When I left for Germany in October 2017, I looked at the price of flight ticket to Munich for the October departure. The price was very expensive. Coincidentally, in Munich there is Octoberfest, one of the largest annual festivals in Europe. So the ticket price to Munich became very expensive. I found the cheapest ticket to Munich was 6 million rupiah. I believed there was cheaper ticket from convenient airlines.
Out of curiosity to find a cheaper price, I decided to look for another alternative, went to Frankfurt first, then to Munich. And it turned out right. After I checked the ticket price to Frankfurt, many cheaper flights, only half of Munich flight ticket. I found Oman Air ticket prices only around 3.6 million rupiah. I decided to book a ticket immediately (even the visa hadn’t come out yet, indeed I was so earnest, haha). Frankfurt is the largest airport in Germany, there are more flights than Munich. The distance from Frankfurt to Munich is also not so far, 4 hours by train and 6 hours by bus.
After booking flight tickets, I thought about how I go to Munich from Frankfurt. I was trying to find Megabus, because my previous experience travel in Europe using Megabus was so cheap. But I just found out that the Megabus route in Europe has been acquired by Flixbus since 2016. Currently on the European continent, Megabus can only be used specifically for domestic routes in the UK. Flixbus itself is a new start-up that was founded in Munich in 2013. But its development has been very rapid. Now the Flixbus bus network even become the largest in Europe.
Okay, back to the Flixbus story. 🙂 I tried to find the cheapest route on the GoEuro website. It turned out that the cheapest is indeed using Flixbus. As a comparison, using Flixbus from Frankfurt to Munich, cost me 21 €, while using the train could take 2-3 times of Flixbus price. But it doesn’t apply absolutely. My recent experience to Delft in the Netherlands using a train, it was cheaper to commute by train than Flixbus. I spent 89 € for round trip train ticket Delft-Munich. Initially, the departure ticket was 89 €, but when I chose the return ticket, there was a choice of 0 €, so I chose the 0 €. As for Flixbus from Delft to Munich, besides the limited choices of time, the travel duration was super long, the price was also much more expensive. When the prices looked cheap, don’t just decide directly to take it. You also need to search for other alternatives, and consider the advantages and disadvantages (time, duration, etc.).
Flixbus
By the way, I also have other suggestions for those who want to travel affordably in Europe with Flixbus. We can travel to 5 different routes using Flixbus by paying only 99 € for InterFlix vouchers. This voucher is valid for 5 trips, but the route must be different. For example, if you go to Munich from Berlin, you cannot use other vouchers for Berlin to Munich route. The vouchers cannot be used for round trip. The vouchers are valid for 3 months, so you don’t have to travel in one time to all cities. This voucher is only valid for direct travel, no transit. Usually traveling will be cheaper using Interflix vouchers for distant city trips. So, before buying this voucher, you need to check first, it can be cheaper if you don’t buy a voucher. For example, traveling from Munich to Nuremberg, there is a FlixBus ticket which is only 7 € a way. Certainly it is cheaper traveling without Interflix voucher. Because a 99 € voucher is divided into 5 trips, it becomes 19.8 € / trip.
German Train DB
So, good luck for those who want to travel with a limited budget in Europe! By doing careful planning, we can visit more places in Europe. 🙂
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