This year will be our 3rd trip to Europe. The main reason we try to visit Europe once a year is to go to Bosnia and Croatia. For the past 5 years we have been learning this language in order to help people who only speaks their language back home better understand the Bible. In the process we have tried to include visiting as many other countries as we possibly can. Europe is so perfect for this because there are so many countries bordering each other that a simple two hour or less drive, bus or train can take you to a completely new country. The fact that flights are relatively cheap compared to the United States is another plus.
On our first trip to Croatia we were able to visit Slovenia, Italy and Sweden without really paying anything extra or having to make extra time to do a separate trip. The second time around we managed Iceland, Norway and Austria. So, in this article I want to share with you tips on how to cover as many countries as possible on the same vacation without spending too much time or money.
1.) Pick alternative driving routes
October 2016 was the first time we did an international trip. I remember it felt unreal to be visiting Europe. We flew directly into Zagreb, Croatia and after 2 days we rented a car and decided to drive to Pula, Croatia. When I plugged the address into the GPS it gave us two different routes, one inside Croatia, and one going thru Slovenia. Why not drive an extra hour and see a new country in the process? So that is what we did. Although we couldn’t see too many details, we were able to walk on the streets of Ljubljana and Vrhnika; the scenic drive left us speechless, I never knew such beautiful mountains existed. This alternative route to make it to the place we were already planning on going was a perfect way to have a quick taste of a new country without having an extra expense. In just one day we knew if we liked it or not in order to return and plan a specific trip later on. So if you ever find yourself needing to drive from one city to another in Europe research alternative routes for all you know you end up discovering a new country.
Slovenia driving tips: As soon as you pass the border into Slovenia, make sure to stop at a gas station and get a vignette. Back in 2016 it costed about 30 euros. It is a little sticker that goes on the windshield of the car and it is how you pay the tolls. If you do not get this, they will ticket the rental company and in turn you and you’ll end up paying a lot of money.
2.) One day side trips to surrounding countries
Back to October 2016. We ended up staying a week in Pula, Croatia. During that time, we left one day open to do a side trip to Venice, Italy being that we were literally only about 2.5 hours away. So, if you are already visiting a place a staying there a few nights why not look what is close by. Sometimes a car or bus ride or even a ferry can place you a completely different country. Say for example, you are in Croatia, Zagreb is extremely close to Graz, Austria, Pula is close to Venice, Italy, Dubrovnik is only a ferry ride away from Bari, Italy and a quick bus ride away from Montenegro. Doing this you get to get a quick taste for a new place without having to separate big chunks of your vacation time or money.
3.) Pick a flight with a long layover
This is something we tried last year and it worked great. We were flying from Los Angeles to Munich and it had a 24 hour lay over in Iceland. The arrival was also really early in the morning so we rented a car until 6pm. The plan was to cover as much as possible. Sadly, Iceland was not prepared for the influx of tourist that is getting because of all the promotion receiving on social media. So just renting a car took close to 3 hours because they had no cars available. Thankfully, Carlos knowns how to drive manual so they jumped us in line and gave us a car, finally.
Iceland tip: make sure to rent a manual car it will be way easier. If you don’t know how to drive a manual then allow sufficient time some people were already waiting 4 hours by the time we arrived to the rental.
Although we weren’t able to drive through many places because of the time we lost we were still able to see a lot that we would have never seen if it wasn’t for that long layover. So, next time you see those crazy flights .... they’re really not so bad, just leave the airport and have a nice little day trip in the process.
4.) Create your own layover
Some routes from the US to Europe are way cheaper, sadly when you look point A to point B the airlines won’t give you those routes. So, we like to create our own layovers. Two cities that are great for that are Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway. Los Angeles to any of those two cities can go as cheap as $300 round trip in the fall, if you’re brave I’ve seen those flight as cheap as $150 in the winter time (emphasis in being brave, it is horribly cold in those countries) and the most expensive I’ve seen them in the summer are still around $400-$500 round trip. They’re usually nonstop flights and the airline is amazing I mean I have zero complaints. From there to Croatia is usually pretty inexpensive. By creating our own layover in any of those two cities we usually make it to Croatia for about $500 a person total. It really is a steal! We have full control of those layovers because we are creating them we decide how many days we want to stay in those cities. In Stockholm we decided on 2 nights. For Oslo we did 3 nights because we have a friend who lives there so we wanted to spend some time with her. Those two visits although short made us fall in love with Scandinavian countries. I have seriously never been to such clean, elegant cities. It is a beauty. In the future we are planning on creating our layovers thru Copenhagen and Helsinki in order to visit two more countries.
In conclusion, no matter what your reason to visit Europe is, I hope this article inspired you to try to explore more on your next trip without having the need to spend crazy amounts of money and time.
Article Edited by Jesse Diaz
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