I really wasn't sure how to title this one. I decided a potluck supper was "come as you are and everyone contributes something" so I decided that might work!

My daughter and I are hoping to go to Europe again this summer with her ballet school. For background, we went last year for our first visit to Europe (me 45; her 13) and flew into Budapest and stayed 4 days, took the train to Novi Sad, Serbia and stayed for 2 weeks and then flew to London for 3 days with a return flight out of Amsterdam to come home.

We were blessed last summer by a donation of free tickets through frequent flyer miles from my father and my persistence on the phone with a Delta representative for a couple of hours while they searched all codeshare airlines and took me close to Novi Sad and then somewhere else on the miles we had available (100,000 for 2 tickets). We flew into Budapest and out of Amsterdam.

I don't have frequent flyer miles this summer. Her studio is currently working on the plans for another ballet intensive in Novi Sad in July (her teacher's homeland if you are curious). We want to go back and I want to make the trip last as long as possible, so that means economizing!

Our current idea is to fly to Budapest again for a few days to see some of what we missed last time and recover from our jet lag. That plan worked well last year and we loved Budapest so my daughter suggested we start there again. If we choose that option, we would take the train to Novi Sad again and spend 2 weeks there for the ballet workshop. After Novi Sad, we would like to spend one more week in Europe before the very early start to the school year here in Alabama--as a teacher, I have to return to work on August 4.

We have considered Vienna and Salzburg (daughter loves Sound of Music), Rome (she has expressed an interest in "the Michelangelo stuff&quot and Paris or somewhere else in France (she will have completed her first year of French in middle school by this summer--don't expect miracles there or anything--she would just have a little familiarity with the language and this would further 'develop' her ear). We are open to other alternatives as well.

I am seeking suggestions of reasonably priced locales that could be reached relatively inexpensively from Serbia and where we could stay on a reasonable budget (somewhere between a hostel and a 4 star) and take in the history and the culture. We like art, history, fine arts/culture, scenery, etc. She is not adventurous in a culinary way and I know we can eat affordably wherever we end up.

To finally cut to the chase, I am seeking the answers to 2 questions:

1. Where are the cheapest gateways into/out of Europe in high season (trip dates I am looking at are July 8-August 1)? We are flying from BHM, but could leave from Nashville or Atlanta without too much difficulty or expense. If there is a great deal into or out of one European city over another, I'm willing to spend a day and connect using a budget European airline or the train if necessary. I've been spending lots of trial and error time on the airline search engines and finally decided to instead go to the experts on these boards for suggestions for cities to input!

2. Where should we go? She studied ancient world history (up until Renaissance or around that period I think) this year in social studies; next year is Renaissance to present, so I think I could make the history come alive wherever we go. We loved London and the theater options, etc., but it was hard on the budget and I couldn't afford to stay an additional week there, although I wish I could.

Any suggestions or help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I can't say what is cheapest in high season, but the cheapest we found (Air India) for our purpose was out of Newark to Paris. Look into flights using kayak.com for trans-Atlantic flights and then use http://www.whichbudget.com/ and http://www.flylc.com/directall-en.asp for flights within Europe.

Flexibility does help. We are considering a RT Basel-Istanbul which costs about $310 for two including the PREM TGV fare from Paris to Mulhouse. When I went to Budapest, I found it cheaper to go via Paris then to go directly to Budapest, but that assumes that you do not consider your expenditures in Paris itself as part of the travel cost to Budapest because you would have wanted to spend some time in Paris anyway.

It seems to me that where you can go relatively inexpensively from Serbia depends on which budget airlines fly out of Belgrade (BEG). From an internet search, the only budget airline I could find was Germanwings, which flies Belgrade to Dusseldorf, and then has connections to other cities in Germany.

So how about flying to Dusseldorf from Belgrade and visiting Cologne, the middle Rhine and/or Moselle valleys, and flying back to the US from Dusseldorf/Cologne or Frankfurt, or taking a train or flight to Paris from Dusseldorf?

I was using NYC-Paris only as an example. Other RT from a major US hub to a European hub might be just as advantageous.

Hi Kellye,

why not go for Italy as a relatively cheap contrast to budapest?

for the renaisance, it's hard to beat florence. it's a nice size to get to grips with, there are good shops, and easy side trips.

why not train instead of fly? it might be a bit of trek, but it woudd be an experience.

alternatively, Croatia is beautiful and cheap.

regards, ann

I agree with Lovisa. You could also very easily incorporate Amsterdam into your itinerary if you decide on northern Germany and/or Paris. In Germany, it is usually pretty easy to get nice, rather cheap hotels.

Thanks for the suggestions. Even JAT had some affordable fares to Germany. I guess I should do some research on German destinations and see what we might like best--brush up on my German geography. Where would we most affordably come home from--which German gateway, do you think?

P.S. keep those suggestions coming