First Time Traveler to Europe

I sorry Chris. I may be a little dense but I am not understanding your questions. You can use any of the airline search engines and plug in your travel plans to see what the airline options and prices are. Check three legged flights - Scotland, Paris, home. Buy your tickets on line. If that is what you are asking? Use a debit card at an ATM to obtain local currency as needed. Bring a 100 US as an emergency back up but cash at ATMs is the cheapest and most convenient way to obtain local currency. You can plan as little or as much as your are comfortable with. Generally I schedule my airlines and about half the hotels. Local transportation I get as I need it. Others will plan down to the last minute.

Frank, Thanks for the response! My question was more of an apprehension it sounds like I can book my flights from one leg to the last at one time. I was probably going to travel from Scotland to London then to Paris via train. I was planning a trip about two weeks long. I am plan on staying predominately in hostels along the way but I still need to do more research on my possible accommodations. Cheers

Check prices, you could fly into London, spend a few days, take sleeper train to Scotland, it is great, then flight on budget airline to Paris and home from there.

It's usually easiest to travel in a line, so I'd start in Scotland, fly or take a train or bus to England, then take the train to Paris, then fly home. Of course, you could reverse this, or, if you had a particular reason, start in London (this makes the transit a bit less easy, but it's perfectly doable). Whether you fly, bus, or train between Scotland and London depends on where in Scotland you will be, as well as your budget. From London to Paris, you will probably want the Eurostar train (Chunnel), as this is much easier and faster than any other method. If you start in London, and thus need to get between Scotland and Paris, you can take trains or fly. To learn MUCH more about trains, look at the famous Man In Seat 61 (on the left of his home page, you'll see he has links to his pages on England, Scotland, and London to Paris, as well as all kinds of other destinations). To book trans-Atlantic flights for this itinerary, you don't want two one-ways; that often costs a lot. Instead, you want "open jaw," into one city and out of another (called "multi-city" on Kayak, Orbitz, and other flight search sites). For instance, you would put in the first leg as Cincinnati to Aberdeen, and the second leg as Paris to Cincinnati, and see what your options are. This may not be more expensive than a round trip to London or Paris; but even if it is, you save time and money not backtracking. Start looking for flights now, to get an idea of prices. Check frequently, and if you see a price you want and/or can live with, buy IMMEDIATELY. There are lots of stories on this Helpline of people who waited a few hours and lost a fare. For lots of information about the "nuts and bolts" of travel, get a copy of Rick Steves Europe Through The Back Door right away.

How much should you plan ahead? This is a subject of some controversy. My personal take is that you want to do a lot of research and figure out your options, and have a plan. You can always modify the plan while you're underway, but "winging it" can be expensive. You definitely want to get train or bus tickets in advance for any routes where this results in a discount. This includes the Eurostar, trains from Edinburgh to London, and Megabus service, among others. But some are not cheaper in advance; research this before going. And these discounted tickets are usually non-refundable and non-changeable, so don't book them if your plans aren't definite (unless they're so cheap you can "eat" the loss if you don't use them). A general rule (which, of course, means there's lots of exceptions) is that the best value accommodations in each category get booked first. If you arrive in a town without reservations, you may have to spend more than you wanted, or settle for something not as nice. In a popular place at a busy time, there may not be any suitable accommodations at all. Again, if you don't plan to have all your accommodations booked before you leave, at least have lists of where you want to stay, so you don't waste time starting from scratch when you arrive at a place. Certainly for London and Paris, you want something reserved before you arrive. And for your first night of arrival from the US, and the night before departure to the US, you want reservations (since you're not going to change your flights unless you're wealthy, you know where you will be on those nights).

"How much money should I expect to travel with?" First, you don't "travel" with any more than 100-200 euros or pounds (whichever you will need in your country of first arrival - not both), and ~200 US dollars as backup. You get cash as you need it, from ATM's, and you use credit cards for other expenses. For lots more about money in Europe, look at Rick's advice here. As for how much you should plan to spend, that's another controversial question. It's easier to plan if you break it down: Airfare: As I said, start looking now to see the range you're talking about. And check different routes; for reasons known only to the airlines, it may be cheaper to fly (for instance) into Paris and out of Aberdeen than the reverse. Accommodation: this is very flexible, depending on your needs/wants. Would a hostel work for you, or do you need a fancy place with room service, or what? You should get some guidebooks and look at their hotel recommendations online, to see what it's going to cost you to get a place you consider suitable. Food: this is even more flexible than accommodation. Are you going to want to eat in restaurants for each meal, or is a picnic good? Would getting a sandwich from a supermarket and eating it in your room be fun, or gross? If saving money is important, be sure to get a room with a fridge (and sometimes you can get access to a microwave) or consider an apartment, so you can make some meals there and save on restaurants. European grocery stores have lots of prepared food, so this needn't involve "cooking." And remember, you will not be buying food at home, so you can "subtract" this from the cost of food you buy when traveling. continued..

continued. Admissions: this is flexible, but on the other hand, this is the area where you are most penalized for stinginess. For example, if a museum costs €15, it may seem like a lot; but if you're going to miss lots of things you want to see, why go to Europe at all? Again, study some guidebooks and start pricing your "must sees." In London, many museums are free; in Paris, you may (or may not) find that a Museum Pass saves you money. Local Travel: in London and Paris, you will be taking the Underground or Metro as well as some buses. Each city has "deals" for regular travel; again, there's lots of info on this in guidebooks, which will save you vs. single tickets. In Scotland, will you be renting a car, or taking buses/trains? Souvenirs: only you know how much or how little shopping you will do. Other: Theatre in London, soccer games, walking tours (or other tours), etc. Again, by figuring out what you might do, you will get a sense of how much to allot for this. For your reading assignment, in addition to Europe Through The Back Door, I'd start looking at guidebooks (Rick's as well as others) for your destinations. This will give you ideas about what you want to see and what it will cost.

Thanks everyone! I will begin to digest all of this information while I keep an eye on flight prices. Cheers!

Hi Christopher, You said you plan to go to Scotland first. You might try searching for flights to either Edinburgh or Manchester. You can fly non stop to both from New York. Both are often cheaper than flights to London, and you would be in or close to Scotland. If you are going to the north part of Scotland, you can fly on FlyBe Airlines from Inverness to London Gatwick. Their fares are pretty cheap if you get the tickets early. It takes about an hour or so. after you see London, Then take the Eurostar to Paris. Tickets go on sale 120 days prior to you departure at the Eurostar website. Just Google Eurostar and you'll see it. Then fly home from Paris. When you search for flights, use the multi city option. Travel in a line has proven to be much more time efficient for me than trying to arrange a big loop. As far as money. Use your debit card at ATM's. how much you need will depend on your habits. Just remember that the exchange rate for dollars to pounds is terrible, so the UK is very expensive. France will be bit less.
Just another idea. Have a great time. Let us know what you do. It also helps others who read these posts. Thomas