Daily Transportation & Traveling

Daily transportation in Paris was a whole new system for me, I'm so used to driving my car wherever I need to go and had ever had to take a subway before ever in my life. I was terrified that I would never learn the metro system and I would always be lost. Luckily I learned that the system is in all honesty, simple. After taking it by myself once, I had it mastered. If you have a subway system in your city, put up a poster of it in your apartment so you easily find a route and always carry a pocket map of your city and the subway. You do not want to look lost down their if you are at one the not-so-friendly stops or exchanges. Just like rush hour traffic, the metro had traffic, and it got crazy. But, in the end, we perfected running down escalators and cramming into cars as well as knowing where to turn to get on a certain line at the large exchanges. A downfall to be prepared for is the cost of getting passes. I would get month passes called a Pass Navigo, which cost me around 70 Euros and have a card that I would swipe to enter. The cost was high, but for how many times you use it a day, it is a great deal.

Now onto travel, I took planes and trains to get everywhere and it defiantly depends on where you are for which airline is the best deal. I know everyone says RyanAir is the cheapest and the best, but disclaimer, if you are studying in Paris or going to Paris, don't even think about looking into it. Why? The airport for RyanAir is so far outside the city, the cost of taking a taxi to get into the city will be double the cost of your ticket. With that said, there are many other very cheap airlines with prices as low as RyanAir, my favorite was SmartWings or EasyJet. You can look at their website or use other like Kayak or Expedia to book your flights. Once you arrive to your destination, be sure to figure out from advisers, other students, or travel guides (Rick Steve's is a favorite) what is the best way to get to your hotel or hostel. Most cities we were able to haggle down the price of a taxi or found a route using the city's subway system.

When traveling within a country or to city very close, look into trains, or just go to the station and ask for the cheapest ticket. When I was in Italy, we took trains from Venice to Florence and Florence to Rome, each of which costs about 12 Euro, and another bonus is you can buy your ticket when you get there or buy it as you get on the train. Same goes for the Cote d'Azur (Southeast coast of France) we hopped from Nice to Canne to St. Tropez so easily buy paying 5 Euro for trains.

Bonne Voyage :)

Kelsey