I used to assume a European holiday meant picking between Paris and everywhere else, and quietly accepting whichever price tag came with it.
Then I started actually checking the exchange rate before each trip, rather than after, and the picture got a lot more interesting.
Some places genuinely aren't pricier than they were a few years ago. Others have become dramatically cheaper, and it's rarely the country you'd expect.
Here's where your Australian dollar is actually working hardest in Europe right now, and why.
It's tempting to assume the euro and the pound have both gotten more expensive for us. Checking my own currency conversions over the past few trips, that's not really true, the AUD to euro and pound rates have barely moved.
What's changed dramatically is the alternative side of the comparison, destinations like Turkey have become so much cheaper that stepping outside the obvious five countries now delivers a genuinely bigger gap than it used to.
I only really noticed this by paying attention trip after trip, rather than assuming the picture was the same as it was a few years ago.
Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe has been quietly good value for years, and my own experience comparing prices here against Western Europe on the same trip keeps confirming it.
What I like most isn't just the savings. Nothing about the experience feels reduced because of them. The architecture, food, and history can easily compete with cities charging considerably more.
Three places I'd consider first
I'd choose these places because they're worth visiting, not simply because they're cheaper.
The lower daily costs just mean you can afford better accommodation, eat out more often, stay longer, or add another stop without watching the budget quite so closely.
Turkey
Turkey is where the value story gets particularly interesting. The lira has weakened enormously over the past decade, and I remember being genuinely surprised the first time I did the maths properly on a Turkey trip.
I'd expected my budget to land somewhere similar to Greece, and it went considerably further.
Istanbul alone justifies the trip, but what surprised me was how many different parts of the holiday benefited from that extra spending power.
Where you'll notice your money going further
That's what stood out to me most. Turkey didn't necessarily make me want to spend as little as possible. It gave me room to spend a little more freely without constantly feeling like the numbers were adding up against me.
Turkey would be one of my first choices on this list.
You can combine a major city, Mediterranean coastline, incredible food, and a bucket-list experience like Cappadocia without needing the kind of budget that combination might demand elsewhere in Europe.
Serbia and North Macedonia
Serbia and North Macedonia are good options if you want the lower costs of the Balkans without building your whole trip around the best-known destinations.
I'll be honest, I didn't expect much from either before visiting, and both quietly outperformed that low bar.
They're the kind of places I'd add to a longer European itinerary when I wanted a few days somewhere different, affordable, and considerably less crowded.
What I'd go for
Neither city needs to be the headline act of your trip. I actually think they work better as affordable additions to a longer Balkans route, particularly if you're travelling between Central Europe and Greece.
Travellers who enjoy discovering places before they've ticked off every famous European capital.
I've recommended both to friends who assumed there wasn't much worth stopping for between Vienna and Athens, and they've come back pleasantly surprised.
What about the big five?
None of this means I'd skip France, Italy, Spain, the UK, or Germany just because my money goes further elsewhere. I still go back to Italy most years, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Instead, I've changed how I build the budget around those trips.
My approach: Spend, then balance
If Rome or Paris is one of the reasons I'm going to Europe, I'll spend the money to enjoy it properly.
I'd rather book a good hotel in a location I actually want, eat the food I came for, and pay to see the things that matter to me than spend the whole time trying to make an expensive city cheap.
Then I'll balance those days with somewhere my budget naturally stretches further.
That might mean combining Vienna with Prague, Germany with Poland, or Italy with a few days further east. Suddenly, I don't need every day of a three-week holiday to operate on the same expensive daily budget.
It's spending more where it genuinely improves your trip and saving money where you can do so without feeling like you're missing anything.
For me, that creates a much better holiday than choosing destinations purely by price or spending two weeks in somewhere I've always wanted to visit while worrying about every restaurant bill.
A few things that actually make a difference
A handful of small habits consistently stretch my European budget further, often more than obsessing over which country is technically the cheapest.
None of these will transform an expensive trip into a cheap one, but together they leave more of the budget for the things I actually travelled to Europe to experience.
Get more from your European holiday
Real value in Europe right now comes from mixing it up, not necessarily avoiding the obvious names, but not stopping at them either.
The trips that have felt most generous to me weren't the ones where I chased the absolute cheapest country available.
They were the ones where I paired something classic with something that stretched the budget further, and let each part of the trip do what it does best.
If working out how to combine a big-five stop with somewhere that stretches the budget further sounds like the hard part, that's exactly what our personalised travel planning service is built for.
Tell us what you want to see and we'll build the itinerary around it.
Frequently asked questions
Several EU countries still use their own currency, including the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Denmark, and Sweden. Always confirm the current currency before you travel, since this can change.
Yes, Istanbul in particular straddles both Europe and Asia, and Turkey is commonly included in a European itinerary. It's also one of the strongest value destinations on the continent right now.
Yes, and it's a great way to balance the trip. Pairing a few days in a big-five destination with a stretch through Central or Eastern Europe keeps the overall cost down without giving up the classic stops.
Shoulder season, generally spring and autumn, tends to offer the best combination of lower prices and manageable crowds across most of Europe.
Cards are widely accepted across most of Europe, but carrying some local currency is still useful for markets, small businesses, tips, and places with minimum card payments. When paying by card or withdrawing cash, choose the local currency rather than AUD to avoid potentially poor conversion rates.