Eastern Europe opens up its borders


No-frills airlines in Britain, Holland, Germany, Italy and Slovakia are opening up new destinations with cheap flights and in the next 12 months we shall see many more routes added to the 350 or so already in place in Western Europe. Cross-border tourism will be an easy and attractive option once the borders are gone. In discussing this with operators and agents I have found considerable interest in cooperation to create tour arrangements that take in more than one country.

Southern Poland and northern Slovakia share the beautiful High Tatras range of mountains, wonderful walking country of great scenic beauty reached from Poland's vibrant city Kracov or from Bratislava in Slovakia. The 'Blue' Danube makes its majestic way through Southern Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary on its way to the Black Sea and I look forward to travelling from Bavaria to Budapest on this historic river, perhaps stopping off for a day or two in Vienna and beautiful Bratislava, Slovakia's ancient capital, without having think about visa or passport checks and border controls.

Tour operators in UK and USA are monitoring all these developments closely and we are promised some imaginative itineraries next summer from specialist operators like Thermalia Travel and History in Harmony in UK, or AZ International Travel Inc in USA. I welcome news of all such itineraries and shall be happy to pass on details to readers of this topic.

I have been invited to take over as Contributing Editor for Slovakia at Suite101 on 15 December and look forward to writing about this little country with a big heart.

The copyright of the article Eastern Europe opens up its borders in Europe and North Africa is owned by Stuart Buchanan MacWatt. Permission to republish Eastern Europe opens up its borders in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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