World
Youtuber has nearly travelled to every country in Europe says one is the best
Ollie Potts has just one country in Europe left to visit before he’s officially completed the challenge.
The Youtuber has been travelling the continent on and off since 2015 and has finally booked trips to the final country – Bulgaria.
Ollie said his favourite country out of all the ones he has visited is Albania and Georgia.
He said: “The capital of Georgia feels really underrated – it has great sulphur baths, you can climb to the top of the castle which has great views of the city. The whole place has this old feel to it.
“But in Georgia you can also get out to Kazbegi, in the north region and you can go skiing. It was a real surreal experience, I ended up going on a ski lift in short accidentally. I feel like it’s a friendly and affordable place to visit that is really up and coming.”
Albania is another European destination that Ollie ranked highly on his list after exploring nearly the whole continent. He said it feels like a mix of Asia and Western Europe, with lots of places where not everybody goes.
Bulgaria will be the final destination on Ollie’s tour of Europe. He said: “It’s the only country left I haven’t done and it’s quite easy to get to. I’m going next week and I plan to see my friend while I’m there.
“Sometimes with this challenge, you have to go to countries for the sake of it. There’s been quite a few where I’ve had to spend quite a bit of money or take a really long bus journey just to see the country and tick it off. It’s not at all just like a holiday, you’ve got to be quite committed to doing it. You have to plan a trip around where it is closest to, for example I went to Belgium recently just so I could go to Luxembourg.”
Ollie has also visited Chernobyl not long before the Ukraine war began. On the flight to Kyiv, he said there was barely anyone on the plane. He said visiting the site was “insane” and that it was completely “derelict”.
Ollie said he had a unique experience of travelling during Covid based on changing travelling restrictions at the time. He said: “During Covid, I was able to travel to these countries on such a tight budget as it was less popular. It also allowed me to visit tourist attractions really easily and what made it even better seeing these places was that there was nobody else there.
“But this did have some drawbacks because when everything opened back up again I must have spent around £1000 on Covid tests.”
His least favourite country, not just in Europe, but in the whole world is Armenia. He told Express.co.uk that he only really went there to tick it off and after three days there he felt the country didn’t really have much to offer. Another of his least favourites is Slovakia.
Ollie said his most recommended place for people to visit is Iceland. He noted that although it is expensive, it offers something in Europe that you can’t find anywhere else in the world.