If you were to ask any guy where he thinks the heartland of modern international dating is, we’d be amazed if he didn’t say Eastern Europe. He would, of course, be completely correct in saying that because it’s as true now as it was 20 years ago.
There are a number of reasons why this part of the world became such a hotbed of international dating almost overnight, but the main reason for this is the economic implosion of the former Soviet Union. Countries that were previously part of this Communist empire suddenly found themselves free to determine their own destiny, but with their economy in ruins.
This prompted tens of thousands of Slavic and Baltic beauties to look for a better life overseas, predominantly in North America, but also in any other country where they could make a better life for themselves.
Western men suddenly had the option of dating from a pool of women who are feminine, family oriented, eager to make a marriage work, and very hard-working. The fact they were also drop dead gorgeous was just an added bonus.
So, the collapse of the Soviet Union forever changed the landscape of international dating. Russia, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, among others, are still popular among international daters because there are still thousands of single women living in these countries.
The actual dynamics of dating Eastern European women has changed slightly with more and more of these former Communist countries now becoming part of the EU. For an international man of mystery in search of romance this means there are now more and simpler opportunities than ever to find the Eastern European woman of your dreams.
It can be confusing to figure out exactly which Eastern European countries are part of the EU and which aren’t. Back in the days of the Soviet Union the list of member countries was pretty long, but with more and more of these former communist countries applying for EU membership the list is thankfully now a lot shorter.
So, instead of trying to explain them all in one go, we’re going to break this down into two different categories: EU and non-EU, explaining the pros and cons of being an international dater in each specific zone.
Here are the Eastern European countries that currently have EU membership, and what you can expect from the women you might encounter while visiting them. Being part of the European Union has removed several travel headaches for the international dater – we’ll discuss these in more detail later in this article.
The women here look the way you expect women to look – tall, long hair, blue eyes, and pretty faces, with toned bodies. English isn’t spoken by most Latvian girls, so you’ll need to invest time in getting to know women here. If you think a Latvian girl is attractive during the daytime, wait until she dresses to impress you.
Just lots and lots of stupidly pretty girls, with obvious Scandinavian influences – it’s the long hair, high cheekbones and piercing eyes that do it for most guys. Lithuanian girls love to party, so they’re outgoing and fun, except if they think you’re looking for a one-night stand.
You’ve probably never even considered Slovakia as a potential place for you to visit, but you’re missing out. Women here are some of the prettiest in Eastern Europe – a mix of blondes and brunettes with the kind of stunning looks you’ve come to expect from Slavic girls.
If you’re looking for a woman who is incredibly loyal as well as pretty enough to stop your breath, then you need to visit the Czech Republic. Czech women expect their men to act like men, to have a job or career of some kind, and not expect to sit around all day doing nothing. Women here put a lot of effort into looking their best, no matter where they are.
Here’s another Eastern European country that doesn’t always make the international dating list of must-see locations. Hungarian women are uninhibited, thoughtful, intelligent and very family oriented. Looks wise they’re somewhere between Mila Kunis, but with fair hair, or Kim Kardashian, but without all the ego and BS.
Some Eastern European women can seem a bit “cold” when you meet them first. It’s not a personal thing – it’s just their culture. That’s not something you’ll experience with Estonian girls. The biggest dating hurdle you’ll face here is believing that women this good looking can be single, and that they are interested in you.
Yes, this is where Dracula was born, but that was a long time ago. He wasn’t a real looker, and nor are most Romanian guys. Romanian women have a natural beauty that has to be experienced firsthand for you to understand it. They love romantic guys but don’t like being pushed into having sex too quickly.
Polish women have been exposed to European influences more than any other post-Soviet country, so some of them can be a bit spoiled. With that being said the country is still full to the brim of single, passionate women who live their life to the full, and are looking for a great guy to share that same life with.
As you can see this list includes most of the popular locations for mail order brides and long-distance romance arrangements, especially Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Every country on this list is a great place to find the perfect woman for either dating or marriage. They’re as attractive as women from anywhere else in Eastern Europe, but visiting these countries is also a lot easier for a number of reasons.
The first is that because they’re EU members they receive grants to improve their infrastructure, so everything from public transport to public Wi-Fi is a lot more accessible and reliable in the above countries. The women living in EU countries receive a higher standard of education, including learning English, so that immediately removes the issue of a language barrier. They’re basically better places to live with much better economic circumstances than other former Soviet countries.
From an international dating perspective, these countries are a great choice because visitors from North America won’t need to apply for specific visas to visit them. All you need to do is grab your US or Canadian passport, fly there and go through the normal customs clearance process.
There’s also the benefit of being able to fly around Europe using some of the ridiculously-cheap-but-reliable airlines there, such as Ryanair. You can quite easily fly to the UK and then grab a flight to Poland for about $30 – affordable for any guy with even the most cash-starved budget. Even a direct flight to an EU country is easier because of the number of available airports, and the quality of their infrastructure.
That all sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? You’re sitting there thinking: “So…what’s the catch?” Joining the EU has a lot of perks, but they don’t come free of charge.
What we mean by this is that the cost of living in countries which have recently joined the European Union increases dramatically in a very short space of time. This is mainly due to the troubled Euro currency driving prices up. Basically visiting any of the countries on the above list is going to be significantly more expensive than going on an international dating trip to Kazakhstan or Ukraine, for example.
The one tiny silver lining in this gloomy financial cloud is that Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, etc. are still much, much cheaper places to eat, drink and live than say the UK, France, Ireland or Germany. This will change over time – it usually takes about ten years of EU meddling to make a country too expensive to live in. But an increase in the cost of living, combined with a poor economic outlook, is the perfect reason for all those Eastern European beauties to want to escape to North America instead.
So, that leaves a pretty short list of non-EU countries which are still part of Eastern Europe, including:
Stunning women who look as good in the morning as they did the night before. Friendly, intelligent, and always eager to learn more about you and your country. Completely open to meeting the right guy, marrying and starting a family.
You can expect to find a mix of dark-haired and blonde women here, all sharing those smoldering Russian looks, and many of them more than happy to date a western guy. Kazakh women don’t take dating lightly, so you can expect her to move your relationship to the next level as quickly as she can.
Tall, blonde and devastatingly good looking women who don’t suffer from selfish western influences. Belarus is off the beaten track when it comes to international dating, but that’s great news for single North American guys.
Moldova is one of the true hidden gems of international dating. What you will find are thousands of beautiful, single women who want to meet foreign guys. It might take a little while for a Moldovan beauty to warm up to you, but when she does it’s more than worth the effort.
This is another rare example of a country where there are more single women than single men. Uzbek women are ideal for guys who love slim women with dark hair, and exotic looks. The cost of living here is almost non-existent – you could quite easily live here for an entire year for $5,000.
The first thing you’ll notice about a non-EU country is that it’s simply not as well developed as your standard EU nation. So, visiting Ukraine versus visiting Poland will be a completely different experience. EU citizens enjoy a much higher standard of living, more plentiful job opportunities, and the general comforts of life you’d expect to find in a modern society.
As we mentioned earlier, all that development taking place in EU countries comes at a cost, and it’s always the cost of living. That’s why most of the non-EU European countries are still far more popular with international daters than EU countries – some of them can be ridiculously expensive. So much so that even wealthier guys shy away from them.
If we take a look at the most common expenses involved in visiting a foreign country you’ll get a much better idea of what we’re talking about:
Estonia
Ukraine
Numbers don’t lie, and as you can see the cost of living in an EU country is at least 100% higher than a non-EU nation like Ukraine. Non-EU countries remain far less expensive to visit than any EU country. What you can expect to see happen in countries like Estonia is for the cost of living to skyrocket over the next decade or so, eventually resulting in food, property and leisure prices similar to those in Ireland and France.
This in itself will present international daters with more opportunities to date women from countries like Estonia and Lithuania because they’ll want to escape the soaring prices there.
You might be surprised to learn that Ukraine is already an economic member of the EU, with full membership due in 2020. This won’t make the Russian government very happy, but it’s great news for guys wanting to date a Ukrainian girl. Why? Well, because the country will receive billions in funding from the EU, so it’ll become easier to get there by plane, train or automobile.
English will become the language of commerce in the country too, so you can expect women there to speak at least some English, although that will take time to filter through. The only real danger here is that some Ukrainian girls will start acting like western women i.e. you provide for them while they sit on their ass watching TV or go shopping, only broken up by bouts of complaining about how unromantic you are.
Ukrainian women though are some of the most beautiful in the world, and that includes pretty much all of Eastern Europe. What and who you find attractive is down to personal choice, but the women here span such a broad spectrum you’re bound to meet at least a few dozen women who are jaw-droppingly gorgeous.
You do have your typical blonde bombshells, but there’s a heavy Slavic influence here, so there’s also plenty of dark-haired, sallow-skinned women to admire. Women here don’t bury their faces under inches of makeup simply because they don’t need to. If you see a Ukrainian girl caked in makeup she’s probably only interested in “paid dates”, if you get what we’re saying.
This is also a remarkably easy place to meet attractive women – even if you’re not a George Clooney clone. Most other Eastern European countries have an almost 50/50 ratio of women to men, but Ukraine is different. Very different. In fact, there are far more single women here than there are men to date them – roughly 80 men to every 100 women.
Eligible men are leaving Ukraine in droves to look for job opportunities in other countries. So, there are lots of lonely Ukrainian girls stuck at home waiting for a romantic guy like you to do your Prince Charming routine, and sweep them off their feet.
No roundup of Eastern European mail order brides would be complete without including Russia. Although not part of the EU, Russia still borders with Estonia, Latvia, and Ukraine, so it counts as a non-EU country simply because it’s located so close to the rest of Europe. In fact, most of Russia’s population lives in the western parts of the country, with the east being very sparsely populated.
So, what can you expect from the Motherland of international dating? The place where it all started. Lots, actually. Russia is still a great place to meet women for long-distance dating leading to a wedding ceremony.
Right now the country is going through a kind of mail order bride renaissance because of the economic sanctions placed on Russia for well over a decade, turning the country’s economy on its head. The net result of this is that Russian women who lost some of their interest in western guys have rekindled their desire to date a guy who’s not a raging alcoholic, or likely to get sent off to war in the near future i.e. you.
You’re probably wondering if Russian women are as hot as you heard? The short answer here is “Yes”, and even an average looking Russian girl is still hotter than most western women – a 6/10 here is like a 9/10 wherever you’re from.
The reason women here are so attractive isn’t just down to their physical beauty. It’s about how women here care about their looks, and their health in general. There’s no obesity crisis in Russia because the economy doesn’t support people sitting around getting fat, and it’s not something a Russian women would dream of doing to her body. This probably has a lot to do with competing for what healthy, eligible Russian males there are left in the country.
Visiting Russia is on a par with Ukraine (see our cost breakdown above) in terms of what things like a meal, beer, cigarettes, coffee, accommodation and public transport cost. It’s a very affordable place for a guy to visit, even if you’re on a strict budget.
Russian women are as eager as ever to meet western guys, but you do need to understand that if they think they’re being played for “no strings sex” then they’ll lose interest in you quicker than you can blink.
Conclusion
Every Eastern European country has something to offer a guy looking to meet a beautiful woman who’s interested in building a long-term relationship. It’s all down to whether or not you prefer the fresh-faced blondes in Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania. Or do you have a thing for dark-haired, sultry women full of Eastern promise – like those in Hungary, Romania or Moldova?
Some things you can do to improve your chances of success when dating women from Eastern Europe is to be well groomed, dress well, have a job, and behave like a gentleman. If you can get those basics right from the very start, you’ll find she’s willing to overcome any other hurdles that might exist between you.
It’s all a matter of choice, and your next choice is to grab life by the horns, book a flight, and see exactly what Eastern Europe has to offer you.
