Review: The Eurolines Pass

Eurolines is not a company. The brand name "Eurolines" groups 32 independent coach companies operating together Europe's largest regular coach network.

With a Eurolines Pass, you can see Europe at your own pace. The pass allows you to travel around 43 cities, from western Europe to eastern Europe. All their coaches are modern and comfortable, with reclining seats and toilets. There's also regular refreshment breaks.

One thing to note about using the pass: you can only travel from one country to another. That means, you are not allowed to travel among the cities within the country using the pass. In short, this pass is very good for those who wants to visits as many capitals and major cities as possible.

There are 2 type of passes : 15 consecutive day or 30 consecutive day pass. The pass is also charged differently for 3 different seasons:

• low (5 January to 28 March, or 30 October to 10 December), 
• mid (29 March to 26 June, or 7 September to29 October)
• high season (27 June to 6 September, or 11 December to 4 January)

And of course, for traveler under 26 years old, they can opt for a cheaper price under "Youth" category. On the right is the pass prices table.

I had bought the 30-day pass. I find it saves me a lot of money but not my time. Why not saving my time? I can only book my ticket over the counter, and not at the website. This is a nuisance.

Although the pass allows you to travel across 43 cities (this number is growing as I writes), you need to be extra careful on the routes and date of travel. Not every city lets you depart to another city you wish. And in some cities, there are no everyday bus that departs to the destination you wanted. So, studying the route is sometimes a headache, but for a person like me who have more time versus money, I don't have that problem :)

Do take note that once you bought the pass, make sure to photocopy a copy of it, as you need to present the pass whenever you want to make a booking. Losing the pass (which is a piece of printed A4 paper) means you lose your expensive ticket: they won't print you another copy!

At some of the cities, you need to pay a booking fee of €3 to €5.

So, in summary, Eurolines pass is suitable for you if:

1. Most of your cities list are within the Eurolines routes
2. You don't plan to spend too much time within a country or travelling within a country
3. You don't mind sitting on the bus (in some journeys a few hours, and in some journeys you overnight in the bus)
4. You are on a tight budget
5. Your trip is around 15 days or 30 days across Europe

Across Europe - Budget flight, train, or bus?

Since this trip seems like once in a blue moon trip for me (as I don't think I can take another long holiday in my next job), I decided to go as many countries as possible. While this is the case, I decided to go with my heart - if I like the place, I will stay longer. Else, I will move to the next destination.

To travel around Europe, there are mainly 3 options - by flight, train or bus. Since this is a budget trip, I had checked both ryanair.com and easyjet.com. Too bad, there's no cheap flight in my travelling period.

Next, the EURail train pass for 1 month. At €841 (RM3600), it seems quite pricey (though it is very convenient).

I checked for Eurolines, the Europe bus network, and was joy to find the 1 month pass at €330 (RM1400, since it was mid season for my May-June trip). After checking the route available with Eurolines, I decided to take the bus as my official transportation across Europe :)

Tips on booking hostel

I had book most of my hostel stay through Hostelbookers.com and Hostelworld.com, and I highly recommend booking through them.

Hostelbookers had been my 1st choice because:

1. They don't charge booking fee or service charge.
2. If you manage to find the same hostel with cheaper price, Hostelbookers will refund double the difference (they still do at the time this post was written). This statement assures that you are getting the cheapest deal!

A good hostel will make your stay enjoyable, fun and a good night rest. As you are sharing the rooms with others, hostel with good ratings will normally have good hostelmates. 

My rule of thumb when booking a hostel:

1. Good rating. Any hostel with 80% and above rating (with at least 50 reviews) will be good. And of course, the cheaper, the better :)
2. Read the reviews. It tells a lot about what you want to know.
3. Internet is available and it's free. You won't want to pay for expensive hourly WIFI charges. If they have public PC free for surfing, it will be a plus for those without laptop or WIFI enabled phone.
4. Lockers in dorm. 
5. 24-hour reception is a plus, because sometimes you might arrive late or early in the morning.
6. Location is strategically near most of the attractions that I want to visit. I would explain more in the post to come about using Google Map.
7. If you are going during the hot season, you would want your room to have air-cond.
   If you are going during the cold season, you would want hot showers.
8. Linen included. I don't want to pay extra for linen, and the hostel will charge you rental fee for linen if it is not included (I had not met anyone who brings their own linen in their backpack)

Accomodation - Hostel

Information around the Internet suggest that one of the cheapest way to sleep overnight is by booking a bed at hostel dormitory. This means that you are occupying a bed in a room (probably 4 to 14 beds in a big room).

Most hostel have both dorm room accommodation as well as private rooms. There are kitchen with cooking and eating utensils, common areas and shared washroom/bathroom.

The thought of sleeping cheaply does sounds a little worry in me. How does the room look like? Is the bed crappy? Will I be safe? Is the hostel located far from the attraction places?

Thanks to Hostelbookers.com and Hostelworld.com, they do answered most of my questions. I book my stay easily through them, and before booking, I was able to:

1. Get some rough ideas about the hostel that I am interested, reception working hours and check-in/check-out time.
2. Know what type of facilities offered: hot showers, lockers, Internet, breakfast, linen, safe deposit box, air-cond, washing machine etc.
3. Pictures of the hostel and room that I am interested
4. Maps and direction to the hostel
5. Reviews of the hostel by people who had stayed there, with ratings on atmosphere, location, facilities, cleanliness, safety etc

It is important to choose a good hostel. I would like a good night rest after touring around the city whole day.

I consider hostel over hotel for my stay because:

1. I want to stay cheaply, especially for a single traveler 
2. I am an easy sleeper - I don't mind sharing room with other people
3. I can save more money by cooking my own meal using the shared kitchen
4. I can easily make fast friends with other travelers and exchange information about the journey ahead.

If you mind sharing rooms with others, or you are traveling with your boyfriend/girlfriend, you can always book the private rooms, sometimes with bathroom attached, with price still cheaper than hotel rate.

In the next post, I will explain more about how to choose your hostel wisely. 

Flight Tickets - A major cost of any travel budget

I was having a nice chat and drink with a close friend last night. He was here for a brief trip, and I was glad that he did spare his precious time to catch up with me. We did talk about my Europe trip and his first question was: How much did you spend for your entire Europe trip?


My answer: RM12,000 (€2,800) inclusive of everything: flight tickets, transportation, accomodation and foods. 


He gasped! RM12,000 across 12 countries was a damn bargain, he exclaimed. And I reminded that he heard it right.


How did you do it, he asked.


Well, I told him that the first thing I did right was getting a bargain deal for my flight ticket. Airline ticket is a major cost of any travel budget; it can be around 20% to 40% of your total travel budget depending on the length of your trip. And it gets even more expensive when you book it nearer to your travelling date.


If you are travelling from Malaysia or Southeast Asia to Europe, you can get a very good low price if you travel by AirAsia X, Malaysia low-cost airlines. And if you book the tickets earliest when they make an offer through their website, you might grab a return ticket to London at below RM2000 (€470)!


And, if you are like me who booked my flight just 72 hours prior to flying, you should choose Qatar Airways! Their normal fare is really a good deal; imagine I got it at RM3257 (€760) for a return flight from Kuala Lumpur to Paris, when other major airlines was offering at more than RM5000 (€1165). Not to mention, it is a 5-star airlines too! And if your trip is less than 30 days, they sometimes offer a special 30-day return ticket at below RM2000 (€470).

  

So, if you are from Malaysia or South East Asia countries, try to get your tickets from AirAsia or Qatar Airways. 


If you are not, you should still try Qatar Airways or search around the Internet by typing keywords such as "cheap flight", "budget flight" or "cheap air ticket".