So, you’ve decided that you want to travel to Europe, but you aren’t rich. Welcome to the club! Then you check the plane tickets – Dear God, $1000 minimum round trip?! Absolutely preposterous. Here’s the trick I’ve discovered:
Only fly into the Major Hubs
Thus far I’ve found Amsterdam (AMS) and Frankfurt (FRA) to be the cheapest airports to fly into, depending on how close they are to your final destination. Those are just the ones that I have experience with, but you can find a list of the biggest airports in Europe here.
Frankfurt can especially be an overwhelming labyrinth when it comes to finding your way around, but from my experience the flights are usually $300-500 cheaper round trip when you fly into these airports.
Make sure you book the flights about 6 weeks before your departure date and try your best to book the departing and returning flights on Thursdays – Thursday flights are generally much cheaper.
Flixbus or Train from there
If you’re on a budget, Flixbus will be your best friend. Flixbuses are dirt cheap coach buses that will take you from virtually anywhere to anywhere in Europe. Their transportation network is incredible. They are super comfortable, clean and smooth (from my experience) and well worth your money. They usually have outlets and Wi-Fi as well.
Flixbus tickets, depending on where your destination is, usually cost no more than €50. Even if the ride is like 10 hours long! Crazy that we haven’t gotten something like that in the US yet.
The downfall of Flixbus is that it isn’t as fast as a plane or a train, but it is (most of the time) smoother and more comfortable than the other options. Weigh your options, check your budget, and decide if saving your money is worth spending the extra time in the bus. If your final destination is less than a 6 hour bus ride from the airport you land in, I’d say it’s worth it. But, that’s just, like, my opinion, man.
However, taking a train is another quick and cheap option. Europe has a vast train network, but it can get a little confusing when you’re traveling between countries and some countries’ trains are much higher quality than others.
For example, if you fly into Frankfurt and your final destination is somewhere in Germany, taking a Deutsche Bahn train is a good way to go. It’s fast, cheap, usually punctual, and very high quality. I’m not sure if I could recommend taking a train in Italy though, from my experience the seats aren’t comfortable at all and it’s usually pretty crowded (based on my trip from Rome-Milan).
I recommend downloading the Omio app, you can plug in your departure and arrival destinations and the trip dates, and it will compare the prices and the trip lengths between flights, trains and buses. Pretty handy.
Last Resort: Ryanair
Last resort is an understatement. If you haven’t heard of the notorious Ryanair, it’s just about the cheapest airline out there in every way. But, as a budget traveler, you’ll probably familiarize yourself with it soon enough.
The good thing about Ryanair is that it’s dirt cheap to get yourself from point A to point B. The bad thing is that as soon as you want/need anything beyond that, it gets expensive. Any kind of baggage beyond a handbag? Roughly $30 upcharge. This is a pain if you’re traveling with even just a carry-on suitcase.
Another downfall is that Ryanair doesn’t fly into all cities, so there’s a chance that your destination might not even be offered by the airline. Ryanair also sometimes flies into different, smaller airports in major cities instead of the large hubs, so you really have to pay attention when booking through them. For example, in Frankfurt, Germany, Ryanair flies into Frankfurt Hahn Airport instead of Frankfurt Airport (FRA). This can be deceiving, as it can be easily overlooked when booking and Frankfurt Hahn is an hour and a half outside of Frankfurt by car. Be careful!
Budget traveling can be very stressful stuff, but trust me, it’s an experience you’ll never forget. In the moment you may not always appreciate it but understand that as soon as the trip is over, you’ll miss it. The long bus rides, the exhausting train transfers, the connecting flights… there’s a bittersweet feeling to it that I’m not sure anything truly compares. Safe travels!
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