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Giving Eastern Europe a chance

Since the end of the Communist era, tourism in Eastern Europe has boomed, but I encountered few other Americans, except in Budapest. Western Europeans have led the way east; Russians crowd Adriatic beaches and Czech spas; atop Gellert Hill in Budapest and at Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade, Serbia, I was surrounded by Chinese tour groups, increasingly drawn to Eastern Europe.

I had been to Eastern Europe about 10 years ago, choosing Sofia, Bulgaria, and hoping to find it as beguiling but less crowded than Prague, the picturesque capital of the Czech Republic. But Sofia's streets were empty and cracked, the museums closed, the hotel choices grim.

Like most Americans, I continued to think of the former Soviet bloc as a region shrouded in mystery, far away and exotic. It is not so to Western Europeans. They, of course, share a continent and, in some cases, the European Union, with countries that now include Poland and the Czech Republic. Most of the eight Central and Eastern European nations that joined the EU two years ago are expected to adopt the euro by 2010.

Meanwhile, exchange rates make travel relatively inexpensive, and most of the region can be reached by plane from London or Paris in a few hours. The growth of European budget carriers such as EasyJet, Ryanair and SkyEurope has made flying east easy and cheap. Budget airlines now account for about 30% of all scheduled air service on the Continent, according to the European Low Fares Airline Assn., an industry lobbying group based in Brussels, and have helped put new destinations on the map. Young travelers snag cheap tickets for getaways in Eastern Europe, turning cities such as Riga, Latvia, into weekend party towns.

Luxury hotels are springing up all over Eastern Europe. A decade ago, I paid about $15 a night for a room in a Sofia pension; in Budapest last month, I stayed at the Art Nouveau landmark Four Seasons Gresham Palace Hotel for about $300. Experts suggest the boom at the high end has been driven by budget airline passengers, who use the money they save on plane tickets for rooms in five-star hotels.

See Rome, but don't die. There's too much in less-trammeled places like Eastern Europe to miss.