I'm a college student planing on a big trip to Europe sometime soon. I was wondering if anybody has any ideas for the absolute cheapest way to do it. I know its gonna be an expensive trip regardless, but any ideas will help. I know the top places I want to visit are Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Amsterdam, and France. Ideas for flying cheap, finding cheap hostels or something, transportation, etc. would be awesome. I can pretty much go anytime of year, so dates dont really matter. Thanks for the help!

First: search in the box above for destination and budget. E.g., enter "Paris and Budget" or "Venice and budget" in the search window...choose France or Italy in the other window (with General Interest at the top of the list). Hit search. Start reading...and reading...and...

Some helpful websites are:
www.slowtrav.com
(you can search by country...keep digging...there's LOTS of info in each area)
www.tripadvisor.com
Good for reviews of hotels, some destinations.
www.whichbudget.com
Air travel within europe (usually inexpensive)
http://www.eurotrip.com/
Backpacking and hostels, budget travel

You will want to investigate rail passes. This board is a good place to search for info on those.

I'm not too familiar with hostel travel. Others here can advise you. I know there are forums similar to this one with more emphasis on hostels and other money saving means of travel.

Have fun planning...prepare to go into overload!

..sugest Lonely planet. A great "board" for budget travellers is their "torn tree". It will probably more helpful for generalities than this board given your age and budget.

.whoops thorn tree!

For travel on a shoestring, go read the Lonely Planet forums - The Thorn Tree. I think you'll have better luck there for budget travel ideas catering to college students.

One thing I did right out of college was to make the train pass work for me. My husband and I would "zig zag" across Europe on the overnight trains - pass was paid for and we didn't have to spend money on hotel rooms. Being young and able to sleep just about anywhere, this saved us a ton of money.

Wow, travel bunny - Great minds think alike. You beat me to the post

Go to STAtravel.com, also. It specializes in student travel, offers good package deals on interesting trips. They have offices in most major cities, too, so you can go in and talk with someone about your options. They were very helpful for us, here in Denver. And their airfare cancellation policy was the best we could find, since we knew we'd have to change the return flight. It only cost us difference in fare to change the return flight from Italy, no penalty fee.

Also use the hostels websites, of which there are many. My daughter and her friends stayed in hostels all over Italy and they were basic, but fine, especially if you're traveling with a friend for safety. (Don't go watch the Hostel movies!)

Also, try BudgetEuropeTravel.com, for their helpful magazine. Also, call their 800 number to speak to someone for rail information. Don't buy a railpass without doing the math. Many times, a railpass does not save you money.

Have fun planning your trip. Go to Europe now, and you will really enjoy it.
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I'm going to be really picky here but can you tell me why you list Austria, Switzerland Italy and France but not The Netherlands? Why Amsterdam when otherwise you list countries? There is far more to the Netherlands than Amsterdam! Even for students.

Thanks for the ideas everybody! I only list those places because I have been to Austria and Switzerland before and absolutely loved it and want to go back, Italy and France are at the top of my "must see list", and Amsterdam was just somewhere that my gf has mentioned wanting to go.

here is thread with budget ideas...
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34758216