How to save $$$ while traveling in Europe

–I’ve heard of some clever ways to save money while traveling. One guy had hitched hiked from Estonia to Barcelona. Another trio was performing music on the street for tourists to make money while traveling. Here are some other ways to keep your costs low so you can keep traveling.

1. Pack a large jar of peanut butter from the US. Potential savings ($300/month)

Peanut Butter hardly exists outside of the US. If you do find it, you are almost guaranteed to discover small jars that are imported and fairly expensive. Peanut Butter provides a good source of vitamins, proteins, and good mono unsaturated fats. When combining it with celery, apples or bread and jelly, it serves as a great snack or even a meal. In Europe, grocery stores are plentiful and all of them have bread and jelly and most have celery also. I took a 2.5lb jar of peanut butter that cost me $3.24 at Target for a six week trip in Europe. Although it made up 10% of my traveling weight, it saved me at least $500 throughout the trip.

How the savings was calculated: Let’s say your average meal in Europe is generously estimated at around 7-8 Euro. This could be more for dinner time and potentially less for breakfast. Go to any supermarket and buy some whole wheat bread with a can of Jelly. It should come to around two Euros in total and should be enough for eight sandwiches. If you can replace that one seven to eight Euro meal with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches valued at 50 cents and a few pieces of fruit and vegetables from the supermarket for another 50 cents, you can be saving around 6-7 euros or $10 a day. ($10 x 30=$300) Plus, fruits, vegetables, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches will make up a meal that is probably more healthy than the meal you would have eaten at a restaurant. For fruits try apples, bananas, nectarines, and plums. For vegetables, if you don’t mind eating carrots and red, green and yellow peppers raw, then go with those!

2. Use a water bottle. Potential Savings: ($250/month)

You will never appreciate free tap water at restaurants until you head to Europe. If you want to drink anything, you will need to pay. Often times it costs a euro or two for a soda or water and over an entire day this can get expensive. Water is potable in all of western Europe and a lot of Eastern Europe too you just need a container to be able to use it. Many times there are built in faucets in sidewalks to fill up at. If not, just find any faucet to fill up at. If you are ok with just drinking water or only occasionally buying other drinks, you’ll save around $8-10 a day. Interestingly, only Americans tend to bring water bottles and take advantage of this opportunity in Europe.

How the savings was calculated: On average, people probably spend around six to seven euro for drinks throughout one day. If you are able to just drink water, this will save you about $8-9 a day. ($8.5 x 30 = $255).

3. Take the metro in big cities and walk in smaller ones. Potential savings ($275/month)

Many people pay for 20 to 25 Euro tour busses and expensive taxis when a metro stop is nearby. If you are traveling to any large European city (Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Rome, London), they are guaranteed to have a metro system. Free maps are given out and usually a trip costs somewhere between 1 and 1.75 Euros. In smaller cities, you should be able to see everything on foot.

How the savings was calculated: If you travel to 5 big cities in one month and take bus tours in all of them that could come to 25 x 5 = 125 Euros. Plus, if you take around eight to nine taxis, this could cost you on average around ten Euros a piece for a total of 80-90 Euro. 215 Euros—15 Euro (for metro tickets) is around 200 Euro in one month or $275/month. This estimate would of course be less if you are traveling in a large group.

4. Don’t pay money for a nice hotel. Potential Savings ($850/month)

If you are a younger traveler, you should definitely think about staying in hostels. These are essentially hotel rooms with multiple bunk beds. They are cheaper since everyone shares the cost of the room. They tend to attract a younger crowd from late teens to mid twenties though so if you are not comfortable with that then perhaps sharing a lower starred hotel would be better. The beauty of staying in a hostel is that you get to meet people from all over the world. It’s like a cultural buffet. I’ve definitely had people from over seven nations and multiple continents staying in the same room as me. It’s a unique experience. If you do choose hostels, go to hostelbookers.com, read reviews and look at percentage ratings. Book at least a week or so in advance so as to ensure a lower priced, higher quality hostel.

If you are traveling in a group, then you can share a hotel and essentially make your own hostel amongst yourselves. Another option for travelers in pairs is couchsurfing.com. Some genuinely nice people will often open up their homes for travelers to sleep on their couches. Although it seems sketchy, I’ve only heard great things and there is a built in validation system and reviews from prior couch surfers so you can be pretty sure the person isn’t a creep.

How the savings were calculated: If you are able to get a hostel for an average of around 15 Euro a night instead of thirty to forty Euros a night you will save 15-25 Euro each day. 15-25 x 30 = a rough 600 Euros or about $850/month.

5. Book your flight in advance on an off day or off season. Potential Savings: ($500/trip)

I use Kayak.com for most of my plane booking needs mainly because it will give you access to a database of hundreds of airline companies and show you the cheapest prices on each day. Usually, the cheapest days to book a flight are generally Tuesday-Friday and buying round trip tickets will also save you money. In addition, try checking cheap airlines in Europe like ryanair.com, EasyJet.com and Wizzair.com which all occasionally offer super cheap 10 Euro flights from various unusual cities. I knew people who only used cheap airlines like these and saved hundreds of dollars.

Additionally, you may find even cheaper deals if you clear the cookies on your web browser. A little known trick of airline companies is that incrementally raise prices the more times you look at their pages.

Summer time is of course the most convenient time for most people to travel so prices will be higher. My round trip ticket to Barcelona from June to August cost me just under $1200. This could be at least 25% less in a down time of the season. For example, my round trip ticket to Bangkok cost me less than $950 because I went in late April to May

One of the advantages of round trip tickets with multiple flights is stopping in a country you want to visit and later traveling to your departure country. In my Europe trip, one of my flights stopped in Frankfurt, Germany, and I was able to get off there and travel to Eastern Europe before eventually make it back to Barcelona for my flight out.

How the savings was calculated: By using Kayak to get a cheaper round trip ticket, I probably saved around $300-$400 over checking other airlines. By using cheaper airlines instead of the railroad system, you could save at least $100-$200.
All in all, just following those guidelines you should save over $2,100  a one month stay in Europe. This only compounds the longer you travel. Europe is an expensive place so making a few cuts here and there will save you big. At the same time, it’s important to never go overboard with the saving. In my opinion, trying local foods, doing tours, and seeing what the city has to offer are essentials for traveling so pay for them and live them up.

Bon Voyage!