20) Easy Cruise

I have been going on luxury cruise lines from age 5, and they are a wonderful way to travel, especially since I get them free. You get to stop in a new port of call everyday and then come back and get unlimited food and entertainment for the night. The major problem: all old people. Most of the time I end up finding a group of 5 people my age and we hang out, but the social scene isn’t exactly desirable with 90% of the clientele over 60.

But I was thrilled to find out that EasyJet had started EasyCruise. Somehow I had not heard of it, and its been around for a while. Keeping with the EasyJet format, EasyCruise is more of a pay as you go alternative, paying extra for certain amenities. The cruises are currently only around the Greek Islands and Turkey, reasonably priced and I’d imagine there are a lot of young people. Sounds like fun.

http://www.easycruise.com/

18) Oyster Card London

I wouldn’t say I visit London frequently enough to be a card carrying member of the London Underground, so I had become resigned to paying exorbitant fees (4 pounds a subway ride, or 7 pounds for a day pass) every time I visited.  I thought there was something preventing me, an American, from obtaining a travel card intended for London residents.

When I stayed with a friend on my last trip to London he helped to correct that faulty view. An Oyster card, the name of the pay-as-you-go London transportation card, only costs 3 pounds, and it allows users to obtain fares from as little as 1.50. And your fares for the day are capped at around 6.50. The fares go up as you go farther from the city (normal tickets are a flat fare of  4 pounds), but even the farthest fare is 3.50. With one trip around the center of the city you’ve already made up most of what you paid to get the card.

You are also able to use it on the city buses and some of the above ground rail lines.

In addition, there are other benefits. I’m not sure if I was supposed to be able to do this, but on the Heathrow express, (the 25-pound railway line to London’s Heathrow Airport), I just flashed my Oyster card and the conductor allowed didn’t ask for a ticket.

Overall a very good investment.

17) European Bus Systems

The cheapest way to get around Europe, you have several options:

1) Eurolines/Ecolines

These are just typical charter bus services. They offer buses to just about anywhere, and a fair amount of overnight services. The Eurolines Lux service, slightly more expensive than their regular buses, even offers the ability to plug in your laptop and get wifi on the bus (though it is spotty so don’t rely on it). Usually reasonably priced, but you can find cheaper if you look for more local, country specific lines.

2) Country Charter Bus Systems

Many countries will have charter bus systems that offer routes into and out of their country that are slightly cheaper than both Eurolines or Ecolines. In Poland the PKP Intercity Polish Rail company also runs a bus service that I took from Vilnius, Lithuania to Warsaw, Poland. It was 25 Zloty cheaper (around 8 dollars) than either Eurolines or Ecolines, and was essentially the same accomodation, except with more free seats to sleep on because not as many tourists know about them.

3) Hop on Hop Off

The most famous example is BusAbout, a service that allows you to get a pass for a certain number of stops and spend as long as you want in each place, catching the bus out to your next destination when you feel ready to leave. Operates in loops, so you don’t have a choice on your next destination, and can be economically inefficient if you have specific cities in mind.

www.eurolines.com

www.ecolines.com

www.busabout.com

16) SkyScanner

SkyScanner is a flight aggregator site with a twist. The site has all the normal capabilities of any aggregator, but allows one to put “Everywhere, any country, any airport” in the destination category. The site then returns a list of flights in order of price from wherever you are starting from.

Perfect for the wandering nomad who is not so much concerned about where he is going, just that he is going.

www.skyscanner.com

15) Cheap Partying

Traveling and partying is a very delicate issue. I once naively offered to buy a round of drinks for 2 friends when we went out later that night. Bill for the three of us was 28 EUR, for 3 drinks. On one hand you don’t want to blow a lot of money on alcohol or club admission, but the most enjoyable part of traveling in my opinion is meeting other travelers. I have built lifelong friendships with people I met in other countries and it’s a part of your experience you shouldn’t miss out on.

Here are some cheap ways to party without breaking the bank:

1) Your hostel

If you follow my recommendations for picking your hostel, it should have a bar or at the very least a common room. If it has an actual bar (not just a check-in counter with a mini fridge behind it), that is likely the cheapest served alcohol you will find in the city. Assuming the hostel has it’s priorities straight, it exists to help form bonds between travelers, so they often sell their alcohol at prices close to cost. In addition, the patrons of hostel bars are generally down to earth and more likely to be open to meeting new people, a refreshing change from unnecessary social restrictions.

2) Pubcrawls

These consist of a flat fee, usually around 10-15 EUR that covers entrance into 3 -5 clubs/bars and a free drink in each one. If you are intent on getting drunk though, don’t count on the free drink to do it for you as their “shots” are often half chaser of some sort. However, on most pub crawls I have been on I have been able to pretty easily get a second and sometimes third free drink in each bar by being on good terms with the guide (simple as striking up a conversation with him/her).

If your hostel is lame this is your best bet to meet other travelers, as most pub crawls are frequented mainly by hostelers with an open social attitude.

Many hostels run their own pub crawls. The Oasis Hostel in Granada had a “Tapas Tour” which was about 10 EUR  and consisted of 3 bars, a free tapas in each and a free drink in each. It gave hostelers a chance to meet each other and even a few expats living in Granada were regulars.

To provide a list of pubcrawls would take forever, so just Google it and you will find at least one per city.

3) Make your own party

Many hostels allow you to bring your own alcohol into their lounge. I’ve only ever encountered one that had a rule against it, and when I inquired, they said it wasn’t strict. In towns of the Andalucia region of Spain there are events called “Botellons”, which is Spanish for “bottle”, which are basically big outdoor drinking fests in the town’s main square, BYOB. Police crackdown has made them less frequent, so ask around once you are there. But a lot of Europe has no open-container laws, so you are generally safe finding a picturesque location with some friends and drinking a little.

4) Free before a certain hour Clubs

These are most often geared towards students. When I was in Paris I went to a club called Le Mix with some friends that was free if you arrived before 11pm. It was an Erasmus night (Erasmus is the European exchange student program). A lot of clubs will have these rules to get people coming before midnight.

5) Dinner and admission

This is much less frequent, but occasionally there will be a club adjoined to a restaurant, and having dinner in the restaurant gets you free admission into the club. Sugar Reef in London is a club like this.

6) Ladies nights

When I was studying-abroad in Paris the summer after my freshman year of college, we frequented a Gay Bar called “Le Queen”. Now I’m not gay but it is a lot more culturally acceptable in Europe for a straight guy to go to a gay bar. My study abroad program had maybe 4 straight guys of normal social capabilities, and 75 girls, so we always went out with at least 10-15 girls, and Ladies Nights were always a priority. Every Wednesday at Le Queen it was ladies night, so all the girls got in free and got free champagne. The guys had to pay 10 EUR but it included a drink ticket, and most importantly, 15 female friends who would slip us free champagne under the table.

We had to tolerate the occasional male striptease show, but it was worth it.

13) The Great Debate: Trains vs. Planes vs. Buses

The most common question a backpacker faces is which form of transportation would be both easy on the pocket-book and time efficient. You can take the bus pretty much anywhere around Europe, but if you have 2 weeks to hit 7 spread out destinations, 18 hour bus rides are not the way to do. However, if you have unlimited time and your finances are the primary concern, buses should be your mode of transportation. The following is a small transportation primer to help you decide what is best for you.

1) Trains:

Trains generally bring you into the center of the city, within walking distance of wherever you are staying. This can help you save on taxi and shuttle costs to and from the airport. They are also more comfortable than planes and don’t require a hectic check-in process. Also there generally aren’t any hidden fees (airport taxes, baggage surcharges, service charges etc.), so if you are debating between two equal train and plane fares, you should go with the train. You are also generally allowed to bring as much baggage as you can carry (or get other people to carry for you), so if you don’t fit within a discount airliner’s baggage restrictions this might be your choice. In Europe the network of trains is immense so cities not available by plane are probably still accessible by train. Other continents have much less developed train networks so do your research before.

2) Planes

Best when you are flying between major tourist destinations, because those are the places that have enough traffic to be able to have economies of scale that allow for discount airliners to get you good deals.

There is more about the misleading nature of discount airline prices in the article about discount airlines, but in short, expect to pay much more than the ticket price getting too and from the airport, airport taxes, etc.

If there are immense physical barriers between you and your next destination this is the way to go. When I was trying to get to Cusco from Lima I had to cross through the Andes, and a 1 hour flight would have been a 20 hour winding bus ride. I sprung for the flight.

Also good if you hate long travel times and cannot sleep on trains or buses.

3) Buses

By far the cheapest way to travel but also the most time consuming. Also gets you to the center of the city, or a short bus/subway ride from the center. Buses are good if you are the type of person who has saved up money and quit their job for a trip around the world, and whose primary concern is money not time. Buses are also good between very close destinations. If you were to fly the time it would take you to go through security and wait would be about equal to just hopping on a bus.

If you don’t mind sleeping on the bus then you can find overnight routes that get you there in the morning with no time wasted. The travel time will be twice as long at least, but if you are a flexible person then you save on a nights accommodation and also get a fare that is a fraction of a train or a plane. The details of the bus system (eurolines/ecolines vs. busabout etc.) are discussed in another article.

12) WWOOF-World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

In exchange for helping out on a WWOOF host farm, volunteers receive room and board, and an opportunity to learn about organic lifestyles. I would think it is the cheapest way of living abroad for a bit, but I’d imagine most farms are not close to tourist destinations, so site-seeing would be a little difficult.

website: www.wwoof.org

11) Couchsurfing

The cheapest places you can visit are the ones where you have friends kind enough to let you crash in their house. Couchsurfing is an informal network that makes sure you have one of those friends in whatever city you may be interested in visiting. Currently there are over 1 million members in more than 232 countries.

The idea is that a resident of a foreign city puts you up for a night (or two or three or four depending on your agreement), and at some point in the future you will be kind enough to do the same for another wandering stranger. There are no strings attached, no payment required, the only thing expected is that you be considerate of your host and if you can afford it try to return the favor through a small gift or favor.

For the system to work there needs to be a certain amount of trust, and there are plenty of people who are not willing to take the risk. Couchsurfing.org provides a verification system that helps to remove some of the inherent sketchiness:

1) Hosts and guests can leave personal references for each other on the online profiles.

2) A credit card verification system that allows Couchsurfing.org to send a confirmation to one’s address of residence. This verifies that one lives where they say they do.

3) A personal vouching system whereby hosts and guests can vouch for eachother’s credibility.

I personally haven’t been able to participate yet so I can’t pass judgement on the experience, but from what I hear safety isn’t the only risk you take. You are stuck living with someone’s idiosyncracies. There is the possibility that you could not get along with the person and it could ruin your time in a city. However, the opposite happens just as often, as many people have fantastic experiences living with a local. Some  hosts throw parties for all his/her friends to meet the traveler, and the guest has a fantastic time that couldn’t ever be replicated.

website: www.couchsurfing.org

10)Poorer countries, Cheaper local airfare prices

My last spring break I traveled to Peru with a bunch of friends. Once we got there we had plans of continuing on to Cusco, the destination that is the starting point for most tourist’s Machu Picchu trip.

Aerolineus Argentina, the airline we were flying from Lima to Cusco with, somehow made a mistake and booked our trip for a day later than we had entered into the online system, so we were forced to search for a one-way flight a day earlier on Taca airlines. Something with their online system wasn’t working so we decided to call. We noticed the prices on the Spanish site were $60 less than the prices they were offering to English speakers, so when we called the American support line we asked for those prices. They said they could only offer us the prices listed for Americans, so we hung up and called the Peruvian office. They were willing to sell us the tickets at a $60 discount, and between the two of us we saved $120 dollars.

This is common in developing countries. The airlines would get very little local business if they didn’t reduce prices for the citizens of their country whose income is much less. I had heard that this was the case in Peru, but I had been told you needed a Peruvian credit card to do it, which is perhaps why the online system didn’t work for our American credit cards. The airline company was fine accepting our cards over the phone.

Moral of the story: Check local prices, and if they won’t let you buy them with an American credit card online, try calling them. They will rarely turn away customers in person.

9) Eurail: Be Careful!

Perhaps the most common method of travel for intrepid young travelers taking a gap year or enjoying their graduation present, Eurail is a pass that gets you a certain amount of travel days in a certain number of countries within a certain time period. For instance, your pass could be applicable only to Italy and France, for a two month period, and with 5 travel days. While it is a good deal in some cases, it is a very deceiving system.

The summer after my freshman year of college I decided to buy a Eurail pass. I was starting in Paris after studying abroad, and had two weeks to make a blitz of some of Europe’s biggest destinations. I hit, in this order, Paris, Berlin, Munich (all 3 on overnight trains), Salzburg, Budapest, Venice, Cinque Terre, and back to Paris, making for a total of 5 countries. I bought the 5 country Select pass for the 5 countries those cities are in, and thought I had gotten a great deal.

However, when I went to the SNCF station (SNCF is the French rail network), I found out that the Eurail system made it very difficult for the common person to purchase the tickets because of the following reasons:

1) You were only allowed to purchase tickets into and out of the country you whose rail network desk you were purchasing from. So since I was at the desk of the French rail network SNCF, I could only purchase my ticket to Berlin, and the ticket from Milan->Marseille->Paris.

2)Eurail has no online ticket purchase system, you must present your pass in person to be able to buy a ticket.

3)Many trains have a limited number of seats available to pass holders.

When I got the very last seat available to pass holders on the overnight train from Paris to Berlin, I realized that there was a very good chance of not getting the trains I needed to take to keep to my strict schedule.

I decided I had to find a different way of getting hold of the tickets for the later part of my trip, so I went to a travel agent friend of a friend based in Paris. He was able to call all the right tickets offices and get me all the tickets I needed, but charged me a commission on each one. As someone who has done extensive travel, if the method of obtaining those tickets wasn’t evident to me, I doubt very many other people were able to navigate buying their own tickets.

Some other things to look out for:

-Does your voyage stop over in another country? Even if you have no intention of getting out, your pass better cover that country. I passed through Belgium on the way to Germany and it was only by the good graces of the conductor, who turned a blind eye to my inadequate pass, that I wasn’t kicked off the train. Let it be noted though, that the ticket office didn’t prevent me from buying the ticket even though there was a stopover in a country I wasn’t supposed to be able to visit. So just because your pass will allow you to buy the ticket doesn’t necessarily mean you can use that ticket. Complicated, right?

Some good things:

-If you play your cards right you can save money.

-Overnight trains only count as one day.

-Usually applies on most regional trains, so if you arrive somewhere the day of you can usually take a regional train for free.

-Conductors sometimes fail to stamp your pass, which can give you an extra day or two.

There are also other options for rail passes, namely InterRail, which is generally more popular among the European youth.

Websites:

www.raileurope.com

www.interrail.com

www.eurail.com