European Microstates: Explore Europe’s smallest countries

Europe is full of contradictions, none more fascinating than its tiniest nations and territorial oddities. There’s no single agreed-upon definition of a microstate, but Europe’s five are generally understood to be the sovereign states with populations under a million and land areas under 1,000 square kilometres, making them smaller than many European cities. All five are in mainland Europe, each surrounded by or sandwiched between larger neighbours, and each with a distinct identity shaped by centuries of careful independence.

What’s striking is how different they are from each other. Monaco is glamour and wealth compressed into two square kilometres on the French Riviera. The Vatican is the spiritual centre of the Catholic world, an extraordinary anomaly in the middle of Rome. San Marino is a medieval hilltop republic older than most nations on earth, proud of its thousand-year history. Andorra sits high in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, better known for ski slopes and duty-free shopping than the mountain scenery that makes it genuinely worth visiting. And Liechtenstein – perhaps the least-visited of the five – is a small Alpine principality that manages to be both prosperous and eccentric, and rather more interesting than people expect.

What they share is a certain resilience. These are places that have held their ground, politically and geographically, while empires rose and fell around them. That’s part of the appeal.

Visiting all Five

For travellers, they also connect surprisingly well. All five are reachable by public transport from major European hubs, and with a bit of planning, you can link several of them into a single overland trip. I travelled from Liechtenstein to San Marino by train and bus, through Switzerland and across northern Italy, without touching an airport. It’s a more rewarding way to travel, and it puts both places in a wider European context that a flying visit doesn’t.

There’s also a collector appeal that’s hard to deny. Many travellers quietly set themselves the challenge of visiting all five – and it’s genuinely achievable without high cost or complicated logistics. This hub brings together all my guides so far, along with practical information for each country.

Below you’ll find all my guides so far for all the mainland European Microstates:

Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vatican City