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never been to Europe-how find cheapest flights?

I am going to Germany in September. How can I find cheap flights and where would be the best place to fly into? Final destination is Mainz, Germany. Any helpful tid-bits would great since I'm new at this travel thing! Thanks!

Hey Shannon, Fly into Frankfurt I'd say Mainz is about 35 minutes by train from the Frankfurt Airport. There is a train that runs right from the airport to Mainz. Or, you can go into downtown Frankfurt and go from the main trainstation if you can't figure out how to use the trains direct from the airport. Pretty simple to do though. It'll be a great time for you to be in Germany during September. When are you actually leaving and when will you be returning to USA. If you want some thoughts about germany during September let us know. We'll be happy to help Bill

Besides the usual obvious sources - - expedia, travelocity and orbitz - - I think that these alternatives are worth checking out: 1-888-AIR-TIXX for "The Joy of Travel" in Georgia www.affordablepoland.com - - not just for Poland and www.raileurope.com, or better yet just call them at 1-800-4-EURAIL. I almost never recommend buying RAIL tickets from them (big markups), but they sometimes have some decent discounted airfares. AndI'm sure there are many others. Finallly, you may want to consider flying into England, Ireland, France or Belgium instead, if you cannot find a good fare to Germany. Europe is awash in low-cost no frills airlines these days, like www.germanwings.com or ryanair.com Of course, it's more appealing if you would actually have an interest in visiting one of those countries. Best wishes, Rex

topping, for Shannon

Look into www.airberlin.com and hlx.com as well.

Mainz is between 20 and 27 min from the Frankfurt Airport by local train and will cost about 5 euros. There are lots of other airports to fly into (Paris, Belgium, Amsterdam), but it really depends on what you want to do on your trip. If you plan to rent a car, it may be cheaper to pick up and drop off at the same airport. If you're going to stay just in Germany then I'd suggest into and out of Frankfurt, or look into flying into Munich and out of Frankfurt. I've travelled to Europe many times and now live here and would have to say that the number one misconception that travellers have about coming here is how close everything is. It all looks close on the map compared to North America, but don't forget that it can take quite a while to get from one place to another. It's a 6 hour trip from Paris to Frankfurt for example. My husband will never let me forget the time we were going from Garmisch to Vienna and decided to take the "southern route" through Austria and touching Italy. I said "Gee, Venice is so close on the map so let's go there for the night!". We spent hours driving, arrived at seven at night and had only a few hours after finding a hotel. Anyway, have a great trip, and feel free to post back with your other questions. We love it here and enjoy passing on information we've been lucky enough to learn first-hand.

Shannon, Booked on http://europehotdeals.com. Flying on Lufthansa. Great special and get to fly between Paris & Munich for only $75! Good luck.

I cannot find these deals you're talking about on europehotdeals.com

Hi Shannon, You might also wish to look at www.tiss.com

I always get cheap fares (we don't go otherwise). I always use the travelocity best fare finder 1st to narrow down days when flights are available and then work our schedule around them. Where are you flying out of? Where we live Icelandair is the perennial low budget carrier; they are known for their cheap flights (and they are nice too). If Icelandair works for you, sign up for their lucky fares program to get notification of farre sales. Also, the earliest we have ever bought tickets ahead of time is 2 months, and usually it is more like 1 month.

Don't forget that the last couple of weeks in September and the first week of October is Octoberfest. You might not want to wait too long to get tickets and accommodations.

To find cheap fares, I start checking the "biggies" early and keep on checking frequently. Mysteriously, great deals pop up briefly. As the time gets nearer to the trip, with no great deals presenting themselves, I go for the best I can get.

Shannon, try skyauction.com. I've bid/booked 6 trips with them, including two to Germany. They are just starting to post their Spring/Fall flights.