This Just In!

1. Check airline deals Europe's low-fare carriers are good for more than cheap airfares--many also sell packages (air and hotel for a bargain price) and offer hotel and car-rental specials. EasyJet has hundreds of packages in dozens of European cities, many departing out of London (holidays.easyjet.com). The deals require planning and patience: EasyJet doesn't fly to the U.S., so you'll have to connect to it in a hub like London, and the airline charges to check bags and for extra weight. Vueling (vueling.com) and SkyEurope (skyeurope.com) airlines also list hotel and car-rental discounts on their websites. 2. Buy train tickets in advance Train travel is sometimes more expensive than flying, but you can save by buying tickets online in advance and traveling during off-peak hours. In Germany, weekday, round-trip Deutsche Bahn tickets purchased at bahn.de at least three days in advance are 25 percent off the regular price--and weekend tickets bought in advance are 50 percent off. Look for Dauer-Spezial one-way tickets on the website for very low prices, too. Many tickets purchased more than a month in advance for France's TGV trains are also at least half the normal price (voyages-sncf.com). 3. Dig deep on tourism websites Tourism bureau websites are often loaded with overly rosy descriptions of a place, but some also have good deals. Click on the People Like You tab on Visit London's site (visitlondon.com) for budget hotel and entertainment listings. The Special Offers tab links to a page with hotel-and-attraction packages, such as one night at a hotel and two tickets to the Ian Fleming exhibition at the Imperial War Museum starting at $200. The tickets alone cost $16 per person. 4. Eliminate a night in a hotel Sleeping in transit is a backpacker's trick to save money, but it works for those who want to travel in moderate comfort as well. A double-occupancy, upper-deck cabin on the DFDS Seaways' ship that sails daily from Copenhagen to Oslo (an overnight trip lasting 16 hours) starts at $139 in the summer (dfds.com). A couchette bed in a six-person compartment on the 11-hour overnight Deutsche Bahn train from Prague to Cologne costs $72 per person if purchased in advance (bahn.de). 5. Evaluate city passes Many tourism bureaus--including ones in Lisbon, Zürich, Budapest, and Stockholm--sell city cards that cover the costs of mass transit and admission to museums and also provide discounts to other attractions. To determine if they're worth it, however, you have to do the math: Sometimes you'll have to go to four or five museums just to break even. For a full list of cities with the cards, go to europeancitycards.com. 6. Don't buy single rides Multiride subway cards are almost always a better value than individual tickets, depending, of course, on how many stops you want to make. In London, a single Tube journey costs a whopping $8, but a one-day unlimited-ride Travelcard runs you just $13.25. An even better value is the Oyster card, which starts at $16 (a $6 refundable deposit for the card itself and $10 worth of credits toward subway and bus rides). With the Oyster card, a single ride on the Tube is $3 to $4, and a day of unlimited transport is $12.25. When you run out of credits, you can recharge the card at Tube stations, convenience stores, or newsstands where you see the Oyster card logo. 7. Use a bike to get around In Paris, about 20,000 bikes are available for short-term rentals at hundreds of pickup and drop-off spots. You buy a Vélib' card for $1.50 per day or $7 per week; each bike is then free for the first half hour, $1.50 for the second half hour, $3 for the third half hour, and $6 for every half hour after that. Two caveats: The bike-rental machines only accept credit cards with smart chips, such as certain American Express cards. You also can't rent a helmet at a Vélib' station, so you'll have to bring one (though there are no helmet laws in Paris). Starting at $15 per day, you can rent a bike (with a helmet) at the city's 20 Roue Libre bike-rental stands (rouelibre.fr). Other cities with programs like Vélib' include Brussels, Vienna, and Helsinki. 8. Skip the train, take a bus Long-distance bus travel may not be as glamorous as riding the rails, but some bus lines, such as Busabout (busabout.com) and Eurolines (eurolines.com), sell multicity passes that rival the Eurail Pass in terms of price and flexibility. Eurolines has a pass that gives you unlimited travel over 15 days for $485 or 30 days for $647 (both prices are for the summer). There are 40 cities on the route, including some like Kraków, Poland, and Riga, Latvia, that aren't reachable with a Eurail Pass, and you need to reserve each leg at least two days in advance. The pass has one major restriction: All trips, with a few exceptions, must cross international borders. 9. Rent a supercheap car If you can, avoid renting a car at all--rates in Europe are high, as are gas prices. If you really need a car--to tour the Tuscan countryside, for example--check the prices of rentals at European chains such as EasyCar (easycar.com), Alimex (alimex.eu), and Sixti (sixti.com). Sixti advertises cars in France and Italy for as low as $7.50 a day, but beware of add-ons that cost extra, such as allowing an additional driver, airport or train station pickup, insurance, and even winter tires. The other cost associated with these cheaper rentals is a personal one: pride. Cars rented from Sixti and Alimex are plastered with flashy advertising for the agencies. 10. Find the freebies Scour the Internet before your trip for free museums, concerts, cultural events, and activities--you may be surprised by what's out there. Visit Oslo's website, for instance, has an extensive list of free festivals and museums (visitoslo.com). The blog at EuroCheapo--a worthwhile source for very affordable hotels--also routinely posts articles on how to find free stuff in Europe (eurocheapo.com). And at BudgetTravel.com, we're posting a list of eight free European events this summer, including perfor­mances by the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and various ensembles at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw hall, as well as the annual White Night festivals in Rome, Paris, Brussels, and Madrid. A week in Crete for two people: $527 savings 7 savings$527 savings In our test, round-trip flights between New York and Crete on Olympic Airlines and seven nights at the Hotel Arolithos outside Heraklion cost $3,125. But we also found an EasyJet package that included flights between London and Crete and seven nights at the same hotel for $968. Adding New York-London flights for $1,630, the total price was just $2,598. Berlin to Frankfurt on Deutsche Bahn: $115 savings $115 savings Second-class regular fare...$158 Second-class Dauer-Spezial fare...$43 Sightseeing in Amsterdam: $27 savings A two-day "I amsterdam" card costs $63 (iamsterdamcard.com). It covers unlimited transport on the subway, trams, and buses; entrance to 25 museums, including the Van Gogh Museum, the Rembrandt House (above), the Rijksmuseum, and the Stedelijk; a canal cruise; and discounts at a number of restaurants. (The Anne Frank House is not part of the offer.) If purchased separately, a canal cruise and admission to the four museums previously mentioned would cost $71. Adding two days of unlimited tram rides would take the total to $90. A car for a week in Italy: $254 savings Economy car from Avis (with tax, loss damage waiver, and unlimited distance)...$412 Smart car from Sixti (with tax, loss damage waiver, and 700 kilometers of driving distance)...$158

When Albert C. Barnes turned his large collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist art into a foundation in 1922, he had one request: The artworks could never leave his mansion in Merion, Pa. For 80 years, his wish was honored--bringing the Barnes Foundation to the brink of bankruptcy. In 2002, the trustees voted to transfer the collection from its out-of-the-way location to a building on museum row in Philadelphia. It seemed like a great solution--until opponents intervened in court, leaving the Barnes's future like a Monet viewed up close: hazy. Backed by a recent court order, the trustees are finally moving ahead with the new space. There's a little over a year left to see the 1,879 works--Renoirs, Picassos, Cézannes, Matisses--as Barnes intended. The pharmaceutical magnate, who died in 1951, had strict rules for displaying his art: Every piece in the 23-room building had to hang where he left it. Because he was a stickler for grouping works by visual elements rather than by period, an African mask might hang right next to a Picasso portrait. "Barnes believed that great artists had similar ideas about art, including how they set things in space," says director Derek Gillman. Curators will rehang the collection following Barnes's master plan, but some pieces can't be moved--such as the Jacques Lipchitz bas-reliefs that peer down from the old building's beaux arts façade. 610/667-0290, barnesfoundation.org, $10.

"While researching A Voyage Long and Strange, I did weird things in remote places. One of my most exotic stops was just north of Atlanta. The Etowah Indian Mounds are a time capsule of a civilization that few know existed. Centuries before Columbus, local Native Americans built earthen domes and crafted artwork from sharks' teeth and marble--all of which is on display in a 54-acre site next to a trailer park in Cartersville, Ga." • Etowah Indian Mounds State Historic Site 813 Indian Mounds Rd., Cartersville, Ga., 800/864-7275, gastateparks.org, $4.

Radiohead made news when it allowed its fans to pay whatever they thought was reasonable to download the band's latest album. Now, innovative restaurants around the world are doing the same thing--letting their patrons decide how much their meal is worth. At Terra Bite Lounge in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, most diners slip cash into a donation slot by the barista, while others just walk away without bothering to pay. "If I forget to bring enough money, I can just give more next time," says real-estate consultant Tina Cooper, who stops at Terra Bite most mornings for what she claims is the best soy latte in the neighborhood. "When we first opened, some people felt uncomfortable and didn't come back," says Terra Bite's founder, Ervin Peretz. "But we now have regulars who put $20 into the slot every Friday for a week's worth of joe." Discretion is certainly a theme of the pay-what-you-want trend. At Salt Lake City's One World Everybody Eats, you can deposit cash into a "treasure box" or use the customer-operated credit card machine. The 50-seat restaurant, decorated with Buddha statues, serves organic dishes from a combination self-serve and assisted buffet. There's also an edible herb and flower garden with outdoor seating. "All we ask is that you put a fair price on the food you eat, based on your income," says founder Denise Cerreta, who's mentoring other chefs to open sister restaurants in Durham, N.C., and Denver. A philosophy student opened Der Wiener Deewan in Vienna, where cash donations are accepted at the take-out counter. The all-you-can-eat buffet features Pakistani curries that change twice daily. "I wasn't sure the concept would even work," says co-owner Natalie Deewan. "But after the first few weeks, our customers were so enthusiastic that they were paying more than their fair share." You can add to the funky decor by drawing on the Plexiglas walls with permanent markers. At the Lentil as Anything chain in Melbourne, Australia, you drop money into a box by the kitchen. The first restaurant opened in 2000, and now owner Shanaka Fernando is working on his sixth location (when he's not running a refugee program). The cuisine is a mix of Sri Lankan and Tibetan, but eggs and veggie burgers are also on the menu. "When it comes down to it, we just want to promote the very underutilized concept of trust," says Fernando. KIRKLAND, WASH. Terra Bite Lounge 219 Kirkland Ave., terrabite.org SALT LAKE CITY One World Everybody Eats 41 S. 300 East St., 801/519-2002, oneworldeverybodyeats.com VIENNA, AUSTRIA Der Wiener Deewan Liechtensteinstrasse 10, 011-43/1-925-1185, deewan.at MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA Lentil as Anything 1 St. Heliers St., 011-61/3-94-196-444, lentilasanything.com