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Vauban star fortress, Roman Apulum & cradle of modern Romanian unification

Subterranean ice caves, karst gorges & Moți woodcraft highlands

Queen Marie's seaside palace, exotic cliff gardens & sheer red Kaliakra headlands

Leafy parks on the emerald Vrbas, Roman Kastel fortress & reconstructed Ferhadija mosque

UNESCO marble peaks, premier ski resort & traditional stone mehana taverns

Where the Sava meets the Danube: historic citadel, vibrant Dorćol streets & storied kafana nights

Monumental red sandstone towers, Roman Kaleto fortress & Magura prehistoric cave

Town of a Thousand Windows, hilltop living citadel & UNESCO Ottoman timbered quarters

Pine forest, a quiet lake & a highland corner the rest of the country drives past

The city of consuls, a Roman city's mosaics & the oldest national park in the country

Mystical 16th-century Dervish Tekke, Europe's mightiest karst spring & clifftop medieval fortress

White limestone quarries, golden pebble horn & alpine heights

Carpathian clifftop fortress, Saxon customs pass & Queen Marie's royal retreat

Transylvanian Gothic spire, Saxon ramparts & Mount Tâmpa cable car

Monumental palaces, Belle Époque boulevards & leafy garden bistros

Ancient Illyrian walled citadel, cliffside Mogren beaches & pulsating Adriatic nightlife

Royal capital of Montenegro, Biljarda palace & high-mountain gateway to Mount Lovćen

Transylvanian youth capital, Gothic church & bohemian arts scene

Black Sea Art Nouveau casino, Roman mosaics & coastal promenades

Epic Gothic-Renaissance fortress, towering drawbridge & Knight's Hall of John Hunyadi

UNESCO wetland labyrinth, white pelican colonies & Lipovan fishing hamlets

Banded marble, Gothic doorways & the largest surviving fresco programme of its century

Towers on the Danube: monumental Golubac Fortress & the colossal Iron Gates gorge

Limestone ramparts, Adriatic light & island escapes

Glacial Black Lake, limestone peaks of Bobotov Kuk & wild Dinaric highlands

Emperor Trajan's grand Roman amphitheatre, Byzantine coastal walls & sandy Adriatic beaches

A bazaar burned and rebuilt, a 16th-century mosque & a tanners' bridge over the Erenik

City of Stone, monumental fortress castle & fortified Ottoman tower-mansions

Five domes in striped brick: the high point of late Byzantine church building

City of Fortress Towers, lush botanical gardens & the sunlit gateway to Boka Bay

Dramatic Ionian coastlines, hilltop castle ruins & secluded pebble canyon coves

Venetian piazzas, lavender hills & Pakleni island lagoons

Medieval ramparts, oak truffle forests & bohemian art colonies

Royal medieval citadel, dramatic urban Pliva Waterfall & historic Austro-Hungarian watermills

Valley of the Thracian Kings, fragrant Damask roses & UNESCO painted tomb

Primeval temperate rainforest, glacial lake reflection & Bjelasica mountain katuns

Stara Ćuprija stone bridge, secret Tito's Nuclear Bunker & gateway to Neretva white-water rafting

Serbia's ski mountain: a high sunny plateau, endemic flowers & the country's tallest waterfall

Living open-air museum, painted Revival mansions & cradle of the April Uprising

Paris of Albania, National Museum of Medieval Art & renovated Ottoman bazaar terraces

Venetian ramparts, Grk vineyards & Adriatic oyster beds

Fjord-like Boka Bay, medieval Venetian city walls & clifftop San Giovanni fortress

A mining town inside an extinct volcano, built around stone towers and arched bridges

Semicircular travertine amphitheatre, roaring 25-metre cascades & emerald swimming lagoon on the Trebižat

Skanderbeg's mountain citadel, cobblestone artisan bazaar & panoramic Bektashi teqes

The country's highest town: 1903 in stone and concrete, Aromanian houses & paragliding air

Turquoise Ionian archipelagos, white sand coves & fresh Lake Butrint mussel farms

Habsburg villas, coastal promenades & wild island crags

Southern Europe's largest lake, water lily carpets, Dalmatian pelicans & Crmnica wines

Bosnia's highest stone village, 800-metre Rakitnica Canyon & ancient pastoral sheep-farming traditions

Soaring wooden churches, monumental carved gates & the Merry Cemetery

A dammed limestone gorge half an hour from the capital, with caves, kayaks & a 14th-century church

A drowned church in a mountain lake, the country's finest wood carving & the Korab ridge

Bulgaria's smallest town, golden sand pyramids & deep cave wine cellars

A mining city split by a river, and one of the great monuments of Yugoslav modernism

Stari Most stone arch, turquoise Neretva canyon & Ottoman cobbled lanes of Kujundžiluk

UNESCO Black Sea peninsula, ancient Mesembria & medieval Byzantine brick churches

Birthplace of Constantine: imperial Roman mosaics, Ottoman citadel & southern kafana soul

Ottoman bazaar town ringed by the founding monasteries of medieval Serbia

Gibraltar on the Danube: Petrovaradin Fortress, Habsburg pastel squares & Vojvodina culture

A silver town that was one of the richest places in the Balkans, now an empty hill

One of Europe's oldest lakes, a cliff church & a town of Byzantine frescoes

Art Nouveau jewel, Black Eagle arcade & thermal spa springs

UNESCO painted monasteries, Voroneț blue & forested Moldavian hills

Limestone sea-canyons, world-class climbing & coastal peaks

A gorge road into the Accursed Mountains, and the four-church monastery at its mouth

Baroque captain palaces, twin fjord islets & Our Lady of the Rocks sanctuary

Europe's first Wild River National Park, Bënjë thermal sulphur baths & walnut gliko preserves

A red-pebble bay, a Venetian sea fort & the quietest stretch of the Budva riviera

Sixteen terraced travertine lakes, thundering cascades & beech forests

Europe's oldest living city, intact Roman theatre & colorful National Revival mansions

Stone amphitheatre citadel, medieval Sahat Kula clock tower & pomegranate orchards on the Neretva

Modern capital on six rivers, monumental Resurrection cathedral & Europe's largest single vineyard

A town under a hill of granite boulders, with a medieval fort and a monastery that attracts lightning

Europe's youngest capital: a 1461 mosque, a famously strange library & very good coffee

A river town of mosques, a 14th-century painted church & the most mixed city in Kosovo

Mythic homeland of Orpheus, deep karst gorges & stone village folklore

UNESCO spiritual fortress, vivid biblical frescoes & ancient Hrelyo's tower

Venetian fishing harbour, pastel alleys & pine-fringed bays

A long border range of high pasture, deep snow & the cheese the whole region eats

Where East meets West: Ottoman Baščaršija, Austro-Hungarian boulevards & resilient Olympic valley

UNESCO sanctuary of ancient Butrint, sunset castle views & lively Ionian harbourfront

Glacial alpine tarns, panoramic ridge trails & high Rila cirques

Legendary Illyrian Rozafa fortress, cycling along Lake Shkodra & Marubi photographic archive

Renaissance stone cathedral, sea fortresses & cascading waterfalls

Rooftop eyes, Saxon guild bastions & the Bridge of Lies

UNESCO citadel, guild watchtowers & the Scholars' Covered Stairs

Royal Alpine palace, Bucegi cable car & Prahova mountain retreats

Ottoman bazaar, a river of monuments & a city rebuilt twice in one century

Gold-domed Neo-Byzantine cathedral, Roman Serdica ruins & Mount Vitosha backdrop

Vojvodina's greenest town: nettle-tree avenues, a baroque county hall & Konjović's colour

Ancient Apollonia, wooden cliffside houses & idyllic sandy coves

Roman palace living, Venetian stone & Dalmatian island hub

Baroque wine capital, historic Serbian Patriarchate & the serene monasteries of Fruška Gora

White marble churches, coronation monasteries & a cliff fortress in the Ibar valley

Fairy-tale Hungarian Secession architecture, Zsolnay ceramics & tranquil Lake Palić

Perućica primeval rainforest, Mount Maglić summit & the modernist Battle of the Sutjeska monument

Fortified fifteenth-century stone island, pink sand tombolo & royal olive groves of Miločer

Emerald canyon river, ancient Pančić spruce forests & dizzying cliffside viewpoints

Europe's deepest river canyon, arched Đurđevića Tara bridge & world-class white water rafting

Alpine stone lock-in towers, limestone gorges & dramatic hiking in the Accursed Mountains

A Roman city on the Vardar, the country's biggest wine region & a lake with a monastery on it

Habsburg Baroque squares, Art Nouveau palaces & spark of the 1989 Revolution

Pastel Ottoman relics, cold war subterranean bunkers & pulsating Blloku terraces

High Carpathian switchbacks, glacial Bâlea Lake & alpine ridge trails

City of Viziers, medieval fortress citadel & the painted floral Šarena Džamija

Mediterranean sunlight, 16th-century Arslanagić Bridge & ancient wine cellars on the Trebišnjica

Pirate citadel, 13km sandy Velika Plaža & bohemian delta huts of Ada Bojana

Emerald karst river canyon, thundering Štrbački Buk waterfalls & white-water rafting in Una National Park

Entrenched river meanders, a griffon vulture colony & the high cold Pešter plateau

Glacial river valley, jagged karst peaks & traditional high-altitude shepherd katuns

Sea Capital, world's oldest gold treasure & vast seaside Sea Garden

City of the Tsars, monumental Tsarevets fortress & dramatic Yantra river gorge

Remote island solitude, naval secrets & glowing sea caves

Birthplace of Albanian independence, sheltered bay waters & pine-fringed Narta lagoon

Sea organ melodies, Roman stones & the lunar Kornati islands

Austro-Hungarian avenues, vibrant café life & quirky museums

Pine highland meadows, a narrow-gauge railway that loops on itself & smoked ham from Mačkat