13 Non-Schengen Countries in Europe That’ll Make You Wonder Why You Ever Stuck to the Usual Destinations
You’ve hit your 90 Schengen days, but you don’t have to go far.
If you’re a digital nomad, a long-term traveler, or an expat living in Europe, you’ll know the drill. The Schengen Area gives you 90 days within any 180-day period, and when those days run out, you need to leave.
For many people, that means booking a flight home or heading somewhere completely outside Europe. But here’s what a lot of people don’t realise: there are 12 countries right here on the European continent that sit entirely outside the Schengen Area.
They don’t count toward your 90 days. You can cross into them by land, sea or a short, cheap flight. And several of them are genuinely wonderful places to spend a few weeks or even months while you wait for your Schengen clock to reset.
So before you book that flight back across the Atlantic, here are 12 European alternatives that are closer, cheaper and more interesting than you might think. 👇
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Most nationalities can visit visa-free for up to 6 months, and the sheer variety of what the UK offers is genuinely hard to overstate. Remember, you need to get an ETA now to get to the UK, but it’s very easy to obtain online and super cheap.
London is one of the world’s great cities, with world-class museums (most of them free), an extraordinary food scene, centuries of history compressed into a few square miles, and a cultural energy that shifts neighbourhood by neighbourhood. But the UK rewards those who venture beyond the capital.
The Scottish Highlands are among the most dramatic and untouched landscapes in all of Europe — vast, moody, and deeply atmospheric in any season. The Welsh coastline, particularly the Pembrokeshire Coast, offers rugged cliffs, hidden coves and excellent walking.
The English countryside, the Cotswolds, the Peak District, and the Lake District are exactly as beautiful as the postcards suggest. Add in cities like Edinburgh, Bath, York and Bristol, each with its own distinct character, and the UK is easily a destination that can justify multiple trips.
Highlight: The Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Skye — landscapes that don’t look quite real, especially in the mist.
🇮🇲 Isle of Man
This one comes with a clarification worth making, because it confuses a lot of people. The Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom. It is a self-governing Crown Dependency — meaning it has its own parliament (the Tynwald, one of the oldest continuous parliaments in the world), its own laws, its own tax system, and its own government. The UK is responsible for its defence and international relations, but that is where the connection ends constitutionally.
It is also not part of the European Union and has never been part of the Schengen Area, so time spent there does not count toward your 90-day allowance.
Practically speaking, entry works in alignment with the UK; most nationalities who can travel to Britain can travel to the Isle of Man without additional paperwork. The island sits in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland and is reachable by ferry from Liverpool, Heysham, Belfast and Dublin, or by a short flight from several UK and Irish airports.
I spent a full month on the Isle of Man housesitting, and it turned out to be one of those experiences that genuinely surprises you. I arrived with little expectation and left wishing I had more time.
The island is tiny; you can drive around its entire coastline in a few hours, but it rewards slow exploration in a way that larger, more obvious destinations rarely do. I didn’t have a car and used the local transportation, which is very efficient and takes you almost everywhere.
The nature is quietly spectacular: dramatic clifftops, hidden glens thick with ferns and ancient trees, sweeping moorland, and a coastline that changes character every few kilometres. Because it sits well off the mainstream tourist circuit, you get all of this almost entirely to yourself.
Beyond the natural scenery, the island has genuine character, ancient Celtic and Norse heritage woven into the landscape, a remarkably well-preserved historic railway network still running steam trains, and the famous TT motorcycle race that takes over the entire island every May.
It is peaceful, unhurried, and completely unlike anywhere else I have spent time in the British Isles. For anyone needing to step outside Schengen for a few weeks, it is a genuinely wonderful option that most people would never think to consider.
Highlight: The hidden coastal glens and the clifftop walks in the south of the island — the kind of nature that stays with you long after you leave.
🇮🇪 Ireland
Ireland operates within its own border arrangement alongside the UK through the Common Travel Area, and entry is visa-free for most nationalities.
What Ireland offers that is genuinely hard to find elsewhere in Europe is a combination of raw natural beauty, an extraordinarily warm and unhurried culture, and a countryside that still feels largely unmarked by mass tourism.
The Wild Atlantic Way — a 2,500km coastal route running down the entire western seaboard — is one of the great road trips anywhere in the world.
The Cliffs of Moher are justifiably famous, but it’s the quieter stretches of the Connemara, the Dingle Peninsula and County Donegal that tend to stay with people longest.
Dublin is a highly walkable, very literary city with excellent pubs, a strong food scene and a history that feels very much alive in its streets. For slow travelers, Ireland is a particular delight, the kind of place where unplanned stops become the best part of the trip.
Highlight – I spent a total of 2 months there, rented a car, drove through its spectacular landscapes, and fell in love. From the Gap of Dunloe to Connemara, spectacular landscapes, from Cork to Cobh and the small towns you’ll find, there is no place in Ireland that you won’t love. And, yes, renting a car in Dublin and driving around Ireland is the best way to explore.
🇦🇱 Albania
Albania is having a moment, and it has earned it. For years, one of Europe’s most isolated and least visited countries, it has opened up significantly and is now attracting travelers who want the Mediterranean experience, stunning coastline, warm weather, excellent seafood, and ancient history at a fraction of the price of its neighbours.
The Albanian Riviera, stretching along the Ionian Sea, has some of the clearest and most beautiful water on the entire Mediterranean coast. The beaches at Ksamil and Dhermi rival anything in Greece or Croatia and are far less crowded.
Inland, the UNESCO-listed cities of Berat, known as the city of a thousand windows, and Gjirokastër, a remarkably preserved Ottoman town built into a hillside, are two of the most distinctive urban environments in the Balkans.
The Albanian Alps in the north offer some of the most spectacular hiking in Europe, still largely undiscovered. Most nationalities enter completely visa-free.
Highlight: The Albanian Riviera and the old town of Berat — two completely different experiences, both exceptional.
🇲🇪 Montenegro
Montenegro is tiny, smaller than Connecticut, but it packs more visual drama into its borders than countries ten times its size.
The Bay of Kotor in the southwest is one of the most photographed and most deserving views in all of Europe: a deep, winding fjord-like bay ringed by medieval walls and dramatic limestone mountains.
Kotor itself, a UNESCO-listed walled city at the edge of the bay, is beautifully preserved and far less overrun than comparable old towns in Croatia. The Durmitor National Park in the north is world-class hiking and skiing territory, with glacial lakes, deep canyons and peaks that stay snow-capped well into spring.
Cetinje, the former royal capital, offers a glimpse of a very different, quieter Montenegro that most visitors never reach. The coastline, particularly around Budva and the Luštica Peninsula, offers excellent beaches alongside genuine history.
Highlight: Watching sunset over the Bay of Kotor from the fortress walls above the old town — genuinely one of the best views in Europe.
🇷🇸 Serbia
Serbia consistently surprises people, and Belgrade is the reason most of them come back. It has developed a reputation as one of Europe’s best city breaks, not for grand monuments or famous museums, but for a combination of excellent food, extraordinary nightlife, a fascinating layer of 20th century history and an energy that feels raw and real in a way that more polished European capitals no longer do.
The fortress of Kalemegdan, sitting above the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, offers one of the great city views in the region. The bohemian neighbourhood of Skadarlija is lined with cobblestones and traditional kafanas.
The Brutalist architecture from the Yugoslav era is unlike anything else you’ll see in Europe. Beyond Belgrade, the country has far more to offer than most visitors discover — the medieval monasteries of the Raška region, Zlatibor mountain, the Đavolja Varoš rock formations, and the spa town of Vrnjačka Banja, among them.
Highlight: Belgrade’s floating river clubs (splavovi) and the fortress at golden hour — a city that gets better the longer you stay.
🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina
Few cities in Europe carry as much layered history in as compact a space as Sarajevo. Ottoman mosques, Austro-Hungarian boulevards, Yugoslav-era apartment blocks and the visible scars of the 1990s siege exist within a few minutes’ walk of each other, creating a city that is unlike anything else on the continent.
The old bazaar of Baščaršija, modelled on Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, is one of the most atmospheric places in the Balkans.
The food, cevapi, burek, and baklava, is exceptional and very affordable. Mostar, two hours to the south, is famous for its rebuilt 16th-century bridge arching over the Neretva river, but the old town surrounding it is equally beautiful and worth far more than the day trip it usually gets.
The countryside, particularly the Sutjeska National Park, one of the last primeval forests in Europe, is stunning and almost entirely off the tourist map.
Highlight: Sitting in a café in Baščaršija in Sarajevo at dusk, with the sound of the call to prayer over a city that has survived an extraordinary history.
🇲🇰 North Macedonia
North Macedonia is one of Europe’s most overlooked destinations, and Lake Ohrid is the single best argument for changing that.
One of the oldest lakes in the world, estimated to be between three and five million years old, Ohrid sits at over 690 metres above sea level, surrounded by mountains and dotted with Byzantine churches, some dating back to the 9th century.
The old town of Ohrid itself has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 and is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in the Balkans.
The capital Skopje is a curious and fascinating city, controversial for its ambitious urban redesign project, but undeniably interesting, with a lively old bazaar that is one of the largest and best preserved in the region. The country is extremely affordable, very easy to navigate, and the food, a mix of Balkan, Ottoman and Mediterranean influences, is consistently excellent.
Highlight: A morning walk along the shores of Lake Ohrid before the day tourists arrive — completely peaceful, and extraordinarily beautiful.
🇽🇰 Kosovo
Kosovo declared independence in 2008 and is now recognised by over 100 countries, making it the newest state in Europe.
It is also one of the least visited, and that combination of novelty and obscurity makes it genuinely fascinating for curious travelers right now, before it changes.
Pristina, the capital, is a young, lively city with excellent coffee culture, a surprisingly vibrant arts scene and a strong sense of a country still figuring out its own identity, which makes for some of the most interesting conversations you’ll have anywhere on this list. Prizren, in the south, is widely considered one of the most beautiful cities in the entire Balkans, an Ottoman old town reflected in the river below a medieval fortress, almost entirely unknown to the outside world.
The Rugova Canyon near Peja offers spectacular hiking. Visa-free access was extended to most nationalities in January 2024, removing the last practical barrier to visiting.
Highlight: Prizren on a quiet evening, a perfectly preserved Ottoman town that feels like a secret the rest of Europe hasn’t discovered yet.
🇹🇷 Turkey
Turkey is transcontinental; its largest city, Istanbul, straddles Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus, but its western reaches are firmly European in culture, history, and geography, and the country as a whole offers one of the most extraordinary travel experiences anywhere in the world.
Istanbul itself is one of the great cities of human civilisation: the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the Topkapi Palace, the Galata Tower, and the extraordinary food scene of neighbourhoods like Karaköy and Beyoğlu all exist within a city that buzzes with relentless energy at every hour.
The Aegean coast, Bodrum, Çeşme, and the ancient ruins of Ephesus and Pergamon offer a completely different Turkey: warm, relaxed, and historically extraordinary. Cappadocia, with its surreal landscape of fairy chimneys, cave hotels, and hot-air balloons at sunrise, is unlike anything else on earth.
The country is large, affordable and endlessly varied. Most nationalities can visit visa-free or obtain an e-visa easily.
Highlight: Watching the sun rise over the Bosphorus from a rooftop in Istanbul — two continents, one extraordinary view.
🇨🇾 Cyprus
Cyprus is a member of the European Union but has chosen to remain outside the Schengen Area, operating its own border controls.
It is also one of the sunniest countries in Europe, with over 300 days of sunshine per year, which alone explains much of its appeal. The island has a rich and complex history, ancient Greek ruins, Byzantine churches, Venetian walls, British colonial architecture and the scars of its 1974 partition all coexist in a relatively small space.
Nicosia remains the last divided capital city in the world, and crossing the UN buffer zone into the Turkish-occupied north is one of the more surreal and thought-provoking travel experiences in Europe.
The beaches, particularly in the Akamas Peninsula and around Ayia Napa, are genuinely beautiful. The Troodos Mountains in the interior offer painted Byzantine churches, traditional villages and excellent hiking at a very different pace from the coastal resorts.
Highlight: Walking through the divided capital of Nicosia, nowhere else in Europe offers quite this perspective on history and politics.
🇬🇪 Georgia
Georgia sits at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and that position — geographically, culturally, historically — is exactly what makes it so fascinating.
It is currently one of the most talked-about emerging destinations in the world, and the enthusiasm is entirely justified. Tbilisi is a city of extraordinary architectural variety and atmosphere — a jumble of carved wooden balconies, Soviet-era boulevards, Persian-influenced old town lanes, ultra-modern glass structures and one of the most vibrant and creative arts scenes in the post-Soviet space.
The food and wine culture is world-class: Georgian cuisine — khinkali dumplings, khachapuri cheese bread, slow-braised meats — is one of the great undiscovered culinary traditions, and Georgia is one of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world, with winemaking traditions going back 8,000 years.
The Caucasus mountains, particularly the Kazbegi region, offer hiking among scenery of almost absurd beauty. Most nationalities can stay up to a full year without a visa.
Highlight: The view from the Gergeti Trinity Church above Kazbegi, with the Greater Caucasus range behind it — one of the most dramatic settings of any church anywhere in the world.
🇲🇩 Moldova
Moldova is the least visited country in Europe — a distinction that, for a certain kind of traveler, functions as an irresistible recommendation. Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, it is small, largely agricultural, deeply shaped by its Soviet past and often overlooked precisely because it lacks the obvious showstoppers of its neighbours.
But that is rather the point. Chișinău, the capital, has a laid-back, unhurried quality and a food and wine scene that rewards exploration. The real draw, however, is underground — literally. Cricova and Mileștii Mici are two of the largest wine cellars in the world, with tunnels stretching for tens of kilometres beneath the countryside, lined with millions of bottles of wine.
Mileștii Mici holds a Guinness World Record for the largest wine collection on earth. The breakaway region of Transnistria, a self-declared state that operates as a kind of living Soviet museum, is one of the most bizarre and fascinating travel experiences available on the continent — though it requires some research before visiting.
Highlight: A wine tour through the underground cellars of Cricova or Mileștii Mici — an experience so surreal and so uniquely Moldovan that nothing quite prepares you for it.
A practical note for long-term travelers and digital nomads: time spent in all 12 of these countries is entirely separate from your 90-day Schengen allowance. That makes them not just culturally rewarding destinations but also strategically useful ones, a way to extend your time in the broader European region without eating into your Schengen days.
Europe is bigger, stranger and more varied than the tourist trail suggests. These 12 countries are proof of that.
