Plan your student travel around Europe on a low budget
While all of us have visited nearly all of the European countries, we have prepared a list of a few hacks which can make your student travel over Europe easier as well as much cheaper.
1. Look for lowcost airlines and avoid booking both-way tickets
You will find that you can really save money by booking a ticket in advance with a low cost airline, such as:
- Ryanair
- Vueling
- Easyjet, and so on…
These tickets can start from € 20, such a bargain! Also, don’t book immediately return tickets, sometimes it is cheaper to land in one city and then fly from another, especially in the regions with a conglomeration of big cities located close to each other.
2. Avoid on-season travelling
It is not a secret that during summer all hotels are booked, the prices are high and streets are overcrowded with tourists. Since summer is the time of vacations, none of the Europeans will be in town. Therefore it will be difficult to socialize with locals. That’s a shame while doing a student travel all over Europe!
Something similar happens during the winter when there are Christmas markets and New Year’s celebrations all around the city. There will be no place to sleep, everything is expensive and the most annoying thing – it is freezing in most countries!
Therefore, we recommend you to visit the European countries mainly during spring and autumn. Why? Because the prices are reasonable, the nature is beautiful and colorful during this period and it is neither hot nor freezing.
3. Plan your student travel in advance and schedule!
There is no doubt about the fact that all of the tourists in Europe would like to visit all of the famous places but that’s impossible to do at once, of course. That’s why you should plan the places you want to see and organize them into a time order so you won’t miss them, otherwise you might regret it. Here are few tips on how to plan your student travel by questioning yourself:
- Do you like art?
- Do you want to just sit back and enjoy the atmosphere?
- Do you want to explore the nightlife?
- Are you a nature lover?
- Do you want to get the most of your time here?
…and so on.
4. Save on museum fees with your student card
You may be surprised to know that most of the museums offer a free entry on some days and for example, most of the museums in Paris are free for EU students who are under 26, such as Louvre, Orsay, Invalides and so on. Therefore search for your particular destination and find out for yourself, because it would be a pity if you’d miss the opportunity to find out a piece of history for free.
5. Avoid countries with euro
…well, not literally. They are are awesome like every other European country, but the problem is that when you are on a tight budget, countries which are using their local currencies can be a huge money saver since you can take advantage of the exchange rate. You should consider countries such as the Czech republic, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Romania or Bulgaria but be aware of the fact that there are also some countries which don’t use euros but are expensive. These include for example Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and some others.
6. Eat your own food
Your trip can get really overpriced when you are eating all the time in restaurants and sleeping in hotels. But eating your own sandwich in a park under the Eiffel tower doesn’t sound so bad, right? Especially when there are more of you – enjoy a nice picnic and chat together! Also, be aware of the fact that a menu in restaurant can be different prices. In the western Europe it is normal for a drink, soup and main dish to pay around 10 euros, while in the eastern Europe 3-4 euros.
7. Use the bike
Instead of taking cabs, buses or the tube, which costs a lot of money, you can simply take a bike! Most of the major European cities have a wide network of a bicycle sharing system. This means that you can easily take a bike from a park station and then return it to another. FOR FREE!
8. Try the free “Pancho” tours
Some of the major cities have a group of enthusiasts who will guide you through the city, show you the most important sights, explain the history of the city and instead of paying 30 – 40 € for a tour, you can explore the city with them for free. If you want to find out something more about how to plan city tours on low budget, click here!
9. Ask the locals for tips (BE SOCIAL)
You can browse the internet for as long as you want but some essential information is possible to find out only with the help of the locals. They can give you useful tips, recommend you places where to eat or sleep, tell you the sights you have to see and so on. This will not only save you money but time as well and when you are travelling only for a couple of days, that can be really important.
10. Search for free wi-fi
Nowadays, lots of places offer free wi-fi, especially in the Eastern Europe. Restaurants, hotels, fast foods, you can find wi-fi in all of these places and it can be sometimes a life saver when you want to find out something or search for something.
11. Use the railways
Although flights are great, fast and now also cheap, sometimes it is better to travel by train. You can easily avoid the waiting time which is needed before boarding (time spent at the airport as well as spent by the transport to the airport) and when it comes to luggage and transport fee, the journey can get really pricey. But with trains you avoid all of this. You can take as much luggage as you want, you don’t spend any time with the security control and the biggest advantage is that you can explore the beautiful places of the country directly from the train. If you don’t mind the dark and you really want to save, go for the night trains since they tend to be cheaper
One extra tip: Trains in Slovakia are FREE for students!
12. Share a ride
There are many opportunities to travel by car. You can rent a car, you can hitchhike, you can buy one. But have you ever thought about sharing a ride online? You can take the advantage of other possibilities and list through the people who are sharing places to travel with them. You just select the place where you want to get and the city you will be travelling from and a list of people will show up with the type of car, the schedule and even their ratings, so you will be sure that you will arrive safe and sound.
This is one huge money saver!
13. Try couchsurfing
Some of us are still a bit old fashioned and I guess not all would go for this, but if you are on tight budget, there is nothing better to do than to go couchsurfing! WHY?Because you can sleep in a bed for FREE! Seriously. Free. A Europe tour doesn’t seem so expensive now, right?
Listing of the 10 most affordable cities for student travel all over Europe
- Sofia, Bulgaria
- Berlin, Germany
- Riga, Latvia
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Kiev, Ukraine
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Budapest, Hungary
- Krakow, Poland
- Vilnius, Lithuania