Want to fly to Europe this summer?

Posted By Jon Nickel-D'Andrea on May 9, 2015 | 1 comment

Summer is upon us, and for many that means a family vacation somewhere close to home.  And while that’s a great idea, and of course a very cost effective one, I wanted to take a moment to clue you in on some amazing deals right now for travel across the Atlantic to Europe.

Now, most people know that summertime in Europe is the ideal time to go on vacation.  The weather is gorgeous, the sun is out for longer periods of time, and all the major cities are bustling with fairs, markets, and are full of life.  The problem?  That usually most airfare to Western Europe can reach upwards of $1600-1800 for a coach ticket.  Try taking a family of four and now you’re looking at upwards of $7,000 JUST on the flights alone, and you can see why heading for a week to the mountains for a picnic and camping seems a much more viable solution.

Right now fares to Europe are extremely attainable for a lot of people, from both the east coast and the west coast.  Earlier this year, we found tickets on British Airways from Los Angeles to Copenhagen, Denmark for only $610 each in June (including a free day stopover in London!).  Frankfurt in March was only $425,  and Italy in March?  A cool $545.  The deals are there, and I’m hoping to show you a couple quick tools to find deals from where you live.

First, lets start with the website, ITA Matrix from Google.  This website is great at finding cheap airfare from airports near you and airports near your destination.  For example, if you live in Miami, you can use this tool to see if flights are cheaper leaving from Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa, etc…

Start out with Miami, and lets say you want to go to Berlin.  I’m going to suggest searching within 500 miles of Berlin for cheap fares, because you can find a LOT of destinations that you may never have heard of, and some might even be on sale.  Once you get across the water, use low cost carriers to get you to your final destination!

Here’s how to do a search, and you can see that this flight gets you to Stuttgart for ~$860.

Alternatively, here’s a flight out of New York to Madrid in June for $652

And for those on the west coast, a flight from Los Angeles to Copenhagen for $657.

If those locations aren’t your final destinations, one of the greatest parts of Europe is the HUGE amount of low cost carriers that you can use to get to where you’d like to go.  Sometimes, it can save you hundreds of dollars per ticket for just a little extra leg work and an extra city or two.

With that said, go explore with dates and locations on the Matrix site, and have fun!  Let me know in the comments below where you’re heading off to and when!