Blogging
From Abroad

In one of my last posts, I wrote about travelling throughout the United States cheaply. Since most of you, my fellow readers, already did that, I would like to expand these cheap travelling hints to another region: Europe.

Good old Europe – London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam? dulcet names! The Louvre, The Vatican, Big Ben, Castle Schönbrunn, Versaille ? don’t you dream about visiting these places.

Well, vacation in Europe is expensive! Flight is expensive, accommodation is expensive and rental cars a luxury over there (not to mention gas prices around 6 $ per gallon). Still, I ensure you – it IS possible to travel through Europe and see some of the most exciting places of the world without doubling college loans. And I give you some hints how to do so.

First, please check out the “How to? travel in the States with a low budget!”-post. Most of the remarks I made there are valid for Europe too. Especially couchsurfing is even better known there than here in the USA. Additional you might want consider the following:

Fly cheap! Again, I suggest checking out www.lastminute.com. They offer quite reasonable prices for transatlantic flights. Another good source is www.studentuniverse.com. This is a webpage offering special deals for students and faculty staff, but you have to proof you school-status before receiving your ticket confirmation. I’d recommend lastminute.com for short-term flight search and studentuniverse.com for flights further in the future. I, for instance, bought my flight from Vienna to the states and back already in April from studentuniverse.com, where I found a fairly good rate from Morgantown to Seattle and back just one day before the departure on lastminute.com – nomen est omen. Other well known low cost flight webpages are: kayak.com, orbitz.com or cheaptickets.com.

One example: if you would like to spend on month (February, 1st through March, 2nd) Europe, I just found a rate of 657$ (including tax and other fees) from Washington Dulles to Vienna (roundtrip) on studentuniverse.com. If you would like to fly from January, 12th through January 30th, lastminute.com would charge you 684$. I found these rates within two minutes, I bet if you do some more extensive recherché and vary dates and departure/arrival airport you’ll find even cheaper deals. Still it is still a lot of money, so let’s think about safing a little during the stay in Europe.

Use public transport to come around. Throughout Europe, you’ll find a very comprehensive railway system. From the motherland of all train-schedules, Switzerland, to the outback of Rumania, there are trains going several times a day. Normally it is not necessary to make any reservations – you just go there, buy a ticket and enjoy a smooth train ride through Europes scenic landscapes.

Meet locals. If you have friends or family in the places you’d like to visit, try to stay at their places. Has two advantages: free accommodation and very good guides. They know where to go in their city, which attractions to visit and which bars serve the best drinks. If you don’t have any friends/family in these places, just couchsurf. Gives you the same benefits!

Transeuropean flights can be very cheap. We have some dedicated low-cost-carriers in Europe, who offer unbelievable low prices for flights. I, e.g., paid around 60$ from Salzburg to Brussels, 70$ from Salzburg to London or 40$ from Vienna to Bucharest (all roundtrip). But these tickets have to be booked well in advance, since there is only a very small contingent for each airplane. Therefore you might want to check out www.ryanair.com, www.skyeurope.com or www.easyjet.com.

So see you in good old Europe!

*pictures all taken from various wikipedia pages