How to plan for a trip in European countries

This applies mostly for the people from European countries, but not necessarily.

We all Europeans benefit nowadays from what I believe to be the greatest opportunity we have ever had to travel easily and rapidly to almost anywhere we like in Europe. What troubles me is that I cannot understand why people like Romanians don't like travelling, because for me it is like a second nature, it's almost like a drug. Most of the them probably have financial reasons not to travel but still it just doesn't make sense why some prefer to spend money on fancy cars or big houses when the world is out there waiting for them...it it something wrong about people from my country and it's not only about this aspect, there are a lot of thing that I don't understand (for example: why we like so much things we see as tourists and we do nothing to just copy those good things, it would be much simpler and productive; or how it is possible to spend money on a 100.000 euro car and sleep in a rented house, much cheaper than the car).

Back to the title, the last trip I made was in Paris, an expensive, but affordable trip if planned careful and at least 6 month earlier. And because I managed to spend less on this 5-day-holiday I made with my wife the idea to share this experience came up natural to me.

First you have to decide about the town or place you want to visit. If you decide on a tour then you would better find a tour-operator for the country you want to travel to. It is safer this way.

Choosing the town might not be that easy and if you are looking for a particular location. You will have to look in time to find for the right opportunity. That opportunity might be related to a cheap flight or a friend that has just moved in that city where you can go to visit him for a week. But keep in mind that you have to balance the cheap flight you may find with the possibility that the time you get there might be high-seasonal, when prices are all high.

Right after the plane is booked you must hurry for a hotel. In general, as booking is made earlier the cheaper the hotel is. It's like planning for a wedding, when you have to reserve at the restaurant far in advance in order to have room available on a weekend with no religious holiday (and in Romania are so much of them).

After flight and hotel are booked all become much easier, and the total cost also affordable. This way the holiday is planned in small steps and the costs involved can be pictured as a rate with no interest.

Later on you can schedule for the daily activities you are supposed to follow on the trip based on the information you get from the Internet (blogs, forums, groups, reviews, etc.) and also save the money you need for the costs of each planned visit. And you do that on a weekly basis, you don't have to disturb your regular activity for this planning, nor your regular expenses.

Some cities offer passports tickets to all of its attractions, so if you have in mind staying for longer than 4-5 days you may consider buying one of those. In my case, I used another strategy to get discounts to most of Paris attractions and what I did was to buy the Paris Visite ticket. This ticket gave me full access to all of the transport in Paris (Metro, RER trains, buses), including Versailles and Disneyland (both outside Paris) and also helped me gain discounts to most of the museums, exhibitions, attractions from Paris.

Food is an important issue, if possible book for a room with breakfast included. The exception applies to cities where breakfast is so few it does not include the calories you need. This is the case for Paris, where you have only "the matinal" available, the breakfast made of a coffee and a croissant. Solution is to have only a meal a day at the restaurant and the rest you can supply from the market with the ingredients to make yourself some consistent sandwiches to have on your trip in the city.

P.S. I just got in Bucharest but I am already thinking about my next trip, wonder where that would be..! ;)