The center of the Old World and the brainchild of two great medieval empires – the Habsburgs and the Commonwealth, Central Europe today “breaks up” into two parts, gravitating towards different poles. Austria and Switzerland are kept as a snobbish aloof – it is customary here to offer all the best and immediately, of course, at the appropriate price. More democratic, rather frivolous and somewhere even sloppy (but so dear!) Views reign in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary – perhaps as part of the former socialist camp, perhaps as a result of historical belonging to Eastern European culture. Strictly speaking, the term “Central Europe” itself is not used so often: the countries included in the region can easily be attributed to the West and East, respectively.
So, why are the countries of Central Europe interesting from the point of view of a tourist? Firstly, the fact that it is here that such undoubtedly tourist destinations as Switzerland and Austria are located – and this is the happy occasion when the winter stream is in no way inferior to the summer one and even surpasses it. “Skiing”, excursions and “non-hot” rest – this is how you can briefly characterize the “chips” of these countries.
Let’s not forget to mention high-quality treatment – and not in the field of relaxation coatings, but real “heavy artillery” – operations on internal organs, excellent orthopedics, plastic surgery, dentistry. Finally, these states enjoy the well-deserved attention of businessmen – Austria and Switzerland are among the ten most popular business travel destinations. And, of course, there are plenty of tidbits here for “highly specialized” tourists – music lovers, for example, who rush to the concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic or performances of the Vienna Opera with lust in their eyes, fans of cheese, chocolate, Mozart, Swarovski and Swiss watches.
Let’s face the East. Poland and Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia can offer for the most part high-quality and, which is especially pleasant, inexpensive holidays – among lakes and mountains, in the expanses of nature reserves, on the coast of the gentle sea under the cool rays of the sun, and finally, in the depths of boarding houses and sanatoriums, where guaranteed to bring to life after working days.
In addition, at the local ski resorts you can have a good ride on very well-groomed slopes and at the same time not fly into the pipe. Yes, and the atmosphere here is the most friendly, even if you first got up on skis and began to write out unstable zigzags in front of other skiers.
The sightseeing wealth of these countries is, first of all, numerous medieval buildings (there are only more than two thousand castles in the Czech Republic alone, and there are no count of cathedrals, town halls, bell towers and houses), as well as interesting museums, galleries… breweries, finally! Let’s not forget about the healing wealth of the region. First of all, these are mineral waters with almost all useful trace elements known in balneology, as well as other gifts of the earth – mud, hydrogen sulfide sources, etc.
So if you are looking for a varied vacation at reasonable prices, while in a comfortable climate and with a lot of interesting local “chips”, you won’t find a better destination in Central Europe!
According to Countryaah, Central Europe has the following countries:
- Austria
- Hungary
- Poland
- Slovakia
- Czech
- Switzerland
