The best Eastern European cities for a guys trip

Krakow, Poland

The best all-round choice. The old town is one of the largest and best preserved medieval squares in Europe, the Kazimierz district has the bars, the food is heavy and excellent, and everything is walkable.

Prices are genuinely low: a good meal for PLN 60 to PLN 100, a beer for PLN 12 to PLN 20. Flights from most of Western Europe are cheap and frequent.

The serious point is that Auschwitz-Birkenau is 90 minutes away, and a group that goes should treat it as what it is. If you are going, go on the first full day, not after a heavy night, and do not treat it as an item on a list.

• Three nights excluding flights: EUR 200 to EUR 350 per person
• Base yourself in or near Kazimierz, not on the main square
• Best for: a first group trip east, mixed groups, good value

Budapest, Hungary

Two things make Budapest work. The ruin bars in District VII, which are a genuine cultural form as well as a tourist product, and the thermal baths, which are the best possible thing to do the morning after.

Szechenyi is the big outdoor one and the obvious choice for a group. Gellert is the grand art nouveau version. Rudas is the sixteenth-century Ottoman one with a rooftop pool over the Danube. All of them fix a hangover in a way nothing else does.

Be aware of the consumption scam problem in the nightlife districts. Never pick a bar because someone on the street suggested it, and always check prices before ordering.

• Three nights excluding flights: EUR 220 to EUR 400 per person
• Base yourself in District V, VI, or VII
• Best for: nightlife plus a genuinely great recovery day

Belgrade, Serbia

Belgrade has the best nightlife per euro in Europe and almost no polish, which is exactly why people who have been keep going back. The splavovi, floating clubs moored on the Sava and Danube, run through the summer and are unlike anything else on the continent.

The city itself is scrappy, brutalist in places, and much more interesting than pretty. Skadarlija is the old bohemian street, Savamala and Dorcol have the bars, and the food is grilled meat in quantities that require planning.

It is cheap: a good dinner with drinks runs EUR 15 to EUR 25 per person. Serbia is outside the EU, so check whether you need anything beyond a passport.

• Three nights excluding flights: EUR 180 to EUR 320 per person
• Base yourself in Dorcol or Savamala
• Best for: nightlife, and a group that does not need things to be tidy

Bucharest, Romania

The most underrated capital in Europe. Bucharest is a strange mix of belle epoque boulevards, communist-era monumentalism including the second largest administrative building in the world, and a genuinely excellent bar and restaurant scene in the Old Town and Lipscani.

It is very cheap, the beer culture is good, and there is a serious craft scene now. The Palace of the Parliament tour is worth doing once for the sheer scale of it.

Transylvania is three to four hours away by train if the group wants a day trip with mountains and castles attached.

• Three nights excluding flights: EUR 180 to EUR 320 per person
• Base yourself near Lipscani or in Dorobanti for something quieter
• Best for: value, and a group that likes cities that are not obvious

Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Sofia is the cheapest capital in the EU and works well as a base with Plovdiv, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe, two hours away by train or car.

Vitosha mountain rises straight out of the city and is skiable in winter and walkable in summer, which is unusual for a capital. The bar scene around Shishman street is good and very cheap.

The combination that works best is two nights in Sofia and one in Plovdiv, where the old town and the Kapana creative district are both excellent.

• Three nights excluding flights: EUR 160 to EUR 300 per person
• Best for: the lowest total cost in the EU, and a mountain on the doorstep

Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius

The Baltic capitals are compact, cheap, and beautiful, with excellent old towns and a strong beer and sauna culture. Tallinn medieval centre is the most striking. Riga has the best art nouveau architecture in Europe and the biggest market. Vilnius is the quietest and the most livable.

All three have had a stag party problem and have actively pushed back. Turning up in matching shirts will get you refused entry in places, and reasonably so.

They work best in late spring or summer. In deep winter they are dark, very cold, and everything happens indoors, which some groups love and others do not.

• Three nights excluding flights: EUR 200 to EUR 380 per person
• Best for: compact old towns, sauna culture, and easy logistics

The stag party caveat

Several of these cities have spent a decade dealing with badly behaved stag groups and have responded: bars refuse entry to matching shirts, some restaurants will not seat large all-male groups without a booking, and police in Krakow, Prague, and Riga are visibly unsympathetic.

This is entirely avoidable. Book restaurants, do not wear costumes, do not drink in the main square during the day, and treat the place as somewhere people live. A group of eight that behaves normally gets treated normally everywhere in this list.