Honeymoon 01 - Europe On A Budget

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(i will be posting our honeymoon diaries and i think it will be good to start with our itinerary and a few tips and tricks we've learned on budget travelling around europe. this entry is a cross-post from an email i sent to the weddings at work yahoogroups for couples dreaming of a european honeymoon but with limited budget. like us.)

disclaimer: we've only covered western europe (plus london) so tips might be limited.

both darwin and i agree that the best way to see europe is on foot. if you're planning to visit europe after your retirement (like we previously did), i encourage you to think it over. walking is still the best way to get to know a place so go while you still have the energy. venice is sadly sinking each year and mcdonalds are swarming the cities.

we started by listing down the places we want to visit and narrowed it down with the help of a map (we didn't want to spend a lot of time in trains).



from singapore (where we are based), we flew to london and spent two days there before flying to rome. as you might know, london is separated from continental europe by the english channel so a train from london to paris (the nearest point) goes hundreds of meters under water and is VERY expensive!

BUT thankfully there are a lot of budget airlines in london going to popular places in continental europe. in our case we chose easyjet. we bought the tickets through the internet two months in advance so we were able to buy two london-rome tickets for 8 pounds each! you have to agree it's very cheap! so once you've fixed your schedule, buy way ahead in advance to get a cheaper price. as your travel date draws nearer, the fare goes higher. but remember, buy only when you've fixed the date. they charge an exorbitant fee for any changes in the ticket.

we chose rome as our next stop because that's the farthest from london and there's an easyjet flight. from rome, we travelled upwards to paris by train and then back to london. open-jaw tickets (e.g. singapore-london, rome-singapore) cost a lot more than return flights (singapore-london-singapore).

assuming you're already over 26 years old, travelling in group of at least 2 will get you a eurail savers pass. under 26 yrs old will qualify you for a youth pass (much cheaper so travel while you're young!). getting a pass is cheaper than buying point-to-point tickets. you can hop on and off on trains with a eurail pass provided you're travelling within the countries and the travel dates you indicated. you can take several train rides within a travel day, no limit. if you need more info on eurail passes, you may visit the eurail site. note that you have to buy the eurail pass BEFORE you go to europe.

UK is not included in the eurail network and has its own britrail pass for travels within UK. the schengen visa does not cover UK either (whoever said the french are snobs didn't know the brits. hee!)

we spent a couple of days in rome and from there, we took a train to florence (2.5 hours). sobrang init sa italy during summer so we decided to take trains from city to city on middays. sure you won't want to walk around during lunch. para di sayang sa oras, that's when we travel. the sun sets at around 9pm during summer so when you get to your next stop, you still have a lot of time to walk around.

on the same day we reached florence, we took a train to pisa to maximize the travel day on our pass. pisa is just an hour away from florence and the only spot to see is the leaning tower and the nearby baptistry so one afternoon would be enough. we're back in florence before the sun sets.

after spending two days in florence, we took a train to milan (2.5 hours), again in midday.

another two days in milan then we're on a train to venice (3 hours).

after two days in venice, we took an overnight train to vienna (austria). the train ride is 9.5 hours so it's better to take it overnight to save on hotel accomodation. you can opt for a sleeper or a couchette for a more comfortable sleep but we decided to stick to the seats. couchettes cost another 97 EUR (!!!) but you sleep on a bunk and they provide bedsheets and pillows. sleepers are almost like a hotel room, complete with your own sink. fortunately for us, nobody else shared our cabin so we arranged the seats and had a perfect night.

we didn't plan to stay in vienna so we just left our luggages at their automatic lockers (2.50 EUR for a midsize locker for 24 hours) and walked around the city. after dinner, we boarded the train to munich (germany). train ride took 6 hours.

after a couple of days in munich, we took the overnight train to paris (9 hours).

from paris, we took the overnight bus to london (50 EUR each). it's much cheaper than the train and the fare already includes the ferry ride. we spent another day in london and then flew back to singapore.

all in all, that's a total of four nights savings on hotel accomodation! more importantly, you have more days to explore the cities by travelling at night.

europe need not be outrageously expensive. we usually have a fill of the hotel breakfast or buy a sandwich from the bakery. for lunch, we get a take-out from their fastfood outlets (a lot better than mcDo at only 5 EUR per meal) and eat it at the piazza or near the grand canal while watching the gondolas. or we buy wine from the grocery, seat on the lawns and just watch the day unfold. but we make sure that dinners are special so we ask the hotel for recommendations on trattorias serving reasonably-priced but quality food.

for hotels, you can browse through venere. that's where we booked our hotels. one night accomodation costs an average of 90 EUR for a 3-star hotel. remember that most buildings in europe are at least a hundred years old and have no lifts! so pack light. and choose a hotel near the train station to save on taxi rides.

overnight trains require reservations. that's 11 EUR each in italy and 3 EUR in austria and germany. for train schedules all over europe, you may visit germany's bahn site.

and if you're buying a travel book, don't buy lonely planet's shoestring series. it's not comprehensive.

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off to the honeymoon! coming up next ...
Honeymoon 02 - June 8, Off To Visit The Queen

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