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The following list just gives you a taste of all the budget strategies that
exist. No doubt you’ll encounter more ways to stretch your travel dollar.
Planning
Airfare to Europe can make you blow your budget before you even leave
home, but fear not — there are plenty of ways to save.
- Go off-season. If you can travel at non-peak times (October through
May for most major cities and tourist centers), you’ll find hotel rates
up to 30 percent below the prices of peak months.
- Travel midweek. If you can travel on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or
Thursday, you may find cheaper flights to your destination. When
you ask about airfares, see if you can get a cheaper rate by flying on
a different day.
- Try a package tour. For many destinations, you can book airfare,
hotel, ground transportation, and even some sightseeing just by
making one call to a travel agent or packager, for a price much less
than if you put the trip together yourself.
- Always ask for discount rates. You may be pleasantly surprised to
discover that you’re eligible for discounts on sights, transportation,
hotels, you name it. Members of AAA, trade unions, or AARP; frequent
fliers; teachers; students; families; and members of other
groups sometimes get discounted rates on car rentals, plane tickets,
and some chain-hotel rooms. Ask your company if employees can
use the corporate travel agent and corporate rates even for private
vacations. You never know until you ask.
If your family emmigrated from Europe, you may get another discount.
Many ethnic travel agencies (usually found in major cities)
specialize in getting forgotten sons and daughters rock-bottom rates
when returning to the Old Country. It’s worth looking into if you can
find one near you.
Transportation
Getting to Europe uses up most of your transportation budget, but just
getting from place to place can add up too. Here are a few ways to make
the most of your remaining transportation dollars:
- Reserve your rental car before you leave. If you know you want
to have a car for some or all of your trip, rent it before you leave
through a major U.S. company to save big bucks over the cost of
renting on the spot in Europe.
- Don’t rent a gas guzzler. Renting a smaller car is cheaper, and you
save on gas to boot. Unless you’re traveling with kids and need lots
of space, don’t go beyond the economy size.
- Invest in a rail pass. Europe’s extensive train system constitutes its
greatest transportation asset. The train system’s best value is its
family of Eurorail passes.
- Walk a lot. A good pair of walking shoes can save lots of money in
taxis and other local transportation. As a bonus, you’ll get to know
your destination more intimately because you explore at a slower
pace.
Lodging
Hotel costs in Europe can be sky-high — especially in big cities. If you
don’t relish the thought of shelling out big buck for a swank room you
won’t be spending much time in anyway, try some of the following tips:
- Catch 20 winks on an overnight train for $0 to $38. Armed with
your trusty rail pass, you can jump on an overnight train and fork
out just $38 for a reserved bunk in a sleeping couchette. Or if
you’re feeling lucky, take your chances on finding an empty sitting
couchette, slide down the seat back, and — voila! — you have a
bed for free! In the morning, you’ll have reached your destination
plus saved yourself a night’s hotel charge.
- Leave the private plumbing at home; take a room without a bathroom.
You can get a hotel room that shares a bathroom down the
hall for about two-thirds as much as you pay for a virtually identical
room with its own plumbing.
- Get a triple or cots, not two rooms, if you have kids. At most
European hotels, kids stay for free in a parent’s room. At the
worst, a hotel may charge a small fee ($10–$20) for the extra bed.
- Rent a room instead of staying at a hotel. At $20 to $50 a night, private
rooms for rent beat out even the cheapest B&Bs or pensions.
You may also get the experience of staying in a real European home,
which no 5-star hotel can give you for any price.
- Give the ultra-cheap accommodations a try. If sleeping near
150 roommates (mostly students) on a wooden floor under a big
tent sounds appealing, you can spend a night in Munich for $11,
breakfast included. Budget options abound in Europe, from hostels
(dorm bunks cost $20) to convents ($20–$50) to extreme options
like Munich’s aforementioned mega tent. Check out www.beyond
hotels.net for more details.
- Opt for a double bed instead of two singles. Fewer sheets for the
hotel to wash equals savings for you. Though this “twin versus
double” option is disappearing in many places, it still holds true in
some countries. Even noncouple buddies can travel this way —
although if your traveling partner is of the opposite sex, pretend
you’re married just to put traditionalist Europeans more at ease.
- Get out of town. In many places, big savings are just a short drive
or taxi ride away. Hotels outside the historic center, in the next town
over, or otherwise less-conveniently located are great bargains.
- Never allow the hotel to handle your laundry — unless you enjoy
being taken to the cleaners, so to speak. You can wash a few pieces
of clothes in the sink each night, roll them in towels to sop up the
dampness, and hang them on the radiator to dry — or even better,
on the heated towel racks (a silly amenity even cheap places are
installing). Or look for a laundry shop that washes and dries clothes
based on weight (an average load costs $10). Most European cities
have them; start looking near the local university.
- Rent a room that doesn’t include breakfast. Often hotels charge
an extra $10 to $15 a night when breakfast is “included.” You can
get the same food for about $3 at a nearby cafe.
Dining
Don’t worry — you won’t have to starve or even eat bad food to keep
dining costs to a minimum. There are plenty of ways to eat well in
Europe without breaking the bank:
- Stuff yourself if your hotel room rate includes breakfast. Don’t be
shy about loading up on the food that comes with your room. Have
three rolls and a big bowl of cereal or as much meat and cheese as
you can eat. Trust me; you’re paying for the food. To avoid an expensive
lunch, stick an orange and an extra roll in your pocket for later.
- Reserve a hotel room with a kitchenette. Doing your own cooking
and dishes may not be your idea of a vacation, but you can save a
lot of money by not eating in restaurants three times a day. Even if
you only make breakfast or cook the occasional dinner, you’ll save
in the long run.
- Try expensive restaurants at lunch instead of dinner. Lunch
menus often boast many of the same specialties, but at a fraction
of the dinnertime cost.
- Lunch on pub grub in Britain and Ireland. An authentic, yet cheap,
meal in a British pub includes a sandwich and a sturdy pint of ale.
You can find options for sandwiches and snacking in every country.
- Order from fixed-price and tourist menus. Fixed-price meals can
be up to 30 percent cheaper than ordering the same dishes a la
carte. Although the options on a fixed-price menu are limited, you
can’t beat the price.
- Picnic often. For well under $10, you can dine like a king wherever
you want — on a grassy patch in the city park, in your hotel room,
or on the train.
Attractions/shopping
Some of the best sights in Europe are absolutely free, and you can often
find ways to get a discounted rate on the rest:
- Purchase a Paris Museum Pass. The Paris Museum Pass gives you
unlimited entry for three full days to virtually all Parisian museums
and sights (the Eiffel Tower is the only major one not on the list) for
only $45. It also saves you the hassle of waiting in ticket lines. You
can find similar passes in other cities (Austrian and Scandinavian
ones are particularly great on this) that also grant you free travel
on city buses and subways and other benefits.
- Visit the free or near-free sights. You can, for example, witness
first-hand Paris cafe culture for the price of a cup of coffee ($2)
or cruise the Grand Canal in Venice for under $8 on the public
vaporetto (water ferry). Other free sights and experiences include
London’s British Museum, Tate, and National Gallery; Rome’s
Pantheon and lively piazzas; and throughout Europe, most churches
and cathedrals, church services where choirs sing, medieval quarters,
sidewalk performers, baroque fountains, city parks, and street
markets. Check out www.europeforfree.com for city-by-city lists.
- Take advantage of free or reduced-price museum days. See the
Vatican for free on the last Sunday of every month. You can uncover
such policies at many other museums as well. The Louvre, for example,
waives admission on the first Sunday of the month and is also
almost half price after 3 p.m. Read your guidebooks carefully, check
the status of freebie days at www.europeforfree.com, and take
advantage of the free days and hours of reduced admission, but
remember that other people have the same idea — the museums
will be most crowded during these free times.
- Skip the souvenirs. Your photographs and memories serve as the
best mementos of your trip. Ten years down the road, you won’t
care about the T-shirts, key chains, Biersteins, and the like.
- Use traveler’s checks wisely. Trade traveler’s checks at the bank
for local currency or you’ll get a bad exchange rate. Also, exchange
booths at major tourist attractions give the most miserable rates. | 
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