Simple Budget Travel Tips for Flights and Hotels in Europe

Anyone who has read my blog has probably figured out that our travel style is budget travel. Part of the philosophy is that the less we spend on a trip means a greater possibility of another trip to Europe. So we don’t choose expensive hotels or visit pricey restaurants as we travel. Those are some of the obvious ways to save money. However, there are some other ways to save as well. They may not save as much, but every little bit adds up.

The two big ticket items for traveling are your flight to Europe and hotels during your stay. While bargains can be found, it is important to know exactly what you are getting. A low price may turn out to be less than optimal for what you are doing. Saving money but having a miserable experience is not the way to travel. Choose what is important to you, and be willing to pay for it.

Let’s start with that all important flight. When booking your flight it’s always good to check more than one travel sight. I have found that I can get different options from different sites. Don’t forget to go to the specific airline you might use. Sometimes they offer the best options, and it’s easier to solve any problems when you book directly with them.

Timing is important in getting a lower price. Generally traveling midweek will get you a more budget friendly ticket price. Sunday is usually the worst time as everyone is heading home to go to work or school the next day. Seasons also make a difference. Summer prices are generally higher as well as before Christmas. We went to Europe for the Christmas markets leaving on Christmas Eve and returning New Years Eve to get slightly lower prices. If we had not been traveling with our daughter, we would have gone early in December, right after Thanksgiving, and flights would have been even cheaper then.

Airlines are offering more and more optional pricing on tickets so again make sure you know what you are paying for. The two biggest “optional” items with low fares are checked luggage and assigned seats. Nowadays the lowest price will seldom include a checked bag. You may think you have a low fare, but then end up paying $75 each way for a checked bag. Suddenly your low fare isn’t so low.

Airlines are also becoming more picky about your carry-on. I actually had my carry-on weighed on a flight to Africa. If you go only with a carry-on, make sure it follows all your airline’s rules. Andrea has purchased a large backpack she sometimes uses. On one trip we had, they stopped allowing roller bags in the cabin but said nothing to her about her backpack.

If you are traveling as a couple or family, it may save you some to pay the low price and then pay extra for your suitcase. Since the higher level ticket price comes out to be about the price of paying extra for a suitcase, it’s not worth it to pay for two tickets but only check one suitcase. Also check your credit card to see if it has a perk for free luggage through any airlines. Budget travel means using all the options available to you.

The same consideration can happen with choosing a seat for your flight. Even with a low priced ticket you may be able to pay to guarantee a seat. When we flew to Europe last year, we had a stop over in Iceland. We decided to pay extra to guarantee our seats when flying to Iceland as that was a long flight, and we wanted to be comfortable. However, from Iceland to Belgium was only a few hours so we took our chances with that and didn’t guarantee our seats. We were fine. They sat us together.

Let’s talk hotels. When choosing a hotel, there are a number of things to consider. One of the first things is location. In a large city consider where exactly you want to spend your time. Of course the closer to the city center, the more expensive the hotel will likely be. Check out the transportation options as well. When looking at hotels, I try to find the nearest subway stop or bus stop. I want to know how convenient it will be. When we were in Prague, our hotel was an unwalkable distance from the city center, but a light rail train stopped right in front of the hotel. It worked really well, especially since seniors could ride for free.

Booking a hotel room can be confusing. Again make sure you know what you are getting. There are two options that many hotels consider extra. The first is cancellation fees. This seems to be more prevalent since COVID. I think a lot of hotels got hit hard when everyone cancelled their reservations. Some hotels no longer allow cancellations, period. Others allow cancellation for a price. Check when you can cancel to make sure it actually benefits you. Don’t assume you can cancel up to the date you arrive even if you pay for “free” cancellation.

The second option you may be given is breakfast. Make sure you know how much that breakfast is costing you. I have seen rooms that charge as much as $20 more for breakfast. Is it going to be worth it to pay that much? We had some extraordinary breakfasts in Budapest and Prague, but our breakfast in Porto and Granada were fairly minimal. Reading reviews can help you decide.

When you are scrolling through hotel listings on a travel site look carefully at those low prices. A closer inspection may reveal three or four different prices depending on what options one chooses. They may even include how many people are getting the breakfast. I took this screen shot of a hotel offering on Booking.com in Porto, Portugal to illustrate. The listing as I scrolled through various hotels said $77. That price looks promising.

Notice, however, that at this low price your reservation is not refundable nor does it include breakfast. The next listing for $85 is refundable but does not have breakfast. The third price of $96 is non-refundable but includes breakfast for two people. Quick math says you are paying $9.50 per person. At that price I would really research what a breakfast looks like at this hotel. While it didn’t fit on my screenshot, if you got both the “free” cancellation and breakfast the price would be $105 per night. There is almost a $30 difference between the most expensive and least expensive option on the exact same room so knowing what you are getting for your money is important. Other hotels may offer free cancellation and free breakfast with their base price for say $90 and thus be a better deal.

I would also point out with the screenshot above that the room has a full size bed. This is fairly typical in Europe. While queens and kings can be found (I’m talking mattresses), they will likely be more expensive as well. We found that two single beds were usually cheaper and allowed us to sleep more comfortably than being in a full size bed. That’s the price of budget travel.

One final option you may encounter is whether to pay immediately or wait and pay at the hotel. This is a question I have not figured out fully. As far as I can tell there is no mark up for paying online when you make your reservation. The advantage might be in the exchange rate. A friend of mine was traveling in England when the British voted for Brexit. The next day the pound fell in value. My friend noted she could buy a lot more for her dollar then. If she had paid for her hotel in England then, it would have cost her less than when she had booked months before. However, those things are hard to predict so I don’t think about it too much. Nevertheless, I do often wait and pay at the hotel if given the option.

So these are just a few thoughts about saving money on flights and hotels when traveling in Europe on a budget. Next week I will share some thoughts about budget travel when using credit cards, eating at restaurants and some other activities. If you have tips or tricks you have used to stretch your travel dollar, I would love to have you share them in the comment box. I’m always looking for ways to save money. Keep traveling, and I’ll see you next week.

Credits: The first three bed pictures and the photo of Silvette and me on the plane were taken by Andrea Lee. All the other photos which included me were taken by Silvette Lee along with the cover photo and the shot in Frankfurt, Germany.