We are officially in prime booking-your-summer-European-vacation-and-planning-the-entire-trip-on-Pinterest season! Now is the best opportunity to sit down with your roommates, your best friend, your mom – whatever your prerogative is – and start putting those seemingly far-off group chat ideas into motion. Traveling can be expensive, but there are pages upon pages of online resources to reduce the cost of being abroad and maximize your savings, making it possible for college students to explore new destinations without breaking the bank. All you need is a laptop, some credit cards, and lots of creativity in order to find excellent deals on flights, accommodations, and things to do while taking your summer international!
Over Presidents’ Day weekend, I visited my high school friend who is studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. In some respect, this was a wildly irresponsible decision due to missing four school days in a row, which seemed like the end of the world as an undergraduate student. However, I could not pass up $500 round-trip flights to Copenhagen. This find can be fully attributed to Kayak Student, which evaluates thousands of different airlines to find the cheapest and most efficient way to travel abroad. There are also some discounts that are available for a limited number of travel options for students or individuals under the age of 26. Oftentimes, booking directly through the airline website resulted in increased prices, but Kayak filters through all of the reputable websites to find the best option for you.
Now that you have your flight booked, you need a place to stay. Personally, if I am traveling with the purpose of experiencing a new culture and interacting with locals, I would want to spend as little time in my hotel room as possible. I have developed an affinity for hostels, specifically ones on Hostelworld, where you can find quality accommodations and discover other people who are staying there at the same time as you. I recommend verifying the hostel with a little TikTok search, especially if you are looking for a social scene or a particular demographic of travelers staying there.
The best part about taking a holiday is anticipating the holiday. The lead-up truly is the most thrilling part of traveling, which is where Wanderlog comes in. This app allows you to craft an itinerary specific to where you are staying or find other hotspots where other people are going. You can forward your flight and accommodation confirmation emails to the app, and it will update your recommendations based on this information. This is perfect for the Type A traveler, like myself, who needs to have a minute-by-minute playbook before even stepping foot in a foreign country.
You’ve arrived in Europe! And, you don’t have cell reception. Connect to Wifi and download Airalo, where you can buy an eSIM for the country you are traveling to for less than $5. This saved me for international texting, international Google mapping, and, most importantly, international Instagram posting. Airalo prevented me from going off the grid, which hypothetically could be an awesome experience while abroad, but I would be a lost puppy. That’s why I used use City Mapper, the best travel app I have taken from my For You page. If you are in a country that speaks another language than English, it can be challenging to understand where the metro is or what stop you are supposed to get off at. City Mapper was extremely useful in helping me navigate without the stress of getting lost in a foreign city. However, if you want to hop between countries, grab your passport and check out Interrail, which connects much of Europe via high-speed train. I found that the most expensive purchase while abroad was actually my train ticket, so be sure to plan ahead and buy early to help reduce the last-minute spike in costs.
Depending on where you choose to travel to in Europe, food can quickly become expensive. Too Good to Go is an app where you can buy cheap bags of surplus food at the end of the day. From excess croissants to soups or even pasta dishes, there are tons of restaurants distributing food through this app daily. Not only are you able to try local cuisine for an affordable price, but this also reduces the amount of food that is wasted. An environmentally friendly decision, and a delicious one at that! There are a bunch of other great apps as well, including HappyCow (vegan/vegetarian restaurant reviews), Eatwith (great for food tours), and The Fork (discounted European dining).
Your European summer Pinterest board can be made a reality with thorough research and a bit of imagination. These resources can help maintain your budget while embarking on the international adventure of a lifetime!