European Travel Secrets: Hostels, Free Site-Seeing and More

So you are planning a trip to Europe? Wonderful. Now how do you go about this and save money, too? Well, first of all, you have to get there, right? Now, if you're lucky you will fly out of a large metropolitan airport (such as LAX or Chicago). If you happen to live somewhere in the boonies and are close to a smaller airport- let's say, Milwaukee, consider your options. If at all possible, make the drive to a larger city in order to save some big bucks.

OK, so let's say you live in Milwaukee but decide to fly out of Chicago. Great. Price a round trip ticket to JFK, LaGuardia, or Newark. Then, price a ticket from JFK, LaGuardia, or Newark to your final destination- let's say London Heathrow. If the price is great- and it may be if you compare it to a regular round trip ticket from Milwaukee to London Heathrow, book it. There. The first part is done. And you may have just saved yourself a few hundred dollars.

Now, let's say you wanted to visit London, but then want to visit Barcelona. Check out your other airport options in London. For instance- RYANAIR flies out of London-Standstead airport or Luton airport. Right now, they are running a special from Luton-Barcelona (Girona) for 10.00 pounds. Not bad, eh? We're just getting started. From Barcelona, you decide to travel on to Frankfurt (Hahn). There are flights starting at .01. Keep in mind, the prices are in pounds here. Still not bad!

If you decide that you would rather see a little countryside, you may decide to go with a Eurail pass. Trains travel all over Europe, and you can get some great deals by selecting a few places to visit. You may choose London-Frankfurt, in which case regular train tickets start at 248.00 dollars round trip. There are also other options such as multiple country passes (which include 3, 4, or 5 bordering countries), senior passes, and youth passes. Youth passes do not require that you are a student, just under the age of 26.

Speaking of youth, hostels are commonly used throughout Europe. For starters, in france, a person under 26 could stay at the L'Etoile Bleue, for $25/night.