Alright you may be thinking, “Um… you’re already traveling to a foreign country, why would you need to travel anywhere else?”. That is a very good question and my answer is a big “Why not?”. Now, I know everyone comes from a different background financially and money can be a touchy subject, so I’m going to give my personal experience and ask that you take it with a huge grain of salt.
To set the stage, I have been living in La Rochelle, France since September and during my time here I have been lucky enough to travel to London, UK, Geneva, Switzerland, and Berlin, Germany (plus a few other cities in France).
Again, we all come from different backgrounds so adapt this advice to however it may work for you. In Charleston I work two jobs and I began my “abroad stash” about six months before leaving. It’s been a personal goal of mine to travel as cheaply as possible and boy oh boy I have accumulated some tips and tricks.
Disclaimer: most of these examples will be coming from my trip to Geneva with my friend Jamie because I’m still in awe of how little we spent and the things we were able to see.
To begin, you need a way to get to where you’re going. Enter the beautiful discount airline, EasyJet. I’ve used EasyJet for all of my traveling, and it’s been amazing! With that, I also usually just googled things like, “Flights from La Rochelle to Geneva” and went with the cheapest option (it happened to always be EasyJet).
Next! You need somewhere to stay. Here is where it can get tricky because we wanted somewhere near the center of the city, but we’re two college students with a set budget. Enter the wonderful world of hostels. I went to hostelworld.com and keyed in our trip info (like dates, how many people, etc.) and ta-da I found one walking distance to the city center with great reviews. TIP: always read the reviews before booking anything. We stayed at Geneva Hostel and it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. We stayed in a room with four other women, a hallway style bathroom, and a giant cafeteria where everyone could get breakfast in the morning. They also provided bedding which I was very thankful for because I didn’t even think to look into that, so always read the fine print if you book a bed in a hostel.
While you’re there, you need things to do. Jamie and I actually didn’t pay to do anything in Geneva. The hostel gave us passes to all public transportation and we spent the whole trip wandering around the city and even accidentally ended up hiking and finding a free zoo. So, I highly recommend walking and wandering and you never know what you may stumble upon.
One last tip that’s helped me: don’t be too picky with lodging and keep in mind that the cheapest train ticket may be the one that leaves at 5:30 am, so be prepared for an adventure!