Europe's new Entry/Exit System (EES) is meant to be quick: on your first arrival into the Schengen Area you register fingerprints and a facial image at a kiosk, and after that border crossings should be smoother. In practice, the rollout has been bumpy. Airports have blamed staffing shortages, and the design of the system itself has been accused of adding wait times. In the worst cases, holidaymakers have reported queuing for hours before their trip has even started.

The workaround is simple in theory: book somewhere outside the Schengen zone, where EES doesn't apply at all. There are more options than you might think, including ten countries worth a trip in their own right.

Two are EU members with opt-outs. Cyprus offers Mediterranean beach resorts in Limassol, Larnaca and Ayia Napa, plus ancient ruins at Paphos and the divided capital Nicosia. Ireland, a short hop from the UK, has the 1,600-mile Wild Atlantic Way road trip past the Cliffs of Moher, plus city breaks in Galway, Cork and Dublin.

The Balkans supply the rest. Albania has become a budget alternative to Greece, with the white-sand beaches of Ksamil and Himarë on the Ionian coast and the 10-mile Valbona Pass trek in the Albanian Alps. Bosnia and Herzegovina has just a 12-mile stretch of Adriatic coastline but compensates with the Kravica Waterfalls, rafting on the Una River, Mostar's Ottoman bridge and very cheap Sarajevo. Montenegro pairs mountain escapes in Durmitor National Park with 117 Adriatic beaches and the Bay of Kotor, while North Macedonia offers Skopje's Old Bazaar and the medieval churches ringing Lake Ohrid.

Kosovo, Europe's youngest country, is walkable Prishtina and well-preserved Ottoman Prizren; Serbia delivers Belgrade's famed river-club nightlife and five national parks. Moldova is the wildcard: a winemaking nation of 7,000 years' heritage, home to Mileștii Mici, the world's largest wine cellar with over 1.5 million bottles stored underground.

And the tenth option is the UK itself — no EES, obviously — from the Scottish Highlands to the Pembrokeshire coast and the Giant's Causeway.

Why it matters: if you're travelling this year and dread the idea of an hours-long biometric queue at the start of your holiday, these destinations let you skip the process entirely. It's a genuinely useful filter for anyone booking a short-haul break while the EES rollout settles down — and several of these countries are also among the most affordable in Europe.

Quick jargon check: the EU is a 27-country political union; the Schengen Area is a 29-country border-free travel zone that includes non-EU states like Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, plus recently Bulgaria and Romania. Cyprus and Ireland are in the EU but not Schengen, so no EES there. Microstates such as Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City count as de facto Schengen, since you reach them through Schengen countries.

Story via The Independent Travel.