Cheapest cities in Europe in 2017 - 56 major European cities by price May 21, 2014 at 10:23 am This list is not very accurate, Bucharest is cheap and a good place to visit but it’s definitely not the cheapest city in Europe; other cities in the Balkans like Sofia, Skopjie, Tirana and Sarejovo are all cheaper. Your ranking of Dubrovnik is very misleading too, although it’s more expensive than many Balkan cities it’s still cheap, and certainly much cheaper then cities like Moscow, Munich and Milan. In Dubrovnik you can get private apartments for $15 a night. Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world, how on earth have you ranked it among the cheapest 15 in Europe? The same goes for St Petersburg, to rank these cities as much cheaper than places like Talin and Dubrovnick makes this list very inaccurate. January 17, 2013 at 11:13 am yhy, I agree that there are many cheaper cities in Europe than the ones listed.

In fact, the cities I list here are almost all the most expensive in each country, but it’s hard to come up with a title that describes that well. There are a few more to add, like Vilnius for example, which I hope to get to soon. As I think I said before, if this list were truly about the cheapest cities in all of Europe, it would be nothing more than a list of villages in Romania and Bulgaria, which isn’t too useful for most people. Still, I appreciate your input and I’ll think about those other cities you mentioned. -Roger May 3, 2013 at 1:07 pm Brian, thanks for this comment. I wasn’t aware of that Sweden Card program that includes hotel discounts and I’ll add that info into my coverage because it looks like a great deal. And I agree that Moscow is a tricky one for lists like this because low-standard hotels are quite expensive while dorm beds in actual high-rated hostels in Moscow are quite cheap (£13 per night in May). So that, combined with cheap public transportation and beers means Moscow looks relatively cheap for backpackers even though it’s a rip-off for most others.

-Roger January 8, 2014 at 4:33 pm LuX, Interestingly, Sofia was the cheapest city on the Europe list for the first two years. But the Index is about traveling as a backpacker rather than living there, and Bucharest now has cheaper hostel beds and a few other things. They are still very close to each other in price and on the Index. Also, I think when we live in a city we find all the cheaper and better places to eat and drink and such, while when we visit a city we often wind up in expensive places in the tourist zone. I lived for many years in New York City and I could get by on half of what a tourist does while doing the same things. Thanks for the comment. -Roger January 13, 2014 at 5:13 pm Nico, Moscow is a large city in Europe, so it’s on the above list of 51 of them ranked by price for backpackers. Zurich, Stockholm, and Oslo also made the list even though they are literally the most expensive cities in Europe.

The reason Moscow is in the middle rather than near the bottom of the list is that this is about expenses for backpackers and other budget travelers. While many things in Moscow are outrageously expensive, the city actually has cheap hostels, public transportation, and attractions, at least compared to the others. On the 3-Star Traveler Index (updated later this week) Moscow is much farther down the list. -Roger February 8, 2014 at 5:26 pm Amit, I’m hoping that your budget does not have to include the flights from Mumbai. My recommendation for the 5 cities in Europe that everyone should try to see are London, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, and Venice. Unfortunately, all of them are quite expensive. Also, staying in just one city tends to be cheaper than going to several cities due to the obvious transportation costs. My recommendation for a group of cities that are very interesting, great value, and have noteworthy architecture are Berlin, Prague, Budapest, and Krakow. Berlin isn’t really known for architecture (because it was mostly flattened in WWII), but it’s still very worthwhile and it has a fairly cheap airport. If you bought train tickets in advance, getting between those cities is pretty affordable as well.

You could spend about 10 to 12 total days in those 4 countries and probably hit your budget. If you let me know where you were hoping to fly into and how long you were hoping to stay, I can try more recommendations. -Roger February 28, 2014 at 5:16 pm Chris, Always great to hear that people are finding this stuff useful for travel planning. I’ve thought about adding those two cities but I fear that it would do more harm than good if the whole top of the list was dominated by cities people had never heard of and would never consider visiting. But I’ve spent a lot of time in the area (living in Serbia for part of a year) so it interests me. My best guess on Ljubljana is that it’s similar to Bratislava in price because hostels aren’t terribly cheap and the country is mostly surrounded by not-cheap countries. However, Podgorica would probably be in the Top 5 cheapest if I put it on the list. My Serbian friends, who make about €1 per hour at their jobs, go to Montenegro for their only holiday of the year.

The beach towns might be a bit more expensive, but I think the whole country is quite cheap, partly because so few non-local tourists ever visit. -Roger December 15, 2014 at 9:02 pm Carlette, I was just in Italy again a few weeks ago, and this time I visited Lake Como, Cinque Terre, Siena, Naples, and Sorrento/Amalfi Coast, but I haven’t been to Sicily yet and I skipped a day-trip to Capri. Generally, prices in Italy are fairly similar, except Venice and Rome with high-price hotels, and Naples cheaper than the rest. I was going to go to Sicily on that trip, but I’ve read some mixed things about it and it’s also very out of the way unless you fly in. The trains going there are slow, especially with the ferry crossing. Honestly, what I’ve heard about Sicily is that it’s charming and feels different from the rest of Italy, but also that people who’ve been everywhere in Italy tend to put Sicily way down the list of places they recommend. In other words, it seems like the kind of place you visit once you’ve seen most of the rest.

Capri, as you probably know, is quite small, and most popular as a day-trip from Naples or Sorrento. And the Amalfi Coast is just south of Sorrento, so many people use that as a base to explore the whole area. In fact, Sorrento is now perhaps my favorite city in Italy, at least once you’ve seen all the famous sights. Sorrento is small and tourist-friendly itself so it makes a great base. From there you can spend a day in Naples (fascinating but a bit gritty for an overnight), a day visiting Pompeii, a day visiting Capri, and a day visiting the Amalfi Coast. So you have many days worth of first-class sightseeing, in addition to at least a few days just hanging around in Sorrento. Also, Sorrento is probably the easiest place to visit for someone who doesn’t speak Italian, because nearly everyone seems to speak fluent English. In most of Italy, it can be a struggle except at hotels and restaurants. I’m hoping this helps, and I’ll be happy to try again if you have more questions.

-Roger January 23, 2015 at 1:13 pm Tim, Thanks for the comment and especially for paying such close attention. Actually, many cities went down in price from 2014 to 2015, mostly due to currency shifts. In many other cases it was hostel prices going up in that city. However, in this most recent update I also made a great effort to make the daily meal totals more similar to each other in what you eat and drink each day. I personally visited about 20 of these 56 cities late in 2014 and I made some adjustments based on that. Most of the adjustments involved that I had the dinner range starting too low. The point of the Backpacker Index was never to show the minimum that a backpacker could get by with, but more of typical expenses of someone being careful with their money. Part of that is assuming that a visitor will want some form of a sit-down meal each night, even though they could save a bit of money getting fast food or pizza slices. So especially for the cheapest cities at the top of the list, I realized that I was budgeting too little for a sit-down dinner.

That adjustment added maybe €3 or so to a handful of cities. Also, for the “3 beers” entertainment fund each day, I was often using a price that was the lowest in that city, and in reality, very few backpackers go to the trouble to find the absolute cheapest beer in town. So in many cases I used a more realistic price for the 3 beers, and that bumped a few cities up by €1 or €2 per day. At this point I’m very confident that the city experiences closely match each other and match current reality, so future updates should only reflect inflation and/or currency shifts. So in a city like Sofia, you can still find a way to eat dinner for US$3 and you can still find a beer for US$1.30 if you really look around. But I don’t think that’s normal for most travelers, so I wanted to adjust some of these cities to reflect that. But again, in quite a few cases it was more a matter of hostels going up in price. I hope this helps and was more or less what you were asking.

-Roger April 14, 2015 at 4:15 pm Kelsey, If you are using the prices from the Backpacker Index for hostels, those are calculated for a stay in April or May and summer prices tend to be a bit higher in most European cities. So the Index is calculated to compare relative prices for each city, and most things stay the same in price all year, except for popular hostels in peak season. Sorry for the confusion. Still, I think you’ll find that the hostels listed for each city are among the best deals, even if prices are a bit higher for the dates you’ll be there. If you give me the approximate dates you’ll be there, I can search myself for the best deals in the best areas, and we can see what the price differences are. -Roger April 15, 2015 at 5:15 pm Serene, If you have a full month, you’ll have plenty of time to see all of those cities and a few more as well. I’ll give you my recommendations for the minimum number of nights to stay in each of those cities, and then I’ll suggest a few others.

Munich – 3 nights minimum Rothenburg ob der Tauber – You can see it all in about 24 hours, and it’s really nice Dresden – 1 or 2 nights should be fine. Prague – 3 nights minimum Krakow – 3 nights minimum You’ll find much more specific information on this on my article about where to go in Germany . You’ll notice that Dresden doesn’t even make the list and there are at least 10 other cities in Germany that I’d recommend higher than that one. If you have a specific reason to go there, then great, and the town center is pleasant enough. But if you aren’t sure of exactly what you’d do there, I’d highly recommend skipping it in favor of Berlin, which is the most interesting place in Germany, and worth at least 3 nights. You’ll definitely have time to fly to London, and I’d spend at least 3 or hopefully 4 nights there. It’s expensive, but it’s one of the world’s greatest and most important cities. If you are going to Prague and Krakow (which are both highly recommended), I’d also think about going to Cesky Krumlov (2 nights) and/or Budapest (3 nights).

Let me know if you have other questions, and have a great trip. -Roger June 12, 2015 at 1:08 am Karan, I’ll be happy to try to help, but this will be challenging with a budget of 40,000 INR (US$625). In August, all of the beaches in southern Europe will be packed with Europeans who take the whole month off. From Venice you might be able to find a fairly uncrowded beach in Croatia, but honestly all of the nice ones will be packed and charging the highest rates of the year. On your budget in 10 days I think you’ll get the best value out of heading to Budapest, Krakow, Prague, and/or Cesky Krumlov. The first 3 on that list have great party scenes and fairly inexpensive alcohol. On the other hand, it will cost a bit to go from one city to the next, so that will eat into your total as well. In other words, you’ll be able to have a better time by visiting fewer places so you won’t spend so much on transport. Hopefully this is at least something to help you start planning.

I’m happy to follow up with more suggestions if you have other preferences or ideas. Best of luck with this. -Roger June 14, 2015 at 4:48 pm Shelly, If you use Amsterdam as your main hub then the other great cities that are easy to reach from there are London, Brussels and/or Bruges, Paris, Berlin, and perhaps Munich. If you spent about 3 days in each city you’d have an excellent trip and most of your train journeys would be around 3 hours, except for Berlin and Munich which are more like 6 hours from Amsterdam. Those are all top destinations in Europe, but they are also on the expensive side. If you wanted to do something cheaper you’d want to go from Amsterdam to Berlin to Prague and maybe even Krakow. Let me know if any of those suggestions sound good to you and I will help you sort out the best way to string them together. You’ll want to take trains between cities, and the only slightly tricky one is London, which is only connected to Brussels and Paris via the Eurostar train. -Roger June 18, 2015 at 12:45 pm S N TIWARY, Interesting question.

If I were to add more German cities I’d consider Cologne, Frankfurt, and even Rothenburg ob der Tauber first because they get far more international tourists than Freiburg. My brother actually lives near Freiburg and I was there recently. As lovely as parts of it are, nearly all of the visitors are from Germany and Switzerland. The other reason I wouldn’t add it is that prices there are similar to Munich and elsewhere in Germany, so they would all be bunched together on the list. The idea for this list is to help people sort out the cheaper destinations from the expensive ones so they can make choices about where to go. Thanks for reading and commenting. -Roger June 19, 2015 at 3:35 pm Jack, Thank you for the kind words. I normally prefer to answer these kinds of questions in the comments below the articles on European itineraries and Eurail Passes . I’ll answer below and if you have any follow-ups please do so in one of those threads. I’ll take the questions in the order they came up. Copenhagen to Berlin can be an expensive train ticket if you don’t buy far in advance, but from Berlin all the way to Croatia they aren’t too expensive.

And as you mentioned, in some of those legs you’ll find that buses are as fast as trains as well as cheaper and more frequent. In other words, a 4-country Select Pass would not be good value in those eastern countries. In the Czech Republic there is a bus company called Student Exchange (open to anyone of any age) that runs frequent cheap buses with free wifi that are sometimes even faster than trains and rarely much slower. As for hitchhiking, I don’t see much of it anywhere in the world these days, although I’m sure it still goes on to some degree all over. One challenge is that in that part of Europe the average driver might speak little or no English, even though the average hotel or restaurant worker speaks English pretty well. With cheap and fast buses I don’t think it’s worth the hassle, but if you do want to try something like that I’d look into the various ride-sharing websites and smartphone apps, which are somewhat popular there. You can look for someone who has posted a trip in your direction and you only have to chip in for gas if you find a ride. As for the Croatian ferry websites, you’ll probably want to book at least a week ahead of time in June, or maybe even longer.

Most routes only have one ferry per day going, probably one from each company, and when they sell out you can be out of luck. Interestingly, I just took one of those from Ancona to Split last October, when it was only one company (Jadrolinija) running 3 times per week. I waited until a few days before I wanted to go and found out the boat was sold out so I had to go 2 days later. The price does seem a bit high, at least if you want a berth, but that is the best you can do as long as you book on the official website with the ferry company. Other ferry websites will sell the same bunk and add a big surcharge, so book direct. If both companies are running on the day you want to travel you can probably wait until one of them is sold out for that day and then book the other, and that might be a week or more early in prime season like that. I also looked into alternatives between Croatia and Italy and the ferry is the only decent way to go. Even the trains that go through Venice are very slow in that area, and buses are as well. Just do the ferry.

This looks like a great first trip to Europe that will be filled with highlights. If you have any other questions, please follow up on one of those other articles. -Roger July 13, 2015 at 5:53 pm Jesse, Interestingly, we’ve recently added new City pages for Valencia and Seville and Porto . I’m not sure I’m going to add any of those to the official Backpacker Index list because 56 already seems like a lot, but at the very least I’ll be linking to them near the Madrid and Barcelona entries. The criteria for adding new cities in general and also adding them to the Backpacker Index lists has been a bit tricky. The goal with this site has been to help people choose destinations and also give them a rough idea of how expensive things there are. As a result I prefer not to add cities that are essentially suburbs of cities already on the list because the climate is the same and the prices will generally be the same as well. So it’s about finding as many discreet destinations as possible and trying not to add too many others. I’ve long had a Monaco page though, even though it’s very close to Nice.

More specifically, I’ve been meaning to add at least one city in Cyprus and you’ve reminded me of that. But the micro states like Liechtenstein, Andorra, and San Marino are probably not worth it. For one thing, not many people spend the night in those places, and even if they do it’s just one night. Also, the prices of each are all very similar to the country that surrounds them. Monaco is a bit different because it is sort of its own economic zone as well. So thanks for the comment and suggestions and hopefully I’ll add at least a Cyprus one soon. -Roger August 24, 2015 at 5:10 pm Stranger, That’s an interesting question, partly because it’s the first time someone has asked. In general, Belarus gets very little tourist traffic, and almost everyone needs to get a visa before a visit. As far as I’ve seen, they are purposely keeping themselves closed off from most of the world because they are still hanging onto communism in a fairly strict way. So for the time being, there isn’t much interest from most Europe travelers. I’d like to know how much things cost there, however, but I haven’t been there either.

-Roger September 17, 2015 at 5:26 pm LukeGGGGGGGG, This is one of the longer trips I’ve been asked about and it sounds like it’s going to be amazing. Your first few countries are obviously among the more expensive, and after that (starting in Poland) you’ll find that your funds will go much further. You should find that the Backpacker Index prices listed in the article above should be a realistic budget for someone who isn’t splurging much. And you can even keep things maybe around 20% to 30% under these numbers if you really keep to a backpacker style. The Backpacker Index prices including seeing a famous attraction (often a museum) as part of each day’s budget, but if you are traveling slowly for a longer time like this, you obviously aren’t going to do paid attractions each day. Also, it includes 3 beers in a cheaper bar each day, while on a longer trip you will likely spend much less on alcohol and entertainment on a daily basis.

So with that in mind, looking at the list of countries you will be visiting, I’d say that you could get by on as little as US$1,000 per month, not including transportation, which is about AU$1,400/month at the moment. Again, that would be about the minimum you could get by on if staying in hostel dorms and looking for cheap meals and whatnot. So if you are starting with AU$25,000 for 9 months, that should be plenty to really enjoy yourself without having to constantly cut corners to survive. It’s also good that you are starting in the more expensive places and moving to the cheaper ones because it will train you to search for good value at first, and then the other places will seem cheap by comparison, and you can afford to splurge a bit. On the other hand, on that budget you’ll never feel like a king, so you’ll want to be pretty careful with expenses all the way around. Romania is one of only a few European countries that I’ve yet to visit, but I know many people there and I’ve never heard anyone say that it was unusually unsafe.

If you stay in centrally located hostels and ask the desk people there for advice on what to watch out for, you’ll be fine. I lived in neighboring Serbia for almost 5 months not long ago and it felt extremely safe. Also, on a trip of that length, and especially if you want to be a bit impulsive as to when you’ll move to the next destination, you are going to want to focus mostly on buses to get between cities. In the cheaper countries you’ll find that buses are not only much cheaper but also as fast as trains and with more frequent service. In the more expensive countries the train tickets will be very expensive if you buy at the last minute, yet buses are usually the same price no matter when you buy. I hope this helps and let me know if you have other questions. -Roger September 20, 2015 at 1:41 pm Stefan, I was in Oslo myself about a year ago and these are all real prices. Entry into the National Gallery, including its Munch room, is NOK50 for adults and NOK30 for students, for example. Also, please keep in mind that this is a “Backpacker Index” for people on tighter budgets.

There’s a bar near the train station with .5L of beer for under NOK40 each. If you are on a backpacker budget then you can find places like that. It’s the same for meals. Someone on a tight budget isn’t just going to wander into TGIFridays when there are cheaper options nearby for those who seek them out. Thanks for taking the time to comment though. It’s nice to know that some people are looking closely at this, and I value all constructive criticism. -Roger September 30, 2015 at 10:09 pm Becky, I’m always happy to hear that this information is useful. Fortunately, I’ve already written an article that should address exactly what you are after, and I’ve even updated and expanded it earlier this year. Have a look at my recommendations for the best-value cheap cities in Europe . Most of them are close together in the former East and central part of Europe, so they are easy to string together. If you have two weeks I’d shoot for maybe 5 total cities, and any on that list would be really ideal for what you want.

Prague and Budapest are perhaps the classic ones in this category, but there are other great ones nearby as well. And your main transport choices will be trains and buses between cities. Fortunately, they are quite cheap in these parts of Europe. In countries such as the Czech Republic, the bus system is faster, cheaper, and more convenient than the trains, and that’s true in a few other places as well. Once you figure out a tentative itinerary, I can help you figure out exactly how to get between each place. For trains it usually helps to buy at least a few weeks in advance online, but most buses are pretty cheap even if you buy at the station just before you board. Keep in touch and I’ll help you all I can. -Roger November 20, 2015 at 5:24 pm Ben, It sounds like your research has pointed you in the right direction for your own trip, but it would be unwise to generalize for other areas. You’ll obviously take the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, and through the Baltic countries there are no long distance trains at all to compare buses to. Fortunately the bus service in that area is quite good to make up for it.

And in the Czech Republic the buses (from Student Agency) are often better and just as fast as the trains. Buses are also better or comparable in the former Yugoslavia and Turkey. But once you get into the other countries (particularly the more affluent countries in the West) you’ll find that buses take twice as long, or longer, and there are fewer departures than trains. Have a great trip. -Roger December 11, 2015 at 4:53 pm Greg, Thanks. I agree with you mostly, especially in that those places would be near the top of this list. It will be easier to add them after I visit myself, which will likely be in summer of 2016. The main reason I haven’t added them so far, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, is that those places are all very obscure by most standards. I’m not sure how people would react to this list if 8 of the 10 cheapest places mentioned were places they’d never heard of. Also, I’ve been to nearly every city on this list myself, but I’ve yet to make it down into that area because it’s quite hard to reach for most people.

As you certainly know, you either have to take a fairly expensive flight into one of the capitals, or take a series of slow buses out of Croatia to get there. As a result, very few people are going to visit those places, even if a dorm bed is US$5/night and a beer is $1. I do appreciate the constructive criticism though, and I’ll consider adding them after my own visit in 2016, once I see if they are really worth the hassle of reaching them for the average backpacker. -Roger January 1, 2016 at 12:24 am Lindy, If you were to rent a car as you were leaving Munich and then drive to Berlin and spend 3 days there and then drive to Hamburg before dropping the car off there, I’d guess it would cost more than US$150 for the one-way rental. Berlin is huge and filled with great sights, so you don’t really want to spend less than 3 days there, and you’d have trouble finding a free place to park the car unless you stayed near the edge of town. Most people prefer to take trains in Germany, although they may not be as cheap as you’d hope.

If you buy a Munich to Berlin train ticket 2 or 3 months early it might cost US$50 or so for each person, and more if you buy closer to the travel date. It’s a long ride in a very nice train, so it still feels like good value. From Berlin to Hamburg it would be a similar price. Many hotels in these cities are within a short walk of the train station, but if you wanted to stay in another neighborhood it would probably be best to share a taxi for the 3 of you. Taxis are pretty reasonable in those cities and it would minimize walking. If you had another idea with the car rental please let me know and I’ll try to help you figure it out. Also consider that the fuel for the car isn’t cheap. Gas/petrol runs about US$/gallon there, and it would take about 10 gallons from Munich to Berlin even in a small car. Berlin to Hamburg is about half as far. I’m happy to help you figure this out. -Roger February 22, 2016 at 7:30 am Pauline, This is challenging.

If you only have a week and especially if you want it to be cheap, then starting in London will make it tough because it’s very expensive there. Considering a flight from LA to London will take 10 or 11 hours and put you 8 hours ahead in time zone, I’d spend at LEAST 3 nights in London, even though it’s expensive. If you really only have 7 nights then you might take the Eurostar train to Paris for 3 nights and then back to London for your last night. If you have 8 total nights you could do London for 3 nights, Paris for 3 nights, Amsterdam for 2 nights, and then back to London for your flight home. It would take most of a day to take a train from Paris to Rome, so I’d recommend flying if you want to squeeze it in. And I really wouldn’t do Santorini on this trip. If you do you’d want to spend at least 3 days there, and it’s a LONG way from London. Best of luck and let me know if I can help further.

-Roger February 24, 2016 at 4:20 am Shely, I’m no expert on women’s clothing and its prices, but I can tell you that generally for things like these that Prague would be the cheapest on your list, and Barcelona next. That’s mostly based on the cost of real estate in the shopping districts in those cities, and also local tax rates. I wish I could help with a website that kept track of clothing prices, but I don’t know of any. I’ll also mention that clothes in Europe tend to be quite a bit more expensive than in the US for the same items. They have H&M and Top Shop and other cheap chains, but for name-brand designer clothes, the US tends to be cheaper. Best of luck with this. -Roger Brook, Thanks. I’ll answer your questions in the order they came up if I can… First off, you can get a dorm bed in nice and central hostels in most European cities for between €20 and €30 per night, and as long as you can sleep in a room with other people, it’s actually really fun.

The hostels also have common areas and sometimes bars and their own tours and events, so they are a great way to meet other travelers and even some locals. Definitely give it a try and see how you like it. I’ve not heard the rumor about them being taken over by homeless people, and there is no way that’s true, at least in general. They are (almost all) open to people of all ages, but still it’s mostly young people who are backpacking, and there is a limit on how long you can stay (a week or so). Some places do get guests who are moving to the city to find a job and they stay in the hostel until they find a place, but they aren’t allowed to stay long. Since hostels are fairly open and public, the staff knows who is who, so you can’t really get away with much there. In 30 days or so I think you’ll have time for 9 or 10 total cities.

If you are starting in Amsterdam and you want to get to Spain, I’d say the best and most interesting backpacker route would be Amsterdam > Berlin > Krakow > Prague > Budapest > Vienna (and/or Salzburg) > Munich > Paris > Barcelona > Madrid > Gibraltar. That is just a suggestion, obviously, so you’d want to see how you feel about each place and add or delete cities to suit your interests. For a Eurail Pass I’d say an 8 Days in 2 months Global Pass would be ideal. If you know all of your stops in advance and are willing to buy the individual tickets at least a month or more out, you can save money by buying individual tickets. But if you want to be able to make plans as you go, then a Eurail Pass will allow you that freedom at a reasonable price. As for festivals, I generally try to avoid them because they always drive up hotel/hostel prices and occupancy rates. I can’t think of any during those months, as I think most of them are outside of the main tourist season (July and August). In fact, a great number of Europeans take one of those months off work, so many people are away on islands or beaches then.

There won’t be any big things to avoid, unless there is a football tournament or something. All the best deals on hostels can be found online on the major hostel sites, including the ones linked in the article above. In fact, every city I list I also list the best of the inexpensive (and well located) hostels, with a link to the cheapest booking site. I should have mentioned that in many cases you’ll find private twin rooms for about what two bunk beds will cost, so those are a great option for two going together. And in many of the cheaper cities (Krakow, Prague, Budapest), you can usually get a normal double hotel room in the €60 range or less, so you can skip hostels in some places if you like. I always recommend reserving at least the first night in each new city in advance, and they don’t offer better deals to walk-up guests. In fact, the best and most popular hostels will usually be booked up a few days in advance, so the walk-up crowd usually have to go to the not-as-good hostels, often with remote locations.

Weirdly enough, the best hostels are often among the cheapest because they can stay full that way, while the remote hostels are sometimes expensive because they only get bookings when the other places are full anyway. You’ll get the hang of it after a couple cities on your trip. Let me know if you have any other questions. -Roger April 9, 2016 at 7:08 am Jennifer, It’s my pleasure to try to help. In two weeks I think 4 or 5 cities is ideal. Since London and Paris are so large and filled with highlights, I’d spend 4 nights in each of them and 3 nights in Stockholm. For the remaining 3 nights I don’t think you can do any better than Amsterdam in that part of Europe. So my suggestion would be to fly into Stockholm and 3 days later fly to Amsterdam. From there you can take a train to Paris and then the Eurostar train to London. If you need to be back in Stockholm for the flight home I’m sure you can get a cheap flight out of London. If you buy those flights and train tickets soon they will be fairly inexpensive, but if you did it at the last minute they’d be very pricey.

Let me know if you have any other questions. -Roger May 13, 2016 at 12:49 pm Harshit, Thank you for the nice words. First off, it will probably cost an average of about US$50 each time you go from one city to another, so the more days you spend traveling, the less money you’ll have for other things, and obviously the less time as well. Since you’ve already been to Amsterdam, you might cut that down to only one night. Hotels and even hostels there are very expensive, and if you’ve seen the main sights, I’d just move on. Then go to Berlin and spend at least two nights. Three would be better because it’s a huge city, and not too expensive. Skip Dresden for sure. There is almost nothing to see there. From Berlin go to Prague and again, two nights minimum and three is better. After Prague you could go to Budapest, but it takes 7 hours by train or much longer by bus. I think I’d skip Budapest on this trip, partly because it has quite a bit in common with Prague.

So I’d go from Prague to Vienna or Salzburg or perhaps even to Cesky Krumlov (in southern Czech Republic). You can get there is 3 hours by bus from Prague for about US$20, and it’s very cheap (and lovely) once you get there. You could go to Vienna or Salzburg in about 3 hours from there. If you skip it and go from Prague to Vienna, it will take about 4 hours. Vienna to Salzburg takes 2 hours and 22 minutes. You could see either of them in two nights, but Vienna might be worth 3 nights. Cesky Krumlov can easily be done in two nights. Luxembourg City is nice, but it’s quite small and fairly expensive, so I would save it for a future trip. From Austria it’s probably best to fly back to Amsterdam for your flight home because the train all the way through Germany would take about 10 hours and cost quite a bit. You will definitely want to take trains to get around for the most part, and if you buy the tickets at least 2 months or so in advance, the fares will be surprisingly cheap.

When going in and out of Prague or Cesky Krumlov, you should also consider buses because they are cheaper, just as fast, and have more departure times. As always, let me know if you have more questions, and I hope this helps. -Roger July 26, 2016 at 12:27 pm Vinicius, I’m happy to hear that people continue to find this information helpful. I’ll try to answer your questions in order. Most of the prices on these pages are the same all year. The only thing that changes are accommodation prices. This page uses the price of a hostel bed for the index, and those actually don’t change much through the year. For example, a dorm bed in low season might be €20, and in high season they might be €25. During holiday weeks they might be €28, but everything else is the same so they should always work decently as guide prices for a typical budget. It’s unusual to see someone with an itinerary where they may be allowing too much time rather than not enough time. On one hand, those cities are all so large and packed with worthwhile sights that you won’t get bored in that amount of time.

But on the other hand, you can usually see your top 8 or 10 attractions or sights in each city in 3 or maybe 4 days. That means that if you are staying longer you’d be seeing things that are way down your list on those final days. If you moved on to another city, you’d be seeing your top things there on that day. My recommendations are Berlin 3 or 4 days, Prague 3 days, Amsterdam 3 days, London 4 or maybe 5 days. Dublin you can see in 2 or 3 days, but I’d probably save that for a future trip. The thing is, Ireland is a wonderful, beautiful, and magical country, but Dublin is a bit of a dud as a capital city. In other words, if you were going in warmer months, I’d encourage you to spend 2 nights in Dublin and then 3 to 5 days exploring other towns and villages and castles around the country. But in early February it’s chilly, the days are short, and it’s just not a great time to explore the countryside.

You’d enjoy Dublin, but again, I’d probably save it for a future trip, and I’d add Paris and possibly Munich or Vienna or Salzburg to my trip. Even during the cold months, taking the train is far more enjoyable than flying between those cities, and it usually takes about the same amount of time when you add in the airport security and transportation. Berlin to Prague is a pretty easy train ride. If you went to Amsterdam before Berlin, that is a pretty good train ride as well. You can also go from London to Amsterdam by train, changing in Brussels. I’m happy to help you sort out your itinerary if you want to change things around a bit. And I’m sure you’ll have an excellent trip. -Roger August 3, 2016 at 11:29 am Vinicius, Both of your itineraries look quite good, so either choice will be a great trip. It’s a tough call. Edinburgh is a really nice city, but it does have many things in common with London. Given this choice I’d probably save Edinburgh for another trip, and do the Brussels and Bruges side trip.

One main reason is that Edinburgh is so far north that the days will be really short in January, so it’s not an ideal time to visit. But again, either option should be great. Let me know if you have any other questions. Oh, and be sure to buy those train tickets and flights as early as possible for the lowest fares. -Roger December 16, 2016 at 7:30 pm Katie, Wow. Lucky you! If you have 14 days I’d suggest 4 or 5 total cities, and generally 3 nights in each city unless it’s a really small one. Since you’ve got London and Paris covered, and from Florence it’s easy to visit Venice and Rome either for short trips or even day trips if you buy your ticket far enough in advance. In other words, you’ve got many of the great European cities covered already, so you can cover some others on the pre-trip. I’d strongly recommend Amsterdam, as in my opinion it’s one of Europe’s five great cities to be covered first. You’ll have the other 4 covered, so you’ll be good. So fly into Amsterdam and spend 3 nights there.

Take a train to Berlin and spend 3 or maybe 4 nights there. It’s much more interesting and much more fun than you might suspect based on its old reputation. After that I’d take a train to Prague for 3 nights, as it’s another gem. After Prague you have 3 good options. You could take a train to Budapest and then fly to Paris from there. Or you could take a train to Vienna for 2 or 3 days and then Salzburg for 2 days and then to Paris. Or you could take a train from Prague to Munich for 3 days, and maybe also Salzburg for 2 days or you could make one of the other stops in southern Germany that I mention in my article on where to go in Germany . Any of those options would be fantastic for you. Hopefully one of them sounds best to you at first glance. Let me know if you have any other questions, as I enjoy helping with these sorts of things. -Roger

Question: What humorously cheap Eastern European car was sold in the United States?
Answer: Yugo