The fact that you are going to travel across Europe with the shoestring budget and with the budget as binding as 50 euros a day often appears a romantic dream of a distant past. I can almost hear the criticism, the instant images of dirty-ravaged dorm rooms and a diet of only dry bread. I know, I did it, I look at my bank balance and then at a map of Europe and I tried to understand how to reconcile the two. However, I would like to tell you that it not only can be possible to enjoy the richness of the continent on such a limited budget, but also that it can make your journey even more profound, authentic, and indescapable than you can imagine. This is not deprivation, this is a basic change in thinking. It is about exchanging tourist attractions for local establishments, fine dining places with food markets, high-priced hotel rooms with a communal kitchen. It is being a traveler versus not being a tourist: someone who is clever, inventive and sees the treasures of travel in an experience and not a cost. It seems that the 50-a-day challenge compels you to think out of the box, meet people on a more personal level and experience a different, unknown side of Europe that most visitors never get to experience. This is not how to take a frugally priced trip, this is the plan to take a legendary excursion on one own and this book teaches us that the best part of traveling really does not have much to do with the price of money one spends.
The opening and most important key to fulfilling the dream of drinking water every day 50 euros is one simple, undiluted rule: the best friend of the budget is geography. Europe is not a price uniform. The price of a coffee in Zurich as compared to that of a coffee in Sofia is simply so different that it can either ruin your daily allowance or make it in a day. Thus in your course you should be artfully inclined to the east. Although threading through Paris, Amsterdam and London on such a shoestring is close to impossible even to the hardcore spartan travelers, with Central and Eastern Europe, a whole world of astounding cheapness opens up. Consider such countries as Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Albania and Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Your euros go further here in a sensation that is almost magical. An excellent budget rich dish will cost less than 10 euro, beer is available at 2 euro, and a bed at night in an amazing advanced hostel at 15-20 euro. This is not a compromise and put-up with “the lesser Europe”, this is about finding an excellent place with characters like gingerbread and Prague and Krakow cities, juicy and cool capitals such as Budapest and Belgrade, and striking natural environment all clad in the history so rich and tantalizing. Within Western Europe too, there are affordability islands. Not only is Portugal a staggeringly good deal when compared to its Spanish neighbour, but the south of Italy is much cheaper, when compared to the north. The budget of your itinerary is the budget of your bank. Selecting wise destinations, you are not planning a trip, you are creating the sustainable economic model of your adventure, and the mark of 50 EUR is not only realistic but comfortable.
Going with the decision of where to go comes a decision of when to go. It is a financial equivalent of taking a walk in a hurricane to travel in the middle of summer in July and August. Air ticket prices are going through the roof, hotels are exponentially increasing their prices, and you will have to elbow your way through thousands of people in order to see all the viewpoints and gelatos. Shoulder season is the ace up the sleeves of the budget traveler. The magic times include April through the beginning of June and September through October, and are the trifecta of traveling paradise: smaller crowds, favorable weather, and even lower costs. The scenario you have to imagine is strolling through the get-ancient streets of Rome in the month of May with a comfortable breeze blowing to your back, or as the northerly leaves fall in a Budapest park in September end. You receive all of the beauty without any summertime insanely and expenses. Air companies and buses will have lower prices and the prices in hostels will be lower and easier to get, and everything is going to be more original as cities resume their normal rhythm without the tourist rush. This strategic timing is not a slight modification, it is one of the fundamentals of low cost travel. It will keep your euro 50 to breath and you will have the money that you can afford to have a spontaneous piece of cake or an impromptu visit to the museum. Just by changing your travel dates by four to six weeks, you can change your budget (which now acts as a handcuff, as to where you can go and not go) to a functional, adjustable schematic of your travels.
Accommodation will be the most significant thing you are going to spend the money on in a day, and the art of a sleeping cheap is something you should learn. And this is where you as a solo traveler simply have a huge advantage. No need hotels or even Airbnb apartments, the world is your host. And here let us remove the ancient fables. There is a range of present-day hostels in Europe, most of which are chic, tidy and exceptionally well-furnished social venues. Not only they are a bed, but they are your community centre, your travel agency and your kitchen in one. The most cost-effective option you will have is a dorm bed, especially in a bigger room. The hostels with a free breakfast (even a simple one can save you 5 euros), and, most importantly, a communal kitchen are what you want to seek. Here is the nub of your budget kitchen. It is where you can transform supermarket deals into delicious dinners, compare best cooking advice with international travelers of the world and save plenty of money spent on restaurants. In addition to hostels, Couchsurfing will provide place to stay to the more adventurous, and socially-inclined individual: for free. It is a cultural exchange program in which you stay on a couch or an extra room of a local. It takes greater effort in making individual appeals and is founded on trust and social solidarity but the reward is gigantic. You are connected with a local person to instantly gain, you are given insider tips that you would not discover in a guide book, and you have a totally free bed. To live longer, there are options of the work exchange programs such as Workaway or Worldpackers. These websites introduce you to people who provide you free accommodation (as well as sometimes food) in their homes in exchange of a couple of hours of work per day. You may be working on reception in a Surf hostel in Portugal or gardening somewhere in rural Italy. It is an effective solution that completely transforms your budget in such a way that long-term travel is more than achievable but incredible as well, in the sense that you can effectively travel on a day-to-day basis without much of the expenses.
Having a roof over your head, the next thing is to get across the continent without wiping out your bank account. The train system of Europe is legendary, and high-speed trains will cost you a fortune unless you make a reservation well beforehand. Long distance bus is the real hero of the one person traveling on a tight budget. Technologies and companies have established a large footprint, giving companies such as Flixbus and RegioJet a chance of reaching nearly every large city and town at a fraction of the price of a train ticket. It is even more comfortable and Wi-Fi enabled, longer and, most importantly, very cheap even when the trip is booked a few weeks in advance. Traveling by bus is also a smart option, especially if you are traveling by night, since the cost of transporting your body and sleeping on a bus will be charged only once. To go longer distances, low-cost companies such as Ryanair, EasyJet, and Wizz Air may become your friend, provided that you play their game. It is advisable to purchase your flights as early as possible, carry with you only a small backpack that will meet their strict carry-on criteria so that you can save yourself huge baggage charges, be flexible with your dates of travel and destination airports. As soon as you are in a city, legs are the best and most affordable means of transportation. The real value of a place can only be seen when you walk through it especially hidden courtyards and unusual street art. In longer distances, learn how to use local transportation network. Since you can often buy much cheaper three-day or 24-hour tickets instead of individual ones, as well as need to find the local transportation matrix, including the metro in Prague, trams in Lisbon, or buses in Zagreb to save on potentially expensive cabs or ride-hailing programs.
And here is what to discuss about food. The clause on not eating healthy in Europe when you are on a budget is a hundred percent myth. You simply cannot dine-out in restaurants all the time. It is here that your individualistic hostel coffee kitchen and the neighborhood supermarket can serve as your kitchen table. The best place to go when arriving to any new city is definitely the local grocery shop – Lidl and Aldi will be your greatest friends throughout most of the continent. Fill up on the basics such as pasta, rice, eggs, bread, cheese and fresh vegetables. Meals can be cooked tasty and saturating only with a few euros. A fresh pasta with pesto and tomatoes, or a good filling omelette, not only spares you money, but also gets to become a matter of love in your travel life. It is also an excellent idea to take advantage of the hostel kitchen to meet people. Togetherness in cooking is an icebreaker everywhere. When you want to try the local food however, do so intelligently. Midday make your major meal. At most restaurants (including even the finer restaurants) there is a menu called a menu del dia or a plat du jour, which is a set lunchtime menu with a fixed price; it is usually greatly cheaper than the other menu. Bakeries, to have a really tasty and inexpensive breakfast of cakes and coffee. Local food markets, a real visual and sensual overdose but also a good place to find fresh fruits and vegetables, local cheeses and cured meat, to prepare your own gourmet sandwiches. Get into street food: you want to be a currywurst in Berlin, a gyro in Athens or even a pierogi in Krakow? Grab it, it is an excellent method to dine in a local style and on a low budget. You can eat like a king and not pay like one by mixing the supermarket cooking with the smart choice of street food and lunch specials.
The last missing piece to the puzzle is how to keep yourself amused without having to pay a fortune and this is usually a lot of fun. Europe is a museum and you can access some of the best treasures of Europe without paying a dime. Waste days discovering the medieval cities, marvelling at the architecture and watching people on a bench somewhere in a lovely park. Some of the most renowned parks in the world such as the Tiergarten or the English Garden both in Berlin and Munich respectively are free. Attend the free walking tours to be found in most major cities. These tours operate under a system of receiving tips so what you pay is what you think the tour was worth at the conclusion. They are a fantastic avenue to do orientation, know about the history of a place, and connect with other fellow travelers. Become a museum hawk; check before getting there on online sites on whether your destinations do enjoy free admission days or evenings. State owned museums are a lot of times free the first Sunday of the month in most cities. Some times, student ID cards, though you may not be a student at the time are accepted to give you a discount especially when there is no expiry date on the card. Seek free alternatives to the costly ones; instead of spending money to get to the top of a tower, locate the nearest hill or park where you can have a panaromatic look at the urban setup free of charge. Free local events: go to free local events and events websites such as individual city event websites or even hostel bulletin boards to see what concerts, movie screenings outdoors and festivals are available. Your best moments in a travel, will probably not be the most expensive ones. It will be that sunset you could view on top of a hill, overlooking Lisbon, or that conversation you happened to initiate with a native person in a park in Riga, or the impromptu picnic you could have with your new found friends along the banks of a river. That is what traveling is all about, traveling on 50 euros a day, taking away the commercial part of it and just remaining with the raw and unclear experience of a place and people. It is a hard life, but it is satisfying and in the long run life-altering way to view the world.
Thus, you know how to transform a supermarket purchase into a banquet and you know the buses schedule by heart, but not everything is that simple to stay on track as the list extends further than the triumvirate of transportation, food, and accommodation. It is about the minor, more intelligent choices you get to make each and every day, the tiniest efficiencies and psychological systems that accumulate to give you one more day, one more city, one more memorable time. This is perhaps the advanced step of living the budget life, inner game of the smart traveller. It starts with the way in which you treat the very euro bills in your pocket. A piece of plastic may be your most important piece of gear, before you even get out the door. In the modern world, using your run-of-the-mill hometown bank card entails a rookie error that can seep your bank account dry via a thousand micro tear drops. The €50-a-day plan sworn enemies are the foreign transaction fees and the huge withdrawal fees at the ATM machine. You have to be equipped yourself with a travel regulated, no-cost bank card. Banks and fintech businesses such as Wise, Revolut, N26, and others have transformed this sector and provide accounts you can top-up and use them to either pay in local currency or to get cash out without paying much in fees. With this single step you can save 5-10 Euros each time you go to the ATM, you can have a decent meal or a bland one. It is important to have a good card but at the same time do not discard cash. The locals markets, the little family owned bakeries, the hole in the wall bars in Naples, are some of the cheapest, and best places in Europe, but all of them are cash places. I tend to stick at a balance, taking out a sensible amount of cash (the €100 mark or so) to keep me going a few days on small outlays, whilst using my free-to-use card to cover my bigger bills, like staying in a hostel or a bus ticket. This field goes to monitoring your expenditure. It may be something that is boring, but faithfully spending two minutes every night to record the daily expenditure in a small application or even in a book is a non-negotiable routine. It is not about self-judgment rather awareness. It is the way you notice that you are wasting money on coffee and have to tighten your belt or it is the way to understand that you are under the budget and can spend money tomorrow to go to that museum. It trims the intangible objective of 50 Euros to a tangible more realistic goal you can face every day and handle.
The philosophy of slow travel is one of the greatest mindplays that will save your budget. We live in such a fast-paced life that we are taught to view travelling as a to-do list, as rushy a journey to the next city. Not only is this process tiresome, but also very costly. Each time you switch dwellings you also pay a considerable sum, the bus fare or airplane ticket, and a day goes by the way of transportation organization. It has to do with slowness, with luggage and unluggage. Rather than being in four cities in two weeks, spending three days in each, go to two cities and spend a week in each. There are instantaneous and overwhelming financial gains. A discount applies to week-long stay at many hostels and even in some private guesthouses. You are able to purchase foodstuff in bulk and more cost effective amounts. You effectively understand how the local transport system works and you are saved the inconvenience of landing in expensive mistakes. It is the magic that goes on behind the numbers which matters. When you spend a longer time you then transcend the touristy places. You learn about the neighbourhood bakery which has the most amazing bread, the small town square where people meet to play chess, the family owned restaurant which has an unbelievable lunch special that is never advertised in English. It is a pattern that you develop, the temporary belonging. The slower speed gives you time to organize your travel across country in a more intuitive linear fashion, i.e., as mode of traveling not unlike a smooth flowing river but not like a mad pinball machine. An adventure that twists along the Croatian coast, then makes a stop in Montenegro, then finishes with a tour of Albania is the geographical and economically wise decision. A cost cutting killer can include a flight covering Lisbon to Budapest then to Rome. The recommendations to slow down saves money, prevents burnout due to travel and only increases your richer, deeper knowledge of something and with a person. Now you are not just passing through you are out visiting.
Your smart phone can be your best money-saving partner and this is the age of smart-travel, provided you are wise enough. Be sure to pre-load the correct apps and learn the skills on how to use them without incurring huge data roaming expenses before leaving your home. And first of all you study offline maps. In both cases, Google Maps and similar applications, such as Maps.me, you can also download whole maps of cities or even countries and navigate with them via your phone GPS without having access to the internet. This is life-changing because you can explore the place on your own and you will not have to ever pay for data again as you can always find your way back to your hostel. As far as booking is concerned, become a wising searcher. Look on the internet using the flight comparison websites such as Skyscanner and its amazing browsing everywhere option which will tell you how much it costs to fly to any destination in the entire world, based on where you currently are so you can be motivated to take spontaneous cheap detours. When it comes to ground travel, apps such as Omio are so smart to compare the prices and time of the buses and trains simultaneously. It will immediately become evident that a 4-hour bus at 15 euro will prove to be a better bargain than train at 60 euro of 2 hours. Technology saves you in the area of communication too. The world is on Wi-Fi, so download such an app as WhatsApp, Messenger, or FaceTime to communicate with your friends and relatives at your hostel or in the cafe without spending money. When you want to stay longer in a certain area, it is often easier and cheaper than you might imagine to put in a local SIM card. A tourist package sold by a company such as Orange or Vodafone may provide you such huge data volume within two tens or even thirty of euro that it is a good investment to avoid getting lost or losing a booking confirmation that may cost you a lot. This online guide lets you travel, reserve, and correspond more intelligently and saves your valuable daily budget on the real experiences.
The other thing, more useful than actual monetary value, might be even more unexploited and can be considered the most valuable of them all an asset that is other people. Solo travel does not imply that you are the lonely person most of the time and the things that you would connect with can be your best budget-saving tool. This social economy has its epicentre in your hostel. The person you start a chat with in the common room could be going to the same sight as you and you can share a taxi there should you be destined to a hard-to-get place. There is a chance that the people cooking in the kitchen will ask you to contribute a few euros and get a gargantuan and delicious meal with a tenth of the price you would have paid to prepare it yourself. You will be ready to exchange information at random-where to find free concert in the park, who knows about a good tip in a bar with a good happy hour? This shared knowledge cannot be calculated. Be listening, sharing and open. More than the hostel, any connection with a local, via Couchsurfing or simply being nice around and approachable, can turn the whole experience around. They will be able to inform you about the student canteens, workers cafes with crude but cheap lunch specials for some euros or the local traditions that would help you avoid the tourist price-trap. Social part of travelling is not the making of new friends, it is the network gathering, both of friends and of available information that it makes your experience more enriching and much cheaper.
This is also a principle of intelligent planning going down to what you carry in your backpack. The way you pack directly affects your finances in an important way. Rule number one is to learn how to travel with one bag. Buy a quality carry-on sized backpack (about 40litres) and pack vicious. It is not only a matter of convenience but it is rather a way of evading the baggage charges on the airlines in Europe that charge between the amount of the flight and an article of luggage. When something is a possible, leave it at home. In Europe, you will be able to purchase almost everything you really need. In just a single bag, there are a few small but important essentials that can result in greater savings on a daily basis. No water bottle is allowed. It can be filled free of charge at taps, fountains, and in your hostel which would save you two or four Euros a day of buying bottled water which is an incredible sum after several weeks of staying on the road. During a quick trip to the grocery store where you buy a yogurt or a salad you can bring a spork and have a spread or salad in a park and transform such cheap meal into an instant and nice experience. You should also take a travel towel and a small padlock; most of the hostels will charge you to rent these facilities and this is an unnecessary cost you can personally pass. There is solid toiletries: shampoo bars, conditioner bars, solid toothpaste tabs. They have a longer shelf life than their liquid counterparts, are more environment-friendly and most importantly are not subject to the liquid allowance that you are given at airport security making the one-bag travel even easier. Each of the items you are carrying in your bag must earn its place and they are little, multi functional, money saving things which are the unsung heroes in the budget travelers baggage.
Lastly, we must discuss the inner game, the mental stamina needed to make this type of travel a long term affair. There are some days that budgeting feels demoralizing because one is doing mental arithmetics all the time. The so-called budget fatigue is the actual thing, and when it is not dealt with, the burnout may come. The answer to this is to arrange purposeful and forethought splurges into your schedule. Make a rule that you will occasionally relax your budget even to a limit of 65 or 70, on the tenth day of the month, or when you have taken a very long trip in the bus. Take that spare cash to visit a fancy restaurant which you had been waiting to visit, to spend some time in one of the big museums that you might have not been able to visit or even to just have a day of relaxing at the cafes without being conscious of the price. Such a controlled spending is a pressure-release valve, and the days when one is more disciplined, thus feels less like an act of constraint than a clever decision. It entails having a fort and something to be excited about and not to feel deprived. You accordingly have also to be able to say: No. You will find really interesting people in hostels that may have freer budget and offer you to go clubbing one night or do a day trip that costs a fortune. It is just fine to answer, that is a fantastic idea, it is out of my budget this week. Well, we will get a beer; later we could get it at that cheap place.” Your real travelling buddies will know. Finally, one very essential thinking change is to learn to actively enjoy the minimalist lifestyle which is forced by this budget. You get to know that a sunset through a public hilltop moves more as compared to the one through an expensive rooftop bar. You find out that a home cooked meal shared with someone in the kitchen of a hostel is perhaps more memorable than fine dining restaurant with multiple Michelin stars. The $50-a-day structure is not a trap it is a sieve. It tires of the clatter and the commercialism and the passive consuming, and leaves you with the bare, powerful truth of travel: that connection and resourcefulness and that quiet, deep invigoration of finding the world, and yourself, at least in part, on your own volition.
