February and March are the ideal time for a trip to Europe
In fact, you won't have to give up the habit of traveling at all if you choose the right time and direction. Want to go to Europe but afraid it will be terribly expensive? Go in February or March, when tickets to European cities are cheaper than ever, and finding a decent inexpensive hotel is not a problem.
“In February-March, airfare prices are 10-15% cheaper than in other months,” says Janis Dzenis, an Aviasales expert. “The explanation is quite simple: the New Year holidays are over, summer is still far away, and between the two peaks, airlines are trying to fill their planes. The same thing happens with hotels; they lower prices and/or add all kinds of offers for guests.”
Tickets will be cheapest if you take care of searching for them in advance: “The best time to book is 5-6 weeks before the trip,” explains Valentin Yan, Managing Director of KAYAK Europe. “If a tourist has a limited budget, they can choose a suitable travel option based on necessary parameters, such as price, type of vacation, travel time, and even weather conditions. For example, on our website you can subscribe to notifications for destinations of interest and quickly receive information about price changes.”
It's hard to believe, but tickets to some European cities in February or March can cost you $140 and even $60. The main thing is to look at the low-price calendar, which is available on many search engines. The Aviasales service has compiled for us a list of European cities that are cheapest to reach in February and March. And specialists from the TripAdvisor community have selected the best, according to users, hotels in these cities, where staying is not expensive at all – they even received the TripAdvisor Traveler's Choice award.
Yes, Europe at the end of winter is not Thailand or Rio de Janeiro. But romantic walks along the narrow streets of medieval cities and attempts to warm up in a café with a mug of mulled wine or a cup of coffee have not been canceled. Nor has visiting museums and cathedrals. Masterpieces of world architecture are already waiting for you.
VILNIUS
Good inexpensive hotels: Comfort Hotel LT, E-Guesthouse, Downtown Forest Hostel & Camping, Corner Hotel, Algirdas City Hotels, Alexa Old Town Hotel.
In the capital of Lithuania, it is worth walking a lot in the Old Town – walk through the territory of Vilnius University, climb Castle Hill to the Gediminas Tower, cross Town Hall Square, visit the late Gothic Church of St. Anne or the Church of St. Nicholas, the oldest surviving church in Vilnius, or the Jesuit Church of St. Casimir, the first religious building in the city built in the Baroque style. In general, in Vilnius you can go from church to church – and it will never get boring, especially if you like Baroque or Rococo style.
You can also include the Choral Synagogue in your program of visiting religious sites – actually there were 105 of them in the city, but only one has survived. If churches are not your thing, head to the artists' district of Užupis – there are art galleries, workshops and cafes, in short, everything the soul yearning for beauty desires.
RIGA
Good inexpensive hotels: Funky Hostel and Apartments, Primo Hotel, Hotel Man-Tess, Wellton Elefant Hotel, City Hotel Teater, Maritim Park Hotel Riga, Dodo Hotel, Forums Hotel.
Our compatriots have loved this Baltic capital for so long and so ardently that it's even scary to advise anything – you probably know everything yourselves? That walking around the Old Town of Riga is wonderful, but it doesn't last very long because it's quite small. That you can get to the Baltic Sea coast by train: just a few stops – and here you are romantically strolling along the windswept beaches of Jurmala, admiring the cold raging sea. That the organ of Riga Cathedral is considered one of the best in Europe. That in the New Town of Riga you can endlessly admire Art Nouveau buildings.
Eating in Riga is especially good: Scandinavian cuisine remains one of the hottest gastronomic trends, and Riga is not lagging behind at all. They handle fish and dairy products wonderfully: trout, carp, pike, Baltic salmon turn into masterpieces of haute cuisine. Cottage cheese becomes the most delicate creams with seasonal local berries. And Riga bread, chocolate, butter, cheese, cottage cheese?! Definitely – even if you've already been to Riga, it's worth going again.
BERLIN
Good inexpensive hotel: Steps Hotel Wedding.
If you are interested in architectural monuments, there is no need to go to Berlin. The German capital is loved not for its beauty but for its character. It is a cheerful, open, noisy city that never sleeps. Here you can see masterpieces of fine art right on the street – in the form of graffiti.
Here at night you can go from one nightclub to another, and during the day stroll in parks, ride the tram on one of the oldest tram systems in the world, visit contemporary art galleries (and don't forget about Museum Island), and in between eat currywurst sausages, washed down with excellent cheap beer.
Berlin is for those who want to feel free. And very modern: in a city where the reconstruction of the government building was done by Norman Foster, it cannot be otherwise.
MUNICH
Good inexpensive hotels: Hotel Laimer Hof, Hotel Uhland, Motel One Muenchen-Sendl. Tor.
The complete opposite of the German capital, Munich is conservative, rich, calm, in short, a very decent city. Of all German cities, the capital of Bavaria probably best matches our ideas of Germany as a whole. A trip here will be substantial, whether you want it or not – you will be greeted with palaces, parks, cathedrals, and museums. Art museums especially: perhaps that is what it is really worth going to Munich for.
Just imagine: in the Alte Pinakothek – Leonardo da Vinci and Lucas Cranach, in the Neue Pinakothek – Francisco Goya and Eugène Delacroix, in the Glyptothek, one of Munich's old museums – ancient sculpture, in the Haus der Kunst – Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee, and at the villa of artist Franz von Lenbach – a collection of works by Wassily Kandinsky.
The entire history of fine art will pass before your eyes! By day – a museum, by evening – a beer hall: your daily schedule will surely turn out exactly like that. It's impossible to keep silent: they make the best beer in Germany in Munich. It's no coincidence that Oktoberfest is also held here.
PRAGUE
Good inexpensive hotels: Hotel Selsky Dvur, Hotel Inos, Hotel Loreta, Central Hotel Tiepolo, Aparthotel Lublanka, Prague Centre Apartments, Hotel HERRMES, Hotel Coronet, Austria Suites & Hotel.
And another Mecca for beer lovers! Honestly, it's a coincidence. What can you do if Czech velvety beer is so tasty that even those women who generally hate this very beer love it. However, drinking beer is far from the only and even the most important thing to do in Prague. Although it is as inevitable as a walk across Charles Bridge or a visit to Prague Castle – a fortress whose first buildings appeared as early as the 6th century.
Just don't forget that Prague is also masterpieces of Art Nouveau architecture, the Jewish Josefov quarter, which makes you think of Franz Kafka and Gustav Meyrink with his 'Golem'. All this – together with the Prague Orloj, the Powder Tower, the Alphonse Mucha Museum and the Church of Our Lady before Týn – creates an amazing, strange, romantic image of the city that you will want to return to, because there is never enough of Prague. And beer has nothing to do with it.
Anna LOZINSKAYA.
'Gazeta.ru'