“Travel makes one modest, you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”- Gustave Flaubert
Europe is one of the most popular and expensive travel destinations in the world and is a very common item on people’s bucket list. It gets expensive because once you are in one European country, it is very hard to resist visiting a neighboring country as they are all so close to each other. Most first timers always try to squeeze in as many destinations as their time and budget permits, making it a substantial expensive trip in the end.
Last year I decided to check this item off of my bucket list too and ended up traveling to 4 countries with my husband and 3 year old (I had to pay almost full priced tickets for her!!) for 20 days while remaining well within our budget.
1. Choose Your Destinations Wisely: Now this may not sound very helpful but hear me out. This is applicable for people going to Europe for the first time and are not too picky about the destinations. And trust me, there is a large group of people who will fall under this category including myself. But I also had 2 MUST HAVEs and they were France (Paris in particular) and Switzerland. Visiting Switzerland has been a dream since I was a little girl, thanks to Bollywood movies for that.
I first researched on cheap European destinations online then figured Eastern Europe is the way to go but that would not work out with my MUST HAVEs since France and Switzerland are part of Western Europe. Then once I had a few choices that was close to Paris, I started looking for cheap flights from Toronto to those destinations. The options I was getting commonly were Portugal, Spain or Italy; I finally decided on Portugal because I got an incredible deal, but Spain and Italy are also very inexpensive options. Remember your first destination will pretty much map out the rest of your trip. So choose wisely!
2. Do Not Use Travel Agents: This may sound ridiculous to some people because who uses travel agents these days, it’s not the 90s yo! but trust me there are busy couples with children who sometimes don’t have the time or energy to organize a trip like this especially that involves multiple destinations. And opting for a travel agent will be costly because they are doing all the research work for you so you are basically paying for their services.
But, if you do a bit of research yourself and have a plan, then you will see it is very much doable and so much more cost effective. Since I already knew I am going to Paris next from Lisbon I purchased my next flight to Paris but if you are flexible and don’t have preferences, then the next step for you would be to google “closest European City from Lisbon (or whatever your first choice of destination was)”. Most common option would be Spain if Portugal was the first choice. And then depending on the number of places you want to visit, use the same strategy to pick each destination onwards. Remember you cannot see even fraction of this continent even if you spend months so with the short vacation time we have from work, we can only try and make the best we can. Also remember, there is always a next time!
3. Buy Your Air Tickets Early: It is given that the most money you will be spending on an Europe trip is on the flights and you will be surprised to know how much money you can save buy purchasing them in advance. Now this may not work for everyone but I would assume a trip like this doesn’t happen last minute and people usually plan it out in advance. So as soon as you decide on your first destination, start searching for flights as early as up to a year in advance. I know sounds crazy but that’s what I did and paid half the price of a regular ticket.
4. Fly During Off Season: This is a no brainer and if this is an option for you, always go for it. Though it’s not an option for parents with children that attends school but for single people and couples this is the way to get the most bang for your buck! Avoid traveling between April to September and opt to travel around October to March but if you want to really get those deals, fly between November and February. If you also want to be part of the festivities, make your travel arrangements during the Christmas time. If your from Canada like me you would love their mild winter. It practically is fall weather!
5. Stay in Budget Hotels: If you are like us and your only requirement is a clean room at the end of the day then this option is for you. Hostels in Europe are also very popular and they are dirt cheap. Europeans hostels are actually a really cool thing over and should be the first choice for single people or even couples as some hostels also offer double room. But most hostels have shared bathrooms and that was something that we were not comfortable doing. I used booking.com, hotels.ca, expedia.ca and trivago to compare hotel prices. But remember not to get carried away and always think about your safety first. For this reason, I never like the idea of apartment type airbnbs especially if it’s shared.
Another very important thing to look for in your hotel is whether it has a safe. The idea is to save money yet keeping yourself and your belongings safe while you are out and about. So choose budget hotels but stay away from shady apartments or rather small motels. It was very easy to find good economy hotels in Paris and Zurich without having to worry about quality or safety but took me a while to find good ones in Lisbon and Venice. Just do a bit of a research before committing to one. Also staying a little far away from the city center can save you some money but you end up paying more in transportation. But if the local transporation is cheap in the city you are traveling to, you are in luck!
6. Don’t Dine in at Restaurants: We practically lived off of fast food and pizzas during our entire stay in Europe. It was very easy to find cheap street food and cheap yet super delicios pizzerias in Lisbon and Venice however our only cheap option in Paris and Zurich was fast food. You can never really go wrong with good old McDs and we tried McDonalds at each of those cities and was mindblown. Each McDonald was different from another and was far more tasty than the North American ones. You guys need to eat at McDs in Zurich, it is to die for!
2 TIPS ON SAVING TIME
- Take flights Instead of Trains: If you have a baby or just pressed with time, please take flights over trains. I chose to fly to all the destinations as I didn’t want to waste time traveling. This saved me so much time that I was able to visit more places than I thought I could. Also surprisingly enough the tickets were almost same or less than train or bus tickets. I used Easyjet and Ryan Air for flying within Europe.
- Buy Tickets for the attractions in advance: It may not be cheaper but you sure will save tons of time especially for a place like Eiffel Tower. I used Tripadvisor.ca and VisitACity.com to book the tickets. I looked for “Things to Do” then went over different categories based on my interest. Be sure to bring printed copies of your tickets.
Lastly I wanted to say that if you want to visit Europe and also stay in boutique hotels and eat at fancy restaurants, then you must be rich and probably wouldn’t benefit much from this post. The whole idea is to compromise in areas that are less important for you and spend money on things that actually matters to you just like I didn’t mind paying 40 franks to eat at Mcds in Zurich because that was my priority but I saved money buy eating a full breakfast with coffee for all 3 of us under 10 Euros in Lisbon.
I hope this post can also help you book your next European dream vacation without breaking your bank.
Thanks dear, your suggestions are really very helpful. I will try to follow those next time. It will definitely help us. 👍
Thank you so much for checking out the suggestions. I’ll be so happy if it really helps you plan your budget Euro trip 😊