Public Transportation

Most major European cities have a great public transportation system and with some thought you can minimize your transit expenses. The larger cities that I've visited offer a variety of transit usage. One of the easiest is to purchase a day ticket (or multiple days). Now if you are going to be all over the place this may be the way to go, but think about it why wear yourself out in the transit for it will take away from enjoying why you are there.

I say consider what you want to do in the city that you are in for the days you are there. If you can cluster things that are in the same area together you can get a trip ticket about 1,50 Euro this will get you in the area where you are spending the day and pay another 1,50 Euro to get back to where you are staying. These tickets are typically good for one hour travel. For an example in Marseille the day ticket was 5 Euros. The port area is about a 10-15 walk from where I was staying so I took the metro and bus to the La Boule Bleue facility outside the area for the 1,50 Euro spending time there including having lunch then returning to the port area for the other 1,50 to do the boat thing and the other things on my list, came out to 3 Euros.

Now while in Amsterdam I knew that I was going to be popping all over the place and with my Iamsterdam card it includes transit card but you can also purchase it separate. You can get around the City's center pretty well by foot but the tram system here is great. You can also get a trip ticket which is good for the hour. So if you are going to several museums along with a few other activities get this one.

With some planning figure out what you want to do within reason and you will find you can save a nice piece of change over the course of a few days. You can find great maps with points of interests, streets, and even transit information for 2 Euro (great investment). If you don't plan on coming back you can give it away to someone making their day!