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Strong Euro? No Problem! (cont'd)

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3. Go Off-Season
An oldie but a goodie. I would argue that fall and winter are the perfect travel season for Europe. Oh, sure: long, warm days are lovely, but in summer the crowds can be insufferable, all the best cheap hotels are booked, lines to get into museums can stretch for blocks, and the countryside is clogged with tour buses. Europe in the off-season, however, is much less crowded, and much more genuine for it.

What's more, airfares are considerably cheaper between late September and mid-June--ebbing lowest from about November 15 to December 15 and again January 7 through February. Some hotels cut their rates by as much as 20% to 40% during the low season, and even if they don't officially lower prices like this, it's far easier to bargain them down when half their rooms are empty in the dead of winter.

4. Fly No-frills
The days of long-distance rail travel in Europe are quickly ending for all save the most die-hard Romantics. Now I love the trains, but who wants to spend 18 hours and $245 on a train ticket from London to Rome when you can fly there in 3 1/2 hours for just $30--taxes included--on Ryanair?

Europe has 60-some of these no-frills airlines--they're a lot like the low-cost carriers in the U.S. (think Southwest and JetBlue)--and they charge an average of $50 to $70 to fly between any two major cities in Europe. The undisputed hub of this phenomenon is London, but many other mini-hubs are popping up all across the continent, in Eastern as well as Western Europe.

EasyJet and Ryanair are the two biggest no-frill carriers, together serving more than 150 cities, but there are dozens more. To find links to them all, and to other no-frills resources, go to www.nofrillsair.com—that's a subsection of our website.

5. Choose Your Railpass Wisely
No-frills airlines are the best bet for crossing long distances in Europe these days. If, however, you plan to inch your way across Europe, visiting the bits in between its far-flung corners, the train is still the best way to go. And the cheapest way to travel by train remains the railpass, a ticket good for unlimited travel for a certain number of days within a set period of time.

However, you are no longer stuck with the option of just the famed Eurail pass, which covers 17 countries and costs from $588 for a 15 day pass to $1,654 for a three month pass. These days, Rail Europe (877-257-2887, www.raileurope.com) offers regional passes, Selectpasses allowing travel in any of three to five contiguous countries, as well as two-country passes, single-country passes, and a plethora of other options for students, seniors, and couples, as well as rail-drive passes that include a few days with a rental car.

To find out if a railpass is the right investment for your trip, crunch some numbers to see whether it will save you money over simply buying individual tickets nd maybe a no-frills airline here or there. Rail Europe lists fares for major routes, but to get more precise pricing and travel schedules, visit the national rail websites of each country, which are listed at www.railfaneurope.net. For more strategies on using the trains and railpasses, go to www.europetrains.org.

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