Edit 30/06/2020: The timing on this post could’ve been better.
I’ve decided to put together some tips for traveling to Europe on a budget. These are from various things I’ve read and from my own personal experiences. Note that I usually travel with just a standard backpack because I’m able to fit my laptop, around 10 days worth of clothes, and my camera all in one bag. This makes travel significantly cheaper, because a normal sized backpack only counts as a “personal item” which is included in the ticket price of even the most economical (cheap) airlines. Also, it makes adventuring much easier because you only need to worry about one bag. Generally, adding a carry-on (the smaller wheeled bag that fits in the overhead) costs around $100 - $120 round-trip.
I hope this helps you save some time and money!
Flying from the US to Europe:
This is not nearly as expensive or daunting as it may first seem. There are several airlines that have non-stop round-trip flights from large US cities to major hubs in the EU, and you can often find these in the sub-$400 range. Also, these are generally red-eye flights that leave at 11 pm or midnight and arrive the next morning. These flights go on sale pretty regularly. If you know you are going to be planning a trip in the next few months I would highly recommend checking out ScottsCheapFlights.com and see if there are any that fit your schedule. If you know the exact dates you want to fly, momondo.com and skiplagged.com will have the best prices. Skiplagged also has a graph of flight prices over time so that can help you find even better deals if your dates are flexible.
My favorite resource (especially if I have no idea where or when I want to go) is Google Flights. You can go to flights.google.com and do all kinds of fun things. For example, you can put in a starting airport (say, JFK in New York City) and then just use “Europe” as the destination. You can also select options for “1 week trip” or “two week trip” and select a month and you will get to see a list of some of the best deals to the various cities in Europe. You can narrow this down further by using destinations like “Western Europe”, “Spain”, or even regions like “Andalusia”. So a sample search could give you the best deals for traveling from Washington DC to France for a two week trip in June. Once you find a cheap option, just take the dates Google gives you and put them in on momondo.com or skiplagged.com to see if you can get it even cheaper!
Now, since I am writing this with the intention of sending it to friends who want to come visit The Netherlands, I’ll give some advice specifically for that. There are direct flights daily from New York City, Washington DC, and Boston to Amsterdam and vice-versa. New York City is almost always the cheapest and least painful. There is a daily flight on Norwegian Air that leaves at 12:05 (five minutes past midnight) and arrives in Amsterdam the next day. Getting to New York City is pretty easy as well. RDU has several non-stop flights per day that are around $100 round-trip.
So for friends coming to visit from NC:
Check Scott’s Cheap Flights for deals to Amsterdam. I have occasionally seen very cheap, 1-stop flights to Western Europe that include an extra bag. This is the best case scenario. Sometimes these are not to Amsterdam, but go to Paris, Madrid, Rome, or Germany. This is okay. Once you are in Europe it is very easy and inexpensive to fly from city to city (compared to the US).
If you don’t see anything on Scott’s Cheap Flights, I recommend flying from RDU to JFK, and then JFK to AMS on the Norwegian Airlines flight. This should end up being the cheapest and easiest option. If you try booking from RDU to AMS, you are going to pay twice as much and still have a layover in another city because there are no direct flights from RDU to AMS at this time.
You can also check flights to different cities using Google Flights as mentioned above. There are often cheap flights from Washington DC to Paris, for example. From Paris, you can take a high-speed train and be in Amsterdam in 2.5 hours. Search for flights from Washington DC, New York City, and Boston to Western Europe. These will give you the best options, and getting to any of these cities from anywhere in the US is pretty easy.
I hope this advice is helpful, and let me know in the comments if you have any questions or want something explained further. Happy Traveling! Come visit soon!