Cheap travel: good deals

You’ve decided to go on holiday. Where? When? What should you visit? These are the questions you’re probably asking yourself. Then there’s the tricky question: at what price? You already know that you’ll be booking your accommodation on Hostelworld to take advantage of unbeatable prices, while choosing from among our most comfortable, friendly and well-located establishments – we told you we awarded our best hostels on these criteria, by the way? Once you’ve settled the question of accommodation, there’s still the question of transport, whether you’re going 200km from home or to the other side of the world. Because, after all, transport is the biggest item of expenditure. So we’ve decided to help you make some massive savings, so that you can treat yourself on the spot to things that are really worthwhile.

Optimise the price of your plane tickets

We won’t go into why you should clear your cache and delete your cookies, book in advance, use price comparison sites, make stopovers and subscribe to airline newsletters: there are plenty of bloggers who can explain it better than we can. We’re thinking in particular of Ryan from the blog Le Sac à Dos, who gives you his tips and tricks for optimising your search for cheap flights.

What’s the most important advice? Book on Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 1am to 4am, when no-one books and prices are lowest. We never told you it would be easy!

Save money on trains

The same goes for trains, especially in France, where the SNCF charges prohibitive prices. We’ll be honest with you, there aren’t many good deals to be had: apart from booking well in advance and travelling with Ouigo for north-south journeys, we recommend websites selling second-hand tickets such as Troc des Trains, KelBillet.com and Zepass. We have a slight preference for the latter two, with more choice on KelBillet.com and more secure payments on Zepass, while the former offers less choice. However, you should avoid using nominative tickets, which will not match your identity (we won’t even get into the mess if you’re taking an international train!).

Alternatively, you can always book with Capitaine Train, which sells train tickets that are at best cheaper than SNCF, and at worst the same price. Capitaine Train is especially interesting if you travel with Deutsche Bahn, with whom they have a partnership: in total, up to 75% cheaper than a ticket bought with SNCF!

Of course, we can’t go round the world of trains, so take a look directly at the websites of the rail companies that interest you, depending on your journeys. In Italy, for example, you can choose between three types of train: Freccia trains, which are fast and expensive, regional trains, which are slow but cheap, and intercity trains, which are somewhere in between. As for England, prices vary according to your destination. For example, trains from London to Brighton are run by Southern Railway, while those from London to York are run by East Coast. Finally, how can you save money on your train tickets in England? Choose your destination based on the prices charged by the different train companies. Who wants to do that? Not us, anyway… Which is why we’re taking the bus!

Take the bus!

You may not have thought about it, or you may simply be thinking that yes, you want to save money, but not at any price. But since our school trips, things have changed. If there’s one piece of advice you need to remember, it’s to travel at night! Because, let’s face it, bus journeys are long. Not only is the bus much cheaper than the plane or train, but you’ll also save money on a night in a hostel! Worried about lack of comfort? Travel with Megabus Gold throughout England and Scotland… in a bed! If you’re going to visit our neighbours in Spain, Italy and Belgium, or if you’re simply going to see some mates down south, OUIBUS is also a great alternative to the train: a little more expensive than Eurolines, you’ll have more space, more comfort… and free Wi-Fi! Finally, if you want to save money whatever the cost, Eurolines will always be there for you.

On the holiday motorway: the car

No, we’re not crazy, we know that travelling by car is very expensive, not to mention that it restricts you geographically. Unless, of course, you hire a car locally, in which case it will cost you a fortune. We’d rather talk to you about car-sharing. You’re familiar with the principle and you’ve probably already visited a few sites, but to optimise your chances of finding the carpooling that suits you best, we recommend Blablacar for your journeys in Europe, which has the advantage of listing the largest number of advertisements, and Carpooling, which we think is nicer and easier to use.

Thumbs up

Another way to travel… for free this time! It’s called hitchhiking. The thumbs-up philosophy may seem extreme, but it has the advantage of saving you money, giving you a better view of the countryside and, above all, giving you the chance to meet people. Cyril from Backpackers Emission has decided to adopt this philosophy for his project to tour Europe: he has started to cross 27 countries on the European continent, a total of 12,000km by hitchhiking. His advice: don’t write your destination on a card, or no-one will pick you up. Like Samantha here, however, Cyril had to deal with the cold of the Nordic countries, both in terms of temperatures and behaviour towards hitchhikers. We therefore suggest that you find out all you can before setting off on your adventure, so that you don’t end up on the side of the road for days on end like an abandoned dog..

Pedal

If you’re afraid of being too dependent on others and never arriving at your destination at the right time, you’ll have to rely on your calves! With a bit of exercise, you’ll be able to get on your bike for a sporting holiday… and on the cheap! We’re not telling you to cycle around Europe, like Paul from Juste Un Petit Tour who, at just 18 years old, plans to cover 30 countries or 17,000km, or even Matthieu and Thomas from Yolo tour sans roulettes who have set off on a 90,000km tour over 5 years. Why not simply set off to cycle the Loire with your friends?

And last but not least: go on foot 😉

After those gruelling journeys, you could do with a long night’s sleep in a cosy bed. Just the thing: we’ve got plenty of them, they’re great and they’re especially cheap!

Want to take a look at the Hostelword website but don’t have access to your computer right now? No worries, you can discover the magical world of Hostelworld on your iPad (download the app here), your iPhone (download the app here) or your android phone (download the app here). How cool is Hostelword?

Thanks to Alain Gavillet, Andreas, westernsmt, EDDIE, Abdelilah Charaf, David Kusserow and Andrew Bowden for the photos!