????Ƿ?????ǡѹ ????¹??¡??? ???ѧ?????????Ҩҡ?Ǻ???촢ͧ????? ???????¹???????ѧ??? ???? Ofcourse, everything is possible with Smiley. First you have to know my background, I was 17 and sent out to New Zealand alone to join a group of Thai students in an English camp and stayed with a host family in Christchurch. I spent my one month there with a small bag of 7 kilograms, stengthen up my English and building up inspiration. I came back then and chose to study Hotel and Tourism managemegt. After different jobs in hospitality industry, I end up here in Rotterdam, my third home. So my lowcost trip started after I got Dutch passport in my 3rd year. Why waiting 3 years? Because it's allowed for foreigners who got the Dutch diploma to gain Dutch nationality after staying atleast 3 years, so I ran in to get it. It saves lots of difficulties of visa applying for cheapflight transit in England, visiting my close friend in Ireland, and opportunity to visit the countries outside Schengen. Beside Benelux, the first country for me was Switzerland, a 15 day trip for 525 Euro. One of my pride of being there, seeing the same thing (or more) with cheaper price. Ofcourse, I'm going to reveal the secret how I did that. Fist of all, you will need cheap mean of transportation to your destination. Most of the cases I use airlines. Flying saves time, energy and also cost of transporation. How? You have to have this attitude. You must travel to open your eyes and see life there. If you are planning to travel for your honeymoon or visiting friend. You will rarely get it cheap. So this mean, you don't choose when you want to go, but you choose the price and then convenient possible period of the year. At the same time, don't overlook the season. There's no use to go to London when it's rainy season even the ticket is so cheap! Do I use train? That can't be missed. I use also lots of railway trip and I love it. In many countries, especially eastern europe. The trains are not so confortable, but it's cheap and it gives chance to see how local people enjoy their life and that's a chance to meet many young backpackers from many countries and speak with local people travelling together with you in the same train. Each country has train promotion, it's yours to take a good search. Railpass is often more expensive than usual when you plan your train travel neatly and learn how to get the local ticket. In some cases, trainpass can be cheaper than annoying communication problems but that's what you have to do for your homework. I spent each trip in Poland with 7 day pass (this promotion is in Polish only, but well, there are many way to find out by reading on many review site like Virtualtourist, WAYN or even in Thai forum, Pantip Promotion! Yes, this is one of the very important way to find the cheapest way to travel. If you search carefully, sometimes you can save 75% and forsure being quick with your decision will make it cheap. Don't wait for lastminute. You have two choice of 1, getting very cheap price or 2, getting extra (expensive) price. So why waiting so long. For accommodation, as I said, don't use this formula if you are planning to be on Honeymoon trip. As a traveller, You go there to see, not to sleep like you are in a castle, so the place to sleep should just be simple , friendly, safe , convenient to travel and clean. All of this is not difficult to find in a cheaper price. This is called Hostel. For me, I prefer meeting up with people and have a local guide, so i chose to join Hospitality club and ofcourse Couchsurfing, places to meet another guest and hosts and that's why I almost didn't pay for any accommodation in Switzerland!! Seeing things. Each place has promotional ticket. One day ticket when you travel a lot with local transportation, is surely cheaper than single ticket or black ride which might cost you a fortune later when you get caught. Besides one day ticket, you also need to check very well, what kind of transportation is available. Many airports are linked to the city with very cheap local transportation which might be only a bit slower, why taking taxi or expensive express train if you are just a easy-go on tour Ok, so I'll pick my last trip as an example. 5 countries are Austria, Slovakia, Italy, Greece and Vatican (the smallest country in the world) The flight booking started 8 months before. YES you read it right, 8 months. I love flying with Skyeurope, they have the newest fleet in European lowcost industry and sofar, they have very good coffee onboard, and never late, even arrive earlier than schedule Wowwwww So with this trip, I've got 1 Euro promotion. How? Always subscribe yourself to the airlines, you will get the promotional email as soon as they launch it. So with this promotion, I pay totally 5 euro for one way. So think of Amsterdam-Vienna, Vienna-Athens, Athens-Vienna, Bratislava-Rome, Rome-Bratislava and Vienna-Amsterdam. I hope the airlines won't go bankrupt. Actually there are not many people like me Hahahaha Next, I checked for cheapest mean of transportation from Airport to city. Vienna schwechat offer S-bahn going to the city every 10-15 minutes for 1,70 euro if I have Day ticket) So Roundtrip to the airport makes only 3,8 euro while CAT express train will cost atleast 8 euro one way! So to see how much it saves me with spending time studying the route. It's kind of boring to go back and forth to the same city. I have to go to Bratislava to fly to Rome and come back to the airport so the first way I choose to travel along the Danube. Ofcourse, it's again time to find if there's promotion price, which is the sunset ferry, leaving Vienna at half past 4. When the price is more than 10 euro cheaper! Oh my god, leaving the city when it's not to dark, and seeing the view and arrive in Bratislava just before the sunset, watching the sunset on the Danube and getto the restaurant and walk up the old town to the hostel in the north. What else can I save? Ferry!!!, I'll be in Greece to visit Santorini, my dream island. The place I've studied over the legend of Atlantis, and one of the most beautiful places on earth, whitewash buildings along the valconic cliff, the golden sunset shining on those houses. To get there, you leave the Piraeus port , south of Athens. The ferry that run in early spring is Blue star ferry. Normal price economy one way is 33,50 euro. Ofcourse, every company has promotion price. Here I found Super-economy offered on early booking with the condition, non-refundable, non-reroutable. As planned, who want to change the plan? So I get 10 euro ticket one way on this seetrip and save in total 45 euro. This gonna become the cost of the hostel on Santorini. I'm not there for honeymoon, I need no roomservice breakfast and need no princess room overlook the cliff, so I choose a hotel a bit inside of island with good review. From the price of 60 euro per night, it comes down to 12,5 euro , a room with balcony, big swimming pool, lovely owners operating their own hostel, free transport to and from the pier , lovely village, supermarket a block away and bus station less than 5 mintues walk. What else do you need? We even got a fourwheel bike for 15 euro per day and the benzine cost less than 10 euro for 2 days. Going everywhere when we wanted to. After the stay in Greece, I have to start thinkin about Rome and Vatican, one of the most expensive destination in Europe. There is little to do with the choice of accommodation, but I'm going to save on admission on attraction. I'll be there 5 days! I want to wander around, see different corners, get into different museums, and that come in by an attraction pass. There are many type of pass available so you can get into different places with combination ticket. Now now, it comes to cost of food. Food, beside accommoation is one of the highest cost on tour. This is easy to manage, I rarely eat in McDonald or any kind of fastfood, but rather look around on internet to read the review of tourists who have been there earlier. This helps a lot to avoid expensive and bad taste, lousy service restaurant. During walking around the city, I often look into local restaurants, sometimes in a dark corner, in the basement, or near offices. This local restaurant offers local price and local food. Isn't that what you are there for? Besides hostel often have breakfast included. Some hostels even offer easy dinner, like pasta and soup. So check carefully, maybe you will gain more than you expect. In some cases, comparing booking website helps to get the cheapest rate at the same place. Take some times to shop around to see which site gives you the best. I used to have a hostel with breakfast near Roma Termini station for 1.5 euro. That's almost nothing :) and 6 euro Guesthouse in Florence. So nothing is impossible. So when the cost of food is not a problem, accommodation is provided by new friends from Hospitality club, and some of the days, local managed hostel. I have now more to spend on local souvenirs and seeing more things.
Do you know? That's my secret from this trip. I do have more tips to share, and ofcourse after the trip, photos and tips of where and when to get good pictures. See you then.
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