Kosovo

The world's newest nation state, Kosovo is an eye-opening destination for adventurous travellers. It offers many historic landmarks, beautiful mountains and traditional towns, which are all within easy reach of the capital, Pristina.The tiny, impoverished territory unilaterally declared itself independent from neighbouring Serbia on 17th February 2008 to great jubilation within the country but mixed reactions abroad. Located in the heart of the Balkans, Kosovo is populated by 90% ethnic Albanians, and has for many centuries been the stage for tension between its Serb and ethnic Albanian inhabitants.A landlocked and largely agricultural country, Kosovo is now one of Europe's poorest nations. It was administered by the UN for many years following conflict in the 1990s and fears that Slobodan Milosevic was planning ethnic cleansing. Some 100,000 Serbs remain following a post-war exodus of non-Albanians.Serbia, which regards the region as its historic birthplace and reminiscent of a Serbian ‘golden age', has vowed never to accept Kosovo's independence