Cheapest Way to Fly Into Europe?

[koopkoop2]

I'm heading to Europe soon and want to visit the following cities, but would like to know the cheapest way to connect the dots. I'm sure there's a lot of travellers here who have done Europe who are quite good at this sort of thing. What would be the best balance between budget/time in travel (5 hr train rides at the max) to get between all these places.

So far, and please correct me if I'm wrong, I've been told it's best to fly into Paris/London and then use Ryan Air from there on out to hit the remaining cities. Is this true? Would it be better to fly into another one of these cities, given my itinerary?

Paris

London

Barcelona

Athens

Venice

[RickDaTuner]

cheapest carrier that I know is Thomas cook airlines, then if you search online there aref multi country passes for euro rail on the high speed train with either the Euro Star or TGV

Thomas cook flight go for as little as 299 return direct from YYC to LGW, and the Euro rail passes for 6 countries in 3 months is about 235 from what i remember.

my only suggestion is that you pack light, while its alright when you take the train from country to country, getting around in those countries can be a real hassle when you have a fair sized bag. Paris from example requires you to go from North garage to mount parnesse and that requires a few train changes and about a 2-3km walk through underground walkways with up and down stairs.

if you plan it right though you can spend 3-4 weeks in europe for about 1k per person, of course this is with major set back on luxuries, like private rooms, and showers every night.

[yellowsnow]

Thomas cook airlines suck! Their planes are always having technical difficulties. I've had overnight delays cuz something was wrong with the aircraft! They're cheap for a reason

[FiveFreshFish]

Try KLM. They have direct flights out of Calgary to Europe.

[ee2k]

The OP's main concern appears to be travel within Europe.

You can travel by train, say for 5 hours or it may just be a 1 hour flight to get to where you need. There are many low cost airlines that you can travel with, including Ryanair, Easyjet, and a few other outfits.

The key with Ryanair is that it tends to serve secondary airports in many large cities, which would involve additional logistic requirements such as bus service from the secondary airport to where you need to go: imagine having to land in an airport in Canmore but advertised as service to Calgary. Prices are competitive, but you get the idea.

Also, if flying a no frills airline, it truly is no frills, thanks to Ryanair. Expect to pay for everything extra, including checking in at the airport instead of online (although Ryanair even charges for checking in online as part of the ticket), food, any checked luggage etc. Luggage weight restrictions are much more stringent than in North America, so if you are backpacking it, you should be fine, provided that your carry on back pack is also within the guidelines.

My suggestion would be to fly as opposed to bussing/training it unless you want to, for example, train it overnight somewhere instead of paying for lodging: this is where budget comes ...

Finally, I see that Athens, on your list, is way off from the rest of the places. If you still plan to go there, you may want to fly there from the UK as it is more of a popular UK travelers' destination, and good priced packages/flights may be found. With many places to visit however, you'd need to do some good homework and lots of price comparison.

[toyboy88]

For the flights within Europe:

- RyanAir is probably the "cheapest", but the charges can add up fast. Bags 10 euros/per flight and per leg. And also as stated above, 90% of the flights RyanAir has - they fly out of "secondary" airports and not the big/international ones. So it's like flying out of Red Deer as a "calgary" flight. Usually these secondary airports are about roughly 1 hour from the centre of the city. Usually the only way to get to/from these secondary airports is transfer shuttle buses (cost is usually 10 euros/one way...usually adds 20 euros to the flight price since you have to go to airport then from), so keep that cost and TIME to get to/from in mind! Therefore the RyanAir "0.99 cent euro" flights can quickly go to 30 euros at least.

- To search the best flights in terms of within Europe, use "e-dreams.com". I have used them to book around 10 flights within Europe in the past 2 years (2 Euro trips) and have not had any problems at all with them (*knock on wood*) - and they search EVERY airline for the cheapest/best routes (including low-cost carriers like RyanAir).

If you need anymore clarification, just post or shoot me a PM, have quite alot of experiencing with flying/traveling within Europe.

Hope that helps!

[ee2k]

One more thing about Ryanair: airport checking costs $64.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/fligh...=68500267.blog

[dino_martini]

Ryanair is sort of shady in my opinion. I think EasyJet is the way to go, but it is all up to you once you get over to Europe. Traveling by Rail is fairly cheap as well.

Air Transat is fairly cheap to get over to Europe. Sometimes you can find pretty good deals with Flight Center. If you just walk by their window every once and a while.

This week they had $99 + taxes one way to London. Which is pretty good deal. Though with taxes its still like 600 or so one way.

Its expensive to get over there, but fairly cheap to get around from what I understand.

[toyboy88]

Originally posted by ee2k
One more thing about Ryanair: airport checking costs $64.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/fligh...=68500267.blog

Yeah, but it's free to check in online - which 95% of the time is find is easier/faster than waiting at the airport for check in (you just drop off your bags if you need to).


Oh, and ad in the paper for "globespan" to UK (London) was $49/one way - with taxes is $250. So $500 roundtrip not bad for those looking for a cheap flight to Europe.

[koopkoop2]

Originally posted by ee2k
One more thing about Ryanair: airport checking costs $64.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/fligh...=68500267.blog

Did not know this. Thanks!

[toyboy88]

Keep on minding on the RyanAir check in, you can check-in online up to 15 days (edit: checked on ryanair site) before your departure.

[quazimoto]

Last time we flew globespan the first plan had to be serviced before the flight and our flight got delayed by a full day. Second day they had overbooked the flight. Plane took of 2 hours late as people were bitching about who had the right to the seats in question. We waited that entire time on the plane, all in all, spend the extra money as it's worth it to fly for a legit company.

[koopkoop2]

Originally posted by toyboy88
Keep on minding on the RyanAir check in, you can check-in online up to 15 days (edit: checked on ryanair site) before your departure.

Oh shit! Any checked baggage comes at a cost too?!

[scat19]

I have heard you can ride where the wheels fold up into the plane?

[thrasher22]

Originally posted by koopkoop2


Oh shit! Any checked baggage comes at a cost too?!

Yep, although I dont know the specific amount. Almost all budget carriers charge for checked luggage, but its still usually cheaper than going with a regular airline. I paid 20ish dollars to check my luggage with easyjet (earlier today haha) although I was really impressed with the service.

Another thing to keep in mind, budget airlines almost always fly from the smaller\older airports, so be sure to budget time to get to the airport. Taxis here are SUPER expensive, so just do a bit of planning when you roll in and take the bus to the airport.

I always use www.kayak.com to look for fares worst case.

[seadog]

Yah between flyglobespan, thomas cook, and airtransat theres no reason you should ever pay more than 300, and likely 250 if you're flexible on dates and destinations each way.

A few years back you used to be able to do it under 200, but then those brits started loading up the various bs taxes. These airlines have the odd hiccup, but the worst in 7 crossings was we got an hour away, had to turn around to fix something, then leave again. Total time lost maybe 2.5 hours.

If you're sticking to mainland Europe, the eurail pass wasn't bad. Not great, but I liked the spontaneity of it, just being able to hop on a train in centrally located stations. With Eastern Europe/Italy its generally cheaper to buy tickets, and Italy/France have these 'reservation fees' which especially in Italy be more than the cost of a ticket + you need to use one of your days. Booked Rome-Paris overnight for 30 Euros, Switzerland to Rome cost 27 in reservation fees.

With flying you generally need a computer/internet to research specials/check in, cheap airports are hardly centrally located so you're looking at 1 hour of time + financial costs there, and given that you can literally cross Europe in a day on a train, and best case for flying between getting in/out of cities and check in time is 1/2 a day, I just preferred the train.

[cityhunter2501]

i would fly to london, then take rail to paris, barcelona, venis then end your thrip in athens

[koopkoop2]

Originally posted by cityhunter2501
i would fly to london, then take rail to paris, barcelona, venis then end your thrip in athens

Looks like we're going with easyjet all the way. Price is almost the same, except for one big difference. Nights spent on a train means you don't need a hotel that night. However, you're still stuck on a train and you lose that night in transit. Whereas flying, you would still be able to go out that night in your destination city.

[LongCity]

Bump.
Looking to go to Switzerland over the Christmas break and was wondering the same things as the OP. Looking to visit the major counties immediately surrounding Switzerland like Germany, Italy, and France.

-Best airline to travel to Europe and to which country?
-Best way to travel to those countries once in Europe?

Thanks.

[toyboy88]

For searching for the "cheapest" flights within Europe, use edreams.com!

It searches like all 70+ airlines in Europe with one search, and shows you all the options/pricing - including really cheap airlines (ryanair, easyjet, etc.) and the national carriers as well.