12 Reasons why every Indian should visit Europe

Exploring a foreign nation is always a wonderful experience and there are at times when you feel the WOW’ness (or) mind-blowing experience when you visit a foreign country. The mind actually gets expanded if not blown for that matter.

I’ve felt that Wow’ness for the first time when I visited Bali, Indonesia as that was the first foreign land I stepped on. New people, places, culture, volcano, hills, beaches were all quite refreshing to the mind.

I did travel to many other South East Asian countries after that, which I did like without a doubt, but the wow factor was little missing, obvious because location and people are largely similar.

But after many years, I recently visited Europe (Austria & Germany) and there I felt this Wow’ness once again after a long time.

Hence I’m writing this down so you don’t miss it too. Here are the top 12 reasons why I think you should visit Europe next:

Fresh Air

With less cities, less population and lots of snow clad mountains and lakes around, you get fresh air not only in the countryside but also in the city.

You can actually feel the freshness when you breathe. Well, you can feel it even in our Indian hill-stations, but in Europe you feel it almost everywhere.

Pleasant Weather

Actually no! Europe has erratic weather with chilled months dominating the year.

But as a tourist, if you visit Europe during the summer, you can enjoy the sun and chill breeze at the same time.

Imagine Shimla (or) Ooty on planes without the crowd – that’s Europe to begin with.

Beautiful Landscape

When I think of Europe, I think of beautiful mountains covered in green, stunningly gorgeous lakes, waterfalls, rivers with transparent and clean flowing water, snow clad mountains in winter – the best that the nature can offer to us.

In the recent past I was exploring Golf courses in India to get these beautiful views of the greens and now it has shifted to Europe as it’s even more natural.

Tap Water for Drinking

Like in most developed part of the world, Europe too has clean drinking water coming out of the tap.

When I called the hotel assistant last time for a new bottle of drinking water, he proudly said that “Sir, the tap water is a drinking water and it comes straight from the mountains, its as clean as the bottled water across major cities in Europe.”

Healthy Pizza’s

If you’re travelling to Europe you can’t miss Pizza’s, because you would hardly have an option otherwise. But after consuming Pizza’s in India that causes the feeling of heaviness, I was little concerned.

But to my surprise, the pizza’s in Europe didn’t feel so and they also sell Gluten free ones. It felt super light, just like how it would feel if we have any other food. And the body was also not craving for too much water after having the Pizza.

Not only Pizza, we also had Pasta’s & Sub’s and I could say that those we get in India are all of low standards.

Clean Roads

If you might have noticed, the roads are so clean in most European countries, even in the countryside. I’m unsure if that’s because of their sand or because of their ability to cleverly cover the sand.

Above shot was taken at Innsbruck, Austria that not only has clean roads but also comes with beautiful views of the nearby mountains.

That aside, I was super surprised to notice that they actually clean the roads with water. This probably applies to the busy/popular streets in the city and I witnessed it personally one day while on the way back to Airport by early morning.

Noise Free Roads

There maybe 50 cars moving on the road, 100 people walking in the streets but no one uses their horn’s on their expensive cars, as fortunately people follow the traffic rules.

I don’t even remember hearing any horn sounds throughout my entire 1 week trip in Austria, which was quite a good feeling.

Heaven for Walking

With wonderful weather, fresh air, less noise around, you’ll be much more happy to walk around the city anytime of the day. You could easily walk 3-4 kms a day, if not more and you would be surprised to see that you’ve walked quite a lot than usual.

I’ve hit my lifetime highest walking distance per week during my recent trip to Europe with an average of 12K steps a day and here’s the alert that iPhone sent when it found a change in my health trend.

Quick Public Transport

While walking is good, going to far end places can be done via public transport.

Moving around the city is super easy with trams and busses connecting the major parts of the city. And on top of it, the frequency is too good (like 10 mins) with proper updates at respective stops.

The good news is that Google is well integrated with these transport systems.

On our last day of the trip, we actually took a bus till it’s last stop of the route & return. It took us across the city, through farmlands, busy streets, etc.

It was an experience in itself, apart from using for the actual commute.

Comfortable & Luxury Taxi’s

Booking an Uber? Expect a comfortable, clean and luxury car arrive in under 5 mins. We got Merc’s, EV Hybrid’s and MUV’s on Uber in Austria and they were all well maintained. Here’s a quick look at some of the taxi’s we got in Austria:

Expect the same at most other developed part of Europe especially in and around Germany for obvious reasons, but well the problem is the cost, which can go up quite a bit easily.

Sunset at 9 PM

It’s magical to experience sunset’s at 9PM in Europe. Of-course there are places on earth where sun might not set even at 12, but well, to really enjoy the sun, the 9Pm sunset’s in Europe during the Summer is certainly a blessing I would say.

And if you’re in a scenic spot like a castle nearby, sunset would feel like a Disney movie. You may experience one here. To feel it in person would be 10X more joyful.

We used to roam around the riverside many days and I usually forget that it’s 10PM and not 6PM.

Note: Do note that all of above are from my experience by travelling on own across Austria and parts of Germany.

Affordable on Miles

Whenever we talk about Europe, the very next thing that comes to mind is cost. It’s expensive – both hotels & flights!

But if you intend to fly business class to Europe from India, probably now is the best time to do so because you can find Return Business Class flights just for ~60K Turkish miles and if you wish to be more flexible, you may go with ~120K United miles.

Have a look at the United Mileage Program, just incase if you’re new to it. The good thing about United is 100% free cancellation which comes pretty handy for all the Visa requirements and of-course the actual booking.

Now that’s the reason why Axis Magnus Credit Card points are lot more valuable than how it appears to be.

Final Thoughts

Some of you might have experienced the above while some might have just heard about it. Either way, I hope the above is useful, especially for those travellers who’re not exposed to Europe or other western countries yet.

May a times when in Austria I used to think what the hell we actually do in India while life is so good, healthy and pleasant in this part of the world.

No wonder why UNHI’s are legally moving to Europe. For those who can’t afford that or don’t prefer to, the easy alternative is to settle in the hills in India.

So to sum up, if you’re sitting on lots of Reward points, drop your SE Asia trip and consider a trip to Europe and you’ll thank me for lifetime.

Because it will have a lifetime impact on you, your children and for the entire nation just incase if you’re influential. For this very reason I wish all politicians are given a complimentary trip to Europe.

I think it helps us embrace India in many ways. At-least I got generous in tipping after getting back to India and having a good meal for 3 EUR, while back in Europe it would easily cost me 10 EUR or more.

Having said that, you shouldn’t do it on a package tour as you don’t get breathing time to really think and observe these and instead become busy in just clicking pictures with an induced smile.

I wonder how these tour companies do like 5 countries in 1 week while I can’t even do 1 country in a week!

Anyway, I hope the above serves as a good start for those new to Europe.

Have you been to European Countries? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.