You can cross Europe off your bucket list without busting your budget — here’s how.
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Lots of students dream of being able to travel the world, but probably think they will have to wait years before they have the money. While they may not be able to go right away, there are lots of ways they can save on airfare to make their dream become a reality. These tips on finding a cheap flight can be used when traveling anywhere!
I once got a flight from my hometown of London, England to Baltimore, Maryland for just $300. It can cost that much to just travel coast-to-coast sometimes – so if you think traveling across the Atlantic is expensive, think again! That trip to Europe may not be as expensive as you think.
So without further ado, if you want to make a trip to Europe without a high price tag, here are a few tips:
1. Know What Days are Cheapest.
Flight prices can really depend on what day you choose to fly. Flight prices will be significantly more expensive (and fuller) on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays for obvious reasons. Midweek flying is your best bet for cheap deals.
The best days to fly are Tuesday and Wednesday, based on my experience. Crowds are low, prices are cheaper, and you have a better chance of getting a spare seat next to you for more legroom!
2. Use the Internet to Find Cheap Flights.
If you want some cheap direct flights to Europe with major airlines, go to Skyscanner for price comparison and the best deals. This site will also let you track prices.
The nifty thing about this site is that you can search flights to “everywhere” if you’re flexible about where you want to travel. You can also be flexible on dates by searching for the cheapest deals in a specific month – or even throughout the whole year.
There are a number of other sites to choose from such as Kayak, Cheapflights, and even Google Flights.
After doing a quick search from “United States” to “Everywhere” at any time throughout the year, I found options for $231 round-trip flights to Sweden, and even a $247 round-trip to London from Boston in February.
3. Fly with Budget Airlines to Europe.
There are quite a few budget airlines if you just want the lowest flying deals. Norwegian Airlines is probably the best one, offering direct flights to the U.K. and Scandinavia at cheap prices. Norwegian serves all the main international airports in the U.S., including New York, Boston, Orlando, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.
Another option would be WOW air, an Icelandic airline that offers flights across the pond with a layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. All flights have a stopover there before heading on to mainland Europe. So if you don’t fancy a long seven-plus-hour flight, you can break it up with WOW air. The only downside with this airline is that there is no inflight entertainment system – so bring a magazine or two.
4. Fly into One of the cheaper European Cities.
There are some airports that are cheaper to fly into than others. Although prices fluctuate all year round, there are a few that stay consistently lower than the rest.
There are so many airlines that fly into London’s six international airports (the biggest being Heathrow) that prices are competitive to undercut their rivals.
Due to the Norwegian Airlines, flights to Scandinavia are also quite cheap. You can fly into cities like Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Oslo for incredibly low prices.
5. Visit at Cheaper Times of the Year.
Naturally, it will be a lot cheaper to travel here during the cold winter months or in the fall. Come spring or summer, it gets a bit more expensive. Spring break would be a better time for crowd levels, as most European schools have their vacations at different times in the year. Price may be compromised, though.
6. Look for Cheap Internal Flights in Europe
If you’re making the trip over, you might as well go to more than one country. And there’s a cheap way for you to do it! There’s an airline in Europe called Ryanair that offers blockbuster flight prices.
7. Clear Your Cookies
Just one more tip from me: if you’ve been looking at flights a lot – to anywhere, in fact – it’s a great idea to clear your cookies regularly, or open an incognito browser. Some websites can see that you are a repeat visitor and sneakily raise prices. These tips should help you save money instead of paying full price on air travel, so you can explore the world!
- Where do you want to travel to?
- What day has the cheapest flight for where you want to go?
- Is there a city you can fly into that would be cheaper than the biggest tourist city?
- What is the “off-season” where you want to go?
- What do you believe you can learn by traveling extensively?
