Slovakia

Slovakia is the country that most people confuse with Slovenia, which is ironic because the two have almost nothing in common except Slavic languages and four letters. Slovakia is landlocked in the heart of Central Europe, squeezed between Poland, Czechia, Austria, Hungary, and Ukraine. It spent a thousand years as the northern half of the Kingdom of Hungary, seventy years as the eastern half of Czechoslovakia, and has been independent only since 1993. This history of being part of something else makes Slovakia's survival as a distinct culture all the more remarkable.

And the culture is genuinely distinctive. The folk traditions of central and eastern Slovakia - the embroidered costumes, the fujara overtone flute (a UNESCO masterpiece), the wooden churches of the Carpathians - are some of the best preserved in Europe. The High Tatras, often called the smallest high mountains in the world, pack Alpine drama into a range just 26 kilometers long. Bratislava's compact old town sits on the Danube with Vienna just 60 kilometers upstream. And the castle density is absurd: Slovakia has more castles and castle ruins per capita than any country in the world. It is Central Europe at its most genuine - no pretension, no tourist crowds, just mountains, forests, castles, and people who make excellent cheese and even better plum brandy.