Top 10 Travel Bloggers from Eastern Europe

Snowy Slovak forests, mysterious corners of Romania, the silent Ukrainian Carpathians, graceful Polish highways, and Czech aerial fantasies – all of these will seem like your personal experiences if you subscribe to the best YouTube travellers of Eastern Europe. 

However, these adventure-loving guys and girls travel not only in their home countries but all over the world. For a true travel enthusiast, it’s not so important where to go for a few days, weeks, or months – as long as they don’t sit still for a single minute of their life.

Iwona Blecharczyk

Once, this 36-year-old Polish woman won a beauty contest in her homeland, after which she earned a degree in English teaching and even worked a bit in the sewing industry. But in 2011, her life changed dramatically. She decided to take the wheel of a truck and become a long-haul driver. While some people were sceptical, others were thrilled to see Iwona first drive all over Europe, then the USA and Canada, eventually becoming a Volvo Trucks brand ambassador, speaking at a TEDx conference, playing herself in a Discovery series, founding a logistics company, and growing her YouTube channel to 1 million subscribers.

Masha Sebova

Former Ukrainian journalist Masha Sebova started her YouTube channel 5 years ago to share ideas for budget solo travel. But after February 24, 2022, the traveller realised that exploring different countries is more interesting not when looking for cheap and tasty restaurants, but when trying to understand what made a particular country successful and out of reach for the dirty paws of the criminal Russian Federation. Thus, Masha started a new video series called "Formula of the Country." Besides that, the channel has a great playlist dedicated to travelling around Ukraine, which will definitely appeal to anyone who would like to visit Kyiv, Odesa, Uzhhorod, and other wonderful Ukrainian cities but is afraid of getting Russian, Iranian, or North Korean missiles on their head.

flyRosta

When Russia destroyed the world's largest plane, the AN-225 "Mriya," near Kyiv on the fourth day of its full-scale invasion, Czech director and videographer Rostislav Kopecky could not ignore this tragedy. He is literally obsessed with planes, pilots, and everything related to the aviation industry. So, Rostislav went to Ukraine, where he made a mini-film about Kyiv in the first months of the war, the legendary Hostomel airport where Russians unsuccessfully tried to land their troops, and, of course, the ruined, damaged, and burnt plane "Mriya." Besides the series of videos about Ukraine and Russian aggression, the flyRosta channel has many other videos and podcasts that will be a real treat for aviation enthusiasts.

Gazela w Laponii

The fashion for the Scandinavian way of life, hygge, and Jo Nesbø's novels has gradually waned since the hipster 2010s – but Polish Małgorzata Dvorakova, with her cozy videos about harsh life beyond the Arctic Circle, seems to bring it back to those who haven't had enough. She moved to Norwegian Lapland long ago and shares stories from there about ecological philosophy, trekking, and friluftsliv (essentially the same hygge but for those who breathe easier not in interiors but in the expanses of picturesque nature). Together with her husband and young daughter, Małgorzata settled in the Arctic town of Bodø, which has been chosen as the European Capital of Culture this year. Visiting the YouTube channel of this Norwegian Pole is like officially arranging a cultural holiday in the European way.

HaiHui in doi

Vladimir Putin should watch this channel by Romanian travellers Andreia and Ionut, especially the video about the home preferences of Nicolae Ceaușescu. The bloggers visited the so-called "Spring Palace," where the Romanian dictator's family lived for many years in gilded rooms, with tropical greenhouses, a pool with a wave machine, a huge spa complex, and many other hedonistic amenities, including a bunker with secret tunnels. All these perverse dictators love luxurious palaces with bunkers... However, although Ceaușescu ruled Romania for several decades, he ended very badly: revolution, tribunal, execution. What will ultimately happen to his colleague Vladimir Putin – we'll wait and see. In the meantime, on the HaiHui in doi channel, you can watch dozens of other interesting videos about exciting travels through exotic Romania.

Khashchi

In more than two years of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the world has seen how Mariupol, Sievierodonetsk, Bakhmut, and Avdiivka, captured by the Russians, looked before and how they look now, as well as the Ukrainian million-plus cities that are regularly shelled by long-range missiles and drones. However, Ukraine is not only what is shown in war news. It is the largest country in Europe by area, so it is not surprising that thousands and thousands of unknown corners can be found on its vast expanses, capable of impressing and surprising those who appreciate the authentic. On the "Khashchi" YouTube channel, you will see Ukraine behind the scenes, or as its authors say: "without makeup and decorations."

Liptaci

For some, a great trip is lying on a golden beach, slathering on sunscreen, sipping a cool drink, and napping in the embrace of a refreshing sea breeze. For others, a great trip is getting lost in the Slovak forest, freezing in the Slovak mountains, and eventually meeting a hungry and angry Slovak bear. If you love not lying or sitting but moving, not relaxing but feeling an adrenaline rush, not an "all-inclusive" service but an "all-exclusive" service, then regional tourism promoters Tomi and Jančim from the Slovak town of Ružomberok are already waiting for you on their Liptaci channel.

Podróże Wojownika

Extreme tourism is also offered by martial arts master and traveller Piotr Pająk. After visiting Thailand to develop his fighting skills, this Pole became so addicted to travelling that he decided to tour the entire world. And he chose not popular and safe tourist routes, but rather those points on the map where only the bravest venture. The den of modern pirate paupers in Somalia, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, unsanitary slums of India, war-torn Syria, and the most dangerous Middle Eastern country Yemen, where a civil war has been raging for 10 years – it’s hard to say what is more extreme: participating in bloody battles or stepping on these lands where you can not only be beaten but also easily killed. However, Piotr regularly does both.

Magyarósi Csaba

In his childhood, today's most popular Hungarian travel blogger was a very introverted boy, so in his teenage years, he specifically enrolled in an acting club and even became a member of a rap group – just to somehow cheer himself up and socialise. It’s interesting whether that silent boy would have believed if someone had approached and told him that at over 40 years old, he would have more than 400,000 YouTube subscribers and would be broadcasting a new video blog almost every day? Probably not. Likewise, he wouldn’t have believed it if someone from the future had informed him that the most popular video on his channel would be a video titled "How to Satisfy a Woman."

Anton Ptushkin

Before the full-scale invasion, Anton Ptushkin, a native of Luhansk, Ukraine, ran a multimillion-view travel channel in Russian. The war prompted him to make radical changes – he recorded an appeal to his army of fans from Russia and urged everyone infected with Z-propaganda to unsubscribe immediately. In the end, Anton practically stopped running the channel. However, no – he posted one last video without words. It’s called "The Carpathians Without Words." Instead, the traveller launched a Ukrainian-language channel, where he gradually talks about the domestic railway under wartime conditions, heroic volunteers, animal rescue, and his native Ukrainian Donbas.