If youre going to Europe, and planning on traveling, rather than staying in the one place for the duration of your vacation, and you dont want to spend a fortune, theres two or three alternative ways that you can travel throughout the continent.
The first option would be to take what you might call the traditional budget alternative, which would generally be backpacking and traveling by train. Nothing wrong with that at all, and by using a pass on the trains (known as a Eurailpass, and available in the USA from http://www.raileurope.com/eurorail/index.htm) you can certainly reduce your spending, whilst journeying widely throughout many countries.
There are, however, a couple of down sides to this traditional budget planning.
First, whilst it can often be exhilarating and exciting to meet and travel with strangers on a train, equally, sometimes, its nice to have your own space to enjoy the journey, on your own.
Secondly, by definition, trains can only take you as far as the railway station, and railway stations are not always placed where you want them to be placed. In other words, if you have definite target places that you want to see, then you...