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Tuesday, 30 May 2017

[Guest Post] Low-cost Travelling in Europe: A Full Guide

I'm actually in the midst of planning my travels this year-end, so this post could not have come at a better time! We are planning a budget trip so any tips would be helpful to us. It is possible to save money and have fun at the same time!

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The European continent attracts millions of travelers from all over the globe yearly. In attempts to provide a comfortable accommodation and see everything, they usually overpay, which is quite reckless. In addition, a popular stereotype claims you need much money for travelling. Today I’m going to bust it. Here is a complete guide for budget tourists.

Plan the trip in advance. This is an easy way to avoid the price increase. When you have a lot of spare time before vacation, you can spend it with benefit and look for discounts, cheap flights, and hotel numbers.

Avoid great events. Unless it is your purpose of vacation, don’t visit the city in time of some famous exhibition, convention or festival. At this period the local prices for hotels and entertainment usually skyrocket.

Use the airline's loyalty program. The biggest companies provide huge benefits for using their service regularly. ‘Collect’ the miles you’ve passed and get the free flights or residence.

Travel light. It is quite easy: don’t overpay for extra baggage. Some low-cost flights include only a luggage, while another stuff is need to be paid for.

Provide a transfer in advance. Landing in an airport is one thing, and getting to the nearest city is another. Thousands of budget travelers face the problem of transferring to their accommodation, so consider this issue at home. For instance, some hotels and hostels provide their visitors a free bus or taxi. You only need to discuss it with the manager.

Use BlaBlaCar. In some countries, hitchhiking is not a big deal and most of the locals are used to it. The most experienced ones use the BlaBlaCar service that helps finding a cheap, safe, and comfortable way of traveling by car. Just pick a route, find a car owner who is going the same way, and pay no more than 1/3 of the price for fuel. E.g., the average inland trip in Europe costs up to 15 Euros.

Book hostels. It is not a secret that hostels are perfect places to meet new friends from all over the world and save money for accommodation. The modern hostels provide free Wi-Fi, TV, game rooms, breakfast and all the different necessities.

Meet the native citizens instead of hiring a guide. Some professional guides are boring and expensive. Before going to a certain country, meet a friendly local on-line. It doesn’t matter, whether you chose Facebook, Couchsurfing or dating site like https://natalydate.com, be sure you’ll have a great company. The locals usually know more interesting and cheap sites, entertainments, and restaurants.

Use public transport. Europe is known for its wide and high-tech public transport infrastructure. It is more profitable to buy a combined ticket for few different vehicles at ones like subway, train, and bus. They are valid for a couple of hours so you can use them during the day and see all the important sites. By the way, in Germany it is cheaper to travel by bus inside the country, the railway routes are more expensive.

Don’t buy maps. Unless you want to get a souvenir, don’t pay for a dead horse. Upload a local map to your smartphone or tablet, use travel apps, apply to the information desks, finally you can get a free paper map in your hotel.

Eat local cuisine. We are all used to eat in famous restaurant and fast food chains. However, it is not the best way for saving. Moreover, eating locally gives you a perfect chance to discover the culture, because the national cuisine is a huge part of it.

Visit the cheapest countries. While Germany, France, Switzerland, and Norway as long as other Scandinavian countries are painfully expensive for a low-budget tourist, take some time to investigate non-trivial destinations. They are Hungary, Romania, Portugal, Spain (during the low season), Croatia, Greece, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and the Baltic countries.


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I hope this post has been useful to you as it has been for me. If you have any tips for travelling in Europe, feel free to leave a comment and let me know! :D


Disclaimer: This article is published in partnership with The Nigerian Bulletin.

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