How to Fly Round-Trip to Europe for $550 (or less!)
So you’ve decided that you want to go to Europe. You hop on the website for your favorite airline, search for flights on the week you want to go, and then…despair. You can almost hear the $1,000+ air fares laugh at you as they skip by. Ok, so maybe despair is a bit dramatic, but you get the picture. I have been there, too; but with a little creativity, you can significantly lower the cost of your flight. And a cheaper flight means more money for gelato.
Be Flexible
The worst thing you can do for your budget is declare that you absolutely must go to a specific city during a specific week or else all is lost. This is a sure-fire way to spend too much on a plane ticket. Luckily, with a little flexibility, Google Flights can help you go to Europe without blowing half your budget getting there.
If you have your heart on a certain destination and have some flexibility about when you travel, track prices online and look for when they are lowest. Traditionally “shoulder season” (September to November and Easter to early June) are less expensive times to visit Europe. Airline prices tend to be lower during these months, and attractions will often have discounted rates as well. Bonus: less selfie-sticks blocking your pictures.
Using Google Flights, select your departure and arrival airports, then select a set of departure and return dates that fit with the length of the trip you want. Once the search has run, click on the “Price Graph” button to easily identify what the cheapest time to fly is. I just tried this and found tickets for a two week round trip to London for $550!
Not everyone has the luxury of being flexible about their travel dates. If this is the case, a little flexibility in your destination can go a long way. Using Google Flights, leave the “Where to?” box blank and search for your dates. It will bring up a map with all your possible destinations during those dates. Pick a good deal and go!
If your flexibility would put a yoga instructor to shame, leaving both the date and destination open can get you the best deal of all. Using the Google Flights “Explore” tool, search with the “Where to?” box blank, then choose “flexible dates,” the length of your trip, and it will show you all the best deals over the next 6 months. Once you’ve completed your search, you can also tell Google to track prices on the flight and notify you if the price drops. This is how I booked my last two trips, and I paid less than $600 round trip for each one!
Check other airports
Unfortunately, there is no sister city flight program between Paris, TX and Paris, France. If your local airport isn’t very large, you may struggle to find a cheap flight. Start looking at domestic fares to see if you can get to a major airport (Boston, NYC, ATL, Dallas, LA) without spending too much. Once you find a cheap domestic fare, start looking at international flights from that airport instead. You will probably be changing airlines, which is why these flights won’t show up in your search from your home airport. Creating your own connection at a domestic hub can be a great way to open up more travel options. When I visited Spain, I found a round trip fare from Boston to Barcelona for $300! We spent $250 on a roundtrip flight from Houston to Boston, but our total flight cost was still only $550. Plus we got to spend a bonus day in Boston on our return trip!
We speed walked the Freedom Trail in Boston on our way home from Spain!
Embrace the layover
Sometimes a flight may be cheap because it has a long layover. Rather than skipping over these options, look into the city where the layover is. If it has interesting things to do, you could turn your layover into an free bonus experience! When we flew to Rome, we had a 14 hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany. Although I will admit that we spent a good portion of that layover sleeping on airport benches and wandering aimlessly through the terminal, we also took the train into town and explored the sleepy little historic center. Fourteen hours may be a bit excessive (check out the vlog here), but if the layover is between 6-10 hours, go explore the city and enjoy the cheaper fare!
Beautiful Frankfurt, Germany which we never would have seen without our 14hr layover!
Get notified when the price drops
Although Google Flights is my go-to tool for finding deals, there are several other resources you can check, too. Hopper is an app that mirrors many of the functionalities of Google Flights, plus you get push notifications on your phone so you can jump on a low fare if the price drops. Another great tool, Scott's Cheap Flights, sends you emails when they see an extremely low fare. We’re talking $300 - $400 round-trip. For a small fee you can upgrade to a premium membership which is honestly worth the investment. You will save so much more than you spend. One note - Scott’s Cheap Flights works best if you are near a major international airport, since most of the really bargain basement fares fly through these hubs.