How to travel around Europe (the budget-plan way!)

We all know that traveling around the European continent is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but that it can also be quite expensive! There are many tricks to getting around this budget issue while still enjoying your trip.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Be sure to plan out what you want to see and where you’d like to go. Perhaps making a long list is a good way to start and then slowly begin to narrow it down to the most important places.
2. Research hostels. These are often very clean, very friendly places and they’re also great places to meet other fun travelers doing the same things that you are. However, some of the hostels can have hidden costs, could be located in bad areas, could be unfriendly, or unclean. A good website is hostels.com because there are ratings from people who have already stayed there. Therefore, the results and the ratings are very honest and you can be sure that you get what you expect.
3. Look into rail passes. For a youth second class pass it can be rather inexpensive for the amount of time and places that you can visit. This is your best bet, since in some countries regular tickets can be pretty expensive. Be sure to buy the rail protection pass along with it so that you have some back up support in case you lose the pass or it is stolen. Go to Google and enter ‘eurorail’.
4. If you’re interested in visiting several different countries that are further apart, perhaps a flight is the best option for you. If you’re willing to be flexible, you can find incredibly cheap flights all over the continent. Airlines such as Ryanair, Air Berlin, and many others offer extreme discounts to people who are able to be flexible in their choices.
5. Do your research, but remember that things will go wrong so be sure to have enough extra cash saved up. Be flexible and open and you will have a wonderful time exploring such a fascinating continent!