Sightseeing in Europe can get expensive very quickly. We try and figure-out where we want to go before leaving for our trip and research potential ways to save money. Before our most recent trip, we discovered the Lisboa Card, offered by the local tourism office, which includes free admission to many sights, discounts to others, and free access to Lisbon’s fairly extensive transportation network (trains, subways, buses, trolleys).
Our preliminary calculations before the trip suggested the card would be about a wash, but perhaps pay-out with its convenience (instead of worrying about having money on hand to pay for transportation). Our prediction was about right. Here’s how we recouped our €39 72-hour card cost (savings are per person as of September 2012):
In our past two trips to Europe, we have taken two different approaches to train travel in Europe: buying a Eurail pass or buying tickets in person once arriving in the country. For our upcoming trip to Spain, we are taking a new approach by booking the tickets directly from the train operator (RENFE in Spain). I wanted to share our experience, because we are realizing considerable savings, in addition to the added convenience of having digital copies of our tickets that can be printed before we even depart the United States, allowing us to directly board the train before departure.