emilep

I live in San Francisco, and my goal is to get to Europe for as cheap as possible between Sept and Nov. I plan on getting a Eurorail pass and travel around, so the city I land in isn't that important. Also the dates are pretty flexible.

It seems like Dublin & Moscow are the cheapest (especially out of NYC). I've been using Google Flights to play with the dates and airports - however with the almost infinite number of permutations, I'm guessing someone knows a few tricks that I'm not familiar with. Any tips?

Things I'm still unsure about -

* Do I really save much to fly from SFO to NYC on a separate leg? I'm starting to think not with a difference of ~$300. It would be tough to find a round trip flight from NYC to SFO for that amount.

* If I land in Dublin, just get a Ryanair flight (or whatever is cheapest for $50-$90). Is this the cheapest option out of Ireland to a Eurorail hub?

Thank you in advance for your help. I've travelled quite a bit in the last few years, but I'm learning I've done it pretty inefficiently. Any tip/tricks are greatly appreciated!

Alex71

Ryanair can have some fantastic deals if booked early enough in advance, but you have to play exactly by their rules to avoid high fees and some of the airports they fly to are pretty remote. So, if you decide to go down that route, make sure you book a flight into an airport with train access and make sure you read up on all their rules.

JBord

Some days I love Google Flights and some days I hate it , too many options.

Just my opinion, but for $300 (really probably like $100 right?), I would probably just book from SFO rather than risk two separate tickets, especially if you are checking a bag. If there are delays or cancellations, your life will be much easier and probably worth the money to have a single ticket.

I went from DUB to AMS last November, and I think Ryanair was about $80 at the time. Probably your best bet to just find the cheapest major city on the continent if you don't care where. I'm not that familiar with Ryanair and know they don't always fly into major airports but AMS isn't a bad place to connect to from DUB. I haven't used a rail pass either, but imagine Centraal Station in Amsterdam would work fine.

Reindeerflame

It's "Eurail", not "Eurorail". I always wonder where the extra "o" comes from.

Why not try flying to Europe for free? Then there would be more funds for the relatively expensive Eurail pass.

deniah

if you actually want to exit moscow on land, and you are american, you will need a visa, and that might negate any savings

jaymar01

Your cheapest way to Europe would be to fly to LA, and take Norwegian Air to Oslo, Stockholm or Copenhagen. It should be easy to find an autumn flight for under $500/rt.

All three cities are well served by RyanAir, EasyJet and Wizz Airlines.

flyersolo

You can fly from OAK on Norwegian, it's a quick BART ride to east bay.

jaymar01

Even better, although you'll miss all the pleasure of a visit to LAX.

emilep

Ah my b

emilep

Brilliant thanks!