I want to travel around Europe this summer and I want to do it cheaply. I am freshly out of college and I am poor. Does anybody have any advice on places to visit/stay, how to get to places (like buses or trains), and economize my money and anything else you can think of that would be helpful.
Well, it’s a while since I lived cheaply in Europe, but when I was really skint, I would hitchhike, and sleep in a tent (you can usually knock on a farmer’s door and ask if you can put your tent up in his field - he may charge you, but it’ll be a nominal fee - otherwise just pitch in the woods). The general rule, however, is that buses suck and are therefore way cheaper than trains.
If want to travel by train you might be interested in an Interrail ticket (As far as I know travelling by train is far more common in Europe than in the US.)
The Interrail System divides Europe into 8 zones. You can buy tickets that are valid in one or more zones for one month. There is no limit on your number of trips within your zones. Especially if you are 25 or younger and plan to move a lot this is very cheap.
Unfortunately I haven’t found an English page yet but at least the zones should be obvious.
Some prices (25 and younger):
22 days, 1 zone: 219 EUR
1 month, 2 zones 285 EUR
1 month, 3 zones 329 EUR
1 month, all 8 zones 389 EUR
Most of Europe is pretty easy to reach by railway so this is virtually all you need.
If you have any more specific questions a German (poor university student) could answer just let me know.
Back in 1985 we spent 6 weeks in Europe on roughly $1,200 - but that was before the dollar fell (along with the Berlin Wall!).
One of our tricks was sleeping on the trains - at the time, the passes we bought were called Eurail passes, but the Interrail pass sounds about the same. If you’re under 26 yrs old, you can qualify for a student rate. We bought the passes here in the U.S. somehow.
I remember the vast majority of museums as being free admission, and I remember staying in the homes of several elderly people who were in the habit of taking on guests (talk about some excellent cooking!). Youth hostels are another possibility, although we never found one we liked & didn’t carry bedding with us. I believe we found most of our accommodations through Frommer’s guide, but I don’t know if those are even published any more.
One cheap trick that worked over and over again - when you get off the train, the hotels within easy walking distance cost double those that are a few more inconvenient blocks away.
Also, bring vitamins. We missed a lot of meals just because it was too much trouble to go find something to eat.
Did you buy your ticket yet? Students can get cheaper airfare on sites such as Student Universe or STA.
www.studentuniverse.com/
www.statravel.com/statravel/default.aspx
I think $1,500 for 6 weeks is doable, if you stay in hostels (or camp) and eat cheaply (lots of doner kabobs). And yes, sleeping on night trains or ferries is another option.
Go to the library or bookstore, look at some guidebooks and see what interests you. Think about where you’d like to go. Do you like cities and nightlife? Small villages and pubs? A mixture of the two? What about museums and famous landmarks? Have a look at our travel site, we can help you with budget travel.
All about the trains in Europe:
(The flash interactive maps are real nice.)
http://www.raileurope.com/us/common/rail_map/index.htm
I used Fodor’s guide to find cheap places to stay, this worked out well for me. I figured if it was in Fodor’s the place wouldn’t be a total disaster. I did find some very reasonable places to stay in Fodor’s.
The biggest problem I found in Europe was the language barrier. Try to be as polite as possible if you only speak English, after all you are a quest in another country, not at Disneyland (many Americans don’t understand this concept). It seems that most people in Europe know some English, but many are reluctant to speak it.
Have fun!!! I am thinking about doing the same thing for a few weeks this summer 
Although there’s no question that trains can be extremely cheap, if there’s specific places you want to go, then it’s worth looking for cheap flights instead of spending half your time on trains…for example I randomly looked up London-Milan with www.ryanair.com and there’s one-way tickets for $30 in April. The best list of cheap airlines seems to be www.whichbudget.com
Quick comment on the trains thing -
It has been many years since I have been on a train in (mainland) Europe, but I recall that even with an interrail ticket you can be hit quite severely with subsidies for certain lines or trains at certain times (especially in Switzerland and Austria, IIRC), so be sure to budget for this when planning routes. It is probably quite difficult to know this in advance as they spring it on you when you are past the point of no return, so ask around fellow travellers if you are staying in Hostels to ensure you don’t get caught.
Further budget option - beg European dopers for a room to crash in as you pass through their city…
For some trips like London-Milan which would take very long by train or even require a passage by ship (Ok, London-Milan doesn’t… ) those cheap airlines are definitely an option. However keep in mind that part of their strategy is flying to and from cheap smaller airports (abandoned air force bases… ) often very far from the cities advertised. Ryan Air has already lost lawsuits because of false advertising (e.g. “Frankfurt” Hahn is nowhere near Frankfurt) so read the fine print and don’t forget your transfers to and from the airport.
There are several great websites out there completely dedicated to this very subject.
You can find just about anything you’d ever want to know at www.eurotrip.com or www.chatarea.com/backpackers
Good luck!
Lots of good suggestions, especially the Eurotrip web site. Lonely Planet also has loads of good resources, including destination guides and a message board.
My two cents:
– $50-60 USD per day is a decent ballpark budget for most of western Europe, assuming that you stay in hostels, do a fair amount of sightseeing and have a few drinks, and eat cheaply but don’t live on ramen noodles the whole time. You can get by on less in eastern Europe – but wherever you go, you should save enough extra money to provide a cushion if things go wrong.
– Avoid the temptation to pile on the destinations – if you’re hitting a new country every two days, you’ll just end up spending way too much to see too little. Pick a few countries that interest you, preferably ones where you can at least stumble along in the language, and allow an absolute minimum of three days for each major city (and take the time to see some smaller towns as well). Don’t forget to work transportation time into your plans.
– Know your own interests, rather than trying to hit all the places you feel you “should” go. If you hate Renaissance art, you probably aren’t going to like Florence all that much, and if big cities aren’t your thing, you really won’t enjoy the six-world-capitals-in-two-weeks tour that lots of first-time travelers plan.
– Figure out a rough itinerary before you spring for a rail pass, and check the prices for both buses and trains along your planned route; depending on where you’re going, it may be cheaper to buy point-to-point tickets instead. (By the way, the Let’s Go guidebooks generally have the most up-to-date information about transit prices and times, although Lonely Planet tends to be stronger on destination information.)
– However, don’t overplan, and don’t feel like you MUST stick to your itinerary after you get there. Part of the fun of backpacking is the occasional spontaneous trip to a place you’ve never heard of before with a bunch of new friends.
I heartily recommend the book Europe Through The Back Door by Rick Steves. It gives you all sorts of ideas for traveling cheaply in Europe. It has a very conversational tone so you can read through it without getting bogged down. The one thing I would caution you about this book is that many of the specific locations (towns, hotels, restaurants, etc) have become quite popular and are apparently no longer as “quaint” as they used to be. Rick Steves also runs a large tour company (I took one of their tours a few years ago–it was great!) and many of the locations in the book are stops on the Rick Steves tour. So getting a room in one of the hotels listed in his guidebook might not be easy since his tours often keep the hotel booked up. That aside, the book really does have some wonderful advice and information!
Define “cheaply.”
I always tell people to take the same money as if you were going to go from Los Angeles to Manhattan, stopping in some cheaper places along the way, but occasionally having to spend more in some larger places. Same thing with duration…how much would you need if you wanted to make that LA-NYC trip over 3 weeks, 6 weeks or longer? That should give you your budget.
Regarding trains. I learned a “trick” but it was many years ago and don’t know if it still works.
You first study a map of Europe and plan where you want to go. Then, for instance, buy a 2nd class ticket from Amsterdam to Rome. The ticket is good for 3 months I believe, and during that time you can get on and off the train as often as you wish, as long as you are going in the same direction. For instance…go from Amsterdam and get off at some village in Germany for a few days, then get back on the train and get off at some place in Switerland, and then do the same til you get to Rome. That way, you can just stop anywhere that looks pretty or interesting, find a cheap Hostel and do some roaming around that area. Chances are you will meet more interesting people as you will be stopping in less populated (touristy) areas. I found the interrail passes to be expensive in that every day you were NOT travelling was wasted money.
But go, enjoy and drop a thread on the SDMB along the way!
I agree with this. You almost wonder if buying point-to-point is better.
Check out hospitality exchanges. I stayed in Copenhagen for free with a host on Pasporta Servo. There is a catch though.
I’m also planning a trip to europe this spring. I’ve saved a bit for it, but I’m trying to go as cheap as possible. I really recomend StudentUniverse.com. I found plane tickets for $100 cheaper than anything else around, hostel listings, and for me personally, really cheap tours ($250 for 5 days). From what I’ve learned, where you go will affect what you pay, like England is supposed to be more expensive than Italy. Good luck!
Certainly don’t expect this trick to work…the small print for the ticket will vary from country to country…it might only be valid for 24 or 48 hours, and you may well only be able to stop off at places you’d be changing trains anyway. And getting stung for a fine for travelling without a valid ticket would not be pleasant. But if you can get it to work, then great idea!
Keep an eye on the currency exchange rates. I was recently in the UK, and paid more when the pound shot up to almost 2 to the dollar. On prior trips it was like 1.45 pounds to the dollar. The euro is also holding stronger than the dollar. For a currency value site, see: http://www.oanda.com/converter/travel
I also second eurotrip.com
Hope you get to go, and bon voyage!
I thought someone would correct me here. A post without caffeine!
Not a math major. The correction: more like 2 dollars to the pound, and 1.45 dollars to the pound. In other words, the U.S. dollar is weaker in the UK and where the euro is used. It does fluctuate.