Cheap Travel to Europe Is A Luxury

Cheap travel to Europe or anywhere else is a luxury. The luxury, however, will not be found in plush pillow-top mattresses or five star hotels. The luxury derived from cheap travel is one of the basic elements that we have on the earth, whether we realize it or not. That commodity is time.

We say that "time is money." This is true in every sense of the word when buying travel. We will pay more for flights that work out during the time we are able to travel. If you don't believe this, try to buy a ticket during Thanksgiving or Christmas where you don't travel on the holiday itself but still maximize your time away and get back in the last hours before work. Buy a ticket leaving Wednesday late and arriving back "home" late Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend. If you don't buy months ahead, you'll pay a premium to have the maximum amount of time away without adding days off work. Take days off and you are proving once again that time is money as you suffer deductions on pay or paid days off.

I must confess that over the last few months, my focus has been kept by busy day-to-day activities and my penchant for finding cheap travel has been squeezed out. Other than a couple ventures to find cheap travel in Europe for family members, I have not given it too much thought.

A major part of that is the lack of the luxury of time. My family wanted tickets for Easter weekend and didn't have much time on either side to give or take. They wanted to travel direct and only from one specific city. Almost all options were taken off the table. This is not a good scenario for cheap travel to Europe or in or around Europe (or anywhere in the world). It's bad, unless you are driving your own car, and last time I checked, the bridge between the New World and the old Continent is not done!

Maybe you're wondering about cheap travel to Europe this summer. If you haven't already booked, it's getting late. It's May, already. However, if you keep all your options on the table, you can still make a big difference in your bottom line.

You want a concrete example? So would I. With just six weeks advance notice and in the midst of the high season, you can still get some reasonable deals on travel to Europe. June 12-19 gives mid-week travel days which will save you a few dollars each way. Have your heart set on going to London from Chicago? You are going to pay a minimum of $1294 on the cheapest of cheap flights. You can save money if you have the LUXURY of changing your cities and going to Dublin instead of London (see the entry on Gateway Cities). Dublin will be just as good of a choice as London if you are traveling on to Europe. How much money will you save? How does $350 sound? That's right. $946 from Chicago to Dublin on Air Canada. Disclaimer: Air Canada isn't paying me for this. In fact, I'm not making any money yet on anything! Did we mention you also get to see the Ottawa and Toronto airports (luxury!) on the way?

What can you do with the $350? Probably nothing, because you probably didn't have it in the first place! But at least you got cheap travel to Europe! Send us a postcard from Dublin, or where-ever you go to from there on Ryan Air!