Cheap travel from NYC to Europe

Hi everybody.

Hope you are having a good week and I hope that if you are using your Christmas money to buy airline tickets to Europe that you are finding some good deals. I feel like the fares have dropped in the last weeks and cheap travel to Europe is more possible than it was just a few weeks ago! So that is good news for all of us.

I am not =( traveling for the holidays this year, but in keeping up with the trends and watching the fares, it feels like a good time to buy cheap airline tickets and hopefully the other things that go along with travel which must be bought. With not-so-rosy projections for next year's economy (again!), perhaps the airline companies are starting to loosen up a bit in order to sell some tickets to people like me who don't have to travel, but sure would like to if we can find some decent prices. If you are reading this, that probably includes you!

I just came across some fares that are A+ for any season. Now I'm not usually looking for cheap travel to Europe from the East Coast but I let myself wander over there today. Usually, I don't have the time or energy to find another miracle from the mid-west to the right coast like I used to back in the day. But if you do have time and desire to do that or if you are already leaving from New York City, give it a try. I found a doosy (apparently not a word according to spell check!) today. It's out of La Guardia to London Heathrow back to JFK airport, which adds surprise to my shock. Definitely the cheapest flights I've seen from La Guardia to Heathrow!! If you don't want to come back into JFK for whatever reason, that's a catch...

OK, so maybe you're not from New York, in which case you might like these fares better because some people--ok all people-- who live in NYC either love one or two airports and hate the other(s) with a passion and would rather take a train to Philadelphia or something than go out of x airport! What about tagging on a couple days to the trip to see NYC while you're at it? There is so much hotel capacity that there is almost always space (ok, maybe not New Year's Eve, but you know) and you can find a deal. You can check out some prices on cheaphotelsinnewyork.co.uk. Get an extra night or two and get good sleep and be ready to start the long trip to Europe. At $500 (and change) per person to London, you are saving a bundle on the airline tickets! From that perspective, the days in NYC may become a freebie add-on.

So without further ado, here it is:

La Guardia (LGA) -London Heathrow (LHR)- JFK airport for $517 including taxes!!

Details details! It's going out on Air Canada through Montreal (I've heard of them cutting rates before like this) and coming back on... Swiss Air through Geneva to JFK airport (not LGA!!). The dates I put in were January 18 through February 1, 2011 (yes, I could use a vaca!). These priced out today on Cheapoair.

To me this is just one more sign that the high prices that we have been seeing are coming down just a bit and it may be enough (I hope) that it hits that threshold where many more of us will be out and about traveling in the near future! Happy trails and all the best!

Cheap travel Chicago to Paris

Good morning and Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all!

I am seeing some better and better OFFERS for cheap travel in Europe lately. In some cases, the offers were too good to be true (I saw $219 per person one way to Dublin--until I read that that didn't include the $240+ in taxes AND FEES that the site was tagging on!!).

While Dublin is about as good a deal as any in Europe as a gateway cities go, it is still coming in around $650 USD. Based on the going rate this is NOT BAD. In fact, I think that the real travel deal seekers will find sub-$600 fares to Dublin with some patience and flexibility.

But my search for cheap travel to Europe led me to other places this morning and I just thought I would share a pretty good deal I found to Paris-Charles De Gaul (CDG). The price may not knock your socks off, but the outbound is a non-stop and the return has a stop, but good connection in Amsterdam (a nice airport!). SO.... I found Delta flights in late March roundtrip Chicago-Paris-Chicago for $682 per person. As I say, considering the non-stop outbound. The older I get and the more crazy delays and things get, the more I like to get on and get off once.

This one was a late March Tuesday to Tuesday travel, which is a great time for people looking for cheap travel to Europe and I think this Spring will be a nice time to find some deals on airlines desperate to survive the "recession" in a year where the forecasts are already down. The same should go for hotels. I saw a couple for $140 USD a night, which is around 100 EUR a night for a hotel (please don't think I'm talking about hostels or other cheap ways to stay--those are MUCH cheaper--especially staying with old college buddy or something). These are pretty good prices for most European cities, especially Paris.

Good luck, fellow travellers. I will try to post some more good options on cheap travel to Europe soon. Wanted to get this one up while it was fresh. If you are traveling this holiday, be safe and may God protect you!

Tricky cheap travel to Europe

A quick check up on the cheap travel to Europe front (which coincides with a cold front in Europe) and I see my box is full of new offers in an apparent rush to get the end-of-the-year buyers to get their wallets out before Christmas (we wish you a merry.... ok nobody's paid me to sing in a long... ever!) and the New Year (and a happy..... wait for it.... oh forget it).

Yes, that's right. There is cheap travel to Europe to be had, but obviously not before Santa flies across Europe (now that's cheap travel--how much do reindeer eat? Maybe not so cheap after all...). It will be travel this Spring, but I must confess that the rates are not bad at all. There IS cheap travel to be had if your dates are flexible (I know, I know--they always say that!) and you want to go to a price-friendly place.

Some of it is just fluff and advertising. Air Lingus is advertising for under $600 non-stop to Dublin from Chicago but I sure can't find those special dates that the flights are available. But BMI (British Midland) is available to Dublin if you go through London for $548 per person from CHICAGO. Now that's cheap travel to Europe

I would probably go on US Air through Philadelphia for $557 all other things being equal. The dates I plugged in FYI are January 21-28, 2011. So there is cheap travel to Europe this Spring!

LOT of Poland is advertising some pretty impressive fares (from $620 to Poland) but I didn't get any of those from Chicago. The main advantage with them looks like it's not cheap travel to Europe but rather non-stop flights to Poland for a competitive price. In fact, the best rates seen to Warsaw ( I almost wrote I saw to Warsaw-bad!) were $784 with Scandinavian Air Services.. Did I ever tell you about the time I got kicked out of the SAS hotel lobby in... Stockholm? Or was it Helsinki... ah but I digress.

The real reason I wanted to write here is that an old trick in getting cheap travel and cutting ticket prices is to buy tickets to different locations and then get off at the change planes stop. I have to make a disclaimer. Haven't heard what the new rules on this are since 9/11 and wouldn't be surprised if they could tap your phone and look at all your personal files if you get off a plane at a change stop (oh wait, they can do all that stuff anyway)... It may be VERY illegal and you may go to jail.. So I DO NOT recommend it. But back when it wasn't or maybe wasn't, my friend would buy a ticket, for example to Bangor, Maine and just get off in Newark, instead of paying $100 more to just buy a ticket to Newark. He would then just tear out his tickets (paper tickets) between Newark and Maine and come back and get on the plane and go home the next week. All for the bargain price that they were giving to try and get people to go to Maine. So will this work for cheap travel to Europe ? I doubt it for several reasons... Now it's all electronic and the minute you miss a leg or flight it resets your status and if they see that you didn't continue the rest of your ticket is void and invalid. This has also only been a method of cheap travel for people who had carry-on bags, not checked. Although, if you are like "my friend" who used to do this and you are just going to see somebody for a week or weekend, a backpack was plenty. I--I mean my friend-- once even jumped off a plane in Houston (to go see a girl) and left my--uh his-- checked baggage on the plane. He picked it up a few days later at the airport when he got home. It was sitting in the unclaimed luggage section!! OK, so these are a long time ago and pre 9/11. And as I say they probably won't work. But it still can be done (IF IT'S LEGAL) when there are cheap one-way tickets available for cheap travel somewhere that go through the city you want to land and you just have carry-on. If you want to leave comments about this tricky way to find cheap travel to Europe, please feel free to tell me the rules on this. I would be very interested.

What got me thinking about this was checking the prices to Warsaw. Since SAS is cheapest to Warsaw ($784) and it goes through Copenhagen, I wondered how much flights were from Chi-town to Copenhagen? SAS's non-stop flights are $880 roundtrip!! So if you say you are going... quick google maps search... an extra 1016 kilometers to Warsaw, it's $100 per person cheaper!! So if you are with your loved one, it's close to $200 more money. But as I said, my friend who used to do that stuff might not even try it these days (though it's tempting to find a way--I bet he's thinking right now). Another option to Copenhagen from Chicago is BMI for $784, which is less than $100 per person savings, so makes paying bail to get released (after stranding a whole flight while they look for your luggage and check your seats because you acted like a T-rist) more expensive than the money you saved by going straight there. If you are going to Copenhagen, though you can fly to a gateway city and probably save some money.

OK. Thank you for reading and I wish you all luck in finding cheap travel to Europe!

Cheap travel to Europe helpful sites

Hi again.

Hope you are having a great day and a great holiday season. In looking around at the internet, trying to find more and more ways for cheap travel to Europe I thought about the interesting fact that Europe has traditionally drawn the "backpacker crowd." I remember almost 20 years ago now, when I first set out for a summer in Europe. The plane was full of other young people who were excited about spending time in Europe. Maybe it was then that I first fell in love with the hobby of finding cheap travel to Europe and ever since have always had an eye out for a cheap transatlantic flight. I remember a couple of people on the plane who asked me if I was going to Spain. I didn't have that in the plan. They mentioned to me that they would be there during a certain month and they were staying in a community lodging situation and that I would be welcome. They also mentioned how they were going to a city and when I asked where they would stay there, they said "We don't know yet. But we've heard that if you ask around, somebody will help you and it's really easy to find cheap accommodations in Barcelona, so we are just going to find something between now and then. People do it all the time."

Since that time, I've grown up a lot and even though I am still on the hunt for cheap travel to Europe, I usually part ways with the "backpacker crowd" after we get off the plane. However, there are a couple websites that interest me that are more in the travel way of the good old days and I hope will be of help to anyone who is truly seeking cheap travel to Europe . One of them is pretty region specific and isn't in English, which I hope you can get around using an online translator. It's a Southeast Europe site called www.gorivo.com It's basically a car-pool site offering rides or asking for rides. It's in former Yugoslavian languages, so like I say I hope that doesn't deter you too much. The main djist would be something like: Zagreb-Frankfurt, Zagreb-Beograd (Belgrade) or Bec (Vienna) Rijeka. Usually you split the fuel and tolls, but sometimes it's a flat rate or free for the company or extra helping driver. Use an online translator like babelfish or google to see the specifics. BTW gorivo means "fuel" so if that explains anything.... So if you are looking for cheap travel in southeast Europe and don't mind riding with someone, gorivo.com. You can also post that you are driving and get someone to help you with the fuel and tolls. Hope it's helpful.

The other site isn't exactly just for cheap travel in Europe but will work anywhere and you have probably already heard about it, but just in case you haven't: www.couchsurfing.org. This one is all over the world and people just offer to host you so that they can make the world a better place (I guess). Often you can even get an insider's view of the city as they give you tour. This is a similar thing as gorivo.com to share resources, except you have to become a member and it would help to have a few nice reviews from friends. If you could ride with someone and then stay with someone, that will go a long way in making your travel in Europe cheap! Now if we can only get the airlines to all go in on we-got-an-extra-seat.com. Don't hold your breath!

A new definition of Cheap Travel to Europe

Is it a new era in Cheap Travel to Europe ? What I mean is this: Are my expectations too low (or is it "too high"? *smile*) I think it is a new day.

What I mean is this: In the good old days I wouldn't call something Cheap Travel to Europe unless I could get over to Europe for $600 or less. If it wasn't under this price, it wasn't cheap travel to Europe. It was something else. It was still usually a reasonable deal, but it wasn't CHEAP.

My most recent check was the closest I've come to reaching this price in the past few months. I looked at airberlin from JFK to Berlin and got it for March (20th through the 28th if you're interested) for just under 600... Euros. So I quickly did the currency conversion and since it takes 1.31 US dollars to make a filthy EURO, that put my price at over $780!! So maybe cheap travel to Europe needs to start meaning $800! The first task in finding cheap travel to Europe is getting there If that's the case, I guess I can go back through what I've found and I may realize that I have found Cheap Travel to Europe several times this year. I just didn't recognize it when I saw it. I was looking for the young cheap travel model that attracted me 10 years... OK, it's been more than 10 years ago (hey now, we're all getting older, right?). I was looking for that Cheap Travel to Europe to look just like she did back then. Well news flash. She doesn't. She's gotten a little bigger over the years. Can't tighten the belt like I used to be able to, you know? Hey, it's nobody's fault (well, oil prices haven't helped!). Cheap Travel to Europe isn't what it used to be. So if you are looking for summer travel, you might even want to put your sights on something around $1000 and change the rules to call that "cheap travel to Europe." Especially if you live left of the East Coast at all. Let's face it: these days cheap travel might be well over $1000 if you are going into the middle or east part of Europe from the middle or west part of US during the high season. So I guess it's only fair that the fare plus taxes (BTW September 11 fees don't help either!) is rising and I can't spend hours and hours looking for a $600 solution any more. It isn't a find, but more like a miracle. Cheap travel to Europe isn't as cheap as it used to be.