However, it is possible to ride the rails without breaking the bank. With a little bit of scrappy research, cheap accommodations can be found. And as elsewhere in Europe, supermarkets are a reliable way to keep food costs low.

Let’s look at how I tried to keep this Swiss adventure as inexpensive as possible and how I decided where to go.

Transportation: Benefits of the Swiss Travel Pass

Cost

For 251 CHF ($249; €234), I bought a four-day second-class Swiss Travel Pass. Beforehand, I did some research to make sure it was worth it. Although it was far less of a deal than I’d hoped it would be, it did end up helping my budget. I added up each of the four days of travel and realized that I was just saving 25.20 CHF ($25; €23.50) over the four days of the pass. Not great but better than nothing!

Benefits

However, beyond the modest savings, there are distinct advantages to the pass beyond the modest savings.

One, it covers public bus transportation in many cities, including, for my purposes, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Zürich, and Scuol, places where I knew it would come in handy and save an additional, not insignificant, sum.

Secondly, it includes access to many museums, including the Musée International de Horlogerie (the International Watch Museum) in La Chaux-de-Fonds, which otherwise charges 15 CHF ($14.90; €14) for adult admission.

Thirdly, the pass gave me a great deal of freedom. I didn’t have to make a single seat reservation, and I was able to break up my journeys at leisure and make on-the-spot itinerary changes.

Museums

Here is a list of museums included on the pass.

Switzerland budget itinerary

I keep a notebook with lists of places to visit. These are places I come across in articles, history books, novels, and blogs. A few months ago, I noticed that the page titled “Switzerland” had four places on it:

• La Chaux-de-Fonds, a gritty, watch-making city in Romandie, the Francophone western part of Switzerland
• Zürich, a city I hadn’t properly visited since I was a child
• Scuol, a Romansch-speaking town in Graubünden with natural hot springs
• Soglio, a tiny village of gray, slate-roofed houses in the Italian-speaking Bregaglia Valley, also in Graubünden

What of an itinerary that combined all four? I checked calendars and schedules. With a four-day Swiss Travel Pass and some serious research, it would be expensive but not impossible: a true mountain-to-shining-mountain tour of Switzerland. I planned it for June, flying into Basel and out of Zürich.

Looking out over La Chaux de Fonds. Photo: Nelson Minar

Day 1: La Chaux-de-Fonds

La Chaux-de-Fonds is a striking city, sitting at 1,000 meters above sea level in the Jura Mountains, just a few kilometers from the French border. Organized in a grid and historically dedicated to watchmaking, the city is also the birthplace of modernist architect Le Corbusier.

The architect’s first solo project, La Maison Blanche, a house he built for his parents in the foothills above the city, is a fascinating place, with mismatched wall heights and uncorrected mistakes. Lovingly cared for by the Association Maison Blanche, it is open to visitors on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for 10 CHF ($9.90; €9.30), with a 3 CHF reduction for under-12s and the elderly.

Hotel: I was pleased to come very close to my goal in La Chaux-de-Fonds. I found modest accommodations at Hotel Chez Gilles near the center of the city. The bill was just a bit over my budget for 120 CHF, but the location was great. This rate included a breakfast which I found to be pretty lackluster.

Day 2: Zürich

I stopped in Biel/Bienne, another city tied to watchmaking, on my journey from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Zürich. This bilingual city sits on the country’s Röstigraben or the German/French linguistic divide. Its old town is well preserved; one highlight is the town church, which was built in the middle of the 15th century.

From there, it was on to Zürich, where I spent an afternoon and evening soaking up the city’s amazing summer energy. The streets and parks were thronging, the vegetarian buffet at Haus Hiltl (Sihlstrasse 28) was surprisingly delicious (if not dirt cheap), and Im Viadukt is just as stylish as its reputation. After having avoided Zürich for so many years out of a generalized fear of the city’s cost index, I found myself taken by it. The city’s diversity, the hipster energy of Züri-West, the clean, quiet streets, the parks, and the crispness of its retail shops are all very attractive.

Hotel: In Zürich, I stayed at the very cute Zum Guten Glück for 71.50 CHF ($71.10; €66.70). Both the shower and the toilet room were shared. Breakfast is not included in this rate, though it is on offer in the café downstairs. I loved Zum Guten Glück — see my Hotel Crush article for more details.

Day 3: Scuol

Then I was off to the mountains, to Graubünden in the country’s southeast. Switzerland’s geographically largest and only trilingual canton, Graubünden is home to isolated valleys connected to the rest of the world by single train lines and efficient yellow Postbuses.

First up was Scuol-Tarasp, a Romansch-speaking town where I was greeted in shops and on the street with the Romansch greeting “Allegra.” I walked from one end of the village to the other and spent hours in the heavenly Bogn Engiadina, where 26.50 CHF ($26.40; €24.70) got me three hours of soaking in hot and cold pools, taking saunas, and sampling three distinct types of mineral water from the surrounding region – one of which, high in iron and carbonated, has a deliciously odd taste.

Hotel: In Scuol, I found Villa Maria, which has unfortunately closed since my stay. I found the hospitality of the proprietors quite remarkable. There was a small basket of fruit in the room upon my arrival, and I was sent off after breakfast with a newspaper, apples, and the offer of a sandwich.

If you’re planning your own trip to Scuol, check out over 100 accommodations in the city.

Hiking through the scenic village of Soglio. Photo: VC

Day 4: Soglio

The following day, after connections by train and bus, I walked the extraordinary Sentiero Panoramico hiking path, which stretches from one tiny village, Casaccia, to another, Soglio. It’s 17 kilometers long, and winds its way through fields, by a dam, through the sleepy village of Roticcio, across a dozen or so waterfalls, and through chestnut forests.

It is, without an iota of exaggeration, one of the most satisfying hikes I have ever undertaken. With several breaks, it took five and a half hours. I ran into just one other walker on the path. The one piece of advice I’d pass on would be to do this hike with someone else, or at the very least to notify friends of your plans – though not terribly demanding, the terrain was wet and occasionally slippery and the mountainsides are very steep.

Soglio is a treat of a village, with gray slate-roofed stone houses and a village church with expansive views over the valley. During the afternoon, tourists explore the town’s little alleyways and locals gossip in the squares. After sunset, most visitors leave. It becomes quiet and the mountain air gets cooler and cooler.

Hotel: In Soglio, I found Pensiun Mürias, a tiny guesthouse with a kitchen (and, crucially, a coffee machine!) for 87.50 CHF ($87; €81.60). An old farmer’s house rebuilt as a pension, it has all the atmospheric magic that you might expect, located on a narrow lane a few minutes’ walk from the epicenter of the tiny village.

Day 5: Back to Zurich

The following morning, I took two buses and two trains to get to the Zürich Airport. The journey was over. And though it was a whirlwind of a trip, it hadn’t felt in the least bit hectic. The variety of landscapes, the contemplative effects of train and bus travel, and lots of walking all had a restful effect.

Tips for eating on the cheap

Two of my hotels came with a complimentary breakfast. On those mornings I overindulged at breakfast. For lunches and dinners, I went with a combination of supermarkets and restaurants. The Swiss supermarket chain Migros offers delicious, fresh ready-made salads. I combined these with smoked salmon and cold cuts for lunches in the neighborhood of 15 CHF.

Restaurant dinners were more difficult to arrange on a budget. I splurged at Villa Maria, where, without a car, I was essentially housebound, and made a serious misstep in Zürich at an overpriced Japanese restaurant.

My big tip for affordable eating in Switzerland: Think of dinner as an extended picnic. Stock up on supermarket goods that don’t need to be refrigerated.

The post Switzerland on a Budget: Our 5-day cheapo itinerary appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

It pays to think about saving on your ground transportation costs before you even arrive in Germany. In this article, we’ll show you four simple ways to cut the cost of your rail travel dramatically.

1. Book early on the Bahn website.

The only sure-fire method of saving money on German trains is to book your travel as early as possible directly through the website of the German railway, Deutsche Bahn (bahn.de).

You can score deals as low as €19 on long-distance or international connections, if you are among the first to make reservations. When you are certain of your travel dates, there is nothing to be gained by waiting. As time passes and the cheapest tickets sell out, each further contingent costs €10 more for the exact same trip.

If you allow a certain amount of flexibility in your travel times, you may find, for example, an early morning connection that is available at a lower price, so it is worthwhile to search various times of day before booking. The downside to this method: you are stuck with a specific train time and route and these tickets are generally non-refundable.

Related: Why you should book your own train tickets, rather than using an agent.

If you will be traveling by train frequently, consider a BahnCard 25. Photo: Namics

2. Research a BahnCard

If you plan to make at least two full-price train trips within Germany, purchasing a BahnCard 25 may well save you money, as it gives you a 25% discount on every trip you book.

However, before buying a card, consider these points:

1. Do the math yourself. Do the savings on your tickets outweigh the cost of the BahnCard at all? A trial BahnCard 25 (valid for three months) is currently available for €15. If there is no trial card available, an annual card costs €62. For the former, you save once your total ticket purchases per person have surpassed €60, but for the latter, you must spend over €248 to see any savings.

2. Be prepared to cancel. The BahnCard is a subscription service, meaning that it automatically renews and is billed to you if you do not cancel it in time (typically six weeks before it is due to expire). At the time you purchase your BahnCard, you should also submit a cancellation notice through the online customer service forms of the DB website. You can find a detailed German description of the process here, including the cancellation request text in German, which you can simply copy and paste into your message. Be sure to include your BahnCard number and use the email address associated with your DB registration.

Related: Is Germany’s “Rail & Fly” a good deal?

3. Buy “group tickets” and save.

Groups of travelers will have their savings amplified by traveling on group ticket offers which utilize regional trains rather than high-speed (ICE) trains. This method is most profitable and least tedious for travel within one German state or region—such as a group day trip from Munich to Salzburg, Austria (€43 for 5 people) on the Bayern-Ticket or from Berlin to Szeczin, Poland (€29 for 5 people) on the Berlin-Brandenburg-Ticket. You can find full details of the regional ticket offers for the states you’ll be visiting here.

If your travel includes more than one state, you’ll likely have to buy a Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket for weekday travel or a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket for weekend travel. These tickets are valid from 9 am to 3 am the following day for any regional train in the entire country. The QdL ticket starts at €44 for one traveler, but less than double that for up to five people—a five-person group spends around €15 per person to ride the rails. The weekend ticket has better conditions for less money: The price starts at €40 for a single traveler, but five people pay just €12 euros each for travel from midnight of the day of travel until 3 am the following morning.

That said, you should be clear that regional trains have neither the speed nor the service standard of IC/EC or ICE trains. For example, compare the following travel times:

Berlin-Hamburg
ICE: 1:45 hrs. on ICE with o transfers
Regional: 3-4 hrs. with up to 3 transfers

Berlin-Munich
ICE: 6 hrs. with 0-1 transfers
Regional: 9:30-11 hrs. with 3-6 transfers

Berlin-Frankfurt
ICE: 4:15 hrs. with 0-1 transfers
Regional: 8:15-9:15 hrs. with 3-5 transfers

You should consider carefully whether the price difference alone justifies losing most of a valuable travel day to slower trains. If you go for it, don’t forget to pack yourself and your crew enough reading material, food, and drink for the entire length of your journey!

4. Get a refund if you arrive late.

Consumer protection laws in Germany require the Deutsche Bahn to refund part of your ticket costs if your train is delayed over an hour. For any train arriving more than 60 minutes late, you are entitled to a refund of 25% of your ticket price; for trains over 120 minutes late, you are entitled to 50% of your ticket price.

When you arrive at your destination, have your late arrival “verified” (i.e., stamped on your ticket) by the train station service personnel. If it’s not too late, fill out the required refund form (available from train service personnel or at train station service counters), and turn in your ticket for an immediate cash refund.

If you need your ticket for return travel, turn everything in at any other train station service counter later in your trip. While you officially have six months to request your refund, getting your money back becomes more complicated once you’ve left the country, so take care of it prior to your departure back home.

Travel alternative: Hit the road

If train travel is still too expensive, consider hopping on Germany’s newest travel trend: long-distance buses. See how you can travel across the country for just a few euros in our article on riding the budget bus lines in Germany with fares from €5.

The post 4 easy ways to save on train tickets in Germany appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Here are our top five rail journeys for this month.

1. Zürich to Salzburg

A wonderful transect from west to east through the Alps, taking in three countries (Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria) and including the mountainous Arlberg route through the Tyrol. Depart Zürich at 10:40 a.m., enjoy lunch on board, and you’ll arrive in Salzburg at 4 p.m.

2. Riviera Cruise

Sit on the right side of the train for sea views aplenty as you ride local trains from Marseille all the way to Genoa. The train hugs the coast for much of the eight-hour journey. Leave Marseille St. Charles at 9:25 a.m., and with two easy changes of train along the way (at Nice Ville and Ventimiglia), you’ll arrive in Genoa just after 5 p.m.

3. Northward Bound

Central Finland has a delicate beauty as winter slips gently into spring. The rail route from Helsinki north through Kuopio is a gem – in our view outshining the more westerly route followed by the fastest trains from Helsinki to Oulu. So leave Helsinki at 8:12 a.m., change at Kajaani onto a delightfully rural local train, and you’ll arrive in Oulu at 5:24 p.m. There is no better way to mark the coming of spring in Finland.

4. Belgrade to Bar

The rail journey from the Serbian capital to the coast of Montenegro is one of the finest in Europe and at its best in early spring. Take the Tara Express from Belgrade at 10:10 a.m. and you’ll reach the port of Bar in Montenegro ten hours later. The journey passes through Bosnia & Herzegovina along the way. Rugged, wild terrain aplenty with fabulous mountain and gorge scenery.

5. Hebridean Adventure

The West Highland Line from Glasgow is a classic. Travel it this month and you’ll still see winter snow lingering on the Scottish hills. Depart Glasgow Queen Street at 8:21 a.m., cross lonely Rannoch Moor and skirt Ben Nevis to reach the fishing port of Mallaig at 1:34 p.m. You’ll have a couple of hours to wander before hopping aboard the afternoon sailing over the sea to Skye.

The train times given in this article generally apply to weekday services. Weekend timings may vary. You can check current schedules in the March 2011 issue of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable.

The post 5 daytime rail journeys to consider in Europe appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Europe’s car train network

Car trains don’t usually feature in the regular train schedules, and are often not so easy to find out about. Europe’s largest operator is DB Autozug, a division of Deutsche Bahn, which this year celebrates 80 years of operations. Apart from a network of routes within Germany, DB Autozug operates services from seven bases in Germany to ten destinations in France, Austria and Italy.

Other car train operators to bear in mind are:

• ÖBB (Austrian Railways): Six routes within Austria plus international services to Germany and ItalyAustria plus international services to Germany and Italy
• Trenitalia: Six routes within Italy
• SNCF Auto-Train: Some two dozen routes within France including some very useful cross-country links, such as from France’s Atlantic coast to the Riviera or Brittany to Alsace
• Optima Tours run the Optima Express which makes a big leap across the Balkans from Austria to Turkey.

In addition, there are useful domestic services in Croatia and Finland, plus of course a large number of short-hop car trains that transport vehicles and their passengers through Alpine tunnels, under the English Channel or to offshore islands linked by rail causeways to the mainland (as in the case of the German holiday island of Sylt).

Car train fares

Car train services can be pricey, but at the top end they offer a very high level of comfort with overnight journeys in modern sleeping cars, along with a good on-board restaurant where you can enjoy dinner before retiring for the night. It is possible to board a train in northern Germany mid-afternoon and wake up next morning on the shores of the Mediterranean, having traveled a thousand miles but without having spent a cent on fuel.

Some operators offer discount options for travelers prepared to book very early or last minute. Early bookers with ÖBB, for example, can pick up a one way ticket for car and driver from Vienna to Hamburg from just €133, a journey which by road would take about 11 hours and cost (depending on vehicle size) upwards of €80 in fuel.

National and international services: DB Autozug

DB Autozug has a great one-way special for inner-German route, offering fares of €99, which covers car transport and couchette accommodation for the driver. For international journeys, there is a €149 fare (similarly for vehicle plus driver with couchette).

Regular fares for international journeys for those not wanting to book well in advance start at €179 for car with driver or €319 including car transport plus couchettes for up to five passengers. Not cheap, we know, but really an amazing way to start or end a European car tour. And, once your car rental company has told you that their one-way drop charge from Germany to the Med is over €400, the idea of using a car train to return to your point of origin begins to look like a decidedly attractive proposition.

Car train services are also a credible option for British travelers looking for southern sunshine who want to avoid the long grind south on continental motorways.  The DB Autozug terminal at Düsseldorf is less than a three-hour drive from Channel ports.

The post Alternative Transportation: European Car Trains 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.

Related: Sometimes First Class TGV is cheaper than Second Class

Tickets, however, can be kind of expensive — if you simply show up at the train station and purchase one on the spot for that day. But happily, they can also be a complete steal, and cheaper, in fact, than low-cost flights!

For instance, consider these TGV rates, taken from the website of the SNCF, the French National Railway:

For travel today: A 2nd Class refundable ticket booked today (on their site) for travel today (January 3, 2008) from Paris to Marseille costs €96.

For travel tomorrow: Most of the fares remain the same for travel tomorrow, at €96. However, the TGV offers cheaper Internet-only discount rates on its iDTGV lines (TGV trains outfitted with specially-themed cars for different atmospheres, including a “zen” quiet car!). On the iDTGV line, we found one €69 rate, for a 2nd Class, non-refundable ticket.

For travel next week: Rates start falling, however, when you book a week in advance. For the same Paris to Marseille route, we saw many of the same €96 rates (it is, after all, a Friday), but found more of the cheapies, including several €44.90 tickets, both in 1st and 2nd class (non-refundable)!

For travel next month: If you book even further out, say one month in advance, and travel on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, you could find even cheaper fares. For the same route on February 12, we found €19 2nd class seats, and €24 seats in 1st class!

Please note that these rates were taken from the official website of the SNCF. We found these rates by clicking on the French flag to remain inside the French portion of the site. When you click the US flag, you’re taken to the RailEurope.com website, which is, of course, in English.

We appreciate the service that RailEurope provides and partner with them on Eurail passes in our rail pass guide. The prices quoted, however, on their website for the same trips mentioned above are more expensive than the prices you’ll find on the SNCF site, even after you consider exchange rates.

For example, the cheapest fare we found for the Paris-Marseille route next week was $153 2nd Class, $212 1st Class. Rates for next month are much cheaper, mostly $80, although we found some seats for $41 in 2nd class. We couldn’t find 1st class cheaper than $124.

Some tips for booking a cheap TGV ticket

1) Try booking directly through the SNCF on their website in French. At least give it a shot — you probably won’t have any trouble navigating the site.

2) Book as far in advance as possible.

3) Travel on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, and be flexible with your hours.

4) Consider trying out one of the new iDTGV trains. They’re just as fast, and they’re kind of fun.

5) Do plenty of searches and look at all the times available. You will probably find a wide range of ticket prices.

We hope these thoughts are helpful. Please send us your thoughts, tips, and advice for traveling cheaply by train!

The post France budget tip: Cheapo rates on the TGV appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.