Capital City: Vienna

Population: 8,756,598

Other Major Cities: Graz, Linz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck

Main Airport: Vienna (VIE)

Language: German

Currency: Euro

Transportation:

• Plane: The main airport is Vienna, though there are smaller regional airports in Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz, Linz, and Klagenfurt.
• Train: Like most of Western Europe, Austria is connected to the continent by rail. Intercity service is offered between cities like Innsbruck, Salzburg, Graz, and Vienna. Austria is connected to neighboring countries, such as Germany, by high-speed rail, making a day trip possible.
• Bus: Buses operate both domestically and internationally, though train is usually the fastest way to travel between cities.

Capital City:  Brussels

Population: 11,190,846

Other Major Cities:  Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liege, Bruges

Main Airport: Brussels (BRU) and to a lesser extent, Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL)

Language: Flemish (a variant of Dutch), French, and German, to a smaller extent

Currency: Euro

DID YOU KNOW?

Belgium is a trilingual country, the two main languages being Flemish (a dialect of Dutch) and French with a German-speaking minority. Flanders is the Flemish-speaking region and Walloon, the French-speaking. Though Brussels is surrounded by Flanders, it’s primarily French-speaking. You’ll notice while riding the train that Belgians have a French and Dutch name for each city.

Capital City:  Copenhagen

Population: 5,760,406

Other Major Cities:  Aarhus, Odense, Esbjerg, Aalborg 

Main Airports: Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, Esbjerg, Aalborg

Visa requirements:

Language: Danish

Currency: Danish krone

Capital City:  Paris

Population: 65,306,319

Other Major Cities: Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice, Nantes, Strasbourg

Main Airport: Paris-Charles de Gaulle (Roisy), Paris-Orly, Marseille Provence, Lyon-Saint Exupery, Toulouse Blagnac, Nice-Cote d’Azur, Nantes Atlantique, Strasbourg

Language: French

Currency: Euro

DID YOU KNOW?

Champagne is often used to mean any type of sparkling wine. However, only wine from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France is actually champagne. All of the others are simply sparking wine.

Capital City: Berlin

Population: 82,790,700

Other Major Cities: Munich, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Leipzig, Bremen, Dresden, Hanover, Nuremburg

Main Airports: Berlin-Tegel, Berlin-Schonfeld, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt-Main, Frankfut-Hahn, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Leipzig, Dresden, Nuremburg

Language: German

Currency: Euro

DID YOU KNOW?

Germans take their beer very seriously. In fact, since the 1500s, brewers have adhered to Reinheitsgebot, a strict purity law that explicitly states that the only ingredients used in beer are water, malt, and barley. Anything extra or that deviates from this isn’t consider a beer.

Capital City: Dublin

Population: 4,815,963

Other Major Cities:  Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford

Main Airports: Dublin (DUB), Cork (ORK), Shannon (SNN), Donegal (CFN), Kerry (KIR), and Knock (NOC)

Language: English and Irish (Gaelic)

Currency: Euro

Capital City: Rome

Population: 59,270,710

Other Major Cities: Milan, Naples, Rome, Turin, Venice, Florence, Bari, Palermo, Bologna, Catania, Brescia, Genoa, Messina-Reggio Calabria, Rimini, Modena, Verona, Pisa-Livorno, Pescara

Main Airports: Rome-Fiumicino, Milan-Malpensa, Bergamo, Milan-Linate, Venice, Catania, Bologna, Naples, Rome-Ciampino

Language: Italian

Currency: Euro

Capital City: Amsterdam

Population: 17,098,461

Other Major Cities: Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Tilburg

Main Airports: Amsterdam (AMS), with smaller airports in Rotterdam (RTM) and Groningen (GRQ)

Language: Dutch

Currency: Euro

DID YOU KNOW?

Some people erroneously call the Netherlands as a whole “Holland.” Holland refers a province of the Netherlands of which its major cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the Hague are all part of.

Capital City: Madrid

Population: 46,740,721

Other Major Cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Bilbao, Málaga

Main Airport: Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Málaga, Alicante, Gran Canaria, Tenerife South, Ibiza

Language: Castilian Spanish

Currency: Euro

DID YOU KNOW?

There are multiple language spoken in Spain. Sometimes incorrectly described as dialects, this is incorrect. The most commonly spoken language is Castilian— often simply referred to as “Spanish” – which is also spoken in Latin America and Equatorial Guinea. You’ll hear Catalan in Barcelona, Basque in the northeast of the country, and Galician on the Portuguese border, among other regional languages.