How Four Cities in Three Countries Cost Me 110 Euros

The trip started with a fare I could not pay. Two springs before I wrote this, I was invited to a conference in Budapest to collect an award, and flights from Switzerland to Hungary began at 250 euros. I was a student, and that was not a number I could arrange.

So the question changed shape. Not how to reach Budapest, but how to reach Budapest without spending 250 euros, and whether the journey could include something else on the way. The answer turned out to be four cities in three countries for 109 euros in transport. The headline says 110 euros; my receipts say 109.

The route: Basel to Milan to Budapest, then on to Brussels and Ghent, and home again.

The direct options, and why none of them worked

I was travelling in May and began booking more than two months in advance. The only direct easyJet service was fully booked. The next best option was a connection through Amsterdam, which pushed the return fare up rather than down. I looked at trains as well, but 12 hours in one direction was not the cheaper choice either.

Then the useful thought arrived: split the journey at a point from where a cheap connection to Budapest exists. There had to be one. I spent evenings on fare search engines, rail sites and carpooling boards looking for the right place to break the trip.

Milan, and a ten-euro flight

Milan kept coming up as a candidate, so I ran the usual search on Skyscanner to see what was possible. The first result was a flight from Milan to Budapest for 10 euros. I did not believe the screen. It was real, and it introduced me to Wizz Air, one of Europe's low-cost carriers. I went to their own website to confirm the fare was not an error. The conditions were the familiar ones: one carry-on bag, and a charge for anything beyond it.

Getting to Milan cheaply was the next task. Several searches later I found a savings, non-refundable fare of 20 euros on sbb.ch, the Swiss rail site. Thirty euros for the train and the flight together took me from Switzerland to Hungary, with a day in Italy in between. A Couchsurfing host in Milan agreed to put me up for the night, which turned the connection into a day's break in Milan rather than a wait in a station.

Budapest at night.

Budapest, and a reason to fly west

While I was arranging Milan, two other hosts in Budapest said yes as well. I planned four or five days there, then turned to the return leg, hoping to add one more place to the map.

A friend had moved to Belgium a short while before, and visiting her had been at the back of my mind. When a 20-euro Wizz Air fare to Brussels Charleroi appeared, the trip rearranged itself again. She was living in Ghent. I could spend a weekend with her, give Brussels a day, and take a late-night Eurolines bus back to Basel for 31 euros, which would put me home at a reasonable hour the next morning.

Oswald, a friend I made while Couchsurfing in Budapest.

What the whole route cost

• Basel to Milan, by train: 20 euros
• Milan city to Malpensa Airport, by bus: 8 euros
• Milan Malpensa to Budapest, by air: 10 euros
• Budapest to Brussels Charleroi, by air: 22 euros
• Charleroi to Brussels railway station, by shuttle bus: 5 euros
• Brussels to Ghent, by train: 8 euros
• Ghent to Brussels, by train: 5 euros, using discounted bulk tickets
• Brussels to Basel, by bus: 31 euros
• Total: 109 euros

Thirty euros of that was the journey out of Switzerland. The rest bought a week in four cities, and the stops in between turned out to matter as much as the destinations.

Four things that made the difference

1. Break the journey. When a direct connection costs more than the holiday should, look for a city in the middle with a cheap onward service. It is more work than booking a return, and it usually pays.
2. Search the low-cost airlines and the national rail offers together. Trains with more changes are often cheaper, particularly if you are under 25.
3. Learn the saver fares. Switzerland has what is called a “Super saver fare”, with large reductions on different tickets about two weeks in advance. Deutsche Bahn has offers for individual German states, for crossing the country, and for groups; with more than five people you can pay only half the price. For shorter distances I like carpooling — look at mitfahrgelegenheit or blablacar.
4. Remember the bus. Buses inside Switzerland are hard to find. Meinfernbus and Eurolines run from Basel (Lörrach in Germany) and Zurich to other countries, so that option is worth checking too.

Along the river in Ghent.

Belgian chocolate, which deserves its own paragraph.

Belgium, in less time than it deserved

I would have liked longer there: more waffles, more chocolate, crepes, and a proper sampling of the beer as well as the chocolate. But I was in the middle of a thesis and had a week's break, so the trip ended when the calendar said it should. If you have a sweet tooth, seek out the Noses of Ghent.

Noses of Gent, a local speciality in Ghent.

Milan, the second time

I went back to Milan two months ago and stayed a few days, eating my way through the city with Limoncello and Avarna. The thing I would recommend most is the Milan City Card. It got me a free pizza meal, free access to the rooftop of the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel, discounts at museums, two Uber rides, a free boat ride, a free dessert and more. It costs 7 euros for one day, 13 for two and 19 for three.

Look up inside the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel.

If you are in Italy soon, bring me back a bottle of Limoncello.

What I miss most is the thermal bath in Budapest.

None of this needed an agent or a special deal, only a willingness to look at the map differently. A journey with a stop in it can cost less than a journey without one, and the stop is often the part you remember.

Disclosure: I am part of the Skyscanner Elite programme and share the fares I find with newsletter subscribers.