Looking for tips + info about open Jaw Tickets, travelling in Europe.

Allyall

I'm finishing up in my job in 2 weeks, and planning on travelling for a little while, beginning with Europe, in September at some point.
There'll be 2 or 3 of us most likely 2. We are thinking of Starting down in Portugal, then travelling up through Spain, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and then maybe Sweden + Norway.
Or back into Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia and more.

Would it be better to get Open Jaw flights, or Will we find internal flights much cheaper wen we get there?

Would open jaw flights allow us to go to any or most Airports within Europe and choose any destination within Europe to go to? Or is that something else entirely?
We will be renting a car, and we have no definite plans for any destinations. As it is, we are assuming it will go something like the order above.

No time constrictions as we are not rushing back to anything.

Has anybody got any tips to make this cheaper/smoother/better?

Everything and Anything appreciated, thanks.

Very little to go on there, but we don't have any definite plans yet..

jjbrien

Have you looked at http://www.staralliance.com/en/fares/airpasses/europe-airpass/

Theres a lot of low cost airlines too operating in Europe which could be your best bet the likes of Ryanair, Norwegian, easyjet etc

How long are you planning on going for?

Allyall

I'll have a look at that site when I get home, thanks.

Not sure yet how long we're going for.
Thinking a few months.. May even come home for Christmas and then head back out again in January, maybe. Nothing at all decided..

mel.b

Where exactly are you planning on flying to / from. An open jaw flight is something like Barcelona - Paris, Munich - Barcelona, or Barcelona - Paris, Paris - Madrid. It sounds more like you just want one way tickets between two destinations, but you're not yet sure of the destinations and you may be hiring a car. You need to nail down more of a route first of where you want to go and what you want to see. As jjbrien mentioned, you're probably better looking at the low cost carriers - ryanair, easyjet etc, but flights are going to be more expensive the closer to the departure date that you book. I'd also look at trains for a lot of your trip. To get the cheapest train tickets you need to book 3mths out.

Allyall

jjbrien wrote: »

Have you looked at http://www.staralliance.com/en/fares/airpasses/europe-airpass/

That's a pretty cool site, just mesing around with it now.

mel.b wrote: »

Where exactly are you planning on flying to / from. An open jaw flight is something like Barcelona - Paris, Munich - Barcelona, or Barcelona - Paris, Paris - Madrid. It sounds more like you just want one way tickets between two destinations, but you're not yet sure of the destinations and you may be hiring a car. You need to nail down more of a route first of where you want to go and what you want to see. As jjbrien mentioned, you're probably better looking at the low cost carriers - ryanair, easyjet etc, but flights are going to be more expensive the closer to the departure date that you book. I'd also look at trains for a lot of your trip. To get the cheapest train tickets you need to book 3mths out.

Yeah, plan on looking at trains too, and possibly car rental.
I misunderstood what Open Jaw are.
I thought you could fly to a few destinations, for example
Dublin -> Faro, Copenhagen -> Naples.

Thinking of Flying from Dublin to Faro, Driving up through Spain, Train through France. Not sure then up to Copenhagen.
Then Flying from Copenhagen down to Italy, and then maybe Switzerland/Germany and back down to Croatia.

It's still very much up in the air, and my Friend has just recently decided to go too. He has packed in his job from abroad, and he doesn't arrive back here until mid August.
Not sure how it's going to go at all..

It may even end up that we buy a car and drive through random places, but I don't know how long that would take, and how tiring it may be to drive the lot of it, no matter how much we break it up.

kindalen

An adult type of interail? Overnight trains can be useful too.

Check out www.seat61.com

munchkin_utd

it does sound more of a job for interrailing, or buying cheap train tickets in advance, or mix of both. If youre in no rush then why fly?

Also you seem to think you can just abandon a rental car anywhere in europe you want.
Well, you are correct, it is possible but if you do a one way international rental it can cost well over a grand surcharge for the priviledge.

keithclancy

Allyall wrote: »

That's a pretty cool site, just mesing around with it now.



Yeah, plan on looking at trains too, and possibly car rental.
I misunderstood what Open Jaw are.
I thought you could fly to a few destinations, for example
Dublin -> Faro, Copenhagen -> Naples.

Thinking of Flying from Dublin to Faro, Driving up through Spain, Train through France. Not sure then up to Copenhagen.
Then Flying from Copenhagen down to Italy, and then maybe Switzerland/Germany and back down to Croatia.

It's still very much up in the air, and my Friend has just recently decided to go too. He has packed in his job from abroad, and he doesn't arrive back here until mid August.
Not sure how it's going to go at all..

It may even end up that we buy a car and drive through random places, but I don't know how long that would take, and how tiring it may be to drive the lot of it, no matter how much we break it up.

An open jaw flight just means the second leg of your flight is to a different airport than the one you left from on the first leg.

If you want the cheapest price then just book one way flights with budget airlines in advance.
You can use
www.skyscanner.net
www.kayak.ie

If you want the maximum flexibility then just look at the cheapest open using something like http://www.rome2rio.com/ a week in advance.

Its not that expensive a week or two in advance if you don't really care about which day you travel.

Allyall

kindalen wrote: »

An adult type of interail? Overnight trains can be useful too.

Check out www.seat61.com

Cool. Looks great, I'm going to have a look through all of that. Another 2 people now saying they'll join us for some of it.. :)
It's great, but weird that so many people are on board, for what was just supposed to be me travelling on my own. So Train will probably be better now.

munchkin_utd wrote: »

it does sound more of a job for interrailing, or buying cheap train tickets in advance, or mix of both. If youre in no rush then why fly?

Also you seem to think you can just abandon a rental car anywhere in europe you want.
Well, you are correct, it is possible but if you do a one way international rental it can cost well over a grand surcharge for the priviledge.

The original guy that wanted to come, worked in Car rental companies for a while, so he has some internal codes or something like that, that he can use and get discounts and pickups. Don't ask me, I know nothing about it, only what he said. I don't fancy geting hit with €1,000 so I better double check he knows what he's talking about.
But anyway, Train seems to be the better option now unless we hire a mini van or something, as there now may be 5 or 6 of us going. Not sure how that's going to work out.

keithclancy wrote: »

An open jaw flight just means the second leg of your flight is to a different airport than the one you left from on the first leg.

If you want the cheapest price then just book one way flights with budget airlines in advance.
You can use
www.skyscanner.net
www.kayak.ie

If you want the maximum flexibility then just look at the cheapest open using something like http://www.rome2rio.com/ a week in advance.

Its not that expensive a week or two in advance if you don't really care about which day you travel.

I don't care which day I travel, and as soon as anyone else starts barking, I'm gone
That rome2rio looks pefect.

A lot of reading tonight. Some cool resources available.. (Probably not even the tip of the iceberg) Wasn't expecting sites so well put together.
I was thinking flight/rail/rentacar comparison sites, and blogs of people that had been there before..

Allyall

Thanks for the help guys, some serious reading and further links from them. Gave me tons to think about.

I'm still following links Brilliant!!

Thanks again.