How to Hike Europe on the Cheap?
How to Hike Europe on the Cheap?
How to Hike Europe on the Cheap: Backpacking is often associated with being a form of cheap, personal and enlightening travel, which is ideally what it should be.
But more often than not the logistics of travelling between various countries or cities becomes more expensive than it was intended to be.
Getting Around
Hiking is one of the best ways to get around but getting overseas and wanting to fit as many countries in a time frame you may need to rely on other means.
With currency exchange, travelling on public transport where necessary and staying well provisioned, keeping the cost of your trip down can be a real chore!
After looking into creating my own ideal backpacking and hiking around Europe the first things I considered were the destinations and the most logical direction and order in which to travel through them.
After building a personal map with a solid route through four countries I felt like the hard part was over, but after considering all aspects of the trip I realised there was far more than what I had yet to take into account.
Pack for the Occasion
Since my backpack was already a little bigger than average I knew that booking with ‘low fare for low baggage space’ companies such as Ryan air would currently be out of the question.
So after looking into potential price savers I put into practise a number of methods for reducing simple travel costs.
Firstly I reassessed what I had previously considered to be necessary travel items and reduced the size of my pack considerably.
This meant that I could go ahead and book an incredibly cheap flight with Ryan air based on the size of my singular piece of luggage.
I also found when I finally got on the road that the reduced size of my pack helped with the daily act of hiking and generally made the travellers life easier.
Ready for Liftoff
My next piece of money and time saving research was based on getting to the airport.
Instead of paying for a train into Liverpool from my hometown, and then for a taxi out from the train station to the airport I simply booked a two week stay with a Liverpool Airport parking company and drove myself to the airport.
Not only did this save me money in the long run but it also meant getting back home upon my arrival in the UK cost me next to nothing in comparison with a very early and expensive taxi trip.
Planes, Trains and Public Transport
Finally, my most productive research was into the prices and potentials for public transport.
In some places the prices I found for trains and trams were very high whereas in others the chance for free public transport was sometimes available.
For example cross country travelling by train in most European countries is ridiculously expensive whereas hitchhiking is far more likely to be a genuinely productive, cheaper method of travel.
But within city limits there are very few real opportunities for hitching, whereas public transport especially trams and ‘bendy’ buses are easily jumped for a single trip across town.
These are just three basic methods for reducing the overall price of a backpacking trip.
None of them are particularly difficult and all of them can save money in a number of different ways depending on the length of your trip, location and distance being travelled etc.
In any case, looking at ways of cutting corners on prices, and preventing the loss of money on needless expenses should be an integral part of any backpacker's hiking holiday.
Have you had the pleasure of hiking in and around Europe?
Let us know below in the comments section.
