Airfare to Europe:
The first major outlay of cash you're going to encounter is probably booking your flight to Europe. But don't worry, a flight doesn't have to break the bank.
Flights to Europe can vary greatily in cost. I've flown from my home airport on the east coast to Europe for as cheap as $370 and as expensive as $1000. A lot depends on when and where you're flying.
Tips for Finding Cheap Tickets:
- Shop around! Check all the places I've listed, then google some more agencies.
- Fly mid-week(Tuesday-Thursday), the rates are generally cheaper on these days.
- Be flexible. Most travel search engines allow you to specify a range of dates and multiple airports. You can usually find some really good deals by being flexible about the day and the airport.
- Be open ended with your starting point. Some parts of Europe can be much cheap to fly into that others. So make sure you look at a number of different airports.
- Begin your search as soon as possible. You can usually find the cheapest flights 2-3 months ahead of your departure.
- Check for tickets after 12am, that's when a lot of new fares come online.
Airfare Resources:
Be sure to check all the following sites for deals of airfare, if you find one, snag it.
StudentUniverse offers super cheap airfare only for students, with flights to Europe as cheap as $205 (New York-London). I've used them before and they're super easy and offer some really good deals.
STA Travel also offers to good deals for students on airfare, hostels and rail passes.
Travelocity is one of the main internet airfare search engines. These days, I generally use a search engine aggregator like Kayak to search through these sites. But you may have some luck finding flights that the others miss.
Hotwire specializes in last-minute travel. If you're looking for flights ASAP be sure to give it a search. It is also worth a try if you looking further out, but you're a lot less likely to get a deal then.
Seen the William Shatner ad? I haven't used their bidding system, but it is worth checking out.
If you forgot to get a ticket, LastMinuteTravel.com could be the answer to your need. Snag tickets last minute without paying ridiculous amounts.
Kayak is a search engine that searches over 100 different airlines to find the best deal. These days, it's my primary way to search for tickets. Almost without fail, I've been able to get the best ticket from Kayak.
Other Options:
Be an Air Courier -- If you're willing to sacrifice some luggage space, and you can find cheap tickets. I've never used this, so I don't know whether it's legit or not.
Airfare within Europe:
As a backpacker, you might not think about traveling by air, but since the explosion of budget no-frills European carriers, flying can be very cheap.
These flights are great for small one-way jaunts, with fares as low as 1 euro cent + taxes. Carriers like Ryanair and Easyjet allow the backpacker to cover a lot of ground, without spending days and days on the train.
European Budget Airlines:
Ryanair -- Ryanair is Europe's largest low-cost carrier and it is one of the world's largest and most successful airlines. They offer rock-bottom prices on no-frills flights across Europe. If you can cope with their policies (paying extra for checked luggage, selling lotto tickets in air, high prices for in-flight food etc.), than you can jet around Europe for very little.
Easyjet -- Easyjet is Ryanair's nicer older brother. Their flights are a bit more comfortable and they don't off the impression that they're a huge scam, but their tickets are a little bit more pricey.
Whichbudget.com Whichbudget has an index of all European budget airlines and the places they fly. Just plug in a starting airport and it will show you all the places budget airlines fly from there. A really useful site for finding European airfare.