Favorite Trip-Planning Links

Here are some helpful websites for European travel. Choose one of the categories below, or simply scroll down the page.

Travel Tools

Currency converter, passports and visas, calling, and itinerary planning.

Transportation

Air, train, bus, ferry, transit, and car travel.

Accommodations

Search tools for hotels, plus camping, castles, villas, apartments, convents, monastaries, home exchanges, and hostels.

Special Interest

Backpacking, biking and hiking, cooking schools and garden tours, living abroad, seniors, religious travel, students, socially responsible travel.

Travel Tools

Itinerary Planning

Transportation

Air Travel
Trains, Buses, Boats, and Transit
Driving
  • Auto Europe: Car rental
  • Via Michelin and Google Maps: Online maps for all of Europe, plus a reliable route planner with good estimates of time and distance for your journey
  • AA: Britain's Automobile Association, which includes route planner

Accommodations

These hotel-booking sites are good for initial research (but once you find something that looks interesting, it's best to book direct)

The following search engines check multiple hotel sites at once:

Castles, Villas, Farms, and Apartments
Convents and Monasteries
Home Exchanges and Home Stay Programs
Hostels

Special Interest

Backpacking
Active Travel
  • Cicerone: Reliable guides for walkers, bikers, trekkers, and climbers
  • TrailDino: Links to hiking trails around the world
Cooking Schools and Garden Tours
Family Travel
  • Delicious Baby: Blogger Debbie Dubrow shares her travel experiences and best travel advice on how to make travel with kids fun
Living Abroad
Religious Travel
Seniors
Students
Socially Responsible Travel
Tour Guides
  • Denmark: History Tours offers guided Walking Tours in Copenhagen
  • Greece: Faye Georgiou ([email protected]) is the local guide for Rick Steves' tours in Athens
  • Greece: Niki Vlachou, Rick Steves guide in Olympia, offers tours and transportation for cruise ship passengers from the port of Kataklolon
  • Italy: Valeria Biasi, Rick Steves guide in Verona, operates aguideinverona.com
  • Portugal: Cristina Quental, a local guide in Lisbon recommended in Rick Steves Portugal, operates lisbontourguides.com
  • Spain: LeTango.com: Rick Steves guide Carlos Galvin leads private tours of his home city and area: Barcelona, Madrid, Segovia, and Toledo
  • Turkey: SRM Travel: Rick Steves Turkey guides Lale Surmen & Tankut Aran lead tours of their home country
Travel Journaling
  • Globejotter Tours: Rick Steves tour guide Dave Fox leads small-group tours in Asia and Africa with a creative writing theme