The first most important thing when planning a (reasonably priced/cheap) trip is what resources you’re using. I can’t give all of my tips away at once, so in this post, I’ll be discussing the most efficient way to purchase plane tickets. Most normal people that I talk to tell me that when looking for flights, they use Expedia, Hotwire, or Kayak. I couldn’t make this any clearer than by saying it in caps, DON’T USE ANY OF THOSE WEBSITES. Trust me, you will never find a good deal on any of those. They’re just bullshitting you and in the end they probably get more money out of you than if you had’t gone through one of those sites. If you’re traveling on a budget, you will be 100x more successful looking for flights on your own.
The first key to finding cheap flights is Google flights. All you do is go to https://www.google.com/flights/ and there, you can either input your specific destination with specific dates, or you can look at a world map with prices on it for every destination in the world and pick your destination and dates based on that. The great thing about Google flights is that they will list almost every single airline in the world right next to each other and that way you can compare all the prices for all the airlines right there. The difference between this and something like Expedia is that Google is not trying to sell you anything, versus Expedia who’s trying to sell you a hotel deal, and then a car rental deal, and all this other bull. I use Google flights 85% of the time and it has always done me right.
Your other options after Google flights depend on where you’re going. Google flights is great but like I said, they list ALMOST every airline in the world, not all. Here’s where you have to do a little independent searching. The only continent I’ve really backpacked through a lot is Europe, so I’ll be providing good resources for traveling Europe. Your first option is RyanAir. RyanAir is a very shitty airline, I’ll say that off the bat. But it is extremely cheap. I paid $65 for a round trip plane ticket from Paris to Croatia. However, be aware, since the fight is so cheap, they catch you on luggage. I believe you’re allowed one carry on bag and after that it’s about $20 more dollars per any extra baggage. Even with this extra luggage charge it can still be worth it.
The thing about RyanAir though is that they don’t fly to most big airports, rather they fly into the smaller ones a little outside of the main city. For example, when I flew Paris to Croatia, instead of flying out of CDG which is the main Paris airport, we flew out of Orly which is about 1.5 hours into the suburbs. Landing in Croatia, instead of landing in the capital of Zagreb, we landed in a smaller city called Zadar. This wasn’t an issue for me at all, but you must look into that because for some people it can be. This is where you must spend time comparing different airline options to see which one is truly the cheapest.
Side note, the one thing I found pretty funny is that basically everything about RyanAir is crappy, except their food on the plane. They have everything from hamburgers to salads to potato wedges and SO many other things; it’s pretty cheap, and it’s actually pretty good. This made me laugh because everything about the airline is sort of lacking, except their airplane food.
After RyanAir, you’ve got EasyJet. EasyJet is basically the same situation as RyanAir. Shitty airline, gets you on baggage, but extremely cheap. I haven’t flown EasyJet yet but I have friends who have and it is basically all the same.
Next, you’ve got the random small airlines you didn’t even know existed that aren’t crappy but that are harder to find a good price with (but it is definitely worth looking!). The only one I’ve had experience flying is Aegean Airlines. It’s a small Greek airline that guess what, I flew to Greece. However they do fly to and from many other countries as well. I also flew them to Italy. You can find Aegean on Google flights, but sometimes it’s more effective to go straight to their website.
Now, for the golden gem of not only inter-Europe travel but international as well, Norwegian Airlines. They just came out of the blue. I’m not sure when they started these deals but I wish I had discovered them earlier, so this is why I’m sharing this with you. The next trip I’m taking is through Scandinavia this summer. So I’m looking up airfares to Oslo which is the capital of Norway. I somehow stumbled upon Norwegian air (thank god) and found $350 round trip airfare from NYC to Oslo. Now the only thing about Norwegian air is their extremely low-price deals are mostly out of NYC. They do fly out of other US cities but the deals may not be as insane. For their inter-Europe flights, you can find them as cheap as $15 one way. And the great thing about Norwegian is that it is not only extremely cheap but it’s also a nice airline.
Be aware that flying is not at all your only option for traveling. Trains, buses, boats and cars are all other options. I’ll be going over those in future posts.
I hope that this helps at least one person plan out a trip! Until next time.
The first key to finding cheap flights is Google flights. All you do is go to https://www.google.com/flights/ and there, you can either input your specific destination with specific dates, or you can look at a world map with prices on it for every destination in the world and pick your destination and dates based on that. The great thing about Google flights is that they will list almost every single airline in the world right next to each other and that way you can compare all the prices for all the airlines right there. The difference between this and something like Expedia is that Google is not trying to sell you anything, versus Expedia who’s trying to sell you a hotel deal, and then a car rental deal, and all this other bull. I use Google flights 85% of the time and it has always done me right.
Your other options after Google flights depend on where you’re going. Google flights is great but like I said, they list ALMOST every airline in the world, not all. Here’s where you have to do a little independent searching. The only continent I’ve really backpacked through a lot is Europe, so I’ll be providing good resources for traveling Europe. Your first option is RyanAir. RyanAir is a very shitty airline, I’ll say that off the bat. But it is extremely cheap. I paid $65 for a round trip plane ticket from Paris to Croatia. However, be aware, since the fight is so cheap, they catch you on luggage. I believe you’re allowed one carry on bag and after that it’s about $20 more dollars per any extra baggage. Even with this extra luggage charge it can still be worth it.
The thing about RyanAir though is that they don’t fly to most big airports, rather they fly into the smaller ones a little outside of the main city. For example, when I flew Paris to Croatia, instead of flying out of CDG which is the main Paris airport, we flew out of Orly which is about 1.5 hours into the suburbs. Landing in Croatia, instead of landing in the capital of Zagreb, we landed in a smaller city called Zadar. This wasn’t an issue for me at all, but you must look into that because for some people it can be. This is where you must spend time comparing different airline options to see which one is truly the cheapest.
Side note, the one thing I found pretty funny is that basically everything about RyanAir is crappy, except their food on the plane. They have everything from hamburgers to salads to potato wedges and SO many other things; it’s pretty cheap, and it’s actually pretty good. This made me laugh because everything about the airline is sort of lacking, except their airplane food.
After RyanAir, you’ve got EasyJet. EasyJet is basically the same situation as RyanAir. Shitty airline, gets you on baggage, but extremely cheap. I haven’t flown EasyJet yet but I have friends who have and it is basically all the same.
Next, you’ve got the random small airlines you didn’t even know existed that aren’t crappy but that are harder to find a good price with (but it is definitely worth looking!). The only one I’ve had experience flying is Aegean Airlines. It’s a small Greek airline that guess what, I flew to Greece. However they do fly to and from many other countries as well. I also flew them to Italy. You can find Aegean on Google flights, but sometimes it’s more effective to go straight to their website.
Now, for the golden gem of not only inter-Europe travel but international as well, Norwegian Airlines. They just came out of the blue. I’m not sure when they started these deals but I wish I had discovered them earlier, so this is why I’m sharing this with you. The next trip I’m taking is through Scandinavia this summer. So I’m looking up airfares to Oslo which is the capital of Norway. I somehow stumbled upon Norwegian air (thank god) and found $350 round trip airfare from NYC to Oslo. Now the only thing about Norwegian air is their extremely low-price deals are mostly out of NYC. They do fly out of other US cities but the deals may not be as insane. For their inter-Europe flights, you can find them as cheap as $15 one way. And the great thing about Norwegian is that it is not only extremely cheap but it’s also a nice airline.
Be aware that flying is not at all your only option for traveling. Trains, buses, boats and cars are all other options. I’ll be going over those in future posts.
I hope that this helps at least one person plan out a trip! Until next time.