Sisterhood of the Traveling Powells

My sister-in-law and I recently returned from a 13 day adventure around Europe and I couldn't think of a better avenue to share our experience. We both received a multitude of questions of how we planned, executed the plan, and saved $$ for the plan. Do you sense a "plan" theme? Stay tuned, not very much actually went according to plan once we were in motion. 

Jordan and I talked on and off about making this trip a reality, but it honestly came together fairly spontaneously. Jordan ordered her passport in January and we booked our trans-Atlantic flights in February, with only about 2 months to go. We decided on April 19th through May 1st, strategically celebrating Jordan's 23rd birthday in the middle!

Once dates were selected, destination decisions were made. With this being Jordan's first out of country trip (and her very first flight!), I wanted her to pick most of the places. I had 2 places on my wish list: Nice, France and Budapest, Hungary. After studying a map and picking a route that made sense, our wanderlust led us to: 

• London, England
• Paris, France
• Nice, France
• Monaco
• Rome, Italy
• Budapest, Hungary
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Amsterdam, Netherlands

I plan to be transparent about the cost of our adventure, because I truly believe that if a trip like this is important to you it can be done! I should start by saying that Jordan and I are both pretty natural savers. We prefer Goodwill finds to mall shopping sprees, although we both enjoy a good Kate Spade splurge every once in a while. I'm also blessed with a husband that pinches pennies right along with me. Having a healthy savings account is always a good place to start when planning a trip of this magnitude. 

We also lucked out tremendously with our trans-Atlantic flight. One of the most expensive parts of traveling abroad is almost always the flight to get across the ocean. Most often those flights start at $900 roundtrip on the cheaper side, and can climb to $1500+. Additionally, no international flights leave directly from Will Rogers OKC, so we also needed to get to a major airport (i.e.--an additional flight cost). Enter, Norwegian Air. I compare Norwegian Air to the EasyJets, Frontier, and Allegiance airlines of the world. The flight itself is dirt cheap, but they will try to nickel and dime you on any other costs (meals, checked baggage, reserved seats). Luckily, we were only traveling with backpacks and planned ahead to pack snacks instead of paying $50 for a meal onboard. We managed to snag a roundtrip flight from Denver to London (Gatwick) for only $550 per person. Southwest Airlines entered the picture next, with their constant low fares from OKC to Denver (usually in the low 200s for a roundtrip ticket, sometimes even lower!). Even better, Tanner and I decided to get the Southwest Visa credit card last year and had plenty of miles built up to get Jordan and I to Denver for FREE. 

With our travel across the ocean in the bag, we needed to determine how to travel around Europe upon arrival. Public transportation (buses, metros, trains) are always the cost-efficient method in Europe. Enter, Eurail. I used Eurail the first time I went backpacking in Europe 4 years ago and had a pretty good experience. However, this time around I had the foresight to make reservations ahead of time for the trains that would require them, rather than getting them day of at the train station. The Eurail essentially allows you to hop on and off any train in the Eurail network for the determined amount of days on your pass. We had a 15 day continuous pass, which was a little overkill for our 13 days trip, but everything else was too minimal as we had quite a bit of night travel. Keep in mind when using the Eurail pass that some trains (high speed or overnight) do require an additional reservation. We paid $661 each for our Eurail pass plus reservations. 

With all travel logistics locked down, the next order of business was deciding on hostels. Contrary to the movie everyone refers me to, I have never felt unsafe in a hostel. Additionally, they are decidedly the cheapest way to backpack through Europe. The two sites that I use when checking out hostel options are Hostelworld and HostelBookers. During my 2014 backpacking experience, our group did not plan ahead for hostels and took a rookie attitude of "we'll figure out where to sleep when we get there." I learned my lesson four years ago and knew we would want to have beds reserved beforehand. When deciding on a hostel, always have Google Maps pulled up in a second tab. Just as in real estate, location location location is key in hostel discovery. Personally, I prefer staying in a hostel that is close to a city center, but also close to the train station from which I am either entering or departing a specific city. If the city center and the train station are not close together, nine times out of ten I will choose to stay nearer the train station. My philosophy on this is that once I arrive in a new city, I am ready to lose the backpack pronto and wander the new surroundings with a lighter load. This also is a good strategy when your train either arrives very late in the evening or leaves very early in the morning. We booked all of our hostels in advance, except for two. Booking in advance requires a small deposit and overall we spent $250 total per person for the hostels we chose. 

At this point in our plotting, we had yet to leave the country and had essentially each spent $1461 on travel and lodging. Next on the list, sightseeing adventures. Jordan is admittedly not as into history as I am so we skipped more of the historical tours on this trip, but managed to fit in a few. I recommend booking excursions in advance for a couple of reasons. First, booking online almost always saves you a few euros. Secondly, it will save you time as the lines to buy tickets at these events are almost always longer than the lines to enter with a pre-purchased ticket. We purchased tickets in advance for the London Ice Bar, the London Eye, and the Colosseum/Roman Forum coming to a total of $84 for each of us. We also found a free walking tour in London that we signed up for as well. 

With plane tickets, train tickets, hostel reservations, and sightseeing tickets in hand, we were ready to pack. Jordan borrowed a sturdy backpack from her cousin, Kenzie, but I needed one. In theory, a backpack for a trip like this should be sturdy and supportive. Being a cheapskate, and living in fear of having to pay for a checked bag, I found this backpack on Amazon and bought it in blue ($20) along with this micro-fiber quick dry towel since most hostels do not provide them ($14). I would say that both served me well! I never once had to roll up a wet towel and I don't believe I sustained any permanent back injuries from the backpack. We each brought only 2 pairs of shoes, Birkenstocks and tennis shoes, and tailored our wardrobe to the weather (HOT!). I never once had to wear the same shirt twice and packed 4 pairs of leggings plus a pair of shorts and one dress. I logged into our ATT cell service account and added an international data + calling plan for $60 in case of emergencies. Nearly all restaurants, airports, train stations, and hostels have WiFi for keeping in touch, but the data plan came in handy when paper maps failed us. After calling our banks and credit card companies to inform them of our travel intentions, we ordered euros and pounds to have on hand initially, which came to a total of $280 for each of us. 

Armed with foreign currency, our printed itinerary, and snacks stuffed into backpack crevices, we arrived at Will Rogers Airport in OKC at zero dark thirty 5:15 AM on April 19th. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Powells was underway!