Some people have been asking how we can afford this trip, but the truth is that so far, we have spent about the same amount per month traveling as we would have just living in Chicago. We have learned a lot of things that have helped us keep costs down. Here are some basic tips that we have put together including many things you should do before you leave:
1. Don't pay rent in the states while you are abroad, this is a great tip for anyone going on a trip that is longer than a month. We packed up all of our stuff and sold most of our furniture. Our stuff is graciously being stored in my mom's basement at no cost to us, but even paying for a storage locker for the time you are away would be better than paying rent.
2. Don't get international service on your cell phone. It is a rip off and you can get a go phone easily enough. In the EU there are regulations on the cost of texting (no more than 15 euro cents per outgoing text), so for the most part we have just been texting people if we need to be in touch. For calling home, use skype. It's free and if you have an iPhone/iPod touch with camera, bring it and then you can make free calls using the skype app whenever you have wireless. Also, call your US wireless provider before you go and see if you can put your contracts on hold. Both Kurtis and I were able to do this: Verizon allows you to do it for free for 90 day periods, I will have to re-hold my contract sometime in December, but it is done easily through their website. AT&T allows you to do it for any period of time for $10 a month, just call to let them know the dates you need. For both, the time the phones are on hold will be added to the end of your contract. The go phone that we got for use while we are here was 13€ and we buy 15€ cards to top it up. Over the course of our four months in Europe, the expected total cost of our go phone is about 60€, which is less than it would cost either of us for one month in the states.
3. Check into your credit cards and debit cards before you leave. Some cards have really high fees for international use. My chase ATM card would charge $5 or 3% of EVERY transaction, whichever is higher, so I didn't even bother to bring it with me. Kurtis' bank of america card charges a fee to use it as a debit card but partners with many banks across Europe to offer free ATM withdrawals. I also have a chase credit card which has no international fees. Paying fees to pay for things and take out money adds up really quickly, it is best to find out if you can avoid them before you go. The other thing to be aware of is that European credit cards have a chip in them that cards in the US do not. Some places will not allow you to use your American credit cards, so just make sure that you always have cash with you too!
4. Couchsurfing.org This is a website that basically connects travelers to people who may be willing to host them around the world. The idea behind the site is that there is an exchange of cultural ideas. If you have used the site you may already know that it can get a little bit annoying in certain ways... The site itself is a little difficult to navigate and there are also people on the site will tell you that you shouldn't couchsurf to save money, that if you couchsurf you should be able to afford to stay at a hotel, that it is about the experience, etc... But with that all being said it does save you money by providing you with a free place to stay. If you are going to be using couchsurfing, I highly recommend getting on the site at least a few months before you plan to surf and making a profile, it would be even better if you could host a few people before you go surfing yourself. Our Couchsurfing experiences have all been very different, but none of them have been bad. The other thing is that you can't necessarily count on finding someone to host you. You have to be patient and send out tons of requests... Realize that in some of the more popular locations, people may be receiving 10+ requests a day. On average, I start sending our requests about a week before and I send about 10 per day until I either get a positive response or give up because it is now the next day we would be trying to surf. Basically, you should look at couchsurfing as a plus but not a guarantee, there are going to be places where you just cannot find a host. You should always be willing to spend some time with your host (although you may get a host that just points you to your bed and that's ok too) and don't couchsurf if you can't even at least pretend to be interested in other people. We have had some of our best nights while couchsurfing because it gives you a chance to experience what life is really like for the locals. If you want to read more about our couchsurfing experiences, check out our posts tagged with the "couchsurfing" tag.
5. Try a work abroad program. There are many websites that organize work exchanges, the one that we are using is called workaway.info. There is a membership fee to join (22€ for a couple to join for 2 years) but this fee is fairly small and I think is probably meant to limit the amount of people who back out of showing up for the work at the last minute. The exchange (as laid out by the workaway site) is that workawayers are meant to work 25 hours a week in exchange for room and board. We have done 4 workaways so far and the work has been varied as well as the room and board situations at each place. At some you live with the family and eat meals together and at some you may be given groceries to cook your own food. The site only works as a launching pad to connect the workers to the hosts and after that, all of the arrangement are made privately between the two. Our experiences with the workaways has varied from excellent to good, but I think the most important part of the experience is laying out the work and the expectations via email before you arrive so that everyone has a clear understanding of the arrangements. We have had some frustrating experiences where we felt that we were being taken advantage of, but overall it has been a very positive experience that has allowed us to see the countries from a different side and it is a great way to stay in one place for a longer period of time. If you want to read more about our workaway experience, you can look for the "workaway" tag on our posts.
6. For us, hostels have not been a good option. We have found that when traveling with two people, it is often more economical to stay in a B&B. The typical cost of a dorm bed (although it greatly varies based on location) is between 15-22€. If we take the low end of €15 and each get a bed (now we are at €30) plus some hostels charge €1-4 for sheets/towels and some have a guest hostel tax (if you are not a member of hostels international or something similar). So for the two of us to stay in dorm beds in a hostel, we are often looking at between €35-50 total. For a private double room at a hostel it is typically €40-80 and this does not necessarily include all of the fees laid out above. For these reasons, we have found that when we are not able to couchsurf, it is best for us to look for a B&B (in Germany these are called Pensions). These small family owned hotels are full of character and usually run about €40-60 per room (not per person as the hostels charge) and the best part is that they include breakfast. The breakfasts alone make it worth it, you start your day out right and you may even be able to pack a few things away for lunch. Of course there are benefits of staying in hostels, especially if you are traveling on your own: You meet other travelers and there is usually a community kitchen which means you can cook for yourself and not worry about the cost of meals, but in general, the costs have not been worth it for us.
7. Transportation is by far the biggest cost we have while traveling. The trains are efficient and easy to use, but they are NOT cheap. We looked into Eurrail passes before we came, but they are also very expensive ($700-1200) and they come with many restrictions that can be difficult to work around. For example, the train journey we are taking right now from Venice to Luzerne, Switzerland is about a 7 hour trip and cost a little more than €80 each, this is also taking the regional (cheaper) train for more than half of the trip. When possible, it is good to look for alternatives for long distance travel. Flying in Europe is very inexpensive, try looking into Ryanair or EasyJet, both have sales very often and you can score flights for as low as £1 (without taxes), plan ahead and wait for sales... If you have a general idea of where and when you want to do long distance travel just book it and work around it later. Another option (especially in the uk and Ireland) is megabus or other discount coach providers (we took one through Kearns in Ireland). In Germany we we stumbled across a rideshare website (mitfahrgelegenheit.de) which we used a few times for cheap travel to Prague and within Germany... You have to make calls (in German) to set it up, so you may want to have someone do it for you if you don't speak German very well. Another discount of sorts that we used in Germany in the Bavarian region is the Bayern ticket. For €29 up to 5 people can have unlimited travel for a whole day starting at 9am. So if you can find people at the train station who are going the same way as you, you can split up the cost and save everyone money. The cost of travel is so extreme in some cases that it has caused us to question whether or not it may have been a better idea to buy some sort of camper van when we first arrived and sell it when we left (this would eliminate the cost of finding somewhere to sleep as well, but would add gas expenses... Gas is about $7 per gallon here). The best way to find out about the cheapest travel options is to talk to the locals and find out what they use!
8. If you have a student ID, it doesn't matter how old it is, bring it with you! There are student discounts on everything and you will need to show ID. The age limit for a student discount in Europe is 26, but it seems like it is pretty easy to talk people into giving you the discount (sometimes they don't even ask for ID) but you do need to ask for the discount every time. Sometimes these discounts are as much as half off.
I am sure there are more things that we have done and more tips that we will think of... If you are interested in reading more tips for traveling on a budget just look for entries tagged "budget".
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