Budget Backpacking: How to Travel Within Europe
In the past week or so I’ve been researching my European Budget Backpacking Quest itinerary fairly extensively. I’ve become much more familiar with how to travel within Europe during my trip, which is my major concern when choosing destinations and trying to make a backpacking itinerary. So staying on course with the time table I created in the rough guide to my backpacking quest, here is a more specific itinerary that discusses how to travel within Europe. (or a few of them at least). I would appreciate any comments or suggestions!
Where I want to travel to
The “loop” destinations: Berlin, Munich, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest.
Extra [out of the way] cities: Amsterdam and Barcelona.
The loop destinations are all pretty close to each other, hence my nickname the loop. They can probably be tied together cheaply. Barcelona and Amsterdam are just so desirable for me though, so I want to hit one up during my trip, which will require an extra flight.
Traveling within Europe - Transportation
Deciding where I want to go is the easy part. Trying to figure out how I’m going to piece it together affordably is a bit trickier. I’m on a tight budget, so I’ve been scouring the travesphere for transportation prices, since my means of transportation will be determined only by the price. So here are the options:
Bus
I have found two options for bus travel through Europe: Eurolines and BusAbout
Eurolines is the Eurail for bus service in Europe. They operate bus routes to places all across Europe. Eurolines offers a bus pass for 15 days of travel within Europe to any destination you like for €279, which is $375. Pretty spendy, but Eurolines covers all of Europe, so I could start in Amsterdam and bus over to Berlin to continue my trip. The drawback would be that it’s probably pretty slow, and I just personally don’t see it as a desirable way to travel across Europe.
BusAbout is something I just found, and am very impressed with. BusAbout is basically the bridge between independent travel and group guided travel. They offer a hop on hop off bus tour called BusAbout Explorer. Basically, a bus appears at the door of a certain hostel every day or two and you can ride it and get dropped off in the next city. You can stay at each place however long you want to, and you can travel at your own pace. It’s flexible, but offers a sense of security. There are three different loops through Europe, and the Northern loop happens to hit every destination I want to see: Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, and Munich (among several others)
So why not BusAbout? Well, it costs $434.
Train
A Eurail pass is the only way to go by train, and looking at the places I want to go, a 3 country Select Pass would work for the loop destinations. It would cover Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. A youth 2nd class seat for 6 days of travel costs $309, which isn’t too bad given the flexibility and many places I could visit. If I went with a Eurail pass, I may just forget Amsterdam and/or Barcelona and spend that time somewhere else.I considered just getting a regional, 2 country pass, but the savings of ~$40 would not be worth the hassle and extra cost of finding transportation to places outside of the included countries.
Budget European Airlines
European budget airlines are all the rage nowadays, and I’ve spent most of my research time finding ALL the cheapest flights that service my desired destinations. Flying within Europe is fast, and budget friendly, sometimes. I have looked through every European budget airline and have compiled a list of numbers. Here are a few notable rates that give me a ballpark rate.
- Amsterdam to Prague: $45 (SkyEurope)
- Amsterdam to Barcelona: $50 (Vueling)
- Barcelona to Berlin: $45 (EasyJet)
- Berlin to Munich: $45 (AirBerlin)
I have more than 30 more flights that I took note of that piece together my destinations. So why not European Air travel? It seems to be good for just the big destinations, but by flying around all the time I won’t ever get out of the cities much, and it’d be nice to see a little bit of the country side sometimes.
Deciding on Transportation
So deciding on my desired transportation through Europe is going to be difficult, as it is a major part of the trip. Now that I have all the data, I will organize it into several “What If” travel itineraries where I will piece together the different possibilities of traveling through Europe. I will include my methodology on how to create “what if” travel itineraries and I will include my best “what if” itineraries in my next Budget Backpacking Quest post. Comments, suggestions, or ideas are always welcome!
check out this website http://www.wegolo.com for all the cheapest low cost flights across Europe/UK
A 10 day global pass would only run you $520 or so.. and that's ten flexible days over two months for use - provided you are under the age of 26.
I took Eurolines from Paris to Berlin. It was an adventure that I'd rather not repeat. The added benefit with the train is that you can arrange for your longer journeys to be overnight and give you a place to crash for free that night.
Another option might be carsharing. It can be tight in the car, but I once got from Dresden to Berlin for under 10 euros using the service. It only requires flexibility.
Thanks for the comment Roger - the 10 day global pass would seem to be a bit much for me since I'm only going to be traveling to ~3/4 countries, so I'd just be throwing that money away.
And thanks for your feedback on Eurolines. After some more research I decided to stick to trains and planes, except for a potential bus ride between Vienna and Prague which is like 26 euros if I remember correctly.
I'll keep the carsharing in mind as well . I've been making some sample itineraries and it's been pretty fun. In my next Backpacking Quest post I'll include my potential itineraries.
Its always tricky to keep the budget travel going especially in Europe. I remember a quote by hemming way that went something like this:
\"if you are fortunate enough to live in paris as a young man under the age of 25, you\'ll be sipping on those memories for the rest of your life.\"
I actually think that it is asia which is the new paris. Incredibly cheap and full of adventure. None the less, good luck with your Euro Trip!
Michael
Live the Dream...Tell the Tale
Although I see your good reasons for not flying (which I agreed with while travelling Australia) in the event you do decide to do a segment or two by plane:
Skyscanner
flylc. com
are two great sites that make it easier to hunt down good flights.
The thing I found with a Eurail pass was that it wasn't always the best deal. I bought a ticket from Prague to Geneva via Munich and Zurich from RailEurope before leaving the US for ~$285 and then regretted it because it was so much cheaper ex: Prague so that's something to keep in mind.
I traveled Europe for two months back in in 2004 and I traveled all over by train. I bought a 2 month unlimited Eurail pass. Worth every penny. The travel time is not to bad and you get to see the country sides while you travel. And Amstedam is only about 6 hrs by train from Munich. Worth the trip. Hit me up if you have any questions.
Do your research on train fares. These days, point-to-point tickets purchased online are probably cheaper than a Eurail pass. I think tying yourself to any one form of transport -- bus or train -- is likely to be a source of headaches rather than relief on your trip.
Are you sticking to "the loop" because you've never been any of these places before? There are a lot of interesting -- and cheaper -- places beyond European capitals. How much time are you giving yourself to race around the continent?
I encourage you to check out my blog. I write quite a bit about Europe, how to get around, where to stay, how to save money. If you have any specific questions, leave a comment or shoot an email.
[...] Budget Backpacking: How to Travel Within EuropeBudget Backpacking: How to Travel Within Europe. Posted on August 20, 2007 Filed Under Budget Backpacking Quest | In the past week or so I’ve been researching my European Budget [...]
I just read Roger's comment about carsharing and remembered the lack of a good online platform for finding rides in Australia.
In Germany (and I'm sure in a view other contries too) it's quite easy to find a ride. There are two major websites, http://www.mitfahrzentrale.de which charges you a fee for accessing contact details and http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de which provides everything as a free service.
You can simply browse by departure and destination city, date and time. All major cities have rather good connections especially on the weekends due to a lot of commuters.
Sometimes you'll even find people sharing a groupticket for the train.
No need to say that it's a good way to meet some locals, too.