How to travel on a slim budget at Paris?

Best way to book travel from one European country to another?

• I am going to be staying in Florence, Italy for ten weeks and will be traveling to various destinations on the weekends while I am there. What is the best/cheapest way to book vacation packages for different destinations (i.e. London, Dublin, Sicily, Paris, etc.) while I am there? I know that airline travel abroad is relatively inexpensive but I was wondering if there are websites like we have here in the US that allow you to book a whole package, and if so I'm looking to budget travel as much as possible (though no hostels). I have a budget of about 350 euros per weekend to travel to, stay, eat and see attractions so I am looking for budget conscious options. Thanks for the help!

• Answer:

  I've been living about two hours north of Florence for the last ten years and travelling at every opportunity on weekends and holidays. The sites you're probably familar with like Kayak and Expedia have Italian versions, but you can use the English version to book travel here if you want. I generally book flights and hotels separately to get the best deals. A couple of good sites for budget flights are: http://www.skyscanner.net/ and http://www.whichbudget.com/en/ . You should also find the trenitalia site useful: http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/homepage_en.html . From Florence you can get to/from places like Paris, Munich, or Vienna easily using the night trains and there are discounts available for booking early. You'll want to check the promotions - particularly the availability of the "smart" fares on international trains. For example, the train to Paris leaves at 9:09 pm and arrives in Paris at 9:16 the next morning. The standard price for a bed in a 4 berth cuchette is 127 euro (each way), but you can get the same thing for 45 euro if you can get the smart fare discount. There are also other levels of discount. I use the Venere.com site http://www.venere.com/ for hotels here in Italy and many other places in Europe, or the hotels.nl http://www.hotels.nl/ site in the Netherlands. With your budget, you might want to be looking at hostels: http://www.hostelworld.com/altindex.php?source=googleadwordshostels&gclid=CMmQlqbb8JwCFVATzAodIx9yjg , http://www.hostelbookers.com/