plane travel within Europe

Depends where you are going. Switzerland is central to alot of areas, and I usually figure for flying to pay, your destination needs to be at least 6 hrs away by train. Check out times on Bahn.de.

www.whichbudget.com will tell you which budget airlines fly from and to the airports you select.

In addition to the cost of flying in Europe, you must add the extra time and money to be spent on getting to and from airports, which are seldom convenient to the cities. Trains, while slower, get you into the cities (and many small towns)

Not to mention that trains give you the opportunity to move around and to meet other travelers or locals.

Adam, yes, you can get one-ways from as low as €19 one way or roundtrips (on Swiss or Lufthansa) for €99 incl. taxes. Check with www.airberlin.com, www.lufthansa.com, www.swiss.com, www.easyjet.com, www.ryanair.com

Lots of European airports have those "convenient" train connections directly from the airport...Rome, Munich, London, etc lots!

There are many arguements for Plane Vs Train. I'm sure a quick search in the upper right hand box will be a plethora of information...

We need more information. When is the travel period? Duration? Destination? Distance to destination from point of departure?

All of these factors must be taken into consideration.

With the limited information provided, there is no straight answer...

Adam, whether to use budget airlines or rail travel in Europe depends on several factors. The first is distance - if the travel time via rail exceeds 6-8 hours, I would be tempted to use budget airlines.

However, one also has to consider the fact that many of the budget airlines use "out-of-the-way" airports (ie: Stanstead or Luton in the UK) so the time and cost of getting to the airport has to be included (as wells as security, etc.).

Many of the budgets offer cheap prices, but from what I've seen these are on a "sliding scale", which means the price increases as the seats fill on a flight. One other important point is that often the budgets have restrictive baggage limits (which appear to be getting MORE restrictive), so if one is travelling with lots of luggage, be prepared to PAY!

Night trains are sometimes a good method, but keep in mind that if there are "changes", you won't get much sleep!

Without knowing the specifics of your trip, it's difficult to provide details.

I went to easyjet.com and found some really good and cheap flights. We opted to fly from Rome back to Paris after the amount of time that we will be spending on the train...80 euro total for two-people and only 2-hours instead of atleast 10-hours or more.