city break in summer Café life on Mnisikleous in Athens ALAMY Exceptionally affordable when it comes to dining, with three-course, wine-supplemented evening meals costing less than £20pp in total, the capital of Greece also abounds with free attractions. There’s no charge to amble around dreamy Plaka, where creeper plants garland pastel-shade buildings, nor the café-lined steps of Mnisikleous. Equally complimentary are trips to see superlative street art, vintage window shopping on hip Protogenous or even local-led walking tours (although tipping is common). Factor in lots of cheap rental accommodation and you should be able to afford the Athens must-see: the hilltop Acropolis citadel, a wonder of ancient temples and gateways. Multi-site combination tickets including six other archaeological sites offer the best value at £26. As its name suggests, the Acropolis View hotel overlooks that main sight — and is only a short walk from the airport-connecting metro. • Best things to do in Athens Eating currywurst with french fries in Berlin GETTY IMAGES The capital of Germany has lots of cheap accommodation. Cool hostels proliferate, while NH operates a series of attractively priced mid-range hotels. Also affordable is eating, with ubiquitous currywurst sausages and doner kebabs — both of them invented in Berlin — widely available. Sightseers will further rejoice at how many free-to-visit wartime sights are within walking distance of one another, from Checkpoint Charlie and Brandenburger Tor to the Reichstag (book ahead) and the Holocaust Memorial. Gratis too is East Side Gallery, a graffiti-strewn portion of the Berlin Wall, and Tiergarten park. Pay just £3.50 to climb the latter’s Victory Column for stupendous views. Handily situated, the NH outpost on Potsdamer Platz offers free wi-fi and clean, modern rooms. • Best value hotels in Berlin under £150 A riverside promenade on the Vistula in Warsaw ALAMY One of Europe’s eternal underdogs, the capital of Poland is a surprisingly attractive, exciting destination to visit — and wonderfully affordable. It uses the zloty, not the euro, and is a place where you can spend £8.50 on a superb dinner or £4 on a pint of craft beer. Ubers are also terrifically cheap, while most attractions are within walking distance of one another, past handsome neoclassical buildings. The most fun day out is also the cheapest: Warsaw is strung along Poland’s longest river, the Vistula, and has a series of ferry-accessed urban beaches where locals gather on summer days. Some have hammocks and waterfront bars; others football or volleyball courts. On the trendy Srodmiescie Poludniowe neighbourhood’s northern fringes, No 4 Residence pairs Vistula views with retro decor in 22 spacious, colourful apartments featuring kitchenettes. • Europe’s best cities for art lovers Neighbourhood shops on a narrow Naples street ALAMY Italy isn’t known for budget breaks, but then Naples has always done things its own way. Despite being a gateway to the decidedly pricey Capri and Amalfi coast, this is a city where value abounds. Raw, relentless and romantic, it’s also one of the most thrilling (and unevenly paved) places you’ll ever walk. Look one way and there’s an 18th-century palazzo hiding in plain sight; another, below washing lines, some stellar street art. Naples is also the home of pizza, with good ones for £6; equally economical is a three-day Campania Artecard (£35), which includes admission to Pompeii and Herculaneum plus 50 per cent off other regional attractions and public transport. In the emerging neighbourhood of La Sanita is Borgo Vergini, an arty B&B set around a typical, tranquil Neapolitan garden courtyard. • Best hotels in Naples The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Podgorica ALAMY The pint-sized capital of Montenegro was the cheapest place in Europe for a short break in 2023, according to research by Jersey Island Holidays. A two-day break would have set you back just £222 on average, including flights, accommodation, some excursions and a romantic three-course dinner — and prices aren’t much different now. While the city has some lovely parks and churches, you might prefer to head off to visit Plantaze, Europe’s largest vineyard, or hike up to the Zabljak Crnojevica fortress. Try Hotel 1920, a natty boutique just 500m from the country’s Natural History Museum. • Best things to do in Montenegro The Vienna State Opera in Austria ALAMY You may be surprised to find Vienna on this list but the Austrian capital can provide surprising value. Budget airlines fly here from as little as £30 return if you’re happy to go hand-luggage only and hotels can offer good value if you time your visit right. Most of the museums in the city are unfortunately not free but its grand boulevards and palace gardens offer plenty to see. In the summer, you’ll also find music and film festivals that are open to all. Thanks to a free BundestheaterCard, you can get tickets to performances at the State Opera for just €4. Smart and modern, Motel One Wien-Staatsoper is just a ten-minute walk from the State Opera House. • Best affordable hotels in Vienna under £150 Gardens in Reales, Seville Well-served by budget airlines, this Andalusia city is filled with cultural riches. Visiting the Royal Alcazar of Seville is essential for any fan of Game of Thrones. But even if you’ve never seen the show, its majestic architecture and charming gardens are worthy of a stroll — especially on a Monday when entrance is free. Elsewhere, collect impressive selfie backdrops at the Plaza de España, Parque de María Luisa and Barrio de Santa Cruz, the city’s Jewish quarter. Budget-friendly tapas bars are everywhere, with drinks coming in at under €2 and tapas around €3. With its good location near the cathedral, welcome drink and free minibars, Hotel Becquer is outstanding value. • Best holiday villas in Spain The Uzupis district in Vilnius, Lithuania ALAMY Lithuania’s capital reigns as Europe’s cheapest city according to the Post Office’s 2024 City Costs Barometer. Easily, too: the typical daily costs of items including dinner and sightseeing charges worked out at some 10 per cent lower than the runner-up, Lisbon. It’ll cost you nothing to climb Gediminas Hill for castle-side views of the large old town — one of Europe’s best-preserved — nor to stroll Uzupis, a breakaway republic across the Neris river where many artists work. Talking of which, the old town’s Artagonist Art Hotel has 34 rooms decorated with works by Lithuanian creatives. Chester city centre, England ALAMY Lauded for its value for money in Which?’s recent survey of Britain’s best city breaks, Chester is made for strolling. There’s the River Dee and its ducks; the two miles of Roman and medieval city walls which rise to offer fine views; the half-timbered high street and double-decker shopping arcades known as the Rows; and lots of beckoning lanes with colourful doors. Other temptations include the food court and the spire-tastic cathedral. Back in town, the Georgian-era Townhouse Hotel is great value and handily central. • Best ways to save money on holidays abroad Inspired to visit Europe but yet to book your trip? Here are the best packages from BA Holidays and Tui. Sign up to the Times Travel newsletter for weekly inspiration, advice and deals here1. Istanbul, Turkey
• Best things to do in IstanbulAdvertisem*nt
2. Tirana, Albania
3. Cardiff, Wales
• Best Airbnbs in Cardiff4. Krakow, Poland
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• Best hotels in Krakow5. Lisbon, Portugal
• Best hotels in Lisbon6. Bucharest, Romania
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7. Montpellier, France
8. Barcelona, Spain
• Best Barcelona hotels9. Bratislava, Slovakia
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10. Sofia, Bulgaria
11. Riga, Latvia
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12. Sarajevo, Bosnia
13. Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Europe’s best affordable summer holiday destinations14. Athens, Greece
• Best hotels in Athens15. Berlin, Germany
• Best things to do in Berlin16. Warsaw, Poland
17. Naples, Italy
• Best Italian cities for food18. Podgorica, Montenegro
19. Vienna, Austria
• Best hotels in Vienna20. Seville, Spain
21. Vilnius, Lithuania
22. Chester, England
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• Which destinations have a tourist tax?Take me there
