Reading Time: 5 minutesAs a lot of you who follow my updates on Instagram, might be knowing, that I did a 2-week Euro Trip covering 6 cities in 4 countries from the 9th January to 23rd January 2018. After the trip, when I shared my experience with my friends, everyone was shocked when I told them that I did the whole trip within 260 GBP / 370 USD / INR 23,500 excluding the 92 GBP Schengen VISA fees.
Being off season, I was able to fix up my transportation for my Euro Trip from Leeds – Leeds under 95 GBP. This included my transportation from Leeds – London – Prague – Brno – Vienna – Bratislava – Nitra – Budapest – London – Leeds. Despite being winters, I travelled light and took advantage of Ryanair’s non-priority low fares, which resulted in my flying from London – Prague in 15 GBP and back from Budapest – London in 25 GBP. Within Europe, I travelled with FlixBus and RegioJet, which offered fares for as less as 5 GBP and a travel time of anywhere between an hour and an hour and a half.
As all the cities I travelled through, usually see a lot of tourists travelling on a budget, meant presence of several hostels offering high quality dormitories within a reasonable budget. Out of the 6 cities, even though I was offered a complimentary stay in Prague, Vienna, Bratislava and Nitra, I booked my own accommodation in Brno (2 nights) and Budapest (4 nights) costing me roughly 30 GBP. While the hostels in Prague, Vienna and Budapest were a stone throw distance away from the underground metro stations, which were connected to the bus stations, the hostels in Brno, Bratislava and Nitra, were hardly a 25-minute walk from the bus station and the best part about these hostels, were that they were barely 20 minutes’ walk away from the city center, which meant, I practically spent nothing for travelling within the city.
During the entire duration of my Euro Trip I spent roughly 120 GBP as I stuck to a daily budget of 10 GBP and even less that that on some of the days. While I tried the local dishes, drank beer on some days, some of my meals even comprised of self-cooked soup and noodles, which brought my cost down drastically. Another way I saved a ton of money was by taking the free walking tours in all the cities, rather than taking paid tours. Even though the free walking tours, are not exactly free, as they are based on tips, based on your budget, they are still an economical way of exploring the city through the eyes of locals and the beauty of the free walking tours, apart from being budget friendly, is that you get to meet a lot of fellow travelers as well.
Travel in low season, as that’s when you get the most economical rates, and you get to enjoy the beauty of the place minus the crowd.
Book your flight tickets the moment you see a decent rate; the trip can be planned later. Timely flight bookings saves a ton of money.
When in Europe, opt for hostels – they are plenty and are at par with the amenities provided in any hotel, but at a quarter of the rate of a hotel. Couchsurfing is also a good way of saving on the accommodation costs, and you get to stay, interact and if lucky, even see the city through the eyes of a local.
There are a couple of companies operating free walking tours in all major European cities, which is the best way to get an idea about the new city bang on the first day of arrival.
Choose your hostel, based on the ease of connectivity and time to reach the hostel from the bus/train station and the city center, and the one providing complimentary breakfast.
Ditch the fine dining restaurants, indulge in the local cuisine and make yourself a meal at the hostel kitchen if possible.
Quick Tip: If you’re preparing for a trip across multiple countries, staying connected to friends and family at this time is something that you would not want to compromise on. Buying an international SIM card is the fastest and most cost-effective way to stay in touch wherever you go!
I hope my experience and tips turn out to be of help to you, and if you have any further tips, feel free to drop a comment to help the other readers as well.
Related : Hostels of Europe – Ultra Modern, Luxurious and Budget Friendly !
Disclaimer : No compensation was received for this article, however Post Hostel Prague, Hostel Ruthensteiner, Vienna; DREAM Hostel, Bratislava and Nitra Glycerin Hostel offered my stay complimentary. As always, the opinions on theETLRblog.com are (and always will be) my own!
Great Blog!! What an amazing list of places. Your tips were very useful for Europe traveler. Europe is an awesome place for roaming. I love Europe. I read your blog and really happy with your information on Europe traveling. Thanks for such post and please keep it up.
for only $370, that is a very great deal. I think visiting europe should be the next target lol. thanks for this post.
Wow! this is amazing! thank you for sharing this experience with us, will surely try this one out soon!
I love to read your post! It looks a creative post and you are explained your post in much detail, which is very easy to understandable and also helpful for all.
Great post. This information is useful for me. I appreciate your work.
Wonderful job. I need such kind of post. Travelling through countries of Europe is my dream. But only thing kept me worried was budget. Your post is quite helpful to plan the trip around Europe. I will bookmark it for future. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, this looks like a great trip! Too bad the weather was cold – but you have to take the tradeoffs when you go in off-season. Great tips on traveling inexpensively, and great photos!
I previously had a conversation with my superior who told me that a trip to Europe will minimally cost $10,000, to which I ignored because I know it is possible to travel there on a budget. Your post certainly proves my point, great job!
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Wow that is a lot of travel for that budget, but it kind of makes sense that you’re already in Europe. I’d never be able to do it from the US for that price unfortunately.
What! $270 for 2 weeks – I’m gonna need to try this someday! Thanks for sharing this, I’ll definitely refer to your tips when I’m planning my next Eurotrip!
Great article good to know all about these budget tips for our travel itinerary. In my opinion hostel like a place is also a good option for a stay rather than the expensive hotel. Thanks for providing this information.
That’s A LOT of travel for only $370. Ryanair and Flix bus do offer amazing deals. And we’ve found that we actually enjoy the free walking tours more than the paid ones. It seems the tour guides go to more effort to make the tours unique and interesting than the canned ones that all sound the same on the paid ones. Probably so they make better tip money! It looks like you had an amazing adventure!
This is something very special for a traveller.This would really help to roam around Europe in Cheap.Being a traveler, these tips very helpful for me and I will follow these tips for sure.
Wow! Now, this is budget travel done right! You got to see so many places at a low cost. I’ll admit that I’m not a budget traveller, but I admire your resourceful-ness!
Thanks for the tips – these are great!
Have been telling the same to my friends in India too. Once you are in Europe, the travel is budget friendly, and to get out of their comfort box to travel during the off season.
That’s quite the budget, well done! It’s true that places in Europe see so much tourism that you have ample hostels available for budget travellers. Also, if you travel off season, it is much cheaper, prices skyrocket for the same places and experiences during summer months. By the way, I’ve never heard of the little town called Nitra but it looks gorgeous!
I love posts like this. Not only does it have great budget travel tips, it proves that travel doesn’t have to be expensive. Even if someone wanted to spend a little more than you did to upgrade their experience, it would still be affordable. Hotels/hostels in convenient locations to transportation is so important. Why save money on a hotel too far outside a city center and have to pay for buses, trains, and metros to get anywhere? I’m not much of a couchsurfer but free walking tours are such a great way to get to know more about a place.
Great post! Something like this would have been key for me to read up on before I departed on my first ever Europe trip. I wasn’t too keen on sticking to my budget and got myself into a bit of trouble 🙂 Good for you for putting this together – it is so great to remember the key things here to help you travel further, and for longer!
Thats quite a budget trip u had managed. Quite commendable though how you managed the trip in 370 USD. Europe in off season is the best time to explore since you can mange to do a lot of things in your budget. The tips are useful for those who are opting for budget trip in Europe in coming days.
That is a neat budget to be able to travel to some of the best places in Europe. Nothing is cheap in Europe and you managing within your daily budgets is a feat in itself. Nice tips that you have shared here for the rest of us who want to give it a shot.
Europe is expensive, but definitely cheaper than the UK, so I was able to make the most out of my Pounds, and sticking to my daily budget too.
Wow, that’s pretty much the epitome of budget travel right there! It’s great that you also got complimentary stays to help our your budget. Maybe one day, I’ll also try the ultimate low-budget trip!
Whhhhattt? Well done! I’m definitely saving this for when I finally get around to visiting these European countries. Thank you so much!
Excellent advice Arnav. Doing the low season thing is plain smart. Lower rates and less crowds too. My wife books flights quickly; well ahead of trips. Then we plan logistics. Because airlines store cookies and each time you re-visit sites your prices jump. Clever airlines they are. Clearing cookies can lower prices but just buy the tickets quickly. No delaying!
Great Job Arnav! Darcee & I saved tons of money taking the busses like Flixbus, Staying in Hostels, & walking or renting a bike for the day in most cities in Europe too! The only thing that kind of killed us was eating out for lunch & dinner. Though we always ate the free breakfast at the hostels which helped keep our lunch lower cost.
So awesome you pulled that off! I always recommend people visit in the shoulder season, since the weather is usually quite good still but there are WAY less tourists and everything is cheaper. Glad you were able to take advantage of that for your trip.
four countries in two weeks sounds amazing, and for only a little over $300 too. I agree with travelling off-season, but I’m not sure if I like travelling in snow, I get enough of that in Canada! I love to give myself walking tours, exploring the city on your own can be great, plus you can stray off the beaten path if something catches your eye, but I agree, it’s a great way to meet other travellers.
I was just going to say, £260 for two weeks. Any other month of the year, it is harder to find low fares to fit into the schedule. I think its all down to luck with the low budget airlines. But I agree, January is the cheapest month to travel. No one wants to do it. I done it a few times and had my best adventures done on the budget. 😀 Fantastic post.
I love using Flix buses in Eastern Europe. They are so cheap and reliable. Also, love going on free walking tours in Europe. I was broke in Prague (last stop on one of my Eurotrips) but I explored the city with these walking tours and they were so helpful. I am planning some of these cities for this year. Let us see if it works out.
The bus connectivity within Europe (FlixBus) and the free Walking tours, are indeed a life saver for budget conscious travellers.
Absolutely incredible that you could travel for such a low rate! But it’s so true what you say – travelling during the off season/low season is totally the best time to travel because the rates is much better. Plus great that you did some self-cooking because that drastically brought down your budget – I must say I need to get better at that because I usually spend more of my budget on food!
I should follow your blog more often, I know. Budget travelling ideas will change the way the world travels. Very smart of having planned the trip for a thrift.
Thank you. Am glad you liked the tips.
Such a lovely read, although not that keen on visiting Europe, I really want to attend Tomorrowland.
Thanks a lot for giving it a read. Try to combine few other destinations when you plan for Tomorrowland. Europe is way too beautiful.
Wow impressive! 370$ for two weeks in Europe is more than well done! The best way to spend less money on a travel is definitely cooking at the hostels or having a picnic. Some might not be happy with this as they are culinary travelers but the fact is that in some countries is really expensive in the restaurants. And couchsurfing is a great way to save money too of course, but I would not use CS only for that purpose.