Spain, Czech, Austria, Hungary, Italy.
An Adventure in the Making
The high-speed train rumbled through the countryside of Austria, rushing past the windmills, green hills, and quaint farmhouses that speckled the landscape. I sat in wagon three of the train in seat 24, looking out the window with wide eyes on the scenery that the train saw making the route from Vienna several times a day. A British couple in the seats in front of me murmured quietly about their plans for the day, and I double-checked my ticket for the time that I would arrive in Budapest, Hungary.
16:53.
I frowned and translated the time in my head.
4:53 PM.
I still hadn’t gotten used to the 24-hour format that appeared on my European tickets and reservations.
I leaned back and watched as more and more buildings speckled the landscape, signifying that the train was getting closer to the city. My little blue location dot on Google Maps grew closer to the main station in Budapest, and I opened my navigation from the station to my hostel 30 minutes away in the city.
As the black train rumbled to a halt at the end of the line in Budapest, I stumbled onto the platform filled with other passangers and squinted in the bright sun as the momentum of other people oushed me along. I followed the flow of people to find the exit sign, and I looked up at the beautiful, ancient buildings as I walked down the front steps of the station onto the busy street.
My admiration of the view only lasted only for a moment as I realized I needed to find bus 152 that left at 17:02.
5:02 PM. I shook my head.
I walked as if I knew where I was going until I found a street tram waiting with the number 152 flashing on the front. I bought a 24-hour city pass at a little purple kiosk on the side of the road, hopped on the tram, and let my head take a break from the sun and from navigating until the tram arrived at my stop. I stood up, swaying with the lurch of the brakes, and started my trusty Google Maps navigation for the seven-minute walk to my hostel. The sun was bright and the city was beautiful, and I was excited to start yet another adventure in a new place.
My Travel Tips (and Tricks)
View from the banks of the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary.
I’ve sat down in five different countries to write this blog about how to travel through Europe. In each country, I’ve had different stories of how I’ve navigated how to get from my location to my next destination. Sitting in my host family’s house in Spain, my friend’s apartment in the Czech Republic, a train to Vienna, a hostel in Budapest, and an Airbnb on the coast of Italy, I’ve come up with a few notes on how you can plan (and enjoy) traveling throughout Europe, too.
Here are my tips on how to get from A to B, where to sleep, how to budget, and pro tips you can use to dream and then plan your trip throughout Europe.
How to Get from A to B
One of the most important pieces of traveling is figuring out how to get from A to B. In Europe, I’ve used many forms of transportation, some that I like better than others. I’ve taken trains, buses, planes, boats, taxis, and metros to get around.
A local train from Sumperk to Brno, Czech Republic that I thought looked like a train car from Harry Potter.
Train
Trains are the most iconically European form of transportation you can use. You can take a train within a country or you can use an Interrail ticket (called an Eurail ticket if you’re not a citizen of the EU) to travel throguh countries. With this ticket, you can select and pay for a day to travel and board many trains within Europe and book seat reservations on the longer, faster trains as much as you want within your travel day.
I used the Renfe train many times while I was in Spain to get from Salamanca to Madrid and to go between many other destinations. (This ride was between 20 and 30 Euros for a one-way, two and a half hour train ride.) I’ve also used high-speed trains to get between longer distances like Madrid to Barcelona and Vienna to Budapest.
The Omio app and website is greta way to book a train, bus, plane, or boat when you don’t know the specific travel companies that run through a country. I used this website to book trains, buses, and boats in both Italy and Spain. Thetrainline.com is also a great website to use to look for ways to travel and compare prices.
When you arrive at the train station, you will look at the departure screen for the platform that your train will leave from, just like the big screen for departure gates in an airport. Once your platform has been announced, which is usually 5-30 minutes before your train will leave, you will find your platform. If you have made a seat reservation or have paid for a ticket with a seat assitnment, you will look for your “wagon” or train car and your seat number within it on your ticket. Once you’ve found these numbers, you can hop on your train when it arrives and head off on your next adventure!
Buses and Boats
Buses are another great way to travel within a city and to another destination further away. You can use websites like Omio and thetrainline.com to find the best bus or boat for the destination you want to go to. There isn’t much of a difference between taking a bus and a train other than the travel time, price, and whether or not you tend to get motion sick on buses. Likewise, if you can get to your destination quicker or cheaper on a boat than a bus, take the boat ride!
Taxi
Taxis are the smoothest but most expensive option for traveling around a city. I’d recommend only using a taxi when there is no metro, you’re lost, or when it’s late at night. Taxi apps,like Uber, Lyft, Cabify, FreeNow, and others, vary by country, and it’s a good idea to look up what the best taxi cab apps are in the place you’re visiting. Most transit stations will have regular taxis waiting outside during high traffic times, but you won’t know your rate until you get to your destination. I’ve found that taxi apps are a bit safer than calling a taxi from the street as each driver has a rating that will be reported to the company so they can be notified if you have a bad experience. Taxis are one of the easiest yet most expensive way to travel around a small city area.
Plane
Traveling by plane is the mode of transportation that people are most familiar with. I’ve found the website skyscanner.com to be useful when planning my trips and comparing prices. Pro tip: to find super cheap flights, enter your “from” destination but chose the random generator for the “to” destination, and you’ll be able to search for the cheapest flights per country.
Blablacar
Blablacar is an app that I had never heard of before I came to Spain, but that I now love. In this app, drivers will put in the locations and dates that they are traveling to and from a place, and if you want a ride to that destination, the driver will pick you up on their way! Its like an informal Uber. I traveled with a few friends from Salamanca to Portugal using Blablacar, and we were picked up by a Spanish student making his way from Madrid to Porto for vacation and was looking to make a few extra bucks along the way. We paid to ride in his car, and we had a great conversation the whole way while getting to use our Spanish! We were worried at first that the driver would be a bit sketchy, but he told us as we neared our destination that he feared we would be sketchy as well because we were three people who had booked a ride with him with no profile photo on the app, and he didn’t know what kind of people we were before we got in the car! Despite our hesitations, we enjoyed the whole ride and made a new friend along the way.
Metro
Most cities in Europe have a metro that you can identify with a symbol. Once you find the metro symbol on a sign in an airport or train station, you’ll be able to follow it anywhere.
The metro is an underground system in cities that can take you almost anywhere you want to go. It is also one of the cheapest, fastest ways to get around a city with tickets costing between one to three euros per trip. It is most efficient to use when walking distance is more than 20 minutes, when you need to get to and from the airport, and when you don’t want to spend money on a taxi.
There are a lot of pros and cons to taking the metro. The biggest con is that if you’re not familiar with a metro system, it can be easy to get confused or lost. By taking time and studying the names of the stations you need to get off at ahead of time, always being aware of your surroundings and where you are, and reading signs before you get on any metro train, you can make sure that you’re always going the right way on the metro!
Taking a metro in a country that speaks another languge is not much different than one that is in English. The important signs, like the exit sign, will usually have directions written in English underneath. The metro is like a puzzle - once you figure out the name of the station you want to go to, all you have to do is follow the name on Google maps and double-check it with the name on the metro signs and you should arrive at your desination without problems.
All metro trains have a station map or list inside the train doors. To make sure you’re going where you need to, locate your current location and desination on the metro map and make sure that you are taking stops at the stations in between them as you travel on the metro.
View from an AirBnB in Porto, Portugal
Where to Sleep
On this trip, I’ve slept in places from the floor of a train station to 2 AM bus to a four-star hotel. I’ve learned that some options are much more comfortable than others, but often, those aren’t the ones that get me to where I want to be. What are the the options to consider when deciding where to spend a night or two (or 20) while traveling?
For me, the two biggest factors to consider are price and location. How much does my lodging cost, and how close is it to my method of transportation? If I know I’ll be arriving in a city at 10 PM, I’ll want to find accommodations as close as I can to my arrival location so I don’t have to wander around a city I don’t know in the dark. If I know I want to stay within walking distance of the beach or all the sights I want to see, I will usually look for the closest metro station to my accomocations before I book a place just to make sure I can actually get there easily.
The second factor I consider is price. Where I’m able to stay also depends on how many other people I’m traveling with. If I’m by myself or with one other person, I like to stay in a hostel. If I’m with three or four people, I’ll look for a hotel or AirBnB.
Hotel
Hotels can be suprisingly cheap if you split a room between four people! On a weekend trip to Vigo, Spain, I booked a hotel room with three of my friends and we each paid $60 USD for all three nights in the hotel room ($240 USD total.) Hotels are also a great option to stay in if you’ve just arrived in a country by plane and you know you’ll be exhausted, or if you’re leaving on a long train or plane ride the next day and you want to get a good night of sleep. Hotels are the easiest, most comfortable option, and if the price is comparable to any other option I’m considering, I’ll always chose a hotel!
Hostel
The more I stay in hostels on this trip, the more I love them. This suprised me at first because I had no idea what to expect when I stayed in my first hostel. Like many places to stay, they have pros and cons.
One main con is that you’re usually sharing a room with anywhere from three to ten other people. However, there a lot of solutions and even pros to this:
You have a locker for all of your personal belongings.
Many hostels have an option for a female-only dorm (this is what I usually chose)
People who stay in hostels are usually there for the same reasons you are: to save money while traveling. Some of the friendliest, most well-traveled people I’ve met have been while staying in hostels.
If you’re traveling by yourself, staying in a hostel is a great way to meet other solo travelers that you can do things with around the city you’re in.
Yes, people snore and leave the lights on. Bring earplugs and a sleeping eye mask!
Many hostels will have events and tours around the city that you can sign up for to experience the city and meet new people.
Hostels in many cities usually cost from $25 USD to $40 USD per night. However, in cities like Barcelona or Paris, you can pay up to $120 a night to stay in the same kind of room. Be aware of the average cost of the places you want to travel to, and don’t forget to look at the star ratings of the hostels you want to stay at! I make it a rule not to stay in a hostel with a rating below 9/10.
Hostelworld is the easiest website to use to find a hostel for the city you’re staying in. With this website, you can filter if you want a womens-only dorm, how many nights your staying, your price range, and the rating of each hostel. If you find a hostel you like on that website, it is occasionally cheaper to book it from the hostel’s actual website than from Hostelworld.
AirBnB
I’ve had some of my best travel experiences while staying in an AirBnB. This is mostly because I never know quite what to expect before I arrive, but I’m usually pleasantly suprised! I look for an AirBnB when I’m staying with three or more people, and I either use the AirBnB website or booking.com. One of the things I like the most is that if you have a problem, need help navigating the city, need a place to store your luggage before you check in, or just want recommendations on where to visit, the host is usually more than happy to give you help or advice.
Booking.com is one of my favorite websites! On this website, you can search for the days you are staying, your location, and how many beds you want, and it will give you options that range from beach cabin, little motel by the highway, loft with a long garden terrace overlooking the city (yes, I booked this one on a trip to Porto, Portugal,) and pretty much anything else you can think of.
Know a Friend
Knowing a friend that lives in a city you’re visiting is the best way to both find a comfortable place to stay (for free) and get a tour guide who can show you their city and teach you things about the place they live. Whenever I’m thinking of visiting a city that a friend lives in, if I don’t want to invite myself into their house, I first ask for their recommendations of what I should do or where I should stay while I’m in the city. If my friend offers to host me, even better. Obviously, it depends on how well you know the person you’re thinking about visiting, but asking for recommendations is always the best place to start. Friends can be a superpower, especially if you’re staying in a city where you don’t know the language and they do!
Bus, Train, or Plain
Sleeping on a bus, train, or plane are my least favorite options, but they’re usually the ones that get me to where I want to go. If you’re going to sleep while traveling, it’s easier to sleep on a bus, train, or plane than in the stations because the only option in the station is usually the floor. Be sure that you always know where your stuff is if you’re sleeping in a station, and be smart if you’re traveling alone - is it worth it to get a few hours of sleep on the floor of a station if you don’t feel safe? Weigh the pros and cons of missing a night of sleep: I usually find it more than worth it.
Storing Luggage
Most cities in Europe have pay lockers in train stations that you can store your luggage in. This is a great way to ditch your suitcase or backpack and explore the city before you can check into your lodging.
Transportation First, Housing Second
An important rule that I learned is to book transportation first and housing second. There will always be a place to sleep at your desination, but there might not be a train or plane to your destination exactly when you want to arrive there. When booking travel, I will look at housing and travel options at the same time, but when it comes time to pay, I’ll always pay for travel first to make sure I have the tickets before I pay for a place to stay.
When to Save and When to Splurge
There is only so much truth to the saying, “I can make money back but I’ll only be 20-something in Europe again.” While this is technically true, its also important to decide what experiences you want to spend money on. Just because you’re in a country or you’re close to an amazing destination doesn’t mean you have to go if it will cost money you’d rather not spend. My best advice is to travel with people who have a similar budget to you, and you’ll all find fun things you can do together within your price limit.
For many of my three-day weekend trips this summer, I aimed to spend no more than 300 euros total. I usually spent around 60 to 100 euros for transportation both ways, 80-100 for lodging, and 50-100 euros extra to spend on food and experiences. A great way to save on money is to buy food at a grocery store when you first arrive and eat most of your meals on your own. When you want to try the local food or have a nice dining experience, you’ll feel better about paying to eat out. In some instances, the total amount of money I’ve spent on groceries has equaled one night of eating at a restaurant.
For planning a longer trip, a good rule is to budget $100 USD a day. For example, with lodging that costs between $30 and $40, one-way travel that can cost between $20 and $60, metro tickets, coffee or drinks, groceries, experiences, and a little extra cash just in case, you’ll use $100 a day in a way that gives you an amazing experience.
The Final Destination
The key to planning a successful trip to any destination is to create a plan and know the plan, but to be flexible if the plan changes. Trains get delayed, hostels run out of beds, and people change their minds, so it is important to be along for the ride and be able to enjoy wherever it takes you. Some places are much more fun and comfortable than others, but once you get to your destination, you’ll be glad that you never gave up along the way.