What's your best 'ridiculously cheap travel' story?

CKhalvashi

Took mom (who had just had a medical procedure done and wanted to try travel with a lot of medication etc before hopefully jetting off to Australia at some point in the future) to Gdansk last October.

Flights were £47.96 including a bigger bag for her medical stuff, really nice aparthostel was around £40 for 2 nights, so a weekend trip for 2 people for less than £50 each plus spending money. I travel like this normally for business (some of the best freelance contractors have been people I've met in hostels over the years), but this is a specific example of that.

Like Sammy, I've used the pandemic as an excuse to travel, although did get caught out with Poland in October 2020 where it went onto the isolation list the day I got back (annoyingly at 4am with a 9pm arrival), but a lot of sub-£20 return flights pp and cheap accommodation, plus being a lot quieter has been lovely for 2 years.

There are still a lot of bargains to be found with some flexibility in dates and destinations so as we attempt to grow the business further into new markets, I'm sure a lot more adventures to be had.

martindow

A current bargain is unlimited public transport in germany for 9 Euros a month this summer.  It is on offer for this month and August.  It is limited to regional and local trains so you can't use high speed services, but you could do a lot of travelling around the country for next to nothing.

Details here

https://www.bahn.com/en/offers/regional/9-euro-ticket-en

TELLIT01

Back in the days before t'interweb we went into a travel agent looking for a late break.  They came up with a week in Malta, full board for £80.  Even the person in the travel agents thought it was an error, but booked and we kept our fingers crossed.  The holiday went ahead with no problems.  We were chatting to a couple at dinner one night and they had paid over £300 for exactly the same holiday, and weren't terribly happy.  When we were next in the travel agent, the person who had made our booking said they had done a bit more investigating, and the tour operator apparently used to drop prices at random for 24/48 hours to encourage travel shops to look at them first.  The agent, and everybody else in their shop, was unaware so not the greatest promotional tool ever.

Brie

years back I used to commute for a weekend job - about 150 miles each way - and nearly always went by train.  after doing this for 6 months I got a coupon from the train company (Via Rail, in Canada) who suggested I try first class for free, just by using the voucher.  It was great because not only was the trip completely free both ways there was free food and alcohol.  Don't remember how much the regular ticket was then - probably something like $30 or $40 - but now it's closer to $300!  And first class is nearly $500!!!

Mardrew

Last September I did Leeds - Carlisle (via Settle) for £2 return. (I love that train journey as the scenery is so stunning.) This was a Northern Trains sale price.

A good few years ago we had a night in a Travelodge in the centre of York for £9.50. 

eskbanker

I suspect that I'm far from alone but have had negative cost trips thanks to flight delay/cancellation compensation exceeding the cost of the tickets....

CKhalvashi

eskbanker said:

I suspect that I'm far from alone but have had negative cost trips thanks to flight delay/cancellation compensation exceeding the cost of the tickets....

You're very far from alone.

Had 1 trip from Ryanair and 1 from Ukraine International on this basis. I don't include this unscheduled rebate in the costs though.

Troytempest

We have just returned from a golfing trip to Spain. 2 return Easyjet flights plus 2 hold bags and 2 golf bags for £105. Booked during pandemic when Easyjet were offering luggage for 99p each way.

jwelly

1) In 2019 I got a midday Easyjet flight from Bilbao to Bristol, for 3,49€ one-way..

2) When I lived in Valencia, I got a round-trip ticket to Madrid on the AVE high-speed train for 13,50€. Normal price is around 100€, but my father was working for a train company in England which offered discount fare for partner and children, on both domestic and international rail services. Even so, I was definitely not expecting an 80%+ discount on an international train, let alone the AVE. 

eDicky

In the early 90s rail travel in Russia was extremely cheap for Russians and ex-Soviet country citizens including Lithuanians, but with a foreign passport I would have to pay normal fare, considerably more.

I was going from Moscow to Ulan Ude, Buryatia, a six-day ride on the Trans-Siberian. Luckily for me, a party of four Lithuanians on their way to the same seminar had one of them drop out, so they offered me his ticket at their cost price. I readily accepted, in the knowledge that we would have to take care to conceal my Britishness, but at the time I had a huge moustache and many Russians mistook me for a Georgian.

So we set off the next day from the main station, in the front compartment of the first coach, the best available but fairly basic, the usual stern Babushka in charge and no amenities apart from a hot water urn.The days passed and we became good friends, sharing simple food we had brought and watching the scenery pass etc. Brief stops were made in the stations of various cities, one highlight being the luxury of freshly boiled potatoes sold by vendors on the platform sometimes at night. Occasionally I needed to be hidden under a blanket in the top bunk during inspections by officials and FSB/KGB officers. One of the girls made a mistake one morning when I was standing in the corridor watching the scenery, popped her head out of the compartment and asked me loudly in English, "Dicky, do you want a cup of coffee with milk..?" Oops...

Then, arriving one morning at our destination after six days, it was like leaving our home. We bid farewell to the Babushka, and the last thing she said to my friends was, "Well done, you took very good care of the Englishman"..!