While extremely small, just like the Lilliputian people living on Jonathan Swift’s fictional island of Lilliput, Europe’s smallest countries may be holding the biggest surprises for intrepid travellers. Also referred to as Europe’s “pint-sized perfection countries”, we count down Europe’s 10 smallest countries, based on land area.
Lilliputian refers to characteristics of the Lilliputians on the Island of Lilliput which in our context means: an undersized country!
Often overlooked by travellers, Europe’s smallest countries do not get their fair share of tourists. A reason often cited by travellers for not considering these countries, is that they were under the impression that they were not worth visiting. Seems like everybody flocks to France, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Greece – Europe’s most popular tourist destinations.
While there is a relationship between country size (geographic and local population), and the number of visitors, this does not always hold true.
According to Oliver Smith, Digital Travel Editor for the British newspaper “The Telegraph”, in 2016 there were 51 destinations around the world where tourists outnumbered local residents. Of these, 24 are in Europe.
At the top of the global list is Andorra, one of Europe’s smallest countries squeezed between France and Spain. Here tourists outnumber local residents by 33 to 1. Next is Monaco, at 8:1 and Malta at 4:1. While these statistics may not be perfectly accurate, the point is that some of the smallest countries get the most visitors per capita!
The moral of the story is: if you write off Europe’s smallest countries as being Lilliputian with no tourist value, you are making a big mistake.
Globerovers Magazine visited each of Europe’s 10 smallest countries to ascertain their tourist value. While we did not travel extensively in each, we visited several places in each country and spoke often with visiting travellers to find out why they visited the country. We were amazed by the many unexplored secrets offered by Europe’s Lilliputian countries and concluded that all of them are packed with surprises, even for the most seasoned travellers.
Let ‘ s count them down from the small to the smallest country.
10. Montenegro – Land area: 13,812 km²
9. Kosovo – Land area: 10,908 km²
8. Cyprus – Land area: 5,896 km²
7. Luxembourg – Land area: 2,586 km²
6. Andorra – Land area: 468 km²
5. Malta – Land area: 316 km²
4. Liechtenstein – Land area: 160 km²
3. San Marino – Land area: 61.2 km²
2. Monaco – Land area: 1.97 km²
1. The Vatican – Land area: 0.44 km²
Blog post and photos by Peter who has been travelling almost full-time since 2005 and has been to over 122 countries. He visited several countries, such as Japan, more than 20 times. Peter is Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of GlobeRovers Magazine, an independent travel magazine focused on intrepid destinations.