(Credits: Far Out)
Sat 15 November 2025 13:00, UK
The history of travel is littered with people navigating the globe in search of the undiscovered, to satisfy their curiosity of seeking novelty.
Christopher Columbus accidentally found America while he was looking for a new western sea passage to China and India, while in 1986, Italian climber Reinhold Messner finished his 16-year challenge to be the first man to reach the summit of all 14 of the world’s 8,000 metre peaks. For me, and many of us blokes coming of age in Britain, the hunt is on to find the cheapest pint in Europe.
Across the wide world of pints, there are a number of excellent ones that you can only find while travelling. You have the 5am airport pint, that lukewarm Madri you struggled to finish at a Spoons in Heathrow Terminal 5, or there’s the more relaxed pint-with-a-view, the tasty beverage overlooking some grand vista you uploaded to your Instagram one Tuesday, with the caption ‘not a bad day in the office’.
You can’t forget the first pint of the holiday either, that first sip on foreign soil, in which lager somehow tastes different to home. You have what I call the when-in-Rome pint, when you taste one of your favourites in its natural environment, like the Guinness in Dublin, or the ice-cold Stella in Belgium.
Then you have the cheap pint, when you find a cool, refreshing glass of continental lager that’s so cheap you go quiet when you pay the bill, before eagerly texting your WhatsApp group to make them jealous.
Now in a world in which the cost of a drink is rising even quicker than the cost of living, and a night out in the UK ends up in you spending the GDP of a small country, it’s become even more desirable to find a cheap pint to soothe the pocket if not the soul; so, it’s time to jump on Skyscanner and buy that cheap flight to Europe.
(Credits: Far Out / Seth Weisfeld)
The places you’re going to want to avoid are generally the coldest ones, with Iceland and Norway having the most expensive average beer price in Europe. The UK ranks fifth, behind Switzerland and Finland, continuing the theme that miserable weather tracks with costly pints.
On the whole, we’ve seen beer prices increase hugely across Europe, with traditional stag venues like Krakow and Riga no longer the bargain basement bevvy stops they once were. However, worry not, as cheap beers are still possible in this economy.
You might want to pause on booking your flight to the cheapest location though, as, on a positive note, Ukraine currently ranks as the cheapest pint in Europe, coming in at £1.31, however, the country is currently at war, which obviously isn’t ideal for a relaxing drink. Next up is Belarus, who are also currently heavily under sanctions for their role in the previously-mentioned war, making them a no-go in terms of unwinding with a cold one.
That means the cheapest European pint that you can sup without worrying about war or government penalties is being served in Moldova, the Eastern European nation that is one of the least-visited countries on the continent, and at £1.43 per pint, making it more than worth your time to boost the Moldovan tourism industry.
As much as depressing weather anecdotally mirrors an expensive pint, it seems like war aligns with a cheap one, with Kosovo the next cheapest pint on the list. The capital of Pristina is a beautiful place, but the scars of the Kosovo War are still scarily visible; regardless, the people are warm and kind, and you owe it to yourself to have a cold glass of Birra Peja on Bill Clinton Boulevard.
Other potential destinations, with prices under two quid a pop are North Macedonia, Georgia, Czechia, Slovakia and Bulgaria, and while some are more off-the-beaten-track than others, all are countries with burgeoning reputations and seeing a rise in travel, so be sure to get those cheap pints in soon before they end up getting pricey.
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