Greetings international travelers or soon-to-be study abroad students! Worried about saving money while studying abroad or traveling? Yeah, I was, too when I set off on my spring semester in London this past January. I had grandiose dreams of traveling Europe, a small budget and a depressing exchange rate to work with. Nonetheless, I managed to travel to Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Scotland, Ireland and to a few cities in England. But I was only able to travel so much because I learned how to balance my spending. It took a few weeks to figure it out, especially when I discovered how easy it is to blow through money in London, but I eventually got the hang of it. While it meant living off of pasta, refraining from shopping and walking over using public transportation, it allowed me to use my money for what, to me, was something more important — traveling.
Let’s face it, studying abroad is pricey, but I’m here to help you have a fun, and less-expensive study abroad experience. Below you’ll find tips and advice related to sightseeing, dining, transportation and hostels.
First, before you go abroad, pick up Lonely Planet’s “Europe on a Shoestring” at your local bookstore. It’s a huge book, but has information on hostels, restaurants, nightlife, and things to do and see in European cities. Instead of lugging the book around with you on your travels, rip out the pages for the cities you’re going to. It’s a handy little guide (map included) to keep in your bag.
Also, if you’re interested in learning more about my study abroad experience, check out the blog I kept.
Sightseeing
Tours: Check out Sandeman’s New Europe tours. They offer free walking tours (with tips) in cities like Berlin, London, Prague, Amsterdam, Dublin and Paris. I took their tours in Berlin, Munich, Madrid and Paris. Running upwards of two hours, these tours are informative and fun. I suggest the walking tour be one of the first things you do in a city. Then you can go back to all the places you want to explore further. Also, Sandeman’s offers other tours and side trips — for a small price — like Munich’s Dachau concentration camp tour, which was a sobering and enlightening experience.
Museums: Even if you’ve never really been a museum person, that might change once you go to Europe. I was one of those people who could not be paid to go to a museum. And now, I absolutely love museums. Europe has some of the best museums in the world. Some have free entry, while others charge a small fee. But those museums with a fee also offer student discounts and have special days of the week or month when there is free entry. My favorite museums were London’s National Portrait Gallery and Tate Museum, Rome’s Vatican Museum, Paris’ Louvre, Barcelona’s Picasso Museum, Madrid’s Reina Sofia and El Prado, and Berlin’s Jewish Museum.
Landmarks:Of course you can’t miss snapping a photo of London’s Big Ben, Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Rome’s Colosseum, Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia or Venice’s tranquil canals, but make sure you don’t forget about things like the Tower of London (it’s basically 1,000 years old… and that’s where the bling, bling, I mean, Crown Jewels, are housed); Paris’ Moulin Rouge (fun to take a photo of, not a fun area to be in at night); Barcelona’s Montjuïc (a bit out of the way, but it has the most amazing view of the city); Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher (located on the western coast of Ireland). Do your research before you go to a city! There’s more to London than Big Ben.
Parks: London has great parks, from Hyde Park to Regent’s Park to St. James Park. Madrid’s El Retiro is the place where locals hang out and catch some Spanish sun. Paris’ Jardin des Tuileries is the perfect resting spot after hours in the nearby Louvre. Perhaps the quirkiest park, and one of my Europe favorites, is Barcelona’s Park Guell, which was originally intended by artist Gaudi to be a home for the city’s elite, but after no success, is now just a tourist attraction.
Churches: Be prepared to charge a pretty penny for entrance into some of these churches. Too many churches to name, but these are my favorites: Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia, which has been a work in progress for over 100 years; London’s St. Paul’s Church and Westminster Abbey; Florence’s Duomo; Rome’s Vatican; Paris’ Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur.
Eating
To save money:
Grocery stores in Europe tend to have a lot of delicious, and cheap, pre-packaged food. Instead of eating at restaurants in Switzerland, my travel buddies and I stocked up on sandwiches, bread, cheese and Swiss chocolate (of course!) at local stores. Same goes for dinner in Florence — we picked up some cheese, crackers and wine and headed for the top of Piazzale Michelangelo for a beautiful sunset dinner. $10, priceless view and experience.
When you’re not traveling, I encourage you to do as much cooking as possible! In London I could buy a pack of pasta for $1.50, a carton of milk for $3 and a loaf of bread for $3. Save your money for a filling and delicious English breakfast, complete with eggs, bacon, bangers, beans, toast and hash browns. That and fish/chips are the best of British food. Otherwise, head to London’s Brick Lane for some of the best curry you’ll ever eat.
While there’s always a time to save money, splurging and eating good food on your travels is important to the experience. You can’t go to Italy and not try gelato or pasta. Or go to Paris and not try crepes. Eat cheaply for breakfast and lunch. Splurge on an authentic dinner. Bon appetit!
Travel
— Planes: RyanAir and EasyJet will be your best friends in terms of travel. I never paid more than $60 for a plane ticket. My plane ticket from London to Berlin was $15. Yes, $15. Though you can only bring a small carry-on bag — and, they’re pretty strict about the bag being a certain weight and size — it’s worth the ticket cost. Usually, the cheapest tickets are the early morning, 5 a.m. times, so get ready for some airport sleepovers and/or find a local bus service. In London, EasyBus was a cheap $10 or less early morning ride to the airport.
–Metros: London’s Tube ate away at my bank account (2 pounds/one way, so $3-ish), but that’s probably the most expensive metro you’ll find across Europe. European transit is pretty reliable, and I never had any trouble figuring out where I needed to go… thanks to metro maps and friendly locals.
–Cabs: Expensive. In London, I’d recommend a car service, which is actually a flat fee (usually 10 pounds) that you can split between friends. Otherwise, cabs can rack up to 30 and 40 pounds
Hostels
–Look on Hostelworld for hostels in the city you visit. You can sort hostels by price and rating, based off what’s most important to you. For me, it was price and location.
–Hostels will have different room options — from a single room, to a dorm-style room with from 4 to sometimes 24 beds. The girls I traveled with and I usually stayed in smaller dorm rooms, with maybe a few extra guests. In Berlin, we stayed in a huge room with about 20 beds. I can understand why this would seem creepy, but it was $20-ish a night and we weren’t complaining. And really, you’re only there at night to sleep, so there’s no need to splurge.
— Hostels may get a bed rep, so let me dispel some hostel rumors for you. For the most part, hostels are not dirty. They’re cleaned daily by the hostel staff, and if you end up spending a few extra bucks for a private room, you’ll find a hostel is pretty close to a hotel room. Second rumor: hostel aren’t safe. As long as you’re choosing hostels in well-lit and safe locales (read Hostelworld’s reviews), you should be all set. Hostels have desk receptionists, cameras and door locks. Dorm rooms have lockers for your belongings and if you check out the hostel, but still plan to travel during the day, hostels will hold your stuff in a back storage room.
–Looking to save money on hostels and meet some cool people? Try Couchsurfing.com. You basically stay at someone’s house/apartment in whatever city you visit… for free. It sounds really unsafe, but hear me out. First, you sign up for a website account, and include your interests, personality traits, a photo, where you’re from, etc. Then you search for whatever city you’re visiting, and up pops a list of couchsurfing members who live in that given city … and if they have an available couch for you and friends to stay on. Be careful to read profiles and converse with the couch host ahead of time. If you do that, it’s not only safe, but a really worthwhile experience. Three friends and I stayed with two college-aged guys in Venice. They met us at the train station in Venice, gave us a tour of the city, recommended restaurants to us, introduced us to their friends and took us out to the nightlife. If it wasn’t for them, we would’ve spent a lot of money on a hotel, gotten lost in the Venice canals and definitely never would have known how great a nightlife Venice has.
Nightlife
Some of my best memories come from nights out with friends, both in London and in the cities we visited.
Sandeman’s (that walking tour company I mentioned earlier) hosts a pub crawl in cities including London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin and Munich. My favorite was in London, though! On any Friday or Saturday night you can expect about 50 pub crawlers — tourists from all over the world.
Madrid has some of the best nightlife, like the seven-story club, Kapital, that’s open until the wee hours of the morning. The Spaniards know how to party. Berlin has a great progressive and electro club scene, and Munich, center of Bavarian culture, has beer halls and beer gardens. You can’t miss the Hofbrauhaus. It’s touristy and expensive, but worth it.
London is known for its dubstep and techno clubs, so if that interests you, go to Fabric. I never went but my friends raved about it. For the indie music lovers, try 02 Academy in Islington, which regularly features live bands. Mondays are big club nights for students (Tiger Tiger). Also, The Penthouse in Picadilly Circus has a to die for view. Partying the night away with a view of Big Ben and the London Eye? Amazing. But, be prepared to pay at least $10 for a drink.
Shopping
While I don’t encourage you to blow all your money on shopping, there are a few things I suggest picking up in various cities. If you go to Ireland, invest in a hand-woven wool scarf. Venice? They’re known for hand-blown glass. I bought my mom a nice pair of earrings from a local glass shop for less than $10. In Munich I purchased a large liter-sized stein from the Hofbrauhaus gift shop. A bad packing decision on my part, but it’s a pretty cool souvenir to keep on my shelf. Florence has an infinitely large leather market that has something for everyone. There are leather bracelets for only a few dollars, or you can pick up a nice wallet for yourself (I grabbed one for my dad!). Now, because I hadn’t purchased anything extravagant up until then, I splurged on a beautiful leather bag. Happy early birthday to me. And, if you’re looking for a leather jacket, the Florence leather market is the place to go. Try talking down the prices. My friends bought leather jackets for 100 euros. They were originally 250 euros! Spain has great shopping, as does London, but it comes at a price. I stuck to good ol’ H&M (or London’s Primark), but it was certainly fun to look in windows and people watch. And of course, pick up a postcard from everywhere you go. I recently bought a large poster frame and made a collage of some of my postcards.
Safety
Beside the obvious stick with a group of friends, walk in well lit areas, be aware of your surroundings thing… keep track of your belongings and beware of pick pockets! Girls, use a shoulder purse and keep the bag part in front of you. Make sure it’s zipped and magnet-ed closed, or whatever else. While staying in hostels, lock up your belongings. If you go out at night, bring a copy of your passport rather than the original version. Last thing you need to lose is your passport. Really.
Money
I brought traveler’s checks with me. Good and bad idea. It helped me budget my funds — I would allocate a certain number of traveler’s checks to different trips I was planning. But traveler’s checks ended up being more of an annoyance than anything else. I could rarely find a place that accepted traveler’s checks, which left me running in and out of banks, postal offices and travel agencies all over Europe. While using an American credit and debit card comes at a charge (never mind the exchange rate), I found that it was just easier to take out money from an ATM in a given city. Take out larger amounts so you don’t keep racking up fees.
Communication
This goes without staying, but keep in touch with family members back home! I know my parents appreciated me letting them know that I safely arrived in my destination. Because it’s too expensive to use your American cellphone to make calls, I purchased a Skype plan that gave me the ability to call any landline from my Skype account. So, for only a few cents I could call anyone back in the states. And because I had Skype on my phone, I could connect to WiFi in various cities and use Skype.
You’ll be able to buy a cell phone in whatever country you study in. Usually they’re pretty cheap and simple… they do all they need to do: make phone calls and send texts. They’re no smart phones, but they do the job. My friends and I just topped up our minutes at the local store whenever we needed to.
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I could go on and on about study abroad, but this should get you started for now. Good luck with your adventures and money-saving. Though your travels may leave you in some debt (to the bank or your parents!), I can promise it will all be worth it. Bon voyage!