Euro 2020 host cities: Why you should put Baku and Bucharest on your travel bucket-list

Euro 2020 host cities Baku and Bucharest are worth putting on your future mini-break shortlist, says Luke Rix-Standing.

Baku and Bucharest (Alamy/PA)

The first Euros tournament to be played across multiple venues, Euro 2020 would have been a unique competition even without the effects of the pandemic.

While some lucky fans have managed to travel to matches, most of us are sat at home, dreaming of green lists and the end of travel restrictions. When that does eventually happen, why not take inspiration from some of the lesser-known host cities currently overrun with football fever?

Baku and Bucharest are mini-break destinations very worth considering…

Baku

The cityscape of Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan.

It may come as a surprise to some that Azerbaijan is even eligible to host the Euros, but this nation on the shores of the Caspian Sea joined the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, and is a member of UEFA.

Capital city Baku is a political, geographical, and architectural blend of east and west, sporting as many modern skyscrapers as it does medieval ramparts.

The Heydar Aliyev Center is central to the tourist trail – a Zaha Hadid masterpiece halfway between the Sydney Opera House and an IKEA sofa – while crumbling city walls ring the UNESCO-listed Old City, replete with 12th century stone towers and palaces.

Azerbaijan is nicknamed ‘the Land of Fire’, and the three gleaming glass Flame Towers loom above the city, casting much of the centre into shade.

Expanding rapidly, Baku is increasingly well-stocked for hipster cafes and high-end retail outlets, and its visitor count will surely grow with time.

Bucharest

Stavropoleos Monastery, Bucharest, Romania

A slightly neglected city – often both confused with and overshadowed by Hungarian capital Budapest – travellers tend to pay only a flying visit to the Romanian capital, before carting off to the verdant valleys and mountaintop fortresses of Transylvania to the northwest.

There’s much they’re missing out on, because what Bucharest lacks in overt charm it makes up for in sumptuous suburban churches and energetic nightlife.

The Museum of the Romanian Peasant makes for fascinating if sometimes sobering viewing, summarising the struggles of the recent communist peasantry as well as the preceding centuries of serfdom, plus the locally beloved Cismigiu Garden.

For sheer scale, don’t miss the Palace of the Parliament, one of the largest buildings in the world by almost any metric besides height. A vast vanity project commissioned by communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, this edifice stands today arguably as a monument to totalitarian excess.