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Save on Transportation, Lodging, Meals and Museums.

Key opportunities for transportation savings must be exercised BEFORE you travel to Europe! Especially beneficial are pre-arrangement of Eurail travel and car rentals. You'll discover a multitude of choices with Eurail passes that offer multi-day and multi-country savings. Just go to their website, review best choices for your travel itinerary and place your secure order. It's simple and saves you time, money and lost time. Keep in mind that you may have surcharges, as you finalize your reservations, once you are abroad. If you plan any train travel, it is well worth it handle details before your scheduled travel dates.

The same is true for auto rentals. A little research delivers the perfect transportation experience for extended travel in Europe. The purchase/buy back agreement with Peugeot is a wonderful program that provides you with a brand new vehicle, all necessary documentation and insurance, easy pick-up and delivery and at a cost per day that diminishes over time. Past 28 days, the cost per day lessens considerably and offes freedom of travel not fully realized with trains.

You can enjoy incredible advantages and unique discoveries with your rental car! Let's begin with freedom. Your car offers all of the latitude of a global nomad. Turn at the Cav sign up there. Go see that village on the hill. How about the Napoleon Bonaparte route? The complete serendipity of exploring unknown routes and places is an unrivalled benefit for those who do not want to be limited by train station locations and city or village hotels.

While you may wish to choose hotel booking services, gites (guest houses) and vacation rentals offer further opportunities to save. The weekly and monthly rates of the latter equal the best of 2-star hotel rates with the added advantage of extra space, cooking facilities, parking and more. Take a look at Vacation Rentals by Owner to see the varied sizes and locations you can reserve. In France and beyond, the Gites de France organization will help you book your self-catered cottage, room, suite or rural home. They are enormously helpful and provide complete information to guide your decisionmaking. Once abroad, you will discover that Offices of Tourism can provide maps, suggest tours and even book your hotel accommodations - another invaluable resource.

Dining can run your expenses up, unless you think through what you most desire and plan ahead. As in the statee, noon meals usually cost far less than evening meals. For all meals, restaurants usually offer a menu or formule at a preset price for entree, main course and dessert or other such combinations - always a cost advantage over a la carte selections. And there are plenty of bakeries, restaurants and stores that offer delicious take-out choices for that picnic in the park! Combine picnics with lower cost formule meals, and you'll save enough to splurge on the occasional gourmet meal.

Finally, most cities offer multiple-museum tickets with a good deal of latitude, whether for multiple days or for museum choices. It's always a good idea to research those in which you are interested, because they often have free or reduced-ticket times and days that offer considerable savings.

Certainly, there is a bit of work involved in planning your trip, but don't despair! The process also builds your anticipation, arms you with key information and paves the way for you to realize some real travel savings. So enjoy the process before you even reach your destination. Bon voyage!

Learn more about this author, Sandra Sheridan.
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