Daughter travelling alone & searching for cheap IntraEuro fares

Elaine, It would help to have a general idea on which places your daughter will be travelling to, as transportation options will vary in some locales. As she's travelling solo, you may feel more comfortable if your daughter travels with a Cell phone. Receiving text messages on a regular basis may help "put your mind at ease". If this is her first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend pre-reading Europe Through The Back Door (might be a good "read" for both of you). That provides lots of information on the things she'll need to know to travel "well" in Europe, especially rail skills and avoiding scams (insist that she wear a Money Belt!). The country-specific Guidebooks provide lots of information on Hotels, sightseeing information, etc. Is your daughter planning on staying in Hostels? It might be a good idea to obtain an inexpensive membership in HI Hostels. There are also independent Hostels, however the HI properties tend to have fairly consistent facilities from one location to another, and I've always found them to be well-run (ie: "safe"). They're typically not "party Hostels". Regarding the budget airlines you mentioned, there are times when they're the best travel method between cities, but travel by train is the best solution in the majority of cases. Good luck!

Hi Elaine, www.WhichBudget.com is one of the websites you could use to find budget carriers within Europe. As far as the bus goes, I know (and have taken) the Student Agency Bus lines before and can recommend them; however, without knowing where Kate will be traveling, this suggestion may or may not be useful. http://www.studentagencybus.com/

Whichbudget.com does not display Ryanair flights. You may find skyscanner.com to be more comprehensive.

Elaine, You might also refer her to the Andy Steves website for students. http://www.andysteves.com/index.php. A lot of it is aimed at week end travel for students that are studying in Europe, but there are some good links for budget air travel and other planning suggestions. Pam

Thanks for all the suggestions. She hasn't planned out a full itinerary yet because she is still unsure of her budget which will determine how long she can stay over there. She has been to Germany and Amsterdam. If her trip gets shortened too much, she doesn't want to revisit those areas. She was planning on 3 months, but now reality has set in and she realised that she can't use up all her savings backpacking thru Europe IF she wants to (DARE I SAY IT!!!!) move OUT and get her own place (DC or Chicago) in the fall. (I think London and Paris are set in stone. She's a history major and the history that interests her most will be the motivation in her selections.)

Elaine, As a history major, I assume Rome will be on the list as well?

Hi, The book in my opinion that is most helpful in planning such a trip is Let's Go. She should study that book. I still use it in addition to the Rough Guide series. But Let's Go is much easier to identify with for a person presumably in her/his early twenties. Rough Guide adds the depth to what you are introduced to in Let's Go.

Easy Jet for intra-europe flights. They fly in and out of better airports than RyanAir and if booked far enough in advance can be very reasonable. (Just watch those checked bag fees!)

I have some younger adventurous friends who have used the Busabout Europe service. It's a hop-on-hop off service. They have been very pleased with this service. Google Busabout Europe.