Before You Go
From money matters to packing tips, we’ve got all the information you need to prepare for your upcoming Vantage journey. Just click on an item below to read more about it.
Country Guides
Select the country below to learn the history, geography, and more about the destinations
you’ll visit during your trip.
COUNTRY GUIDE
Though Austria is smaller than the state of Maine, it has played an outsized role in Europe’s political, cultural, and musical spheres. Its leaders have shaped empires. Elegant cityscapes have ...
COUNTRY GUIDE
The second-most densely populated country in Europe, Belgium has lured settlers—and would-be conquerors—from the rest of the continent for 2,000 years. Romans, Huns, Dukes of Burgundy, ...
COUNTRY GUIDE
From the ninth century onward, the region where the Czech Republic today lies was known as the Lands of the Crown of Bohemia. At times a fiefdom of the Holy Roman Empire and then increasingly ...
COUNTRY GUIDE
Romans, Huns, Bulgarians—everyone desired the fertile land that would one day become Hungary. Inhabited as early as 9 B.C., the Carpathian Basin changed hands from empire to empire until the ...
COUNTRY GUIDE
The Netherlands may be small, but its influence on world history cannot be overstated. During the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age, merchant ships plied the seas to Dutch colonies in North and South ...
COUNTRY GUIDE
Though the findings of prehistoric stone tools and a Neanderthal skull suggest that what is now Slovakia has been occupied for hundreds of thousands of years, the Slavs who gave the land its current ...
COUNTRY GUIDE
Despite boasting a rich culture that includes figures like Goethe, Gutenberg, and Bach, Germany did not even exist until the 19th century. Instead, the German-speaking people lived on land divided ...
After You Return
Welcome home! Once you return from your Vantage journey, visit the pages below to tell us – and your travel friends! – where you plan to go next.
