Tourist discount cards can provide great value and a major convenience. But, they can also create a major headache when trying to evaluate their value. Today, we turn to Barcelona…

The Barcelona Card

The city-run Barcelona Turisme office issues the Barcelona Card as a two-day pass (€25), three-day pass (€30), four-day pass (€34), and five-day pass (€40). Prices are 20% cheaper for children, and all passes booked in advance on the official website receive a 10% discount.

Benefits of the card are varied. Pass holders enjoy, among other things:

• Free public transportation throughout most of Barcelona (including the airport train).
• Free admission to 12 museums, and reduced admission (50%-10% off) to another 20 museums.
• Various other discounts, ranging from 10% to 35% off at cultural, entertainment, leisure, and nightlife spots.

Is the card a good deal?

Well, it’s complicated. We fired up our old Commodore 64, tapped out some quick algebra equations and came to this conclusion: The card isn’t for us.

Quite simply, most of the museums offering free admission with the card are not on our list of “must visits,” or, if they are, they’re already pretty cheap. (For example, the Botanical Garden only costs €3.50 full-price.) Most of the museums that we’re certain to visit offer only discounts. (For example, the Picasso Museum is 50% off €9, the chocolate museum is 30% off €3.90, and three major art museums are only 20% off their admission charges of €6-8.50). Other non-museum discounts would just get lost in the shuffle (although we appreciated the 20% discount offered by the Michael Collins Irish Bar).

The transportation savings, however, could make the card a deal. If you were already going to purchase a three-day city transit pass for €13.70, you could upgrade to the Barcelona Card three-day pass for €30, which would include the transit pass. Is it worth the addition €16.30? Perhaps, if you take advantage of the 12 free museums. You decide.

After all the calculations, we had stressed ourselves out trying to make it work. That’s no way to spend a vacation.

A better option: The articketBCN

We prefer the cheaper (and less-stressful) articketBCN, which offers free admission to six major art museums in Barcelona for €20 and is valid for six months.

Museums include the Museu Picasso, Fundacio Caixa Catalunya, Fundacio Antoni Tapies, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), CCCB, MNAC, and Fundacio Joan Miro. Tickets may be purchased at any of the museums or at the tourist information center. We’d combine our articket with a T-10 pass transit book of 10 rides on the Metro or bus for €6.90.

And then we’d chill out and enjoy some art!

Popularity: 22% [?]

If you’ve ever visited the fabulous Uffizi museum in Florence, you probably know that your first hour (or two) there can often be spent waiting in a long, slow ticket line. And, that’s if you’re lucky. After all, the museum puts a daily cap on total entrants, so if you arrive on really busy days or after lunch, you can find yourself without a ticket at all!

Enter the sleek new website of the “Polo Museale Fiorentino,” the city’s governing board for 20 museums, including the Uffizi, the Accademia, the Pitti Palace, the Museum of San Marco, and more. On the site, you can take virtual tours of each museum, read about upcoming exhibits, verify opening hours, and map out locations.

But our favorite feature: The site now offers online ticket booking for all museums, allowing users to bypass the long queue and restricted entrance schedule.

How it works

The process is simple: You choose the museum you wish to book, pick a date, and then select an available entrance time. (At the Uffizi, for example, you may choose entrances in 15-minute intervals.) Proceed to the checkout, pay with a credit card (a €3 processing fee is added), and a confirmation will be emailed to you. Take this email with you to the museum (arriving, of course, during the scheduled time slot) and hand it over at the “pre-booked tickets” counter to pick up your tickets.

Yes, the site adds a €3 booking fee. But we’ll happily fork that over in exchange for a speedy (and guaranteed!) welcome.

Other museum ticket booking websites are out there, and we’ve recommended them in the past, but they tack on far more than €3 to your ticket. One of the most popular sites adds €11.50 to each ticket! Save it for post-museum Chianti, folks!

Popularity: 12% [?]

At EuroCheapo, we’re all about hotels with a little extra flavor. And when in Rome, why settle for a normal night’s sleep?

These three hotels in Rome have traipsed through history, from ancient history to 19th-century, but all of them today offer modern amenities so you can sleep comfortably.

1) Casa Banzo
Campo de’ Fiori
Doubles from €110

This bed and breakfast, with just three rooms, screams, “location!” Housed in a 15-century palazzo near Campo de’ Fiori, this family-run establishment is far enough from the crazy Campo crowds, but close enough to easily walk to the Vatican, Spanish Steps and other Roman highlights.

Each of the Casa’s rooms are chockablock with vintage accoutrements. Think oil paintings, mahogany surfaces, and lots of marble. And, we haven’t even mentioned the frescoes! Just keep in mind, book early if you want to stay here. With only three rooms, the hotel fills up quickly.

If you do stay here, tell Antoinette (the owner) and her husband we say hello!

2) Hotel Navona
Piazza Navona
Doubles from €135

If you’ve ever dreamed about sleeping in ancient Rome (and who hasn’t?), this is your chance. The ruins underneath the spick-and-span rooms and bathrooms at Hotel Navona are literally the baths of Agrippa and date back to 33 B.C.!

Stucco walls, terra-cotta flooring, a family-run feel, and plenty of 18th and 19th-century antiques (many taken from the family’s palace in Venice) give the rooms a top-notch vibe. Near Piazza Navona and the Pantheon, you can start off your day by touring the hotel (whose main structure is a 13th-century palace). And yes, this hotel has frescoes, too.

3) Suore di S Elisabetta
Santa Maria Maggiore
Doubles from €64

The quiet Suore di S Elisabetta is a convent that offers low-priced rooms on a peaceful street south of Santa Maria Maggiore. If you don’t mind an 11 p.m. curfew or a bedroom ornamented in crucifixes and the like, then get thee to this nunnery!

Rooms are as simple as a nun’s habit. For example, none of them have televisions. But, the breakfast room sparkles under light of hanging chandeliers and a dome of painted frescoes. An added bonus? The rooftop terrace—with inspiring views of Rome—is quite simply, divine.

Also see:

Our favorite theme hotels in Amsterdam

Popularity: 11% [?]

Hitting the town in Madrid doesn’t have to rip into your bank balance faster than a speeding bull. As in all good cities, nighttime budget-friendly options abound!

Here’s our cheapo guide to living it up for a night in Spain’s vibrant capital.

Get in the mood

Start out near central Plaza de Chueca, an area where there’s no shortage of trendy clubs and restaurants, many of which are cheapo-friendly. Considered to be the premiere gay area of  Madrid, Chueca and its main square are full of people hangin’ out in cafes and bars almost every night. In fact, if you hang out in the square long enough, chances are decent that you’ll make some new friends and find yourself involved in some last-minute plans.

Dinner

While daytime lunch specials certainly abound around Chueca (a good midday meal can be had for between €5-8), it can be a bit challenging to keep dinner prices low. We’d recommend checking out the trendy and delish Bazaar Restaurant, located just south of Plaza de Chueca on C/Libertad, 21. The menu runs the gammut from goat cheese salad to Thai-style noodles with grilled meats, and can be digested with ease for under €25.

And a movie…

Next stop: Filmoteca’s Cine D’Oré (Santa Isabel, 3, next to Metro Anton Martin) where the Spanish film archives are housed and any number of old greats from Ingmar Bergman to Luis Buñuel are showcased in one of three “session” rooms. Tickets are €2 for students, €2.50 for non-students.

And then drinks to discuss…

When the movie lets out, try Café Central, located about three blocks away, at Plaza del Angel, 10. The jazz bar has a bubbly atmosphere with reasonably-priced drinks, delicious snacks (pinchos y tostas €1.20), and even fixed-price meals (€10 for two courses). 

And if you decide to spring for tickets to the evening’s jazz performance, they’ll throw in a free drink ticket. We don’t know about you, but we always love getting an added bibbidy for our buck.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Visiting Paris can be, how shall we say, très cher? But, several of its finest tourist sights don’t cost a euro-cent.

Here’s a list of our top five favorite free attractions.

1) Père Lachaise Cemetery

Frédéric Chopin, Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Édith Piaf… This cemetery is a “who’s who” of famous names, and not all of them French (Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and other expats are buried there as well). Bring flowers to leave graveside or just stroll the cobblestone paths and well-landscaped grounds. Better yet, take a virtual tour on the cemetery’s web site. Check out Baron Haussmann’s mausoleum! Very schmancy.

Open: Monday through Saturday 8 AM to 6 PM and on Sundays from 9 AM to 6 PM.
Note: When sundown occurs before 6 PM, the cemetery closes at dusk.

2) The Seine and Islands

Man, if this river could talk! It has certainly seen its share of history, revolution, and passing love interests. Take a walk along the Left Bank and browse the local bookseller wares. The Seine’s stream flows by just about every major historic site (Hôtel de Ville, Musée du Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, the Eiffel Tower—to name a few). Cross the Pont-Neuf bridge for an added plaisir and visit Île de la Cité. Behind Notre Dame, cross the Pont St. Louis to visit the charming Île St. Louis.

3) The Eiffel Tower

Now, wait: Before you get all worked up, yes, it costs €11.50 to ride the elevator to the top of the tower. But, it costs rien de tout to take one of those novelty photos where you look like you’re giving it a pinch or kissing its pointer. And, here’s an added bonus: Each night at sundown, the Eiffel lights up the sky until 1 AM (2 AM during the summer months). Each hour on the hour after sundown, there’s a ten-minute light show, too.

4) Victor Hugo House

We first fell in love with Hugo when we read Les Misèrables (we finished it–we swear). Jean Val Jean is like a personal hero. Today, you can visit all permanent collections in Hugo’s first home—at the Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée, which sits proudly on the gorgeous Place des Vosges in the Marais. Hugo lived here from 1832 to 1848. The collections, which are free to visit, showcase an impressive array of ancient Chinese pottery, original furnishings and beautiful classical paintings. Just don’t steal any bread.

Open: Tuesday through Sunday from 10 AM to 5:40 PM.

5) Sacré-Coeur Basilica

Sit on top of the world, or at least Paris, when you trek up to the glistening white ”Sacred Heart” basilica, perched 420 feet above the City of Lights. While it costs €5 to climb up the spiral stairs of the famous white dome, there’s no charge to walk through the gorgeous Byzantine-style Basilica, built in 1875 after the Prussian and German invasions. Afterward, you’re free to traipse through the picturesque streets of Montmartre.

Open: Daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Popularity: 22% [?]

We are unapologetically fond of German cafeteria food. When visiting the German capital, we always stop for a sampling of local cuisine at one of the state-run (and subsidized) Mensa cafeterias, where a nourishing lunch may be enjoyed for just a few euros.

Although Mensa cafeterias are commonly found on campus at German universities and packed with healthy, athletically-inclined students, the dining halls are open to the public, and you’ll often find yourself dining alongside area businessmen and women. For the adventurous tourist, the cafeterias offer a unique and budget-friendly opportunity to get a taste of the real Deutschland.

Cafeteria food is, mildly put, not everyone’s culinary preference. But we enjoy it and embrace it for all of its qualities – healthy portions, light seasonings, regimented serving procedures, and unwavering value.

How the Mensa works

Most Mensa cafeterias require that you purchase a “MensaCard” onto which you can load – and reload – cash. These cards are for sale in the checkout lines for €1.55. Once you have procured a card, take it to the loading machine, where you insert money and load it up. At some cafeterias, you may also pay with cash, but you shouldn’t count on this.

Please note: Do not continue with your Mensa adventure until after you have fully loaded your card. The cashier can’t load up your card for you. Bad and embarrassing things could happen.

Your card activated, head into the cafeteria. Look for a big sign listing the day’s options (sometimes with illustrations), and note that most cafeterias offer daily options that are vegetarian, vegan, and “bio-essen” (organic). If you don’t speak or read German, it’s a pretty safe bet that you can ask any student around you for translation help. (“Schwein,” by the way, is “pork.” You’ll be seeing that.)

We usually head for the longest line, as it gives us a chance to survey the choices being dished up, and to overhear the ordering and practice our vocabulary. (English will probably not work on the women working behind the serving counter – but a smile and pointed finger usually does the trick.) Once your main entrée and side have been handed to you, slide down to the salad cabinet, and then head to the beverage dispenser. So many wholesome beverages are yours – milk, apple juice, orange juice, vitamin punch (Note: We’re still not quite sure what’s in the vitamin punch, but it does pack one)!

Now that your tray is filled with nourishing vittles, head to a checkout lane and be prepared to hand over your new Mensa card. If you’re a student, show your student ID before the clerk rings you up, as your prices will be markedly lower.

Our favorite Mensa cafeterias in central Berlin

In Mitte:
Mensa Nord
Reinhardtstrasse 30
Editors pick for dining in Mitte, north of Unter den Linden.
Monday – Friday, 9 AM to 3 PM

Near Alexanderplatz:
Mensa Spandaur Strasse
Spandauer Str. 1
Monday – Friday, 8:30 AM – 3 PM

Near Gendarmenmarkt:
Mensa Charlottenstrasse
Charlottenstrasse 55
Pop into this one when heading south of Unter den Linden or shopping on Friedrichstrasse.
Monday – Friday, 8:30 AM – 3 PM

Near Nollendorfplatz:
Mensa Kurfurstenstrasse
Kurfürstenstraße 141
Monday through Friday 8:30 AM – 2:30 PM

See also:

List of all Mensa cafeterias
More Mensa information in English, including menus!

Popularity: 15% [?]

We’d like to take this opportunity to extol the virtues of London’s Oyster. Oyster card, that is.

In a city fit for a queen, it often seems that prices for everything can be a royal pain. However, with the little blue and white Oyster card, visitors and locals alike benefit from drastically reduced rates on mass transit. (You can use the card on the Tube, trams, buses, DLR, London Overground and some National Rail services.)

Take a single fare on the Tube, for example:

A trip from within Zones 1-4 (say Kew Gardens to Oxford Street) would normally cost £4. With the Oyster, the price fluctuates—depending on time of day, day of week, and zone—from £1.50-2.50. In some cases, that’s more than half the cost! And, since we last checked, with the money you save on public transport, you can buy more cups of coffee.

So, why doesn’t everyone opt for oyster?

Well, we’re not sure. It does initially take a few minutes to buy the card. There’s a small application to fill out (either online or in the station) so that the Transport of London knows where to find you or how to help if your card goes missing. Additionally, a £3 deposit is required to issue the card, although you can reclaim your deposit (and any unused credits) by turning in your Oyster when leaving town. But those are really small inconveniences.

You can “top up” the card (Brit lingo for adding on the pounds) on-line, at various kiosks across London, and by phone. Plus, Oyster offers fun specials. Recently, they were giving away free iTunes songs with the purchase of rides.

The cards are easy to use, but try not to lose them. At the moment, there’s no definitive insurance policy for Oysters that are misplaced or lost along the way, although we know of cases in which replacement cards were offered. Bad news, though, if you’ve just “topped up” with the maximum £90 allowed on the card.

For lots more info on how to get a card and more, visit London’s Transport site.

Popularity: 13% [?]

You’ve found a great budget hotel in Paris and you’ve searched around on CheapoSearch for the best rates from different booking agencies for your dates.

And then it hits you: How can there be different rates for the same dates in the same hotel? And why are these small hotels offering booking with online agencies, anyhow?

A little back story

Ten years ago, most small, independent and family-run hotels in Europe weren’t on the radar for most first-time tourists to a city. They were simply too small to work with travel agencies or weren’t fortunate enough to be selected by the handful of travel guidebooks that recommended hotels for the first-time “independent traveler.”

During the past decade, these same hotels developed their own websites, presenting photos, room descriptions, and prices. Most built in some sort of booking form, as well. When we would visit them to inspect for EuroCheapo, many hotel owners and managers would explain that they didn’t need to work with online agencies, as they had their own websites.

Eventually, however, this wasn’t enough to really compete effectively for tourists. After all, tourists were flocking to online reservation websites, where they could compare hundreds of hotel rates in one city without having to go from one hotel’s website to another and check dates and rates.

And so, most of these small hotels realized that it made sense to offer booking with at least one online booking agency, like Venere.com or Booking.com (both of whom we work with in our “CheapoSearch” hotel search engine). When they did, the hotel found greater exposure (and more reservations) than they could have found on their own.

Once they offered booking with one of these agencies, they often were quick to realize that they could get additional exposure by offering reservations on another, and another, and another.

The booking scene today

The result is that today, many smaller hotels offer online booking with multiple booking agencies. To further complicate the issue, most of the agencies charge the hotel a different commission for their reservation services, often causing the hotel’s final rates to fluctuate from one agency to the next.

Travelers notice this when they comparison shop — and see a room at the Hotel Paris for €95 a night with one agency and €90 with another.

Ironically, booking the room over the telephone sometimes results in a higher price. After all, on a search results page online, hotels have to compete with each other for your attention. Over the phone, there isn’t the same competition at play. In other cases, the receptionist will offer a cheaper room than you could find online (often just the online price minus the agency’s commission).

What about the big American agencies? 

Why don’t these same small hotels appear on the big American search engines, like Hotels.com, Expedia, and Travelocity? They’re simply too small. A fifteen-room two-star hotel in the Latin Quarter (Oh, how we love thee!) is often too small and too inexpensive to capture the attention of the big booking agencies, who prefer to “move” a massive number of rooms at chain hotels (often in less-than-ideal neighborhoods) or smaller four-star hotels (with higher profit margins).

For this reason, EuroCheapo works only with online booking agencies that offer extensive listings of 1, 2, and 3-star independent hotels.  

Have a question about budget travel or planning your trip on the Web? Email us.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Denmark, home to Hans Christian Andersen and all those friendly, tall—and it must be said—great Danes, was recently proclaimed the happiest place on earth. In a number of population studies, pollsters asked residents to rate their level of happiness and other factors, and it seems the Danes have a real twist for felicity.

All this happiness, in spite of high taxes and hefty price tags? After all, according to the Big Mac Index, a Happy Meal must cost at least $5 in Copenhagen! Yet we agree: Denmark is a happy (and happening) place!

Here are five of our favorite and free ways to boost your serotonin in Copenhagen:

1) Get cultured

In 2006, the National Museum and the Statens Museum of Kunst became free to the public. And, every Wednesday, a number of other major museums and galleries open their doors without a charge. We suggest the Tøjhusmuseet, where the relics of the Royal Danish Arsenal are housed, and the Hirschsprungske and Ordrupgaard Collections, two museums with some of the best French and Danish art from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. For more info and to browse current exhibitions, go to the Copenhagen Tourism’s art museum page.

2) Park yourself

Copenhagen has some of the most expansive and pretty parks in Europe. Retreats like Orsteds Park, Frederiksberg Garden or Vondelpark are free to enter and stroll. Both have incredible sculptures and fountains and a host of traveling street performers. We also recommend the Botanical Gardens.

3) Get thee to church

Seriously, not only are Copenhagen’s many religious establishments architectural marvels, but they’re free to visit, and often host free concerts. Some charge a nominal fee for truly spectacular shows, like the Danish boys choir Christmas concert at the Church of Our Lady (Vor Frue Kirke), founded in 1209.

4) Grab a bike without paying

Yes, it’s that easy. You see a bike. You need a bike? You take the bike and ride it. A minimal deposit (about $3) gets returned when you bring the bike back to any number of designated spots. The promotion runs annually from May 1st to December 15th. More info can be found here.

5) See the statues

Go for a walk near the Copenhagen harbor, and spend some time gazing at the Little Mermaid. (She can’t charge you a krone to check out her scales.) Near City Hall, visit with Hans Christian Andersen. Later, walk the stone path at the Thorvaldsens museum in Slotsholmen.

Whatever you do, take lots of photos… or take brochures. After all, they’re free!

Popularity: 13% [?]

It’s hard to describe the sheer DIY-joy that comes with understanding a new city’s subway or metro system. In some cases - take Budapest, for example - cracking the subway code might be a fun exercise rather than an economic or geographic imperative. You hop on, hop off, and buy a ticket (if you’re a good, honest Cheapo). Though, be warned: When last in town, we didn’t see the automated kiosk’s “English language” option. So, after spending close to 30-minutes testing our Hungarian, we bought the wrong tickets! And, yes, we got busted.

On the other hand - London anyone? - getting a grip on public transportation is a crucial step to enjoying a pricey, expansive city without having to dig into the money belt and pony up the pounds. In these situations, showing off your fluency in subway-speak, whether it be Tube, Metro, Underground or other, is a requirement and can admittedly be a bit of a time consuming and anxiety-inducing task.

Don’t know your Oyster card from your Strippenkart? Don’t despair! SubwayNavigator.com is here to help.

About The Site

SubwayNavigator.com provides immediate access, in the form of maps, time tables and more, to the subways of the world. Want to know how to get from Centraal Station in Amsterdam to Flevopark? Simply click on the user-friendly atlas on the homepage, visit the Amsterdam section, and check out the map. Next, choose up to three route possibilities.

Want to click through public transportation information for Paris, London, Rome and every other major metropolitan city in Europe? Hop on! Have you forgotten what subway line the Malostranska stop is on in Prague? Czech! (The answer is the A line.)

Why We Like It

In addition to SubwayNavigator.com’s comprehensive directory of subway maps throughout Europe (and other regions, too), it’s their route finder that gets us particularly jazzed up. While it may seem a tad clunky at first, the tool lets you type in departure and arrival subway stations (or select them on a map) and search for the best direct routes and the estimated travel time. If you’re dealing with a fairly complex subway system like Paris, this is a big help, especially when looking to travel between airports and city centers to save a few euros.

For example, we searched for the best route between Charles De Gaulle Etoile and Gare de l’Est and were told, within a nanosecond (seriously), the journey would take 25 minutes and require one transfer. The whole experience took less than a few minutes and was about as smooth as a Parisian poodle’s coat.

The route finder makes printing off your journeys a snap too. Fold them up, take the subway with confidence, and enjoy the ride. Better yet, browse each individual city page’s links to local transport authority Websites and information, helpful spots (local post offices, major tourist sights) and addresses and fare information when available.

We’re all aboard!

Popularity: 6% [?]