Cheap Flight Tactics

Óur family is planning to spend a 14-day vacation in Europe come April 2009. The countries that we’d like to visit are Geneva, Rome, Vienna, Prague and Paris. Our schedule is quite tight though. Since we are first-timers in these countries, we’d like to know the best places to stay (bed and breakfast or 2-3 star hotel is ok with us) in each country and the most recommended means of transportation (plane or train). I believed that Eurotrip will give me some savings through proper planning and guidance. We will be happy if you can help or guide us. Thank you so much.

I found a few interesting sites while looking for flights for my next trip to Europe:

• http://wisetravelsea… – flight comparison site that also searches some UK travel agents and airlines
• http://www.terminala… – seems to have some of the cheapest flights within Europe (only downside is that prices are in GBP… but their prices seem cheap!)

Thanks for sharing those helpful advices! Airfares are much becoming expensive nowadays. These times, people are looking for the cheapest ways to money, time and effort. Talking about avoiding these hassles when planning for travels, you might want to check out the website, SideStep. SideStep will not teach you to run like Shane Williams, but it can help you find cheap airfare. SideStep is pretty easy – you just enter in the starting and ending destinations. It gives you a calendar of days and the cheap flights on those days. If you don’t believe them, that’s fine – they’ll give you Hotwire, Orbitz, and Priceline rates all alongside each other for you to see it yourself. (That’s right, you doubting Thomases.) You can also look at car rentals and hotels, too. For those looking to travel and be economical and not have to get personal loans to go on vacation, SideStep could be the tool you need.

Thanks for the advice. When I went travelling aroud Europe in 2006 I started my trip in Paris. Coming from the UK it meant flights wern’t too expensive. This summer i’m planning to fly to somewhere a bit further afield before travelling by train or bus – it looks like this could be one of the buggest costs of the trip though. My friend showed me a voucher codes site offering discounts on flights and hotels. I’m booking using their Expedia Voucher Codes page to save the most money.

Also I’m mainly planning to stay in hostels – though feel i might be getting a bit too old for this. I might take advantage of the cheaper prices to book a hotel rather than a hostel (hotels.com Voucher Codes are also good for this).

More advice though appreciated

Completely agree with your first line where in you say that getting there or in other words travel cost usually account for a major part of your vacation expenses and even if it happens to be business/work related travel and the other major cost is accommodation. Where you may be you will have to spend on accommodation.

In case its a family vacation then it means even more expenses. At times prior bookings and reservations mean you avail good discounts on such expenses so do check before making a booking.

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Have you heard about “open-jaw” ? It’s a better air-transport arrangement if you can get it ‘cuz you don’t have to go back to say Heathrow Airport to catch your flight back home to the US. One can just take off from Rome’s Fumicino (?) airport for New York or from BCN.

There are so many low cost airline choices these days that it is difficult to keep track of the ones who really offer the good deals. Following recommendations seems to be the best choice so far that I have found.
Cheers
Adirec

Ive spent most of the last year travelling (law firm kindly payed me not to work for a year post uni ) and you can save alot depending on just how you do it. First of all its often worth going further to pay less for accomodation and living costs, even if the flights cost more in the first place.
Skyscanner.net is one of the better flight comparison sites out there, as is money saving experts flight scanner thing. You can also get thomson vouchers and expedia vouchers to cut down on the flight costs.
Also pintprice is great for looking up the costs of the price of a pint around the world

As a Canadian I always run into sites listing prices in USD…For flights I usually use CanuckAbroad, or expedia they have a discount airfare finder and another widget for hotel reservations.

And yes, pintprice.com is also very essential for planning a budget

This might not sound like a low budget solution, but it can be. A round the world ticket can often be a great moneysaver. Of course it depends on having a lot of time on your hands and a flexible schedule, however it’s what a number of my friends have done with their gap year and everyone of them has always been pleased with the outcome. It’s a fantastic inexpensive way to see the world – just no backtracking

Gary

I hate to be pedantic, but the “countries” you have listed are in fact cities within countries. Maybe a little elementary geography lessons before you travel…

4 things spring to mind in my experience:

• Shop around, shop around, shop around…. There are loads of resources out there, some of which have been mentioned above. These just make the research easier, but you’ve got to do the research.
• Check event calendars at your destination. Imagine you don’t follow football and you want to fly to South Africa when the world cup is on… it’ll look expensive – just check if there is anything on that you don’t know about and travel at a different time if it suits you.
• Choose your carrier / level of comfort. I went to Thailand via Moscow and saved a fair few quid I can tell you. Mind you, after the blowing the ice off the engines to get em started, asking for fish and getting chicken and then having the whole plane clap with relief when we successfully landed in one piece, I’m not sure I’d do it again. You get what you pay for
• The other thing you can do after all this research is check if your carrier is offering any deals of discounts that you don’t know about. Check out a travel voucher codes site to see if you can get an extra £50 off or similar before you buy.

Hi, if I have to share my experience of traveling almost 800 times (however not in Europe), I have always preferred now days following few steps that give me a real comfort while traveling:
(*I agree for the points mentioned by TheAinz)
However, below are what I follow:

• Plan out your places of destination
• Know about the places through internet
• Use (i generally prefer using this) online travel agencies (cheap flights site ) to get the best negotiated rates
• generally these sites also offer deals with hotel-booking or use online hotel-booking for best hotel rates at those destinations
• Now, you have everything worked out, make a checklist of things you would require while traveling and just pack-up
  —This should help you definitely as it helps me a lot…
  —C Wattson

I’ve always had immense luck with websites like Airfare Watchdog. Though for the life of me I can’t understand why the average internet user, like myself doesn’t have access to the same up-to-the-minute airfare prices that a travel agent does. Is there some kind of secret society you have to join. I love my travel agent, but she’s not exactly the Albert Einstein of travel. What makes the info she gets access to, so beyond my meager capabilities?
Gary

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I also recommend www.skyscanner.net but it does not always include all the low cost airlines.
Apparently airlines have “us” worked out and generally follow a pattern of increasing and decreasing their prices so check everyday

any advice for a roundtrip to Paris? thanks