You can get to Europe in a thousand different ways. But there are several special schemes that will minimize your travel costs when traveling to the Schengen countries. The article will tell you about how to travel around Europe cheaply.
All of the following options for getting to Europe are designed for those who want to save money when traveling to Europe. The situation is such that the most expensive point for Russians when traveling to European countries, as a rule, becomes the point associated with overcoming the border of the European Union. Traveling within the EU is often possible for mere pennies, but flights from Russia to Europe are traditionally not the cheapest.
The essence of the schemes described is to help you get to the EU with minimal transport costs, after which everyone builds their own further route.
Look for tickets for low-cost airlines either on the official websites of airlines or on the Skyscanner metasearch - it searches for many airlines at once, which is very convenient.
Want to fly for free? Earn miles for all airlines with an All Airlines card.
1. Low-cost airlines in Europe
European low-cost airlines have an undisputed leader - Ryanair, which, alas, does not fly to Russian cities yet (but it may connect St. Petersburg and Dublin in the near future). However, some low-cost carriers still reach the largest cities in Russia. These include EasyJet and AirBaltic. The first one flies only from Moscow, connecting it only with London or Manchester. But from there it will be possible to fly to almost any point in Europe, as well as to Morocco, Egypt, Turkey and Israel. In turn, AirBaltic flies from Moscow, Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg (even from Tashkent!) With a stopover in Riga. Ticket prices for these airlines usually start from 80-100 euros. If you catch promotions and sales, you can find it even cheaper.
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In 2013, another low-cost airline, WizzAir, reached Moscow. He connected Moscow with Budapest, where you can fly for only 30 euros, having bought a ticket a couple of months before departure. And from the Hungarian capital, you can easily fly to anywhere in Europe.
Be sure to read our article on low-cost airlines here.
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2. How to travel cheaply to Europe via Lithuania
From two Lithuanian cities - Kaunas and Vilnius - you can easily and cheaply fly anywhere in Europe using Ryanair's services, which is why this scheme is so popular among Russian travelers. Also from Vilnius to other European cities (there is even a direct flight to Tel Aviv) another low-cost airline, WizzAir, carries it.
Vilnius and Kaunas can be reached from Moscow and St. Petersburg by Ecolines and Simple Express buses. Again, if you follow the promotions by subscribing to their mailing list, you can get tickets for less than 1,000 rubles.
You can get from St. Petersburg to Vilnius by train. To save additional money, you should buy a ticket not to the Lithuanian capital, but to the city of Nesterov (Kaliningrad region), and then just go to Vilnius, before reaching Nesterov - saving about 40%.
Another option is to go from Moscow by train to Minsk, and from the Belarusian capital you can get to Vilnius by train or bus.
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You can get from the center of Vilnius to the airport by buses No. 1, 2, fixed-route taxis and electric trains.
You can get from Kaunas to the airport by bus no. 29 and by route minibus 120. Also, express buses run from Kaunas airport directly to Vilnius, Klaipeda and Riga.
3. Cheap to Europe via Latvia
Similarly - by train or bus - you can get to Riga. Here again Ryanair and WizzAir are represented, which for 20-40 euros will take you to Rome, Milan, Oslo, Bremen and many other European cities.
Although the aforementioned carrier AirBaltic is represented in three Russian cities, sometimes it will be cheaper to fly directly from Riga. In addition, without transfers and tiresome waiting at the airport.
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You can cheaply get to Riga by Ecolines and Simple Express buses from St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kaliningrad. Follow the promotions - sometimes tickets are given for only 119 rubles! It is somewhat more expensive to travel to Latvia by train: a reserved seat ticket costs about 3,000 rubles.
The airport and the center of Riga are connected by bus number 22 (the fare is 40 rubles).
4. To Europe via Finland
From the small Finnish town of Lappeenranta, Ryanair can fly to Milan (Bergamo), Dusseldorf and Barcelona (Girona). If necessary, in these cities you can make a transfer and fly somewhere else.
There are several ways to get from St. Petersburg to Lappeenranta:
1. By regular bus from the bus station of St. Petersburg. There are also regular buses from Lappeenranta to St. Petersburg and Vyborg. The ticket price is about 30 euros.
2. By high-speed train "Allegro". It runs 4 times a day from St. Petersburg to Helsinki with a stop at Vainikkala (from Vainikkala to Lappeenranta about 30 km - from there a minibus goes to the bus and railway station of Lappeenranta, a one-way ticket costs 7 euros). The cost of a ticket from St. Petersburg to Vainikkala is about 50 euros (the earliest train is half the price).
3. With shopping tour buses that run to Lappeenranta every day. The price is about 1000 rubles.
How to travel cheap. 5 tips you need
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Using these schemes, you can travel in Europe on an extremely budgetary basis and get to your desired destination for several tens of euros.
Here's an example of a trip to Amsterdam. From Riga, you can fly to the Dutch city of Eindhoven for 30 euros (WizzAir) if you buy a ticket a couple of months before the trip. It is very easy to get to Riga from Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Minsk and the Baltic cities by LuxExpress or SimpleExpress buses, catching cheap tickets for a promotion for 10-20 euros. And we have already written about how to get from Eindhoven to Amsterdam (it will cost about 20 euros).
In addition, you can come up with an endless variety of routes for inexpensive independent travel in Europe. Keep an eye out for cheap make-trip tickets to make travel easier.
