Travel Europe on planes, trains, buses

If you plan to tour the Continent or want to see just a few cities in Europe, you have lots of options for getting around. There are low-cost carriers with crazy fares, the train, car rentals and cheap buses.

Air travel in Europe is the cheapest it has ever been, though taxes can add a lot to those base rates. (Even though Ryanair may have a $1 fare, you may pay $60 more for the taxes.) With budget airlines, you’ll also pay extra for food and drink, payment by credit card, etc.

How much luggage you’re taking is a consideration for fliers within Europe. For example, easyJet (www.easyjet.com) allows one piece of luggage free of charge (maximum 44 pounds), and British Airways (www.britishairways.com) recently changed its rule to allow just one bag of 51 pounds or less. (The allowance on BA for travel to and from the U.S. is two bags.)

Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) charges for checked luggage; you’ll pay a minimum of about $10 for checked luggage of 33 pounds or less and about $11 for every two pounds over that.

We checked prices for travel from London to Paris on May 8. One-way rates including taxes and fees were $59 on easyJet, $84 on British Airways and $94 on the high-speed Eurostar train.

Flights were a little over two hours, and the train was almost three hours; factor in time and cost to get to the airport.

At $37, a Eurolines bus ticket was the cheapest, but that trip takes eight hours. You’re allowed two pieces of checked luggage on the train and bus.

Rail service used to be the prime way to get around Europe, and it’s still a great way to go.

The continent’s high-speed trains include new service from Paris to Germany. These trains beat the time you’d spend for air travel when you consider getting to the airport and checking in.

Among pass options are multi-country or single-country tickets priced by the number of travel days.

Also consider point-to-point tickets if your train travel will be limited. Contact Rail Europe: (888) 382-7245, www.raileurope.com.

Buses are very affordable, but travel times are usually longer. Eurolines (www.eurolines.com) offers point-to-point tickets and passes for 15 or 30 consecutive days of travel among 40 cities in 20 countries. Busabout (www.busabout.com) offers hop-on, hop-off service popular with backpackers.

Some very cheap fares for travel in the United Kingdom are available from Megabus (www.megabus.com/uk), easyBus (www.easybus.co.uk) and National Express (www.nationalexpress.com). We have recently seen fares as low as about $2 (advance purchase required).

While planes, trains and buses can take you from point to point, you’ll need a rental car if you want to explore the countryside. I especially like Auto Europe (888-223-5555, www.autoeurope.com) if I’ll be driving in more than one country.

Auto Europe has more than 4,000 locations worldwide; if I have a problem, I can get service almost anywhere in Europe. If you travel in one area, a smaller rental-car company should be fine.

For more information on European travel providers, see www.beta.bestfares.com and enter eurotravel in the search box.