Tips For Traveling To Europe – Europe is an exciting melting pot of culture, architecture, cuisine, fashion and history. Whatever your style, at any time you can enjoy famous cities, beautiful cities, beautiful rivers and canals, countryside vineyards and a variety of festivals that will give you unforgettable memories of your travels. However, backpacking through Europe is no easy task. Especially if you are on a budget.
If you’re not careful, you can easily spend a fortune on your big Eurotrip and still wonder if you saw the best of Europe. To avoid this, we’ve compiled a list of our top tips for backpacking through Europe to ensure your trip is awesome and doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Tips For Traveling To Europe
European travel tips are great, but city-specific tips on how to save money, cheap places to eat, and things to do are even better. Here are our in-depth travel guides to Florence, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, Vienna, Cologne and Copenhagen. There are also specific tips for Austria.
European Travel Tips In 2022
Backpacking through Europe is fun, but it can be a nightmare carrying a 50+ liter backpack. Save yourself back pain by packing what you need. For suggestions on what to pack and how to choose the best backpack for travel, check out our Bulls*** free packing list, our anti-packing list and our guide to choosing the best travel backpack.
Don’t travel without travel insurance just to save money. If something happens to you on the road, you need to be prepared. The most popular travel insurance providers are World Nomads, Safety Wing and Haymondo.
Summer is the worst time to backpack through Europe because it’s crowded and expensive. Instead, travel in the shoulder or off-season, when the crowds are less and accommodation is about 40-50% cheaper.
Long stays in popular European destinations can be expensive. Instead, share the love and visit less expensive but equally beautiful European countries like Estonia, Hungary, Croatia, or the Czech Republic.
Financially Savvy Tips For Traveling To Europe
Researching common tourist traps and scams for your destination before you go can save you a lot of money. Want an example? Sitting in a coffee shop in Italy and drinking a cup of coffee will cost you more than 10 euros. If you’d done your research beforehand, you’d know to get coffee or stand up to avoid the crazy fees.
In most European countries all state museums are free on the first or last Sunday of the month. By visiting Florence on the first Sunday of the month, we saved over $100 in museum fees.
If you have a student ID card between the ages of 18-24, you are entitled to discounts at many attractions in Europe. So don’t forget to pack your valid student ID.
I know how tempting it is to pack your European itinerary with as many European countries as possible, but seriously don’t. Narrow it down to a few places so you save money, travel to the places you really want to, avoid burnout, and spend more time really appreciating a country with more than two days. Europe is not going anywhere, you can always come back.
Top Ten Tips For Traveling To Europe With Kids
Also, it’s best to plan for your trip, don’t overplan! Be flexible and give yourself some wiggle room to experience and enjoy a place.
You can find hostels anywhere in Europe. Staying in a hostel is also a great way to meet other travelers and make friends while you’re backpacking through Europe. The best search engines used to book hostels are Hostelworld and Booking.com.
Here are our favorite hostels in cities like Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Rome, Vienna, Munich, Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Dublin and more.
Private rooms in hostels are always more expensive than a private room in a budget hotel or an Airbnb rental (see tip 15).
Travel Tips Within Europe — Yogabycandace
Save money by staying at a cheap hostel with breakfast included! Why not kill two birds with one stone?
Save money by not staying directly in the city center. Instead, book accommodation within walking distance or a short bus ride into the city centre.
I know what you’re thinking… renting an apartment can’t be cheaper than a hostel. But they can be, especially if you’re traveling in a group or as a couple. We rented an entire apartment on Airbnb for $50 USD a night in Rome. Not only was it cheap, but we had our own private space, kitchen and washing machine without snoring roommates. Click here to get $35 off your next booking with Airbnb using our Airbnb coupon code.
There are many campgrounds in Europe, and a good number of them are located near popular European cities. Camping is a great way to cut your accommodation costs in half, especially in popular and expensive cities. For example, we paid $10 per person for a 2-person bungalow in Venice, a 10-minute bus ride from the city center.
Top Ten Tips For Traveling In Europe
Couchsurfing is a great way to meet locals, learn about the city, make new friends and stay somewhere for free!
Stay at someone’s house or house pets while on vacation to get free accommodation during your trip. The best sites to search for housesitting assignments are Trusted Housesitters or Housecares.
Countries like Germany and the Netherlands are great places to hitchhike, while in countries like Austria or France you can age before someone picks you up.
There is also a very useful and active Facebook group called Hitchhiking in Europe where you can ask questions, read about other people’s experiences and find a hitchhiking partner.
Essential Europe Travel Tips To Know Before You Go
You can get where you want to go easily and cheaply by carpooling with locals who are already heading in your direction. The best and most active ride sharing program in Europe is called BlaBlaCar.
Rentals are cheap, and bike paths are plentiful and wider than most walking trails, so why not save money while improving your health. Some cities, like Vienna, have free bike rental programs!
If you’re cycling across Europe, look out for hot showers. Warmshower is a free community similar to Couchsurfing, but for touring cyclists. Bikesurf is another non-profit sharing community where you can rent bikes for free or very cheap throughout your visit!
It seems strange that travel writers mention buses in their “tips for backpacking through Europe” articles, especially as a cheap way to get around Europe.
Tips For Americans Looking To Travel & Not Splurge When Visiting Europe
A great website to use to find the cheapest way to get anywhere within Europe is Busradar. Busradar is a search engine for bus travel in Europe, although they also include trains and BlaBlaCar in their searches.
Many bloggers will swear by Eurail and brag about how cheap it is, but it’s not! They only tell you that because they got free passes in exchange for writing a post! They will never buy it themselves, yet they make a bad recommendation out of it. Skip the pass, save money, and take the buses instead!
Don’t like long bus rides, hitchhiking, or sharing a car with strangers but want to save money? Then fly with budget airlines. Budget airlines are a gift from the travel gods to budget backpackers like us, and there are over a dozen in Europe! 🙂 With European budget airlines like Ryanair, EasyJet or Norwegian Air, you can easily fly anywhere in Europe! For example, last summer we flew from Rome to Amsterdam for only 17 euros!
Read our guide on how to effectively use budget airlines and pay $0 in fees to keep your flight costs down.
Essential Travel Tips You Need To Know Before Visiting Europe
Train travel isn’t always the cheapest or budget-friendly way to get around Europe, although there are times when it can be cheaper than other modes of transport. So don’t forget to check local rail websites when planning your journey.
Once in the city, walk everywhere you can, and when you can’t walk anymore, take public transportation. We also recommend splitting your sights based on location so you don’t waste money jumping from one end of town to the other.
Most European countries charge an extra fee when you buy your bus ticket directly from the bus driver. To avoid extra fees, buy your bus ticket in advance at a tobacco shop or newsstand. In some places, like Naples and Milan, you can’t even buy public transport tickets, you have to buy them in advance.
Public transport in many European countries may seem free, especially when everyone seems to get on buses and trains without paying, but it’s not! These countries actually use the honor system, which means if you get caught by one of the secret patrollers, you will pay a hefty fine! For example in Salzburg, if you are caught without a ticket you will pay an 80 euro fine! So pay a 1-2 euro fee or a chance of €50+ on the hole.
How Travelers To Europe Can Deal With The Summer’s Chaos
Surprisingly, good quality meat, produce and everything else for that matter is cheap in European supermarkets, meaning you save money by cooking your own meals.
P.S. If you want to eat at least once