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Your Thrifty Travel Tips

In his Thrifty Fifty travel tips, Rick shares his best suggestions for saving money while traveling in Europe: from staying in B&Bs to assembling gourmet picnics. Do you have tips to add to the list? How do you stretch your euros, pounds, kroner, etc.?

I want to add my comments! 

Water at Restaurants
This is a very mundane topic, but it is something I wish I knew before I went on my trip to Germany last month. We are a family of 4. At every meal, we would each have one bottle of water (without "gas" ie without carbonation). Each bottle was approx 2 Euros, x 4 people = 8 euros per meal x 2 meals = 16 Euros per day (approx $24/day on water). Spending $24 a day on water, particularly on 1 measly bottle per person per meal, was not ideal. We FINALLY figured out we could order what is basically tap water, at no charge. I've been told not every place will do so, but upon learning of the option, we had no trouble. Needless to say, in Europe you should have no trouble with traveler's disease from drinking tap water.

In France you can ask for a carafe of water, which is basically tap water and free, "Je voudrais un carafe de l'eau."

If you don't ask in either country, you will be charged for your water. If you are on a budget, skip the bottled water and ask for the tap water.
Suzanne <email>
San Diego, CA  USA   05/10/2009

Pleasant dreams for less than $10.00
I spent an amazing month in Germany camping for less than 10 Euro's a night. The campgrounds are safe and have very clean bathrooms and cooking area's. In addition, most campgrounds have laundry facilities. I had an awesome time meeting other european camper's and blending with the locals. Happy travel's!
Bill <email>
La Crescent, MN  USA   02/15/2009

Hitch a ride in Europe
Buying a train ticket from Vienna to Salzburg in Austria costs 44€. Imagine you can do the trip for about 9€ to 15€! I´ve done an 8 month Europe trip using hitch a ride websites most of the time. Carpooling.com and mitfahrzentrale.de are two of the biggest, connecting drivers and passengers all over Europe. Signing up and sending emails works great when your schedule isn´t too tight. The drivers are registered and it all worked great for me. I saved 70% on transportation.
Peter Oliver <email>
Paris at the moment, RSA   02/09/2009