Prompt #10: What have you done in your own visits to Europe to make it more budget-friendly or to get away from the crowds? If you were going to spend several weeks – or several months – in Europe, where would you go (and why)?
When I went to Paris with a friend in 2005, I think the item that saved us the most money was purchasing the Paris Museum Pass. This was our first time in Paris & we made excellent travel buddies because we had the same priorities. Museums. Art. Cheese (I still claim this was before my stark realization of lactose intolerance).
Brie aside, we knew we wanted to see a lot of Parisian ‘sights’ & monuments that the Pass included on its list. You pick a length of time (2, 4, or 6 days) & get unlimited access to the locations on the Pass List. We made a list of what we’d like to see, checked it up against the list & quickly realized we would save some money if we consolidated it all under the Museum Pass. Plus, we could always go check out some of the locations that we hadn’t previously considered! No extra cost, no pressure to stick around if it wasn’t our thing.
A lot of cities offer this type of City Exploration Pass: Toronto, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, etc. Totally worth checking out while you’re on the go if you haven’t seen a lot of the ‘sights’ that are what visiting someplace for the first time are all about!