Europe travel starting point

Violeta, It would help to have some further information. For example, how long will this trip be? Which cities do you want to visit in Greece, Italy, Spain and France? Using open-jaw flights would most likely be the best idea. Even if they're initially a bit more expensive, they're often cheaper when all costs are included. Also, have you travelled in Europe before? Cheers!

Where you start your trip in Europe will have little to no impact on your costs. The key is efficient travel between your various stops. Get a map, put some pins in it, and decide where you want to go. There is a lot of distance between Greece and London. Assuming you have about four weeks to devote to this trip. Flying into or out of London and the same option for Athens would be a good starting point.

Thank you! That is about the amount of time we are going to spend, 4 weeks, to see as much as we can. I was just checking on the application "1000 places to visit...." and there is a lot to see. That was our other concern: whether arriving to and departing from the same country in Europe or not is going to impact our costs. Any website or Ipad application to recommend for planning or organizing trips? Thank you so much for your help!
Violeta

There are no absolute answers to any of your questions - so far. It all depends. Summer is the most expensive time to travel with highest airfares. The month of Oct would be better or at least mid Sept through Oct. We almost always use open jaw as we find them the same price or sometimes cheaper than RT. You local transportation probably will be more expensive than your airline tickets.

Violeta: Yes, some cities will be more expensive to fly to than others. But, this is unpredictable and keeps changing. You just have to check yourself. I like http://www.kayak.com/, and you can sign up for their e-mail alerts too. When I was looking in spring 2011 for travel in fall 2011 out of New York City, Istanbul and Warsaw were substantially cheaper than the other European cities that had nonstop flights. And while Krakow was almost the same price as Warsaw, Gdansk was $200 more. Why - who knows? Airfares are a system unto themselves, and are no longer logical. Furthermore, it's no bargain to fly into a "cheap" city you don't want to go to, only to have to spend time and money getting where you really want to be. For instance, it usually costs substantially more to fly to Athens than to Frankfurt, but while Frankfurt is a fine airport to start a trip to Germany, it won't do you much good if you want to see Greece. So, I'd determine what places you want to see. Don't just rely on some "places to see before you die" list - make sure you want to see them. Then, you usually want to go in a line, so you avoid backtracking (which gets expensive as well as time consuming). You will usually want to fly open jaw (multi city) - into your starting city and out of your ending city - even if it's "more expensive." Otherwise, you have to calculate the time, money and hassle it takes to get back to your "cheaper" city. The most important tip to cutting costs on a trip like yours isn't picking the right starting city (although it may make some difference) - it's pre-booking your trains and flights within Europe. More and more, European trains are priced like planes - cheap if bought in advance on-line, getting more expensive closer to the travel date, and very expensive on the day of travel.