Haven’t been to Kiev, but Belgrade is pretty amazing (especially the woh-men!), plus it’s not far from other interesting places like Sarajevo/Dubrovnik.
 
 

I’ve been to Belgrade and briefly to Ukraine, but not Kiev.  Probably make it there this fall.  In terms of sight seeing, Kiev has Belgrade whiped.  Kiev should be quite a bit cheaper than Belgrade too.  As far as getting around, most of Belgrade is compact enough to manage on foot.  Kiev has a metro I believe, but I have no idea how spread out things are.  My experience in Ukraine is that not a lot of people speak english, especially the older generations.  Kiev probably sees more travelers than elsewhere, so english should be a little more popular there, but your cyrillic will definately be handy. 

Thanks for the speedy replies.

Rob, can you estimate how much cheaper Kiev would be than Belgrade? Or maybe what kinds of things should be cheaper? I did a little research and the hostels I found in Kiev were around $25 per night, where as the ones in Belgrade were only $15.

OK, I’m going to make things even harder by asking for any information on Sofia, Bulgaria and Riga, Latvia. The ticket to Latvia is the cheapest, but I have been to Estonia once before so unless y’all have a lot of good things to say about it, I’d probably pass on the cheap tickets. Bulgaria has always intrigued me, but I don’t really know why.

Keep the suggestions coming!


-Veronica

Lots of good suggestions so far from heavy & rob – I’d add that I wouldn’t waste my time with Riga. It’s a beautiful city to some extent, but with an extremely unfriendly “vibe” and not my favourite place in the Baltics. Vilnius, Lithuania, on the other hand is AWESOME and if you get a chance – check it out. You could always take a bus from Riga to Vilnius if you wanted……
 

Kiev is beautiful and very easy to get around by metro.  It’s relatively cheap.  It’s can’t miss in my book.

Actually, thats kind of a hard thing to estimate.  Basically Ukraine is still semi-soviet and its economy hasn’t made much progress, so pretty much everything is just cheaper.  Accomodation is the exception.
I notice hostels.com has one for $18, but it has below avg reviews and claims to be 20min metro ride from the center.  Hotels can be cheap, I only paid about $10/night, but supposedly they don’t always cater to foreigners, sometimes they will charge unreasonable prices, and then you don’t get the fun communal experience. 
Check out this site for some reliable hotel info: http://www.inyourpocket.com/ukraine/kyiv/en/category?chid=100 
 
I stayed in two different hostels in Belgrade.  One was pretty typical and about $18-20, this place gets a lot of overflow from the other place.  The cheaper one, 3 black catz, was an overcrowded 2 room apartment flat with junk laying everywhere and 10 bunk beds.  It was a fun experience though, and seems to stay busy- mostly due to the excessively laid-back atmosphere.  I think for most people, staying there is a big part of their Belgrade experience.  Anyhow, point is, sometimes with the cheaper places you pay for what you get. 
 
 
Bulgaria is a wonderful country, but Sofia doesn’t have the rich flavor and friendliness that makes the country so special.  All the bulgarians we talked to warned us about that, but we went anyway.  It wasn’t a bad experience or anything, just lacked a little.  I felt like I saw most of what the city had to offer in under 2 days.  But I didn’t make the trip to Rila monastery, I hear thats real nice. 
 
 
 
How much of Poland have you traveled?  There are some interesting cities not too far from Berlin that would save you the $300 ticket.
 

Firstly, thanks for all of your input, Rob.
 

 
3 Black Catz seems like something I would like. Chaotic in an exciting way. I read about that particular hostel on the internet and it will definitely be the one I stay at if I chose Belgrade.




Thanks for that tip. This makes me want to skip Sofia (at least for this trip).


 
Actually, in Europe, I have only visited Berlin, Copenhagen, and Tallinn. Not too impressive, I know. For whatever reason, I am far more interested in visiting cities/countries that are not as commonly touristed. I know Poland isn’t the number one travel destination for most, but I know quite a lot of people who have visited the country. Call it a desire to have bragging rights, if you will, but I really just want to go somewhere completely different and “special.” It’s also the reason I have only a small desire to see Paris, London, Amsterdam, etc.
 
I’m getting so excited already!

 
 
Its really great to hear that!  Sometimes I wonder if people just copy and paste itinerariers they saw in another post. 

I wouldn’t recommend Sofia, Bulgaria, even thought it is the only one of the cities I have been too. While it was a nice city I mainly went there to visit a family friend and there didn’t seem like a whole lot to do. If you were to go though you could easily do the city in a day and I would recommend a day trip to both Plovdiv and the Rila Monistary.