How to travel around Europe
If you travel by yourself to Europe, you will find several alternatives to move around, which are very important to know to make the most out of your trip.
Most transatlantic trips will arrive to a major city. Then, according to the cities you would like to visit, find out how much the plane ticket is including the trip to the next city in your schedule. Most of the time, this won’t cost you more and you will travel from one city to the next almost for free.
Within Europe, trains are the most common way to move around cities and they are very reliable and affordable. The known EurailPass, will let you travel all around Europe first class for 15 day, 21 days, 1 month, 2 months or 3 months.
Regardless the plan proposed to you by your travel agent; if you still use one, check the different plans Eurail has on their site because, there are several plans that can save you some money, but even more, fit better to your travel schedule.
Cars can be used to move from one city to another, but avoid using cars within cities, because parking is very expensive, if you find one. Also, driving directions are very difficult in most European cities as they are quite old and they were not made for car circulation. Therefore, you probably will loose more time lost in the car than watching the places you would like to know.
Buses are more expensive than trains and less reliable. Besides, buses stations are not at hand as train stations.
The last alternative to move within Europe is through cheap airlines which are very common in Europe. To get most flights and connections, you will need to depart from a major city like London, Paris or Berlin.
Although these discount airlines are sometimes even cheaper than trains, consider that you will have to leave from the airport of the city of your departure and obviously you will arrive to the airport of the city of your destination, and traveling from the city to the airport is usually quite expensive.
Also, the time involved to travel from and to the airports in question will be much longer than taking the train in the center of one city and arriving just to the middle of your destination, within minutes from your hotel.
Once in a given city, there are several alternatives to travel around too. You can find taxis everywhere, but if you look for something more affordable, most cities have great public transportation systems like subway and buses, which are used by everybody either tourists or locals.
In most major cities, public transportation is very easy to follow and use. There are always maps with the stations and connections to move around any city.
Although public transportation is a very cheap alternative, is more expensive than we are used to pay, therefore only purchase the tickets that you will really need for your stay.
Take a detailed look for the options, because some cities have combined passes for subway and buses and some others have weekly or weekend passes which can save you some money.
If you plan to stay more than one week in a given city, try to take some ID pictures with you because some weekly passes require a picture on them to make you a photo card.
Also, you have to identify the zone where you will be traveling around to purchase the precise ticket for the zone you will be traveling. One common mistake for first-timers is to purchase a multi-zone ticket which you won’t use at all.
To give you an example, a three day pass for the London tube (subway) will cost you around $27 US for zone 1-2 and will cost you around $62 for zone 1-6, and most of the attractions in London will be in zone 1.
Finally, the best advice you can get is that there are several options always in Europe to travel around, either within the cities or between countries, so a thorough research is always recommended to get the best deals and options.
