UA2OU

Seasoned Travelers,
I am studying abroad at Oxford next Spring and am free to travel my last 3 weeks. What is the easiest/cheapest way to get from England to the rest of Europe, and then around Europe (EurRail,hostils?)Do you all know of any sites that help you plan out a trip for free? THANKS

jay

Where are you going? My daughter is finishing up her SR year in London this next school year. You can fly REALLY cheap to anywhere in Europe from London. You will have to leave from an airport that is not Heathrow. There are many nice hostels depending where you go. Getting around mainland Europe is easiest by train. I can put you in touch with my daughter if you want.

Steve_James

Hi UA - The main budget airlines out of the UK are Ryanair and Easyjet.

If you book 6 months in advance you can find tickets from London to many places in continental Europe starting at about £20.

www.ryanair.com
www.easyjet.com

For other budget airline options throughout Europe go to:

www.whichbudget.com

'Do you all know of any sites that help you plan out a trip for free?'

You found it right here

Steve

suze

www.lonelyplanet.com has a forum called The Thorn Tree with lots of backpacker and student aged travelers. There & here at Fodor's, plus some guidebooks from the library (Let's Go, Rough Guides, Lonely Planet) will give you the information you need.

Hostels are good if you are solo. If you are two people together sometimes cheap hotels come out the same. It depends how many train rides you plan to take whether a train pass is better, or simply purchasing individual 2nd class point-to-point tickets.

PalenQ

ttt

JoeTro

It depends where you are going. You can look into a Rail Pass if you will be doing a ton of traveling in your three weeks. I enjoy flying, and EasyJet and Ryanair are the biggies in terms of no-frills. Whichbudget.com is a great site for planning routes and introducing you to other airlines you hadn't heard of.

I don't stay in hostels, but try hostels.com or hostelzworld.com (something like that ... I think there is a z in it) which are good rating sites. I also use tripadvisor.com for hotels, but they also list hostels (often in the "other accommodation link&quot.

MaureenB

Try STATravel.com. They specialize in student travel, and offer a number of group rates and tours. We bought airfare from them, because their change policy is so reasonable. It only cost about $30 change in fare fee for us to change my daughter's return flight plan from Italy-- dates, cities, etc.

They are a great resource, with offices in most US cities. Have fun studying abroad.
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