Overview
Although I am infamously tight-fisted with money, travel is the one luxury I'm willing to pay for, and with a small scholarship and paltry savings, I've been able to visit 15 countries in the last two years (plus 6 others over the rest of my life, a few asterisks such as Christinia and Uzupis, and a few places that I've passed within a few meters of, such as Kaliningrad and Slovakia). I've also visited all but one German federal state, and all but one Estonian county. With that bragging out of the way, most of this travel is thanks to the combination of good luck and sacrifice that allowed me to live in Europe long-term. However, I would not have been able to see quite as much without careful planning, stumbling across good habits, and lucky networking and coincidences. While luck is hard to harness, travel tips are not, and so I'd like to share mine with you---hopefully they'll allow you to see more, for less, and enjoy your time more as well. And who knows, maybe it will help our paths to cross someday!
How to Get There
Be creative when planning a trip. Study maps for places to visit near your pre-existing destinations, or on the way. It is often cheaper to cover more territory, especially if you spot a good deal on websites that scour the internet for ticket sales (this is my favorite for the Baltics, Scandinavia, and whatever Finland is). At this point, and every other point in your trip, remember to network! Try to think about people you've met and had a good time with who would be happy to meet up with you, or share tips. Over the last year, I've mostly just gone from friend to friend to friend of a friend to acquaintance---it's nice to have someone to hang out with when travelling solo. Facebook no longer allows you to search for people based on where they are currently living, but with some sleuthing, it's possible to find a similar list. Oh, and remember that, even if you're staying within the Schengen Area, you are still required to carry your passport with you. The chances that border police will stop your bus or board your train are low, if rising thanks to the current refugee crisis, but some bus lines won't allow you to board without a passport.
It's hard to feel the rush that you (hopefully) feel when a plane takes off, and if you're seeking to get to another biome as quickly as possible, they're certainly a good bet. If you want a good idea of the place you're travelling to, then taking off, flying through clouds, and landing in a near-identical airport isn't very effective, but Europe is fortunate in having many no-frills, low-cost airlines such as Wow, Air Baltic, and (infamously) Ryanair. Even if you don't book terribly early, you can often find deals in the 10-50 EUR range, just make sure you keep two things in mind:
1: these airlines make much of their money charging travelers who exceed luggage weight limits (although Wizz Air and Air Baltic have never bothered to weigh the medium-sized backpacks I usually travel with, everyone has horror stories of Ryanair charging high fees for bags a kilo or two over their weight limits.
2: These airlines often save immensely or even get tax credits by flying to small airports often distant from the city you're ostensibly flying to. Oslo's no-frills airports are so distant from the capital city that the train there costs more than flying to the airport from the other side of Europe and back! Berlin's no-frills airport is thankfully on the edge of the city limits, if on the exact opposite end of the city from its main airport, but what Wizz Air calls "Hamburg Lübeck Airport" is actually more than 50km from Hamburg, and what Ryanair calls "Düsseldorf-Weeze" is actually on the German-Dutch border, nearly 50km from Düsseldorf! (The airport was actually legally blocked from calling itself Düsseldorf-Weeze.
All that said, though, it pays to check tickets with services like Skyscanner.net and Azair.eu, which allows you to search for all cheap flights leaving a particular airport. I also like to search the Wikipedia pages for airports near a place I wish to visit, to look for flights there from airports near me, or which I will be passing near during a trip.
Trains are a classic means of travelling through Europe, though their cost-effectiveness varies on the country. In Ukraine and Russia, trains are pretty much the only decent means of long-distance travel, while in Latvia they are poor, slow, and relatively expensive. Trains are the way to go in Belgium, and often if you're going somewhere from Tallinn, but usually prohibitively expensive in Finland and Germany without luck or special passes, such as (in Germany) group, weekend, or tickets restricted to a specific federal state and neighboring foreign cities. Keep in mind that, in the Ruhrgebiet/Nordrhein-Westfalen, trains are reliably late due to suicides and sheer urban density, although trains are generally the most timely means of travel. Other useful notes:
- the German ICE (InterCity Express) high-speed trains are reminiscent of Star Trek in their futuristic elegance, down to swooshing doors. They travel twice as fast as regular trains, but cost twice as much.
- Paying extra for a better class is never worthwhile---second-class gets you to the destination just as fast, in almost identical comfort. I'm not actually sure how first-class sections of Estonian trains are different from second-class. The only exception to this rule is in Ukraine and likely Russia, where paying a bit extra to get bumped up from third-class to second allows you to get in a compartment with three others, making your luggage more secure, even when you're unconscious (especially if you manage to book a bottom-bunk, but make sure that you have actually done so!)
- While airplanes dump you at the edge of city limits, or beyond, trains often take you to the very center of a city, especially in Germany.
- Keep in mind that most trains don't stop at most stops, and even those that do often stop briefly, and don't have doors that automatically open (this is especially true of the German Regionalbahn lines).
In many places, inter-city buses are the main means of getting around, especially in parts of Eastern Europe, such as the Baltics. There are also many dirt-cheap bus lines, which can sometimes be the only affordable means of regularly-scheduled transportation. If you're in Finland, seek out OnniBus, and if in Poland, check Polski Bus, both of which are owned by, and operate the same way, as Mega Bus in the US and Low Countries. Unlike many trains, inter-city buses quite often have wi-fi, while some cheap bus lines (such as Ecolines) feature full entertainment platforms with decent film libraries. Most bus lines accept tickets visible on smartphones, but check to see if you're expected to print out tickets. Do keep in mind, though, that Polski Bus can be quite cramped!
In many East European buses and minibuses that serve rural areas, you must either press a button to stop the bus well in advance, or speak with the bus drive before setting off. In the Baltics, at least, if you speak with the driver (who will rarely speak English), he will let you off almost anywhere. Remember that these buses, even if they travel for hours, rarely feature bathrooms, although if you're travelling with children, the bus driver will stop the bus for them to empty out their tiny little bladders!
In many East European buses and minibuses that serve rural areas, you must either press a button to stop the bus well in advance, or speak with the bus drive before setting off. In the Baltics, at least, if you speak with the driver (who will rarely speak English), he will let you off almost anywhere. Remember that these buses, even if they travel for hours, rarely feature bathrooms, although if you're travelling with children, the bus driver will stop the bus for them to empty out their tiny little bladders!
I don't have much experience with car rental, although they're useful for especially remote places, or group trips to rural areas. Keep in mind that laws regarding driving licenses can vary widely between otherwise similar countries.
Carsharing, usually with twentysomethings, can often be the cheapest way to travel long distances. The popular German Mitfahrgelegenheit website is one of several that have been subsumed by blablacar.com, the leading such website, but there are also many Facebook groups that facilitate this means of travel. In Estonia, this is a slightly cheaper and faster means of getting between Tartu and Tallinn, but there are corresponding groups for every town and region. Blablacar offers reviews and reliably has a large number of drivers who you can contact, both long in advance, and last-minute. Keep in mind that not all drivers drive safely, and that you may spend some time waiting for tardy or absentee ride-mates. I've met some very interesting people this way, and wish I'd kept up with some of them. The usual caveat about getting in a car with strangers applies, but usually several other travelers will be joining you.
Living in Estonia and Finland for two years means taking lots of ferries, in addition to those I've taken between Germany and Denmark and the Czech Republic, but since ferry tips are related to individual ferries in my mind, I'll skip them here, so we can get to the most interesting and erratic form of transportation...
...hitchhiking! While it's possible to hitchhike boats and ferries (supposedly the ferry between Denmark and Iceland is pretty easy to board without a ticket, like its Estonian counterparts), I'll be talking about cars. Even if you're a regular, HitchWiki.org is an invaluable resource (it reliably has the best places to hitchhike from and tips for different countries and regions). I've covered more than 1,000km solo (thesis research in another city will do that), but travelling with a partner is preferable. Not only is it nice to have someone to chat with for those long empty periods, and for security, but as a guy, it's much easier to get picked up with a female partner (I've never gone with a male partner, and hopefully will never have to). If you have more than two people, it's best to split up, although I've managed to travel with two partners simultaneously before. Check the weather, figure out the best place to start (some people stand around gas stations and talk to people, I prefer standing near highway intersections), maybe take a sign and marker, and head out! I always travel with a foldable cardboard sign with my destination, or a place on the way written on it, but some people do fine without a sign (especially for long-distance travel), or prefer to use humorous messages to get people's attention and empathy. Try to smile, look people in the eye, and don't take it personally when car after car passes you by! Doldrums come, though, especially on Estonian islands, so have a backup plan in case you're falling behind and nobody's stopping for you, such as taking a rural bus or hoofing it to the nearest village. When a car does stop, get over the spike of joy, run over, confirm that the car is driving to a place you want to go and that its passengers seem harmless, then get in and make conversation with the others in the car. Make sure to keep your backpack close at hand, though, in case you need to bail. In my paltry two years of hitchhiking, I've only had two bad experiences: a man who wouldn't stop telling a female partner to smile, and two women with a young child who were so annoying that, after over two hours of walking with my thumb up, I was tempted to jump out at the next stop! I'm no expert, but the idea of a woman hitchhiking alone gives me pause, although I have female friends who have hitchhiked solo for long distances without problem.
The following is a list of the best ways to travel around select countries:
What to Take
Internet, clothing, maps, phone numbers, water bottle, money
Planning
CS, maps, backup plans, FB groups/events, network, 5 words, changing money,
Upon Arrival
Orientation! CS, maps, Tourist Information, free tours, backup plans, avoid touristy districts
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