Want to explore Europe while studying abroad in Ireland? Matt Cruz, our Limerick IT and Canadian Ambassador, shares his top five tips for student travel on a budget…

Studying abroad comes with many perks. One of the best things about studying in Ireland is the ability to travel to many counties for a very affordable price. These affordable prices are all thanks to budget airlines such as Ryanair, EasyJet and Vueling. With these discount airlines you can fly from one of many of the major airports in Ireland to many European countries, with return flight, for less than 50 Euro.

I have done my fair share of traveling and over the years I’ve gathered my top five tips for traveling as an international student in Europe. These tips will help you save money and have the best time possible.

  • Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone! There might be a time you want to go somewhere and none of your friends have the interest to go with you. This is the perfect time to try solo traveling. You learn so much by traveling on your own, I’m sure you’ll be surprised with your ability to have a great time on your own. (Traveling alone, just like any form of traveling, has certain risks so always take extra safety precautions.)
  • Do some price comparison! (I’m going to talk about Ryanair as an example, for this is the airline I’ve used for most of my budget travel). I strongly suggest using a website like kayak.ie or skycanner.ie when searching for your flights as it breaks for cheapest flight for each day of the month for the destination you’re looking at.
  • Ryanair 9.99E sale. I recommend subscribing to Ryanair’s email alerts to get up to date information on their sales and promotions. Ryanair often has blow out sales where many flights going for 9-39 Euro each way.
  • Pack light! I’m that person that over packs and brings everything I think I’m going to need, when in reality I use less the half of it. The budget airlines usually only let you bring one carryon bag and a personal bag (i.e. purse of small satchel) so use that to your advantage when trying to pack light.
  • You don’t need to leave the country you’re in to travel. Traveling within the country you are studying can be an amazing experience. When traveling in the country you’re studying in you can often skip the air travel and take less expensive trains and busses. Although these methods might take a little bit longer then air travel, you get to see the landscape you would otherwise be missing.

Hopefully with some of these tips you can make the most of your study abroad program all while experiencing another culture via a reading week get away.