For the last five years, I’ve spent every summer traveling around Europe. My first summer riding the train through the European countryside enamored me with the continent and I couldn’t resist coming back….repeatedly.

But Europe isn’t the cheapest of continents to visit. The airline ticket prices have increased substantially over the last few years and despite financial problems in Greece, the Euro is still stronger than the dollar. Travelers often get sticker shock when they travel there, and the collective cultural impression that “Europe is expensive” keeps too many people away.

But Europe’s prices are not monolithic; they are as diverse as the cultures on the continent. There are plenty of ways to save money and actually have a cheap vacation in Europe. After all, I couldn’t spend entire summers there if it was as expensive as people believe.

So if you’ve ever dreamed of seeing Europe but are worried about the costs, here are my top tips for making that dream become a reality:

Get a rail pass

If you plan to travel widely around the continent, purchasing a rail pass will save you hundreds of dollars. I have used a European rail pass twice and saved hundreds each time.

They make complete economic sense if you are going to be riding many high-speed, overnight, or long-distance trains. Passes can be bought for up to two months of travel and cover most of the countries in Europe. The leading sellers of these passes are Rail Europe and Interrail.

Book in advance

An alternative to getting a rail passes is to simply book your rail trips in advance. By booking online and at least two weeks before your trip directly through each country’s rail website, you can save upwards of 50% off what you would pay at the counter.

As an example: if you are traveling to Denmark, their advanced purchased “orange tickets” can save you up to 60% of the standard price. Rail passes work best when you travel long distance, so if you are planning a short-term holiday instead and aren’t planning on traveling far and wide, this option is best to save you money on trains.

Take the bus

Bus service throughout Europe is widespread and, in the eastern part of the continent, is much cheaper than taking the train. I don’t really like the bus because you don’t get to spread out like you do on the train, but if you are looking for a cheap method of transportation, bus fares are generally half the cost of a train ticket.

Europe’s major bus provider is Eurolines, which is the umbrella organization of inter-country travel in Europe. They go everywhere.

Obtain a tourist card

The best money saving device is also the least advertised. Tourist cards are cards that provide discounted or free entry into a city’s museums and activities as well as free public transportation and discounts at some restaurants and shops. They can be purchased through city tourism offices when you arrive at your destination.

I always get these passes if I plan on seeing many attractions. In Oslo, I saved $30 dollars using the pass. In Paris, the museum pass saved me over $80 USD. In London, I saved over $100. Even if these passes will save you a few dollars, get them! Every dollar counts.

Enjoy the free tours

One of my favorite things about Europe is that in every major city you can find free walking tours that provide an overview of the city’s history and culture as well as help you get your bearings on where things are and what to do.

Why pay for some fancy tour when you can do it for free? Many of these tours are filled with incredible information and the guides have deep knowledge of the city. Some of the big names are:

Athens – www.athensfreewalkingtour.com/

Belgrade – www.belgradewalkingtours.com/

Brasov – www.guided-brasov.com/

Bratislava – www.befreetours.com/

Bucharest – www.guided-bucharest.com/

Budapest – www.triptobudapest.hu/

Krakow – freewalkingtour.com/

Ljubljana – ljubljanafreetour.com/

New Europe Tours – www.neweuropetours.eu

Paris – www.parisiendunjour.fr/

Prague – www.newpraguetours.com and extravaganzafreetour.com/

Sarajevo – www.sarajevowalkingtours.com/

Tallinn – www.traveller.ee/tour/tallinn-free-tour

Explore the food markets

When I am traveling, I like to pretend high-priced restaurants don’t exist. Good food doesn’t have to be expensive and Europe has some amazing food markets where you can get delicious and affordable food. It’s what the locals do, so if you want to really experience the native cuisine, hit the markets.

There’s a cheese guy, a meat guy, a baker, a veggie guy, and so forth. Everyone specializes – it’s not like the mass supermarkets of the United States. Head to the outdoor market, grab some fresh food, and have yourself a picnic. The food markets of Europe have provided most of my meals and I’ve never felt I was missing out on anything.

Head east

When most Americans think of Europe, they think of Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, or London. In other words, the big western and expensive destinations. But more affordable alternatives lay to the east. Head to Eastern Europe and find hidden, cheaper, and less crowded treasures in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, or the Balkans.

You can enjoy just as much beautiful countryside and numerous historic cities without worrying about the overwhelming crowds or heart attack-inducing prices.

Just go!

So the next time you are planning on visiting Europe, don’t be so quick to dismiss it due to its prices! Europe may appear to be expensive on the surface — and the advertisements and packages we see just seem to reinforce that idea — but if you look just a little bit deeper, you’ll find a surprisingly affordable place to visit with a variety of ways to save your travel money, even in traditionally “expensive” destinations.

The post Nomadic Matt’s favorite tips for saving money in Europe appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Slow down

Speed is not compulsory. Eurail is great for travelers keen to cover a lot of ground, but it may not always be the cheapest option. For example, if you book well in advance, stick to main routes and commit to a fixed itinerary, then the aggregate cost of a sequence of point-to-point tickets bought direct from the various European rail operators may, for many itineraries, undercut the cost of a rail pass.

Stopping off on a whim. Photo © hidden europe magazine

Dynamic pricing (often dubbed “market pricing”) means that for long hops between major cities in Europe there are nowadays some super deals available on point-to-point tickets. Shift to lesser routes, frequented by slower trains, and you may find little or nothing by way of discounts on international journeys.

Our view is that these slower trains are often a far better way of seeing Europe than the high-speed services. You’ll meet locals along the way, rather than just other tourists following similar itineraries to yourself.

Fast can be cheap

But expect to pay more for a journey with local trains than you might on the parallel high-speed services. Book in advance to ride a fast TGV from Paris to Marseille, and you can pick up a one-way ticket for less than €50 — if you are lucky and can travel off-peak perhaps even for just €20.

But if you take the slower TER trains from Paris to the Mediterranean, there is just the Tarif Normal. And that is more than €100 one-way. No discounts for pre-booking. No discounts…. full stop.

Best use of Eurail

Has slow travel thus become a privilege of the rich? Well, not quite, because a day on slower trains can be a very wise use of a Eurail or InterRail pass. And that applies equally to the global and flexi variants of both passes.

Budget-conscious holders of flexi-passes now appreciate that pass days are better reserved for journeys on slower trains where you want to preserve total flexibility. If you know you need to make a fast hop on a high-speed train (where you might in any case need to make a seat reservation and pay a supplement with a rail pass), then perhaps that’s the day to plan ahead and book a discounted point-to-point ticket on the Web site of the relevant rail operator.

So how slow is slow? Well, it’ll still be a lot faster than even the fast trains of yesteryear. European train services have so improved over the last 30 years that devotees of slower trains will still be making faster progress than those of our parents’ generation who clanked across Europe on what were, back in the 1970s and 1980s, acclaimed premium high-speed services.

Stop off and explore

The beauty of slow trains is that you don’t need to book. If a spot takes your fancy, just hop off and explore — then continue with the next train. On many routes, slow trains run hourly.

We have made long international journeys like this. True, it took us 12 hours to get from Switzerland to Spain. With premium fast trains we might have trimmed three or four hours off that. But we had that ineffable pleasure of trundling through vineyards, watching birds on lonely marshlands and stopping at little rural railway stations. The journey became an event in itself.

Eurail is a marvelous product, and that goes equally for its sister InterRail which is geared to European residents. Both families of rail passes can offer great value for money. But, contrary to what you might assume, it is the devotees of slower trains and more rural itineraries who get the most handsome return on their investment in a rail pass. If speed is more your style, and if all you aim to do is hit the big cities, then think carefully before buying a pass.

Taking slower trains which don’t require supplements or advance reservation is much more fun and preserves what is, after all, the prime benefit of a rail pass: its total flexibility.

You can read more about rail passes in two other articles published this week by the team from hidden europe. The full text of an article on InterRail, published on 16 July in hidden europe magazine, is available online. And another article on the hidden europe website, published on 17 July, questions some of the mythology that has developed around rail passes.

The post Slow Down to Make the Most of a Eurail Pass appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

1972 saw the launch of InterRail, an initiative of a consortium of national rail operators across Europe to fill up empty train seats during the slack summer period.

Chance meetings

Greg and Émilie live just outside Geneva. They enjoy gorgeous views of Lake Geneva and the trains that pass their front door. Their children have fled the nest, and both Émilie and Greg are looking forward to the day a few years hence when they will retire. “It’ll be a chance to explore Europe by train, just as we did in the late seventies,” says Greg as a train to Lausanne rattles past their balcony.

The couple, he Scottish and she French, met on a train traveling up the Rhine gorge in the summer of 1977. “The train had a romantic name,” recalls Émilie. “It was called the Loreley Express,” she explains. “I was on my way from Cologne to Rome and Greg was bound for Florence.” The Loreley Express was the springboard for a lifelong partnership.

Rites of passage

What was first seen as a one-off promotion quickly evolved into a long-term program that marked a generation of young travelers.

“I had little concept of Europe, before setting off from Lille with my first InterRail ticket,” recalls Émilie. “Those summer explorations, several of them, allowed me to explore Europe. And they were a chance to discover myself.”

For young Europeans from 1972 onwards, InterRail became a rite of passage. It marked a milestone in their personal development. For many, it was a first chance to travel without their parents. They set out with their rail passes and too little money. They slept on trains to save funds and they relished the freedom and uncertainty that came as part of the InterRail package. Some set out to go to Copenhagen and ended up in Cádiz.

A partner for Eurail

Americans had enjoyed the benefits of Eurail passes since 1959. For American visitors to Europe, Eurail was all about minimizing risk and uncertainty. They followed well-trodden trails, they reserved seats in advance and traveled in first-class comfort. In those early days, Eurail covered a very limited number of countries in western Europe. (It has since expanded its coverage eastward across the continent).

The InterRail experience created by young Europeans for the first time in 1972 was the complete antithesis of the classic Eurail tour. It covered a much larger area than Eurail. It dramatically changed personal mobility. Nothing was pre-booked or pre-planned. “I can remember standing at Cologne station and seeing Americans joining one of the sleek TEE trains. They all had very smart suitcases, preferred the first-class-only TEE trains, and knew exactly where they would be sleeping that night,” says Émilie.

InterRail created a very different breed of traveler — a veritable flood of young people who cared little where they went and never planned in advance. Backpacks and guitars were the norm.

The journey matters

The journey mattered more than the destination. British travel writer Tim Locke, a veteran of many InterRail adventures, reflects on the heyday of InterRail: “There really was a charming spontaneity about the whole affair. Things went wrong, but somehow it didn’t seem to matter. It was all part of the InterRail experience.”

Some devotees of InterRail took this philosophy to extremes. Manfred Weis left his Karlsruhe home in 1987 with a one-month pass valid for the whole of Europe. Over the following 31 days he traveled over 30,000 kilometers. He slept on trains for 26 nights of his journey. We met Manfred just last week, when he was en route from Spain to Poland. And yes, you guessed it. He was traveling on an InterRail Pass — some habits, it seems, are just too hard to kick.

Irishman Mick MacO set out to break records in 1995. He had never before left his native country and was keen to discover this place called Europe. The journey took such a toll on Mick that he then needed a dozen years to publish an account of his journey to 28 cities in 30 days.

InterRail: First class and senior passes

Recent years have seen an evolution in both the Eurail and the InterRail schemes. There are fewer night trains, and those that remain are not quite so tolerant of casual travelers looking for a free place to sleep. Most levy supplements for pass holders. And even daytime travel is not always free. Many premium services (eg. TGVs in France and AVEs in Spain) require compulsory advance reservation. The hop-on-and-ride mentality has been tamed.

Both the Eurail and InterRail schemes are managed nowadays by the Utrecht-based company Eurail Group. The age limits on InterRail have been completely dropped and there are even discounts for seniors. There are now second-class options on many Eurail passes, and a first-class InterRail product is now available.

The latter is a canny move. The first InterRail generation are now well settled into careers and the pioneers will soon be collecting their pensions. Eurail Group’s Marketing Director Ana Dias e Seixas is quick to point out that the freedom to roam is not limited by age. “While InterRail has long been associated with the youth market,” she says, “it has clearly evolved into a product for all ages. Travel by rail offers a sense of freedom and independence not associated with any other form of transport.”

So a big happy 40th birthday to InterRail, the rail pass that helped shape a generation and one that looks set to continue making its mark on Europe over the next 40 years.

The post Happy Birthday InterRail: 40 years of travel adventure appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Sure, everyday small charges like cafe cremes in Paris (€2-4) and vaporetto rides in Venice (€6.50) do add up and can make a Cheapo panic. However, these are relatively minor charges when compared to the big-ticket items in your budget: flights, hotels, car rentals and train tickets.

Luckily, there are simple steps you can take right now to minimize these big expenses. Some of these tips may be old news to you, bien sur. But even if one tip comes in handy, it could save you a whole wad of euros.

Kayak’s price alert

1. Set up airfare alerts

Haven’t booked your airline tickets yet? Set up airfare alerts to find a flight deal on Web sites like Kayak.com and Airfarewatchdog.com.

On Kayak, do a search for your desired travel dates and then click “Get a price alert” on the left side of the page. Once you register, they’ll email you with daily or weekly airfare deals for your route.

On Airfarewatchdog, “Deal Hounds” sniff out the lowest ticket prices for your route and send similar email updates. On both sites, you stand a much better chance of scoring a deal if your travel dates are flexible.

2. Pack lightly

As we mentioned last week, most transatlantic airlines have introduced ridiculous baggage fees for checking a second, third or overweight bag. For flights from the US to Europe, these fees can be as high as $200 per bag (one way!).

Check out our roundup of airline baggage fees and only check one bag.

The RoissyBus taks passengers from Paris to Charles de Gaulle.

3. Take public transportation to and from the airport

Alas, how many people have we dissuaded from taking a taxi from Charles de Gaulle to their hotel in Paris! Every one of the major European cities we cover on EuroCheapo offers public transportation from the airport to the center of town, and the majority offer both train and bus options.

Whether you’re getting from Charles de Gaulle to Paris or Schiphol to Amsterdam, there’s a budget-friendly (and usually quite efficient) way into town that doesn’t involve an expensive taxi. Check out our city guides for more information.

4. Think twice before booking a rail pass

For Americans, the lure of the Eurail Pass is strong. Just reading the descriptions of the passes on their Web site can get you excited and ready to hop on board!

It’s easy to forget that these rail passes are not always a good deal. Sure, they offer some convenience and peace of mind, but they don’t always save you money over simply buying individual point-to-point rail tickets (like the millions of Europeans who take trains daily).

Aboard the Renfe train between Cordoba and Granada. No need for a rail pass.

To find out if a rail pass offers “rail” savings, compare the pass price to the point-to-point ticket prices found on the railways’ official Web site (and not the Web site of a rail pass re-seller).

For much more information on this, read these posts: Read this before you buy a European rail passes; Extra charges for rail pass holders; Deutsche Bahn fares better than rail agents; How to book French rail tickets (in French)

5. Book major train tickets in advance

If booking rail journeys directly with the European railways, like the SNCF (France), Deutsche Bahn (Germany) and Renfe (Spain), book those seats in advance. For long-distance train travel, ticket prices climb as the travel date approaches, so advance booking is essential to getting a deal. Most of these railways release tickets three or four months in advance. (Local trains for small jaunts, however, do not need to be booked in advance.)

For more information, read our post on the “three-month rule.”

The EuroCheapo gang rented this car in Berlin. We weren’t smiling two weeks later when we paid the bill.

6. Know the real cost of renting a car

How much will that rental car really cost you? When you do a quick rental car search online, the rates you see will most likely not include taxes or insurance, and certainly won’t include the price of gasoline or the tolls you’ll pay on major highways.

Read our quick guide to calculating the real cost of renting a car in Europe. Then weigh those costs against other options, like trains or budget flights.

Then, use EuroCheapo to search and compare car rental quotes from competing agencies.

While you’re at it, know whether or not to buy extra insurance for your car. (And for that matter, know if you should buy travel insurance for your entire trip!)

7. Choose your hotel wisely

Your hotel expenditure will probably be the most expensive part of your trip. Here at EuroCheapo, we’re obsessed with hotel values. That’s why our editors spend so much time snooping around hotels, taking photos and writing reviews. We can tell you that two hotels sitting side-by-side can charge radically different rates for remarkably similar rooms.

The Hotel Tiquetonne in Paris is central, clean and cheap.

When choosing a hotel, consider “losing a star,” downgrading perhaps from a three-star to a two-star hotel. Decide which amenities you require in a room: Do you need a minibar? cable TV? elevator? If you’re open to a simpler hotel, you can save a bundle and you might find the hotel to be more charming, as well.

Also, give careful consideration to the hotel’s location. If you decide upon a hotel located outside the city center in order to save money, will there be an easy and affordable way home at night? We usually opt for simpler hotels near the center, within walking distance of nighttime activities, if possible.

Read our reviews of budget hotels all over Europe and take our advice–we’ve been there!

8. Know what’s for breakfast

This may sound minor, but breakfast is a big business for hotels. Whether or not breakfast is included in your room rate can add a jarring amount to the bill or save you in the end. It’s a tad confusing, too, as breakfast offerings tend to change by city.

These water bottles in Venice are cheaper at the supermarket.

In Paris, for example, most hotels do not include breakfast in the room rate. When you pay for breakfast, you’ll often be disappointed by what’s set down in front of you: a croissant or piece of baguette, butter and jelly, coffee and juice–for about €10. You’d pay about half that if you headed to a neighborhood cafe, stood at the bar and enjoyed breakfast with the locals.

In London, meanwhile, hotels and B&B’s pride themselves in their included breakfasts, which often come with eggs, bacon, sausage, beans and toast. It’s not necessarily healthy, but it’s good for your budget! (It also helps you eat a lighter and cheaper lunch.)

In many cities, hotels sometimes include breakfast in the room rate, depending upon conditions when booking. The only way to really know if it’s included is to check when reserving your room.

There’s another easy way to eat a healthy breakfast and pay a fraction of the price: Head to a neighborhood supermarket after checking into your hotel to pick up the essentials (bottles of water, oranges, bananas, etc.). If your room has a mini-fridge, you could store yogurt, milk or juice. Bon appetit!

9. Be careful with American iPhones

Americans heading to Europe should be careful before powering up their iPhones abroad. AT&T offers various European travel plans, and almost all of them are too expensive to be a serious option for budget travelers.

We recommend leaving your iPhone set to “Airplane Mode” throughout your trip, and only using it when connected to a Wi-Fi network. Read more in our guide to “Using an American iPhone in Europe… without going broke.”

10. Understand bank fees before using your credit cards or an ATM

How much will your bank charge you to use your credit or debit card abroad? How about withdrawing money from an ATM? When’s the last time you checked?

American banks have “adjusted” their fee structures during the past few years, so we’d recommend checking in with your banks before heading to Europe. If you have multiple cards at your disposal, chances are that they’ll charge different foreign transaction fees. Knowing who charges what will save you money in the end.

Read our quick overview to ATM, Debit and Credit Card charges abroad.

Your tips for saving on European travel

What tips do you have for saving on your “big ticket” items when traveling in Europe? Have a question about any of the tips mentioned above? Share your thoughts in our comments section.

The post Cheapo Basics: 10 ways to save on the “big items” in your travel budget appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Onwards to Italy

Even before the coming of the railway, Brig (or “Brigue” in French) held a commanding position in transport across the Alps. Napoléon had decreed that a carriage road should be built over the Alps, and over 5,000 workers struggled to build the Simplon Pass highway over the mountains to Italy.

When it was opened, travelers were surprised to find that in good weather a ten-horse carriage could make the journey from Brig to Domodossola in just 12 hours. Nowadays, sleek modern trains purr through the Simplon rail tunnel and reach Domodossola in just 25 minutes.

Visiting Brig

Brig is more than just a railway junction and the town certainly warrants a visit in its own right. Brig’s star building is the superb Stockalper castle with its handsome triple-tier arcade courtyard and stately cupolas. It is a mark of the town’s erstwhile wealth. That castle, a brace of fine churches and several good restaurants around a fine piazza all combine to make Brig the perfect place to linger.

A great base for exploring Switzerland

The town makes a fine base for rail-based holidays exploring central and western Switzerland. Few other European cities can claim to be as perfectly connected to key tourist destinations as Brig.

Top destinations by direct train from Brig include:

1. Kandersteg: one train per hour (travel time: 40 mins)
2. Stresa (for Lake Maggiore): every two hours (travel time: 55 mins)
3. Berne: two trains per hour (travel time: 1 hr)
4. Montreux: two trains per hour (travel time: 1 hr 20 mins)
5. Zermatt: one train per hour (travel time: 1 hr 20 mins)
6. Lausanne: two trains per hour (travel time: 1 hr 45 mins)
7. Milan: every two hours (travel time: 1 hr 50 mins)
8. Andermatt: one train per hour (travel time: 2 hrs)
9. Zürich: one train per hour (travel time: 2 hrs 10 mins)
10. Geneva: two trains per hour (travel time: 2 hrs 25 mins)

Holders of Eurail passes might just note that services to Andermatt and Zermatt are operated by the Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn (MGB), a private mountain railway company that does not accept Eurail passes. But the Swiss Pass (sold by Swiss Travel System) is recognized by MGB.

The post Brig, Switzerland: A major rail connection worth exploring appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

A great weekend bargain in Germany

On the weekends, for example, travelers can roam the length and breadth of Germany by local and regional trains using the Schönes Wochenende Ticket (SWT), which allows unlimited travel for just €37. And the beauty of the SWT is that you can take along up to four other travelers without having to pay an extra cent.

We have friends who last Sunday traveled from Aachen (on the Belgian border) right across Germany to Salzburg using the SWT, effectively paying €7.40 each for a journey of over 500 miles that took in the Rhine gorge and much more fine scenery. The SWT can even be used to selected stations beyond Germany’s borders (i.e. Salzburg in Austria, Schaffhausen in Switzerland, Wissembourg in France and Szczecin in Poland).

Cheap regional tickets in Germany

While the German SWT is a weekend-only deal, regional tickets in Germany give the freedom to roam within a more limited area on any day, but only after 9 a.m. Mondays through Fridays. These tickets are named after the federal states (Länder in German) in which they are principally marketed. These tickets are typically priced at €20 for one person or €28 for a group of up to five people traveling together.

Roaming Germany’s Baltic coast

The Länder tickets are often valid for substantially larger areas than the federal states after which they are named.

You might expect the “Schleswig-Holstein” ticket only to be valid in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Think again. This ticket also covers the German states of Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, not to mention selected cross-border stretches of railway into Denmark and Poland. This validity area thus covers Germany’s entire Baltic coast and offshore islands (several of which have causeways carrying railways to the mainland). So devotees of branch lines can use the Schleswig-Holstein ticket to travel very cheaply along rural rail routes from Padborg in Danish Jutland to the Polish town of Swinoujscie.

Similarly, the Sachsen ticket is valid far beyond the borders of Saxony. It can be used over a huge area that encompasses part or all of five German states, two cross-border routes into Poland, and one through the Czech Republic.

As with all Länder tickets, and with the Schönes Wochenende Ticket (SWT), just buy the ticket at the ticket machine before hopping on your first train. You can book a ticket online, but there is really no need to do this. The online tickets are no cheaper than those sold at station ticket machines.

Criss-crossing borders

In many border areas of Europe,  special rail passes are available, even to non-residents, to promote mobility in frontier regions. These are superb deals, often covering not merely the immediate border region but substantial areas well beyond the frontier.

The following are particularly good bargains for one-day tickets:

1. The Euregio Bodensee Tageskarte gives unlimited travel around Lake Constance (called the Bodensee in German) including ferries and selected rail routes in Austria, Germany and Switzerland: €28

2. The Euregio Maas-Rhein Tageskarte permits rail and bus travel throughout parts of eastern Belgium, the Limburg area of the Netherlands and over the German border to Aachen and beyond: €15.50

3. The EuroNeisse Ticket covers a large part of northern Bohemia (Czech Republic), part of Silesia (Poland) and eastern Saxony (Germany) and affords unlimited travel on trains, buses and trams: €10

All the passes mentioned in this post give travelers the chance to really explore a region or make longer hops at a bargain price. Local trains with frequent stops along the way often give a sense of engaging with landscape and communities in a way that is less possible on fast express services.

The post Exploring Germany: Rail passes for local train services appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

We took a day out from our regular work with hidden europe magazine last week and conjured up a tempting palette of trips criss-crossing the continent. And then we compared the ticket prices on a national rail website (that of the Deutsche Bahn) with the prices offered for those journeys by rail ticketing agents based in Britain and North America. We took care to ensure that the tickets we purchased were in every case for exactly the same trains.

So a straight comparison, comparing like-with-like. Same class of travel, same comfy seat, same scenery slipping by outside the window – for all five routes in our basket of European rail trips.

The five routes we tested
1. Berlin to London single (by day, depart after 9:00 AM, any route) on September 3: one adult, 2nd class.
2. Amsterdam to Salzburg single (by day, no more than one change of train) on July 14: one adult, 1st class.
3. London to Cologne via Brussels single (depart at 8:00 AM or later) on September 10: one adult, 2nd class.
4. Berlin to Zagreb single via Hamburg (2 night stop) and Munich (2 night stop) on August 20: one adult, any class.
5. Nuremberg to Dresden same day return (direct trains only) on June 20 for a family of five, 2nd class.

For each of these five journeys, we thought that the German Railways (viz. Deutsche Bahn) website at www.bahn.de would offer some reasonable fare advice, and so it did. Indeed, all five journeys could be booked online through their website.

Then we turned to agents selling rail tickets in North America and Britain to get quotes for precisely the same journeys. This was done first by online research, often followed up by telephone calls to check precise details.

The results

And guess what? The leading agencies specializing in European rail tickets always charged at least twice as much as would the Deutsche Bahn for exactly the same journey.

The key point here is that in most of Europe, rail operators have a whole raft of special promotional fares that massively undercut the regular tariffs (often with discount of more than 80% on the standard fare). But agents rarely offer those discounted fares, preferring to safeguard their hefty commission fees by selling only the full fare.

Comparing the fares

Now take a look at how those fares compared. Listed below are the Deutsche Bahn (DB) fares that were available for purchase around midday of Friday, June 12, 2009 followed by the cheapest fare quoted the same day by a leading North American or British agent (all sterling and dollar fares have been converted to euros just to make things clearer).

1. Berlin to London (2nd class) DB: €49 / Agent Fare: €209
2. Amsterdam to Salzburg (1st class) DB: €79 / Agent Fare: €255
3. London to Cologne (2nd class) DB: €49 / Agent Fare: €106
4. Berlin to Zagreb with stops in Hamburg and Munich (2nd class) DB: €29 / Agent Fare: €322
5. Nuremberg to Dresden day return for family of 5 (2nd class) DB: €37 / Agent Fare: €705

Helpful advice?

We found one leading British agent who was extremely helpful on the phone, going to some lengths to suggest that for certain routes it might be wiser to get the tickets from a German source (but declining to give the specific name of the company or website).

A well-known North American agent emphasized that their dollar fares on offer would undercut anything we might purchase in Europe – a claim which is patently undermined by the results of our survey. The North American agent suggested that a rail pass might be a better bet for some of our journeys, and hinted that we would encounter a range of problems if we attempted to purchase directly from the Deutsche Bahn website.

Booking tickets in advance

The reality is that booking train tickets on www.bahn.de is pretty easy, even without a knowledge of German. The site has a decent English language interface, though in some instances you will find additional functionality on the German language website.

Also, it really helps to have a good knowledge of European patterns of service and railway geography. A good place to start is by studying the latest edition of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable and the same company’s Rail Map of Europe.

Booking well in advance is often the key to finding cheap fares, but our research found that plenty of discounted promotional fares are still available for travel this summer. And we did not cast around trying to dig up the cheapest possible travel dates, having fixed our palette of routes and travel dates before embarking on our research. If you would like the see the full results of our survey, just click here.

And, oh yes, just in case you were wondering, we were paid not a cent by the Deutsche Bahn to publish this!

The post European Rail Tickets: Deutsche Bahn fares better than rail agents appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Plan ahead: Rail travel for next year

Rail travelers can still take a while refining their travel plans for summer 2009, for although many of the schedules are now becoming available, tickets do not generally go on sale until two to four months prior to travel.

The extension of the Europa-Spezial scheme to encompass many more countries means that canny travellers can now plan long treks across Europe with rail fares that greatly undercut even the lowest air fares.

Europa-Spezial: Great value for money

Europa-Spezial fares can be booked online at the German Railways website. Tickets generally go on sale 90 days prior to travel, so bookings can already be made for January 2009.

Choose your trains carefully and you can travel from Budapest to Cologne for just €39 one way – and you can include stopovers on the way (each for a maximum of 48 hours). We chose a Budapest – Prague – Berlin – Cologne routing, with en route stops for two nights in both Prague and Berlin, and found plenty of availability for mid-January 2009 at the lead-in €39 fare.

Other gems there for the taking are €29 one-way from Hamburg to Vienna (via Prague), €39 from Paris or Copenhagen to any station in Germany, and a €39 fare that will take you from any station in Belgium or the Netherlands to Basel on the Swiss border or to Salzburg in Austria.

First class options: Worth considering, even for Cheapos

If the lowest fare for your selected route is already sold out, you can still buy a Europa-Spezial ticket, but it will be priced at a higher tariff tier (e.g. €49, €69, and up). Europa-Spezial fares are also available for first class, and these are really worth checking.

Berlin to Vienna (either direct or with a one or two night stopover in Dresden) for €49 first class sounds almost too good to be true. If you find little availability for Europa-Spezial fares in second class, just have a look to see if the cheapest first class option is still available. First class sells out less quickly, and we have found many examples of journeys where remaining first class availability is cheaper than heavily-booked second class.

The great thing about these Europa-Spezial fares is that, subject to availability at the time of booking, you really can use them on the fast express services. The only real snag is that you must commit yourself to date and time of travel, but at such rock bottom fares that is scarcely a burden.

The new Europa-Spezial fares, along with long-standing promotions like discounted TGV fares in France, might really tip the balance as you weigh up whether it is worth buying a rail pass for 2009.

The post Bargain trains: Cheap rail fares across Europe for 2009 appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.