Say you have 18 days, and you have to fly into and out of Graz, Austria. You have a limited budget, meaning countries out of the euro-zone are preferable. But not mandatory. You have already seen much of Italy, as well as Munich, Salzburg, Vienna and Prague. You prefer going east as compared to west.

So, where would you go?

Hungary (I've never been there.)

Budapest comes to mind.

Hi RAR,

How about Trieste, Slovenia and Croatia?

From Graz, you can easily go south into Slovenia.

gnr

Depending what time of the year. If it is after September - Slovenia and Croatia. It is beautiful and compared to rest of Europe also inexpensive.

August. I'm thinking about Istria.

August is hot, humid, swamped with tourists and bumper to bumper. Not my choice of a enjoyment.

First of all, don't short-sheet Graz itself. Then the obvious choices are Poland (especially the west/south/southwest); Slovakia gets much less good press here, but they share the Tatras with southern Poland; Hungary - - you can find some good posts on Gyor and Sopron as well as Budapest (perhaps more in cost-line with western Europe?) - - and then Slovenia and Croatia. Ljubljana in particular is on the "in" list these days, as was mentioned on http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34506020

Best wishes,

Rex