Budget Trip to Europe: How Do You Do It?
The breathtaking landscape and picturesque views, world heritage sites to behold, sandy beaches, the wondrous beauty of nature, historical structures of the monuments and edifices, not to mention the mountain scenes, are all trademarks of Europe.
This is the main reason why people frequently visit Europe. Moreover, a travel to this continent will surely complete your cravings for a much needed break.
Using your credit card and spend on whatever you want is not bad but spending your holidays on a budget is definitely worth considering. But, how should you do it?
How do you gain entry to the cheaper alternatives? You can start off with your fares. The European airlines see the need to satiate the needs of the travelers. With this concern, they put up handsome offers of cheap air fares. Now, there arises the competition among them so the tendency is for each and everyone to lay out larger discounts so that more and more passengers will be enticed to grab the deals that they offer.
Unfortunately, there are rumors that say that these cheap airline tickets hide something from the passengers. They offer larger discounts at the expense of some sacrifices which the travelers must go through. Is there really a good offer at stake or they are just making a fool out of you? Hence, try to dissect the issue by going through this article.
Here are some of the standout deals if you prefer to travel Europe in a limited budget frame.
First and foremost, the discounted air fares take the out of town routes and land in the town provincial landings. Most commonly, the distance of these airports from the key cities range between forty up to fifty miles. Thus, you will have to travel for some two hours or more just so you will get to your destination spot.
You can either take the bus or the train but just imagine the hassle that it can bring you. You have your bags and other stuffs. The sad part is when you have your kids with you. For sure, they can’t bear with all of these ordeals. Not to mention that you have to think of your transportation costs too.
Second, what you pay for is what you get. Since the ticket prices have been reduced, you can expect that no free food and other special amenities will be available for you. You have to purchase the drinks and the food from the trolleys that go around the aircraft in really expensive costs.
Third, some airlines will provide you with cheaper fares but will limit the free number of check in baggage that you have. Usually, they will charge you with higher prices for the extra loads and with the terminal fees as well.
You see, some airlines put up with campaigns that attract the cost-conscious passengers. What they don’t know is that the scheme is all about something else. Obviously, there is nothing more that you can ask for when it comes to sightseeing all over Europe.
The main point here is for you to see through the practicality of your decision when you aim for cheap travel packages to Europe. You just need to be very cautious and wise when it comes to picking out your options.
There are lots and lots of budget airlines like Ryanair, TUIFly, Central Wings, etc. The only advice I have is that you will need to travel light because these airlines are notorious for low baggage allowances and if you are over, you’ll pay huge charges. Make sure you also look at the name of the airport you fly into, Frankfurt Hahn is nowhere near Frankfurt, London Stansted’s way outside of London and Venice Treviso is actually on the Italian mainland and so you could well end up paying three times your flight cost getting a water taxi to your destination because your flight got in at 4am.
The lesson being, if you are going to do the budget flight thing, do your research and plan your trip first, otherwise you’ll find your holiday is even more stressful than the life you want to get away from.
A good way to safe money is to do a one stop visit. Just visit one place at a time for about a week, that instead of visiting 9 countries and 17 cities in 10 days. This way you are not losing money on all the travelling in between, and you actually get to experience 1 place. Talk to the locals and get to understand local culture. Cultural differences between countries in Europe are huge, even though distance is not.
So you are now going to one spot, I would say try and get 3 to 5 friends to join you, so that you are travelling with a group of 4 to 6 persons. With a group like that you can easily rent a large apartment in any of the major cities. By renting an apartment you will be saving on the nightly costs, on breakfast, and if you like cooking, even on lunch and diner. This means that you will have a place to sleep, food to eat at less than 80 $ per day per person. And if you stay 1 whole week this will go down to 70$ as you can get better deals on the apartment.
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I travelled around Europe by train a few years ago and it was a really fun and cheap way to see the continent. It takes longer obviously, but trains abroad run on much better time than in the UK and nothing beats gazing out the window watching beautiful scenery from 5 or 6 different landscapes fly by.
I think Europe is one of the easiest and most enjoyable places to travel. It may be slightly more expensive than Asia or South America but there are so many different things to see and do.
Personally I would probably take the train to most destinations in Europe but I understand that if you have a family and lots of baggage this could be a problem.
As far as cheap airlines go I always make sure to ask about ALL hidden costs before confirming the booking. If it sounds like it’s too good to be true then it probably is.
The best way is if you have friends over there – see if you can do some sort of “swap” for accomodation and then play host, you can save a lot of money that way. Other than the flight, which is pretty much unavoidable, the lodging is the next biggest cosst I would say…
Agree with checking your options. I love Europe, and another option I have found is to spend some time in Eastern Europe, this way I can save a little on daily costs, which can add up and let me travel the way I want (mixing it up between car hire/ flights and public transport, depending on the country).