Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Stop and smell the roses.
Transportation eats a huge chunk of your travel budget and is
time consuming. Cut those travel costs by spending more time in fewer destinations. Addi-
tionally, you can focus on visiting a single country or on a specific geographical region. This
gives you the opportunity to better explore the local culture and discover the small things
you'd probably miss at first glance.
Relaxation time.
Most travelers focus on hopping between Europe's major cities. There is
nothing wrong with this travel style, but scheduling a few relaxing destinations will be a wel-
come reprieve from the constant noise and chaos of the city. It will give your mind and body
some much needed opportunities to decompress.
Short trips require better time management.
Generally, shorter trips require more plan-
ning than longer trips because your time is more valuable. If you only have two or three weeks,
consider spending more time planning and try to minimize the time you spend traveling. If
you're traveling for a few months then you can cut back on the pre-planning.
Save money, but lose some flexibility,
,
by booking in advance.
You can save a significant
amount of money if you book flights and some train tickets in advance (read the transporta-
tion chapters for more details). Cheaper hostel beds are the first to be booked in the summer
so you might be left with only the more expensive options if you don't book a little early.
However, booking in advance does require quite a bit more planning and you'll lose flexib-
ility because advance cheap tickets are usually nonrefundable. It's up to you to decide which
is more important.
Overestimate travel costs.
Leave a little padding in your budget for unexpected expenses.
Many budget travelers plan their trips around spending the bare minimum but run out of
money before the end of the trip. Overestimating your travel costs will help create an emer-
gency fund to get you out of those sticky situations.
Become familiar with transportation.
High-speed trains, long-distance trains, local
trains, regional trains, suburban trains, trams, subways, city buses, coaches, ferries . . . For
many travelers, this is the first time using such a complex and vast transportation network so
it can seem a little overwhelming. Take a little time to read up on how everything works. It
isn't too complicated, but everything will go a lot smoother if you do a little homework be-
forehand.
Estimating Daily Travel Costs
The main daily costs associated with travel include accommodation, food, sightseeing, public
transportation, and a few extra incidental costs. Most frugal-minded, hostel-hopping back-
packers spend around $70-$100/day in Western Europe and $40-$70/day in Eastern Europe.
At this level, you can travel fairly modestly and comfortably without making too many sacri-
