Cheapest European Country/Region to visit in Summer?

You'll spend less if you head for southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy), or central Europe (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic). We also found Turkey's prices very reasonable in comparison to western Europe.

I was really surprised how cheap Spain was (compared to the rest of Western Europe) when I was there last month. As someone else said, southern (and eastern) Europe in general will be cheaper than northern, though I think Italy is the exception nowadays--Italy has gotten pricier (though not as bad as the UK). While France is not as cheap as southern or Eastern, I think that it's actually a good value, so consider keeping France in the running as well.

Probably Albania will be the cheapest. Then I would guess Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria. If you are not that adventurous then Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary are still reasonable.

Try parts of Spain or most anywhere in Portugal or Tunisia.

Austria, but not in Vienna. Poland has low prices, but travelling from the U.S.A. to Poland costs more money than travelling to Austria (or Spain or Portugal).

You not only want a place/country that is reasonable for day-to-day expenses, but a location that you can have as a home base to visit other places/countries. You need to think about what other areas you might want to see. For myself, Austria would meet my criteria. It's less expensive for gasoline and groceries and it's centrally located for trips to Italy, Germany and Switzerland. I would base myself in the area north of Innsbruck or around Salzburg.

I agree with all the suggestions here with the exception of Italy. That was one of the most expensive places in Europe we've ever been to and we did go on a budget by renting appartments and cooking some of our meals.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I'm not sure right now how "adventurous" we are with regard to traveling throughout Eastern Europe. And that's also a good point about airfare being more expensive to those destinations, even if they are less expensive once we get there. We're taking the kids, so I want to be close to sites that will interest them. My one son is interested in medieval and Roman history. I hadn't thought much about Austria as a home base, but it sounds great. We do want to be in a place that will allow us to live economically, yet travel easily around the region. Of course all of this depends on where we are able to secure a home exchange. :)

We loved both Poland and Portugal. A positive about travel in Poland was that everyone speaks english unlike Spain or Portugal.

Austria sounds like a good base. Be aware that if you rent a car, you will probably get a manual shift - it could happen even if you specifically order an automatic. From Vienna (a beautiful city), it's a couple of hours to Budapest, less to Brno, a bit more to Prague. And you have Salzburg, the Alps. . .

Mercer's 2010 cost of living survey ranks a number of European cities in the order you see below. The numbers in parentheses refer to the global rank of 214 cities. "After Moscow, Geneva, Zurich and Copenhagen, the most expensive cities in Europe are Oslo (11) in Norway, Milan (15) in Italy, London and Paris (both 17) and Bern (22) in Switzerland. Other expensive European cities include Rome (26), Vienna (28), St Petersburg (30) Amsterdam (35), Baku (36) Dublin (42), Istanbul (44), Barcelona (49), Frankfurt (50), Madrid (52) and Lisbon (72). Riga ranks 81 followed by Budapest (94), Warsaw (96) and Tallinn (115). The least expensive city in Europe is Tirana (200) in Albania, followed by Macedonia's Skopje (197), Sarajevo (196) in Bosnia Herzegovina, Minsk (192) in Belarus and Belfast (182) in the UK." That should also reflect the relative cost of living of the respective countries.

"I want to be close to sites that will interest them. My one son is interested in medieval and Roman history." Try Germany's Mosel River. Medieval castles Burg Eltz and Marksburg are nearby. Roman outpost Trier sports interesting Roman ruins and the very good Rheinisches Landesmuseum: www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/trier-roman-museum Several towns in the area have medieval roots and include lots of half-timbered buildings: Bernkastel, Cochem, Linz (Rhine), Bacharach (Rhine) come to mind. Train travel for families is really cheap - 28 Euros for a daypass for the Rhine/Mosel region, less for a more limited travel radius. On Saturday and Sunday, more distant destinations throughout the country can be reached on a daypass for 5 people - the "Happy Weekend" ticket - for about 10 Euros more. Homestays may save you $ in housing but can cost you more if you have to rent a car or they are not conveniently located. Family-owned apartments like this one at an organic winery in Löf on the Mosel (which has a train station within a few blocks) are cheap; this one runs 36 Euros/night base rate for two if you stay a week. http://www.bio-ferienweingut.de/

We have found Poland inexpensive and really enjoy the area around Krakow, but it has been three years so things may have changed. Twice in the past two years we have used small towns around Innsbruck, Austria as home base and loved both trips. One town was Steinach en Brenner and the
other Matrei. Both have convenient train stations.

We have found Germany (from Mosel River and south) to be fairly inexpensive, compared to some others (we stay in private zimmers). Italy is no longer the bargain it once was. If you are house swapping, then you will have a kitchen and can cook and use the really fun Europe markets. Even if prices for groceries are more expensive - groceries are groceries and you have to buy at home, too. We really enjoy self-catering and even in Ireland this year we were ok with groceries and most self-catering costs (though B&B lodging was double what we paid in Germany last year). Croatia was a good buy a few years back - Slovenia, too, even though it's in the Euro zone. It's pretty easy to get around Europe, even without knowing the language - English is the 2nd language for most of Europe and is a world-wide business language. I would be more cautious about countries that do NOT use our alphabet (Ukraine, Russia, etc). If you have other questions, send me a private message.

Parts of France(exclude Fr. Riveria & Paris) and Germany.