So, off I went to a local hamam, ready for a good steam and scrub. Little did I know, I was in for some of the most indulgent and relaxing hours of my life.

Interested in learning more about what’s in store for you at the Turkish hamam? It certainly isn’t for everyone, so here’s a brief introduction:

A bit of history

The art of the hamam has been an important part of Turkish culture for thousands of years. These bath houses flourished throughout the Ottoman Empire, with grand, elaborate structures built in its then capital Constantinople, which is present-day Istanbul. Allowing for covered bathing, hamams showcase stunning embroidered walls and marble. Historically, these bath houses served as the social epicenter of Turkish culture. Nowadays, they’re just a great place to get a good scrub down.

The Turkish hamam traditionally holds three rooms: the hot room,  where the steam or sauna portion occurs, the warm room, where the washing-up and soap massage occurs,  and the cool room, where you relax and drink coffee or tea. One traverses from the hottest room to the coolest room, preparing the body for exfoliation and massage and then allowing for rest.

Types of hamams

There are a variety of options when it comes to choosing a hamam. Here are some classic break-downs:

Traditional vs. Self Service

A traditional hamam will guarantee you the full experience. You can arrive empty-handed, as towels and soap will be provided. For this service, someone will massage you with soap and wash you off. A traditional trip to the hamam will cost anywhere from $14-$46.

A self-service hamam is the cheaper route, understandably. You will have to bring your own stuff, and wash yourself. This is probably not the best choice for your first time at the hamam, as you will have no idea what to do. But if you’re trying to save money, it is something to consider. Self service can cost anywhere from $5-$14.

Local vs. Tourist

This is a very important distinction in my opinion. Most neighbourhoods in Turkey will have their own hamam, where locals go either weekly or monthly to get squeaky clean. Accordingly, the prices can be quite cheap, ranging from roughly $5 – $19. It is likely that no one will speak English at these hamams, so you could be in for a bit of a language barrier unless you plan ahead.

In big cities like Istanbul and Izmur, you will find many Turkish hamams made specifically for tourists. This means that the attendants will speak English and they will be happy to guide you through the experience. They may offer package deals including oil massages and manicure/pedicure. These tourist-targetted spots are more expensive, and can range from roughly $32 -$55.

An overview of the experience

Now that you know the basics, it’s time to dive in. When you arrive at the hamam, you will be asked to change out of your clothes, and into a Turkish towel. You’ll be given some slippers, and then you’re ready to go.

As I explained, the Turkish hamam will often be divided into three rooms: hot, warm and cool. You will begin with the hot room. For me, this meant sitting for 15 minutes in an almost unthinkably hot sauna. It was hard to take, but I knew it would pay off. After my time was up, I took a dip in the mineral water pool, and then was led back to the sauna for another grueling 15 minutes.

Next, you will enter the “cool” room. This is wear the bathing happens. Normally, this will entail lying on a large marble slab as an attendant scrubs your skin, and then massages it with bubbles. Then, you’ll be washed down with water, and you’ll never feel more clean.

After washing up, you’ll be given fresh towels to dry off, and led to the “cool” room. Here, you can relax and reflect on the wonderfully indulgent experience you’ve had. This will usually include Turkish coffee or tea, lounging and perhaps a light nap.

Once you’re ready to go, you can change into your clothes and be on your way!

Helpful tips

• If it’s your first time visiting a hamam, tell your attendant. They will hopefully help to introduce you to the experience.
• Don’t skimp on the sauna. It may be hard to take the heat, but you won’t regret it in the long run.
• Going on a beach holiday? Visit the hamam beforehand, as all the scrubbing can work down a perfectly good tan.
• Be vocal about what you want and you don’t want from your experience. If you’re visiting a local hamam, it might be helpful to learn some basic Turkish.
• If you’re looking to save money, don’t go to the hamam in Istanbul. Hamams are more expensive in the capital city, and busier. You’ll have better luck in a smaller city or town.

The post Turkey’s Hamams: What to expect and how to save appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Fresh from a trip to Turkey, I spent days wandering around this spectacular city trying out all of the delicious dishes. Luckily for me, Turkish street food is amazing, safe to eat and very easy on the wallet. From fresh baked breads to mussels sprinkled with lemon, you’ll find a huge variety of food that will please any Cheapo’s taste buds.

Here are some of the best options for street eats in Istanbul.

Kumpir

Kumpir is Turkey’s interpretation of a baked potato. The variety of toppings you can put on your kumpir are almost endless, from the usual cheese to corn, mayonnaise, pickles, peas, carrots, etc. Head to Ortakoy Market on a Sunday to try out one of these tasty Turkish treats, where you’ll find plenty of kumpir stalls.

Cost: €3-4

Fresh Squeezed Juice

Maybe this makes me really boring, but my favorite street treat in Istanbul is the juice. Walk around the windy streets of Istanbul, and you’ll be sure to find some tiny shops with a hand-operated juicer and a big pile of fruit. You can get pomegranate, orange, apple, carrot, grapefruit and often other fruit and vegetables juiced, or even a mix.

Cost: €0.50 – 1.50

Midye dolma

A Turkish favorite found all around the country, Midye dolma are mussels stuffed with rice and sprinkled with lemon juice. Use your best judgement about when to try these, i.e. don’t go to a stand with mussels that have been baking in the hot sun all day!

Cost: 2 for €0.35

Balik ekmek

Take a stroll along the Galata bridge near Karaköy and Eminönü, and you’ll smell this snack frying up everywhere. Balik ekmek translates to “fish bread,” and that’s exactly what it is—a piece of fish inside a roll. Vendors fry up fish on large grills, and stuff them into fluffy Turkish bread with a little bit of lettuce. Personally, I wasn’t a big fan. The fish were frozen and imported, and the fear of swallowing fish bones really inhibited my enjoyment of the sandwich. Nevertheless, Turkish people swear by these as the perfect dinner or snack.

Cost: €1.75 – 2.75

Kokoreç

Kokorec are sheep intestines that have been spiced, skewered and stuffed in a loaf of bread. My Turkish friends tell me this is a legendary post-drinking greasy, guilty pleasure snack, similar to Poutine in Quebec.

Cost: €2 – 3

Misir

Misir are grilled or boiled corn on the cob. You can find these being sold in droves on carts in the streets surrounding the bridges, but only in the summer time.

Cost: €0.50 – 0.75

Kestane

In lieu of misir in the colder moths, Istanbul offers up Kestane: roasted chestnuts that warm the streets with their nutty aroma. They’re pretty much the same as roasted chestnuts in every other country… delicious and comforting.

Cost: 100g for €0.69

Simit

Last but not least, simits are the Turkish equivalent of bagels: dense, circular breads dipped in molasses and then sesame seeds. Often, vendors will serve them with Nutella or cheese for an extra cost. I can verify that this is the perfect breakfast on the go.

Cost: €0.35 – 1 depending on your order

One last thing to learn: Afiyet Olsun! It means bon appétit in Turkish.

The post Street Food in Istanbul: 8 snacks to try for €4 or less appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Transiting around Turkey is a relatively stress-free and economical experience. For all the money I spent on travel, I could probably have bought myself only a one-way train ticket in France!

In order to get around, you have several options:

Turkey by air

Domestic flights in Turkey are generally very budget-friendly due to competition between various Turkish airlines. There are several airports that serve the country, and you can fly with:

Atlasjet: www.atlastjet.com
Onur Air: www.onurair.com.tr
Pegasus Airlines: www.pegasusairlines.com
Sun Express Airlines: www.sunexpress.com.tr
Turkish Airlines: www.thy.com

Prices can range from as low as €30 to around €100… not bad!

Turkey by rail

The Turkish railway system is generally considered to be outdated, but things are slowly improving. Take the train if you’re after a more calming, scenic travel experience, because the railway is certainly not the most direct way between Turkish destinations, but it sure can be beautiful. The high speed train between Istanbul and Ankara is becoming quite popular, taking only 3.5 hours and costing around €33.

For more information, I recommend visiting Seat 61’s page on Turkish trains.

Related: Turkey’s rail revolution

Turkey by bus

Traveling by bus is the most popular and developed form of travel in Turkey. A bus trip in Turkey will most likely be a highly enjoyable experience! I was extremely impressed with the efficiency of all parts of my bus trips, from the planning and purchasing of the tickets to journey itself. Here’s the low-down: almost every Turkish town and city will have a bus station, called an “otogar”. You can buy your bus ticket (“bilet“) there either in advance or just before your trip, depending on the popularity of the route. Here are some of the major bus companies you will find at the otogar:

Kamil Koç: www.kamilkoc.com.tr
Ulusoy: www.ulusoy.com.tr
Varan: www.varan.com.tr

For more information on bus routes, visit Turkey Travel Planner, an amazing source of information.

I purchased a one-way ticket from Fethiye, a small city on the southwestern coast, to Istanbul for €33 with Varan, which was comparatively expensive, due to the fact that I was traveling during a major Turkish holiday. I arrived for the journey 10 minutes early and had plenty of time to spare. By 7 PM, the bus was on its way, right on time.

The seats were big and comfy and relined back to an almost horizontal state. Other perks included the air conditioning, which was a huge comfort in the 100-degree weather, the service of tea, coffee, soda and snacks every few hours, and the mini-TV with Turkish-dubbed films. My bus did not have Wi-Fi, but many do.

As we drove north, the bus stopped twice at rest stops, where it seemed there were thousands of other buses and travelers mid-journey. At the stops you can get out, walk around, purchase some snacks (there are, of course, kebab restaurants) or stay in the bus snoozing. With no appetite at either 11 PM or 3 AM, I stayed in my comfy seat. When I opened my eyes again, it was 7 AM, and we were nearly at our destination. By 8:30 AM, I had arrived at Istanbul’s main bus terminal, Büyük Otogar.

Related: Istanbul budget tips from transit tickets to nightlife

From there, I wearily searched for a Varan mini-bus (“dolmus”) with the words “Taksim” on the window to bring me to my final destination. Sure enough, there was a bus waiting for me, and I enjoyed a free trip into central Istanbul.

Taking the overnight bus in Turkey was a great experience. I was comfortable, safe, well-fed and my wallet was happy. Sleeping on the bus meant not having to pay for another night in a hotel or hostel. If you’re considering visiting Turkey, don’t be thrown off by the idea of a long bus trip—you might just enjoy it!

The post Budget Travel in Turkey: A journey on the overnight bus appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Last week I flew from New York’s JFK to Istanbul and connected from there to Sofia. Aside from the duration of the layover in Istanbul (six hours!) the journey was very pleasant. The layover in Istanbul was also a blast, despite my personal jetlag-induced fog. Turkish Airlines has very wisely turned Istanbul into an intercontinental hub. Loads of passengers on my flight were continuing on to places like Tel Aviv and Tashkent, and massive numbers of Dutch and German tourists were heading home. The airport is a thoroughgoing cultural crossing point.

Onboard Turkish Airlines

But back to the Turkish Airlines experience.

Let’s start with the best bit of branding, the showcased food items. Our pre-dinner drinks on the JFK-Istanbul flight came with little bags of hazelnuts, replete with the propagandistic slogan “The Miracle Nut Hazelnut Comes from Turkey.” The question of origin aside, this particular miracle nut is a pretty delicious introduction to a meal service. The dinner that followed was unexpectedly tasty. It included a small tube of very flavorful olive oil and lemon juice packaged to call attention to its Turkish provenance.

Also of note: the yogurt cucumber salad served with dinner and the sandwiches passed out late at night, between dinner and breakfast. We’re talking about airplane food, granted, but everything was pretty acceptably tasty. I can only imagine what sorts of things passengers at the front of the plane were eating.

My second flight, from Istanbul to Sofia, was in the air for fifty minutes or so. According to the flight distances list posted in the back pages of the airline’s in-flight magazine, the Istanbul-Sofia flight is Turkish Airlines’ shortest international journey. Nonetheless, a decent meal and drinks were served in that short window. The meal contained another gorgeous tube of olive oil and lemon juice.

A little reading

The April edition of Skylife, the Turkish Airlines in-flight magazine, continues the work of interweaving airline and national brands. The issue’s best articles: lengthy spreads on Denizli and Ekaterinburg, both with multiple images, and a short piece on a trio of Turkish springtime destinations.

Most exciting of all is the route map in the back of the magazine, with its documentation of Turkish Airlines’ impressive list of routes. The links across Central Asia, the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and the Gulf States will no doubt appear especially suggestive to seasoned European travelers looking to push beyond Europe. The airline’s domestic routes across Turkey are also impressive.

Next week I’ll fly back to New York on Turkish Airlines from Chisinau via Istanbul. Here’s hoping for a similarly enjoyable return journey.

The post Airline Memo: A maiden journey on Turkish Airlines appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

While a few Cheapos in our office were living in London the year before last, they had an admittedly hard time thinking about family back home, gathered around a table of carved turkey (or turducken), their aunt’s famous green bean casserole, and – especially – mom’s super-human homemade pecan pie.

Cue the drool!

Initially, these Cheapos thought about hosting a Thanksgiving feast at their flat, but didn’t find much in the way of Thanksgiving at Marks & Spencer. Instead, a restaurant in Notting Hill proved to be the right treat. The Cheapos gorged along with a packed house of other friendly American expats and had a happy, festive time.

While it could never be as good as grandma’s cooking, it sure tasted close to home. And while this year we’re all able to celebrate Thanksgiving with family, we thought it’d be helpful to round up a few suggestions for Americans abroad:

Paris
Join the Meetup Expats in Paris group for Thanksgiving dinner at Le Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement. Full details here.

Prague
Head over to the Radisson SAS Alcron Hotel and join the AARO (Association of American Residents Overseas) for a Thanksgiving meal. More information can be found here.

Brussels
A group of expats in Brussels will meet at the Sheraton Hotel, Place Rogier, for a meal on Thursday evening. Check out the American Club of Brussels calendar for more info.

London
If you plan to get meditative on turkey day, might we suggest the annual Thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Folks in the local expat meetup group here meet at the cafe across the street first, to break bread beforehand.

Barcelona
The American Society of Barcelona hosts an annual dinner. This year, the event happens at the Hotel Arts (Pau Casals Room, Marina 19-21). Learn more here.

Rome
Friends in Rome hosts an event at Le Bain (Via delle Botteghe Oscure, 33). Reservations are required. To prepare for feasting, go here.

Budapest
Head over to the Budapest Marriott Hotel (Apáczai Csere János u. 4.) for a full spread. You can register when you get there. Or, try this guy; he’s willing to cook for your whole family!

OK Cheapos, now it’s your turn. Where will you be eating your European turkey and stuffin’ this Thanksgiving eve? Leave us a note here and we’ll pass it on.

The post Where to celebrate Thanksgiving in Europe appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

NEW YORK—For the first 17 years of my life, my panorama of Cyprus was the inside of my relatives’ homes. We would arrive “apo Ameriki” and immediately begin a whirl of lunches and dinners with different relatives, and there’s a “welcome” round of invitations as well as a “farewell” one.

To an extent this is still the case — this visit, my mom drew up a calendar and listed each day’s invitations (and, afterward, what we ate, and then she and I transcribed the recipes we’d requested for the various dishes because we both love cooking) even though much of the socializing was in restaurants, as our relatives lose interest in spending days in the kitchen and hours washing up.

Now that I’m back in the U.S. I find myself wishing I’d brought home more than photos and recipes. My relatives are such charming, smart, interesting people, and trying to recreate dishes we ate at shared meals just makes me wish they were with me more often.

Besides the food, one other thing in Cyprus is inevitable: political discussions. In Cyprus politics isn’t just background, it’s life.

The Cyprus problem, as it’s called, is that since 1974 the island has been divided between the predominantly Greek-Cypriot Republic and the Turkish and Turkish-Cypriot north after Turkish troops invaded in response to a Greek-Cypriot coup (the Museum of the National Struggle in Nicosia explains some of this in greater detail, but makes no claim to objectivity). The Green Line that marks the partition is still patrolled by United Nations troops.

Since then, diplomacy has failed to truly resolve the situation, and just about every time I visit Cyprus there’s another round of talks between the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot leaders. I don’t notice tension between the two sides in everyday life, but talks always get people emotional and this time was no exception.

Just before the Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union in 2003 the Green Line was made a porous border, where at certain checkpoints you can enter the north. A passport is required, and for this reason many of my relatives refuse to visit — they say they shouldn’t have to show a passport to cross a false border (Turkey’s is the only government to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) — but I’ve gone to my dad’s village on a previous trip to Cyprus and found the north sort of like a trip back in time. It was a fascinating look at how the two sides live, and interesting to see where I could have grown up.

But politics is only part of life in Cyprus, where there are beaches to lay on, food to enjoy, art to examine, shopping and nightlife to sample, and strong coffee to power us through all of it. It’s a small country with a big appetite to enjoy life.

Speaking of coffee, when my relative read our fortunes (see photo), she predicted for my mom “a social gathering at a table, which will be a very pleasant and joyous event.” Which is just like every visit to Cyprus, for us — followed that’s how long it takes to fit into my clothes again because, unlike New Yorkers, Cypriots don’t walk. We drive even the shortest distances, and would maneuver our cars through the supermarket aisles like a giant drive-thru if we could.

And then, peering into my mom’s coffee cup, she directed my dad to bring us back every year.

About the author: Alex Christodoulides is one of those push-me-pull-you creatures known as a dual citizen. When not at home in New York City (where she is a freelance writer) or in Cyprus (where she is a freeloader taking advantage of her relatives’ hospitality), she is probably dreaming of a trip to someplace where vaccinations are required and Fodor’s fears to tread.

The post Cyprus Journal: Home again appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Editor’s Note: This week, the blog will be tagging along with fellow Cheapo Alex Christodoulides as she visits family in Cyprus.

NICOSIA, Cyprus—Nicosia has about a dozen churches of various styles and ages scattered through the walled part of the city, ranging from the Byzantine Chrysaliniotissa Church near the Green Line and the Famagusta Gate to the airy 19th-century Phaneromeni Church. Ayios Ioannis cathedral sounds larger than it is and has been through more change than its simple name suggests. Some, like Stavros tou Missirikou Church, have survived so many masters of Cyprus that their outward appearance would seem to indicate an identity crisis.

Chrysaliniotissa Church

Chrysaliniotissa Church keeps a low profile, literally, with its solid, reliable barrel vaults. Although it’s on a street that bears its name, it’s pretty unobtrusive if you arrive there from a back road – no sky-high bell tower makes it easy to spot miles away.

Inside is a respite from the heat and glare, thanks to thick stone walls. The iconostasis here is unusually wide, making for a shallow but broad seating area. Take a look at the Virgin Mary and Christ icons, where worshippers often leave offerings in silver or wax to symbolize requests or thanks for prayers answered.

Ayios Ioannis cathedral

The oft-reinvented Ayios Ioannis sits inside a complex that includes the Archbishopric and the Byzantine Museum and Art Galleries. So small it seems you could stretch your arms and almost touch both walls, the church was built in 1662 on the site of a 14th-century Benedictine chapel dedicated to St. John the Evangelist which subsequently became a Greek Orthodox church honoring St. John the Theologian.

The single-aisle building’s lavishly painted walls and ceiling depict scenes from the Bible and the major saints of the Orthodox Church, with the throng of faces clearing for a huge Pantokrator above the elaborate iconostasis. Shooting photos and video is not allowed inside the church, and a sign at the door says tour groups get five minutes to take it all in, but on quiet days the caretaker will let you take a seat to admire as long as you like.

Stavros tou Missirikou Church

Stavros tou Missirikou Church was built in the 16th century as a medieval Orthodox house of worship, but was converted into a mosque in 1571 when the Ottomans took over the island. The church has some Byzantine, Gothic and Italian Renaissance architectural elements, and a minaret added to one side of the building documents its time as a mosque, which is a lot to cram into a building that seats maybe 30 people. No longer used for ecclesiastical services, the church often houses exhibits.

Phaneromeni Church

Nearby is Phaneromeni Church, the largest in the walled city. Its tall, unadorned white walls seem to direct the worshippers’ gaze to the massive icons near the entrances and the intricately carved, painted and gilded iconostasis.

Phaneromeni Church is another where the faithful have left a collection of wax items hooked on the iconostasis rail to symbolize prayers made or answered. A constant trickle of worshippers drops by to kiss the icons of favorite saints or offer a quick prayer for an urgent request as a benevolent-looking Pantokrator gazes down on them from on high.

About the author: Alex Christodoulides is one of those push-me-pull-you creatures known as a dual citizen. When not at home in New York City (where she is a freelance writer) or in Cyprus (where she is a freeloader taking advantage of her relatives’ hospitality), she is probably dreaming of a trip to someplace where vaccinations are required and Fodor’s fears to tread.

The post Cyprus Journal: Church visits in Nicosia appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Sure, the language spoken in Cyprus is Greek, but the accent is distinctive and so is the food. For one thing, Cyprus recently made its mark in the Guinness Book of World Records with a 41-meter sausage, dedicated in a big ceremony complete with traditional costumes in a town up in the Troodos Mountains.

Adventures in Cypriot Cuisine

The easiest way to get a handle on Cypriot cuisine – and a way to kill several hours trying to put away what looks like not much food – is to order meze, a selection of anywhere from a dozen to 20 hot and cold traditional dishes that most sit-down restaurants offer with little to no variety in the lineup.

First will be the dips, served with pita bread: among them tahini, made from ground sesame seeds and lemon juice, and taramosalata, made from fish roe and thickened with either a lemon-potato mixture or mayonnaise. Grilled halloumi cheese is always on the list somewhere, squeaking as you chew. There will also be meat dishes, leaning heavily on pork. Souvlaki will be among them, but so will hiromeri, a type of cured ham; loukanika, a pork sausage that is often grilled; and lountza, another ham-ish offering. For the pescatarians, there is fish meze, but vegetarians may have a hard time finding an acceptable version of the full menu.

Vegetarians will find that souvlaki joints don’t need to be off limits, since most offer grilled halloumi in place of the meat. Cypriots also eat a lot of veggies and legumes, and many restaurants offer a bean or lentil dish of the day.

Any serious restaurant in Cyprus will let you pick your fish when ordering.

A Cheapo-friendly pick in Nicosia

An inexpensive local favorite in Nicosia for vegetarian and carnivore-friendly homestyle cooking is Mattheos Restaurant, tucked unobtrusively in a corner of Plateia 28 Octobriou alongside the tiny Stavros tou Missirikou Church with its easy-to-spot minaret.

Coffee and dessert

To wake up after a big meal, there’s always coffee. There is not much love lost between Cyprus and Turkey, so locals call the brew Greek coffee or just order it by their preferred sweetness – glyko (sweet), metrio (one sugar) or sketo (black). For those who prefer their caffeine with milk, Italian-style coffee is very popular here, as is Nescafe, which is served hot, chilled or as a frothy iced frappe.

Most of Cyprus’ offerings to the sweet tooth will be familiar, but there are a few things that are typical to the island. Soujouko looks like a length of tan garden hose, but it’s made from dipping strings of almonds into thickened grape juice. Loukoumades are fried dough blobs served hot out of the oil and drizzled with honey, and are usually sold at small stands starting in the late afternoon, or at festivals. Shamishi is the same fried dough filled with a sort of cream made with semolina and flavored with mastic, which has a flavor slightly reminiscent of rosewater.

As you might expect in a hot climate, Cyprus produces its own ice cream. Three big companies, Papafilippou, Erakles and Pahit-Ice, have stores all over the country and a presence in the freezer cases at supermarkets.

Tomorrow: Heading to church

About the author: Alex Christodoulides is one of those push-me-pull-you creatures known as a dual citizen. When not at home in New York City (where she is a freelance writer) or in Cyprus (where she is a freeloader taking advantage of her relatives’ hospitality), she is probably dreaming of a trip to someplace where vaccinations are required and Fodor’s fears to tread.

The post Cyprus Journal: Adventures in eating appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Author, reporter, and NPR correspondent Scott Huler recently returned from an epic journey tracing the tale of Homer’s “Odyssey.” After reading “No-Man’s Lands,” his insightful recounting of the trip, we asked him for advice on planning a similar journey—on a budget.

Scott had some great advice:

When Odysseus set off on an epic voyage, he had some non-cheapo advantages: his ships were filled with treasure from the Trojan War, and if supplies ran low it was perfectly reasonable to come ashore and make a brief pirate raid on a coastal town.

That wasn’t going to work for me. When I set out to retrace his journey from Troy to Ithaca, I had little more than a backpack, a tight budget, and a pregnant wife at home. Just the same, I found the cheaper-than-cheap backpack route from Troy to Ithaca perfect for me. I had more than a dozen stops to make. Add to that Athens and the tiny Turkish town of Kesan, and my journey covered around 20 cities in Turkey, Greece, Tunisia, Italy (where I visited the catacombs in Rome), France, and Malta. Finally, I arrived on the western tip of Sicily.

Here are five things you should know if you ever make an epic journey on a small-scale budget:

1. Get your doner on!

In Turkey, if it’s spinning on a vertical spit, it’s probably doner, which is like Greek gyro and delicious almost beyond imagination. But beware: If it’s spinning on a horizontal spit it’s probably kokorec, which is sheep guts, and tastes like sheep guts. If you suddenly find yourself buying kokorec, just get them to put a lot of pepper on it. You can get a few bites down before you turn the corner and find a trash can. Be sure to smile and wave at the vendor. You’ll be a good story for them.

2. Use your words.

Don’t be embarrassed to take a guided tour in the language of your choice: you left home to understand people and places different from you, right? You’ll learn a lot more, and if you stick with trustworthy sources (the museum’s free audio guide rather than the guy who starts plucking at your sleeve after you walk in), you’ll pay only a reasonable fee augmented by, of course, a reasonable tip. I had a guided tour of Troy that got my journey started just right, and I might have missed some very cool stuff had I been too savvy for it all.

3. Buy cheap(er) overnight accommodation.

Here’s how. Take an overnight ferry and pay the extra euros for a room. If you’re traveling alone, pay the addition for a single. Defending territory on couches in saloon bars or hunkering down in chilly winds on deck sounds romantic in a post-college kind of way, but unless you’re absolutely destitute, the extra € 20 will be well worth it, turning a sleepless night into a night of almost delightful, private peace.

4. Take the bus (especially in Turkey).

Not only is the bus one of the cheapest—and greenest—modes of transport, but it’s civilized beyond measure. In Turkey, for example, where I rode the bus everywhere, there’s air conditioning, oriental rugs down the center aisle, free cakes, water, and orange soda. Plus every couple hours or so an attendant brings around a little dash of bergamot cologne. Talk about luxury for less! (Visit the main bus terminal in Istanbul to learn more or to get moving.)

5. When in Rome, stay near the train station.

In Rome, I loved the Hotel Stromboli. Tourist guides will tell you to avoid the hotels near the Stazione Termini, but I think they’re crazy. Cheap rooms abound (if you’re clever, you can get them at the Stromboli for 50 euros or so), and there are tons of paninotecas with delicious and cheap hot sandwiches that keep travelers fueled for a couple euros a pop. Plus, you’ll find plenty of nearby nasoni fountains to keep water bottles full for free and you have constant, convenient access to the train station. No place in Rome is too far to walk from there and when it’s time to head to the airport, that’s exactly where the cheap buses depart from. There are dozens of cheap, clean, and safe hotels in this unfairly maligned neighborhood. It’s where you want to be.

See EuroCheapo’s recommendations for hotels South and North of Termini Station in Rome.

About the author: Scott Huler has written for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as Backpacker, Fortune, and Child. His award-winning radio work has been heard on “All Things Considered” and “Day to Day” on National Public Radio and on “Marketplace” and “Splendid Table” on American Public Media. He has been a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Raleigh News & Observer and a staff reporter and producer for Nashville Public Radio. He was the founding and managing editor of the Nashville City Paper. He sometimes serves as guest host on “The State of Things” on WUNC-FM. No-Man’s Lands is his fifth book. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, the writer June Spence; they have a son and another child on the way.

The post Q & A: Scott Huler’s epic journey on a budget appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.