Hi again, travel fanatics! This read is all about getting more bang for your buck. Many of us know how hard it is to travel with a full time job that only offers a ridiculous amount of days of annual leave. This is where you have to be tactical about getting more value for your money as well as taking the least days of annual leave possible. Travelling to Europe is great because so many countries border one another making them accessible not only by flight, but also by road when using coaches and trains. What I tend to do is avoid all the peak months of travel where school holidays fall, as travel companies always bump up the prices! I utilise the weekends and sandwich them with days either side of annual leave to maximise my overall time off work. Another thing to consider is some of these European countries do take a full week or even a good month if you want to see every corner of the country, but a lot of them only require a matter of days. This could be a result of either a country not having much to offer in terms of tourism or the fact that the country is really expensive to stay in for a prolonged period. Keep in mind that if you are going to take on the routes that I did, you should be aware that it’s not for the weak! I don’t really do slow paced travelling which means I sacrifice comfort and sleep to see as much of a place as possible which usually ends in each day having walked about 20k steps! These two trips I did were not of a luxurious, relaxing nature so don’t say I never warned you.

Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest in 6 nights:

I took this trip back when I was living in Milton Keynes, UK during February of 2022. I managed to book a one-way flight from London Stansted airport to Vienna international airport with a mind-blowing £12 ticket. For trips like these budget airlines are your best friend. Remember what I said about sacrificing comfort and luxury for the bigger picture of getting more bang for your buck! I drove myself and my boyfriend to the coach station in Milton Keynes and left my car there in the free carpark. I continued my journey by getting onto a £10 coach to the airport. Unfortunately, when taking the coach you will not have the freedom of arriving at the exact time you prefer so I ended up 3 hours too early for my flight. Here’s a top tip for you if you travel from London Stansted airport and get there too early. Everyone usually lingers around the main floor with the duty free, restaurants and shops. However, you want to go to the bottom floor with the quiet area and over there you can push together some benches and make yourself a make-do bed. Please set an alarm on your phone so you wake up in time for your boarding! You also want to travel light with just one backpack to avoid paying for extra luggage. Trust me you can fit your clothes and toiletries into one bag for just a few nights once you adopt a minimalist mindset! As I was travelling in February, I was absolutely freezing which worked in my favour as I actually wore 4 layers to the airport, which conserved even more space in my backpack! Once you land in Vienna, Austria, you can simply get onto a cheap train into the main city from the airport so that your 20k steps a day can begin! I don’t know about you all but I can have a lot of fun just aimlessly walking and window shopping around a new city for hours on end. I don’t always need activities to keep me going. Again, if you are able to do this too then you can save yourself even more money! 

Things I’d recommend seeing/doing in Vienna, Austria:

-Walk along Wien and Danube rivers
-Schönbrunn Palace and Gardens
-St. Stephen’s Cathedral
-Wiener Eistraum for a multi-level ice-skating rink

From Vienna, Austria I then booked onto a Flixbus coach to Bratislava, Slovakia and you can find these one-way journeys for as little as €9. This coach journey is approximately 1.5 hours and in comfier seats than even some of these budget airlines! The only downside is that the Flixbus does just drop you off randomly on the side of the road in Bratislava… well that was my experience anyways. From this random bus stop you have to walk for quite some time before you can get off of all the roads and come to a nice shopping centre. To be honest, I really struggled for things to do here in Bratislava, even if it was just to walk around there wasn’t a lot going on. Luckily for me, I was travelling with my boyfriend and two of our friends joined as when they heard we were in Bratislava. They are from the UK too, but they were in Prague for a holiday. Our friends were able to get to us by a train ride, rather than a coach, as the distance was quite a bit too much. We ended up having more to do when meeting with them because we all went out to the castle and then for a lovely meal and some drinks.

Things I’d recommend seeing/doing in Bratislava, Slovakia:

-See the UFO tower
-Aupark Bratislava shopping mall
-Bratislava castle (amazing views)

My boyfriend and I went onto taking another cheap Flixbus coach from Bratislava to Budapest, Hungary which took approximately 2.5/3 hours. Our friends stayed back another night in Bratislava and then went onto Vienna via the train before meeting up with us again on our last day in Budapest. Do you see what I mean? It’s quite easy to move about these countries and in a way that won’t break the bank either. No need for all the airport faff either. We stayed in a beautiful boat hotel and for the 3 days we were there we only paid around £66! What an absolute bargain for such a unique stay. The room was incredible and mimicked a cabin room on a cruise ship. There were three circular windows which when you looked out of gave a stunning view of the parliament building alongside the Danube river. Budapest is a great city break perfect for just a few days.Whilst we did walk a lot there, we also hoped onto trams around the two parts of the city, Buda and Pest that make up Budapest. After an amazing 3 days here we flew back on a one-way ticket back to London Stansted from Budapest international airport for only £30 each! The trip ended with another £10 coach back to where I left my car at the coach station!

Things I’d recommend seeing/doing in Budapest, Hungary:

-Staying in a boat hotel
-Parliament Building
-Danube river
-Fisherman’s Bastion
-New York Cafe (A bit on the expensive side of things but worth it for the interior decor and live classical musicians)
-Royal Palace
-Funicular ride (Better to take at night for the views)
-Shoes on the Danube bank
-Underground labyrinth tour
-Széchenyi Chain Bridge
-St. Stephen’s Basilica
-Heroes’ Square

The 2 flights, 4 coaches, 3 hotels and 2 PCR tests (urgh, the covid travel days!) all came to a total of £198.08 per person! I was certainly impressed with myself with this trip! Stay tuned for part 2 of how to see more European countries in one trip as the next blog post is all about Copenhagen, Denmark to Malmö, Sweden! This Jenny travels and so should you!