How to get to Europe for cheap

EthanH*

EthanH*

Member
Who's done it, who's got some tips on how to do it? A couple friends of mine and I are doing it this August, and are looking at some tips for traveling cheap in Europe and whatnot.

Here's out itinerary if anyone is interested:

Paris- 2 nights

Belgium- 1 night

Amsterdam- 3 nights

Berlin- 3 nights

Prague- 3 nights

Budapest- 2 nights

Milan- 1 night

Madrid/Barcelona- 3 nights

Travel tips? Places to see? Things to do? How to keep costs down?

Thanks in advance!
 
If you're going to REALLY enjoy being in another country, I wouldn't have a set amount of days you're going to be in each place. Take in what you can and when you've had enough go to the next place. If you rush through every where you're going to miss a lot.
 
Thats what I was thinking too. But most places are within a couple hours from each other, excluding the last 2 places, so we're planning on just doing the driving between places during the night or afternoon. And we're going with my friend who goes to school in Switzerland and thinks we should just see as much of it as possible/kinda knows the area.
 
Kinda knows the area? You're not driving around a town looking for a bar. Knows the area doesn't apply when you're talking about multiple countries.

Don't drive. Take trains. Everywhere
 
She's been to some of the countries a couple times, so she knows Paris/Amsterdam/Prague/Berlin pretty well. Aka she knows where the good bars are and stuff. Why trains over cars for short distances?
 
Sad, but IMO true.

You're doing a fucking blitzkrieg across Europe. At a blazing pace it'll be hard to: wander the streets, linger in museums, meet people, make love with beautiful foreign women, stumble on unique cafes, etc.

But you'll have time to: blackout, not sleep, get lost, run from place to place, and stress out.

Paris for instance, is a big place. There's tons and tons to do. There's some amazing art at Musee D'Orsay and the Pompidou right now. Those should be like a day each unless you want to pay to just walk through the museums without stopping.

I'd whittle your list down. That'll save on money and give you some time to really absorb your trip and make it worthwhile, IMO.
 
This. Trains everywhere man. I did a trip very similar to this with my girlfriend, we went for almost 2 months. If any of you are jewish, go on birthright first, free flight overseas, then extend your flight and go to Europe.

Thats what we did, it was great, saved like 1-2 grand each on flights.
 
If you don't wanna take trains check edreams and skyscanner for dirt cheap flights, or ryanair, aerlingus, wizzair, easyjet, etc.

PM if you want about Milan, I lived there for 4 months.

If you're really squeezing money buy food from supermarkets and make your own shit. Pack only half of what you want to bring, you're not gonna need as much as you think you do.
 
I got on a bus from Plymouth Engalnd to Paris with 25 pounds. I had a place to stay, and then a flight to Prague booked and a place to stay there too, so that helped. I made some money in each city while I was there (busking). I got a bus back over to Brussels and stayed in a hostel there, then hitchhiked to Amsterdam. I crashed in a hostel one night, then stayed in a hotel with my GF. I wouldn't drive if it means renting a car. I didn't really eat out ever, but all hostels have kitchens and cooking is the way to go. Save your money for booze/whatever else you want to do.
 
I agree that you won't get out as much as each city as you'd like because you're there for such a short time. Paris, Belgium, Berlin, and Prague are my favorites from your list. If you're going to Budapest, I highly suggest going to Vienna as well. It's so close and it's an amazing city. Milan is lacklustre. One night is more than enough there. I would substitute it for Vienna if you can. Madrid and Barca are amazing. Don't just go to clubs 24/7 though. I know they are extremely fun, but the city offers so much more. You can club anywhere in the world. Also, try not to buy drugs off the guys on the beach in Barca. It's good if you can't get them anywhere else, but they rip you off. Watch out for scams and pickpockets. They are literally everywhere, especially Spain. That's where I got mugged. Not fun. A lot of people in Prague will try to sell you coke and hookers that are also looking to scam you. Stay in hostels or use https://www.airbnb.ca/?locale=en . I've gotten some amazing apartments with 15ft. ceilings overlooking the beach for cheaper than hostels on that site. Just keep searching. Finally, I know skimping out on food seems like the easy way to save money, but don't. It's the best way to learn and embrace every countries culture. I traveled Europe for a year, so PM me if you have any more questions.

 
To be perfectly frank, it sounds like your friend doesn't know shit about Europe.

That trip is going to be more expensive than it's worth, tiring, and you won't know anything about any of the places you visit after you leave. I've lived in Europe for 5 total years and traveled there for visits a couple times as well and here are my tips:

-Pick 2 places, maaaaybe 3 tops with that much time unless you want to see nothing but all the gay shit you can Google without waiting in line with a bunch of other tourists

-Everyone says take trains, but I've often had stunning success with airlines and paid the same or less for a 1 hours flight rather than a 2 day train driven pain in the ass. Keep an open mind, Skyscanner.com is great

-Find something you actually want to do in these places. All those cities are just big capital cities when you get down to it. They all have bars, restaurants, pub crawls, etc. just like every other huge city in the world. "Crazy! EVERYONE here speaks English for some reason!" Not a coincidence... Sure if you have no foreign experience you'll have a great time regardless just due to culture shock, but most of those countries have way more to offer than their political center. If someone asked you about the US would you say "Oh you HAVE to go to Washington DC and see the White House" ? Probably not....

-Why on Earth did you decide you want to go to Milan for a day?

-I forgot to mention buses. Which can be dirt cheap and extremely easy as well.

-If you travel that much you won't be able to party like you think you will. Staying somewhere for more time would benefit that aspect, places like Spain are dead til 2-3 am for example.

-Everyone and their mom chooses the summer to travel to Europe. And they all go to the same 4 cities they know how to pronounce. Maybe consider some places you didn't think of like Croatia, Greece, or Portugal and enjoy the beaches and culture. Croatia for example is super nice, kind of like Italy and Greece mashed together, and it's dirt fucking cheap.

The biggest point I can't stress enough is that as long as you make a decent choice, 6 days in one place is infinitely more valuable, more fun, and more cost effective than 2 days in 3 places.
 
Iceland Air is pretty decent.

Surprisingly good movie selection (current blockbuster wise), pretty good seats, and the layovers in Iceland are quick and largely without any problems. Also, if your flights are delayed or late, I wouldn't worry too much--mine were late going and coming but they held my connecting flights for me both times. Well, not just for me, but it was nice to hear the pilot announce that they were waiting.

You will however, have to pay for booze and food in Euros. That was a downer, but hey, it was cheap airfare. The food was also not the worst I've had, pretty reasonable.

As was brought up in another thread you could just get a sleeve, or two, of nips and keep those with you to soften the blow while flying.
 
Okay so it seems like everyone is saying to stay in less places. I expected that. What if we dropped it down to 5 cities? 4 nights each. Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Spain. Although I know someone wanted to see Budapest as well... Where are peoples favorite cities? The people I am going with (minus the girl from Switzerland), and myself, all have very little experience traveling in Europe, but want to see as much of it as possible. So staying in one place for a long time is probably out of the picture, even if its the best way to go about it. My group is probably less interested in museums than your average Europe traveler, but more interested in walking around the city, lots of picture taking, seeing monuments, crazy views, eating out, hitting bars, and meeting people.

If anyone has been to these countries, could you recommend places to go/see?

Thanks for all the tips btw, +K to all. Keep em coming, they help!

Also, if a mod could rename this "Europe travel help" that would be awesome. If possible.

 
Been to all of those places. You're going to spend a fortune on trains/Ryanair flights. You have to realize that places like Budapest and Prague are an overnight train. Knock that list down to 2-3 places and do it that way. You'll regret it if you dont
 
I was gonna say just this. either way, trains are the way to go here in europe, its not like you just hop on a quick flight to LA for a few days here.

if it does only apply to people from europe, that sucks, but you'll still be better off.

Where in switzerland does your friend go to school?

I would say definitely cut the locations like you did, defo hit paris, amsterdam, berlin and Praha though.

PM me if you need any other help.
 
I know a lot of people already told you that you probably planned a little too many stops for the amount of time you´re going, so here´s an option how you could keep your schedule while travelling cheap: pick out some offer for a train ticket that allows you to travel through (nearly) whole europe during a certain time span (there are special tickets for that but I don´t know at which amount of kilometers they pay off) and DONT take the shortest routes to the next city, instead take your time and sleep on the train instead of a Hostel/Hotel. I´ve met a few people doing this and if you really want to see all the places you listed in the amount of time you planned, while travelling cheap this is pretty much your only chance, even though it will be really exhausting.

But imo scratch a few of the places you´ve listed, don´t plan how much time you will spend where and save your energy to enjoy your stay
 
as mentioned above, when you go to big cities kinda really think what you wanna do there/what the other people want

like i wouldnt go to rome if you have 0 interest in ancient romans/renaissance architecture for example. obviously you can do other stuff there, but thats just the main thing besides the obvious bars, clubs and shit everywhere.

if you just want to hunt like the main attractions, your plan is pretty legit.

but, as a european (who hasnt been around all that much, i gotta admit), something like croatia or portugal is highly recommendable.

 
and for getting around, especially on longer stops, you might be able to use ryanair

its sometimes a hassle to reach the airports, as they are not close to big cities (their "munich-west" is easily one and a half hour away from munich), but once youre there, you can fly around europe (excluding luggage) starting from like 15€ or so. usually its in the 50€ range plus luggage. if you have just one average sized backpack or store stuff together, this can be really cheap. i shared one piece of luggage with my girlfriend when we flew to crete, and the whole flight was like 120 € per person and return ticket.

a train to greece HAS to be more expensive (like without all these europass thingies)
 
1. Find the cheapest flight to anywhere in Europe

2. Get an interrail ticket.

http://www.interrail.eu/interrail-passes

You can get a pass for up to a month and have pretty much free travel between countries in Europe.

However I'm not sure if you can get one without an EU passport.

3. Stay in hostels as much as possible.

http://www.hostelworld.com/

European hostels tend to be pretty good and pretty cheap.

Europe is an expensive place to travel in general, but if you stick to hostels, night trains, and don't eat out and party every night, you can do it pretty cheap.

 
For initial airfare, look into a stay over trip... As in find airfare through paris with a few day stay over that lands in budapest or something like that. They are almost always cheaper and you knock out one of your locations for free. Also, keep an eye on sites offering discounts for the actual site, not the fare. Sometimes you will find summer fare specials or whatever where the tickets are $50 off the lowest fare you can find. If you aren't going to do this, book your ticket through a seller that will refund the difference if you find a lower price.

I've flown to Europe for $160 round trip, $450 round trip, $600 + $450 for 2 oneway tickets out of different locations with stay overs in Iceland and Paris, $860 right now for 10 day stop over to Switzerland then to Moscow round trip.

Book with european airlines and you get free alcohol on your flights and the meals are much better.

Stay more than 3 nights in each city. Look for events or fun holidays and try to plan around those. It's also really nice to add a few smaller spots as well. Like hit up Annecy in France, or Reinfall in Germany/switzerland... some of the weird shit. Go to a yodelling show or a museum of dolls or other weird things. They really do make the trip more interesting.

Buy local groceries or look up street markets while you are there, they are insanely cheep... as in quite a lot cheaper than even US groceries. Get used to cheese and baguettes as it's pretty delicious and a lot of great cheeses can go several days without refrigeration. Gruyere is my fave and can go up to a week with out being refrigerated and makes for a great sandwich. Cheese + Mustard = greatness.
 
I'd try Croatia for two nights split with Prague since it's really worth seeing and both are fairly cheap. Croatia is aawesome and there is some great ppartying in Split and Hvar. And as said before, hit up grocery stores for your food. european bars are much more expensive than american ones so expect most of your money to go there if you plan out going out at night, which it seem slike is one of your main focuses.
 
For the plane ride there, you can fly Icelantic air. It's quite cheap and on the way to Europe you can choose to layover in Iceland for a few nights with no extra airfare. And the nightlife and raves there are wild
 
In berlin go to Berghain.

BerghainClubBerlin_copertina.jpg
 
I can't wait until this kid winds up spending 36 hours in reykjavik because ns told him to fly icelandair.

(it's actually a pretty good choice and I've flown them a few times though)

also, this is not eurotrip. Spending 1 night in a city isn't going to lead to cultural interactions and meeting new people. How many times have you been out in a bar, and seen a bunch of foreigners and ended up partying with them?

it doesn't work that way.
 
+K for all the info guys. I'll look into the rail passes and whatnot. Any ways to find cheap flights over to Europe? Other tips?

Thanks
 
Cheap flights are pretty much non existent for over seas flights and honesty, if you are able to spend a little more on plane tickets then get bumped up to like business class, it will make for such a nicer 10 hours of flying.
 
Not true at all.

Cheap flights can be found with some time and a flexible schedule, I like Skyscanner.com to get me pointed in the right direction as the search engine is top notch. You can put in very general information and it'll search an entire month or country to make it happen for you. Some flights that usually sell at $1000 will sell at $300 2 days out of the month for whatever reason. Just have to find them.
 
spain is a country not a city.

do not try and see as much of europe as possible. it will only work out shit. you have the rest of your life to go and see it, its not going anywhere
 
my only advice for cheap flights is airline miles. credit card signup bonuses can almost get you there. don't sign up for a card if you can't afford to pay it off without carrying a balance. flying at non peak tourist times can save a bunch (i realize this doesnt apply to you but will put it out there for others). in february i flew US to europe for 30k miles which would normally cost 60k+. good luck man, sure it'll be a fun trip no matter what
 
In terms of getting around once you are in Europe, look into buying a Eurail Pass. Trains are definitely the cheapest and easiest way to get around. Also, buy guidebooks and language books and study them. Know how to say basic words and phrases in the different languages and you will get along with the local people a lot better. I just traveled around Europe for a month and a half in September and October and it was a blast and an adventure I'll never forget. There are hostels and pretty cheap hotels everywhere for places to stay and to save money for food, go to the grocery stores as often as you can. It's nice to eat out, but food and alcohol in restaurants can be very pricey and adds up quickly. In terms of places to stay definitely use tripadvisor and the guidebooks so you don't get into shitty lodging situations. pm me if you want more information.
 
I saw flights for 144 including taxes 1 way a couple weeks ago. You had to fly NYC to Oslo.

I really wanted to go see the Northern LIghts so I was pretty damned close to booking that up.

I don't really want to share the secret but I guess a website of skiiers won't ramp up the prices too bad.

www.norweigian.com

New airline. Pure fire.

 
FLY: AirTransatTRAIN: Eurail Pass

STAY: Couchsurfing.com / hostelworld.com Book as you go.

I did this with a rough itinerary for 6 weeks, used all my train pass days and only spend about 3 000 going from Toronto to Lisbon direct, and Amsterdam to Toronto direct. It was wild. I'd say just try to get off the beaten path, be nice to people in hostels and party/sight see with them, talk to locals when possible, eat food from grocery stores. Have fun!
 
I've skipped some replies in this thread but this guy is entirely bang on.

Things I feel I should re-emphasize:

Doing Europe on the cheap is nearly impossible, or at the very least not realistic for most people.

Don't worship the train - buses, flights, cars, carpooling can be done just as easily and often much cheaper.

Your itinerary is retarded. Come back when you have a better idea of where you actually want to go and we'll be better able to answer specific questions.
 
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