Ah, Florence, Renaissance city of artistic treasures, architectural icons, and mouth-watering delicacies. And throngs of tourists. And locals zipping up and down tiny streets on scooters and motorcycles.

If you’re an adventurous traveler, you might consider seeing the city like a local — on a cute little euro-scooter. But should you?

Pros

Renting a scooter in Florence makes sense if you want to take scenic drives through the countryside. If you rent a typical scooter (like a Honda SH 125 cc or the smaller Cagiva Cucciolo 50), you’ll be able to drive along country roads and scoot your way through Chianti country. Sounds romantic, no?

The hilly countryside (and even immediate environs of Florence) are much less strenuously traversed on a scooter than trekked on a bicycle.

Cons

Renting a scooter is not practical if you simply want to speed up your city sightseeing. Sure, the locals zip about town, but they also are trained to avoid the busiest streets and pedestrian zones, and know how to stay alert for tourists and car doors.

Even if you plan to limit your scooting to areas outside of Florence, you will need to exercise caution, as small roads have their share of blind corners, speeding autos, and other scooters. Also, consider that most of central Florence is a pedestrian-only zone, and scooter riding is relegated to the busy side streets.

Legalities

To rent a scooter in Florence, you simply need a passport, valid driver’s license, and the willingness to plunk down your credit card as a deposit.  Anyone riding on a scooter must wear a helmet (which is included in rental). Also included in scooter rental are liability insurance and unlimited miles.

Both agencies below require that drivers have previous experience driving a scooter. As Florence by Bike states in the FAQ, “we suggest not to rent a scooter if you are a beginner.”

Note that you will not be allowed to drive on highways and freeways unless you rent a motorcycle. However, small country roads are just waiting for you.

Where to rent

Alinari scooter rental - Via San Zanobi 38/R. Located near the main train station, Alinari has lower prices than its competitor and offers more types and sizes of scooters. Prices range from €30 for a one-day rental of a Cagiva Cucciolo or Honda 50, to €55 for a Honda Bali 100 cc and €55 for a Honda SH 125. The shop also rents bicycles and motorcycles.

Florence by Bike - Rents the same Honda SH 125 for €65, but offers much helpful advice. Additionally, the shop offers a wide variety of bicycle rentals and organizes bike tours, including a Chianti bike ride that it claims is not terrible strenuous. Florence by Bike encourages tourists to opt for bikes over scooters for visiting the city. Daily bikes rentals run from €14 for city bikes to €35 for fancy racing bikes, with many options in between.

Have you ever rented a scooter in Florence? Tell us about your experience!

Amsterdam is one of the best European cities for cycling. See the city, speed along the canals, and act like a local.

Ready to roll? First, grab a good map. The tourism office facing Centraal Station offers a bike-specific map with highlighted biking paths and touring suggestions.

Then, go get a bike! Where?

Mike’s Bike Tours
Kerkstraat 134

One of the most popular bike rentals in Amsterdam, Mike’s (along with other rental agencies) requires you to leave some sort of deposit when you rent a bike:  your passport, an imprint of your credit card, or a deposit of €200. They provide you with two bike locks, and will even demonstrate how to use them!

(A word of caution: Mike’s also has a location in Munich and it can be a bit tricky to navigate their web site, so if you decide to book online, make sure you’re on the Mike’s Amsterdam page!)

Rates - 1/2 day: €5 (€8 with insurance); 1 day: €7 (€10 with insurance).

Frederic Rental Bike
Brouwerstgracht, 78

All bikes go for €10 a day (no hourly rentals) and Frederic requires a deposit of either a credit card or passport. Insurance is included in the price.

The advantages of renting from Frederic are simple: It’s cheap, you don’t have to deposit any money, and the bikes are free of giant logos that make them look like dorky, commercial rental bikes. These bikes are “originals,” and thus great for cycling hipsters. Also, Frederic’s staff claims they are “gastronomical freaks” and will fill you with their culinary expertise before you speed off.  While we don’t recommend eating your meals on wheels, you’ll at least now the best places to stop for a meal.

Canal Bike
Weteringschans 26- 1 hg

Ok, so this isn’t a traditional bike company. Canal Bike only rents “canal bikes,” which are pedal boats for two, three, and four people. With pedal boats, you’re free to tour the city via its famous waterways. Canal Bike holds onto a €50 deposit due at the time of your booking. Dock your boat at the Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank House, or countless other city attractions.

Rate - €8 per person for 1-2 people;  €7 per person for more than 2 people.

Mac Bike
Multiple locations around the city

If you’re making a group booking (10 people or more), we think Mac is the best plan of attack. They offer great rental discounts and even lead some of the most unique tours in town, grouped by interest (gay, architecture, even Hans Brinker).

Rates - From €6 (3 hours) to €25 (1 day), depending on type of bike and length of rental.

Bike City
68 - 70 Bloemgracht

Bike City is great if you plan to rent for more than a day. They offer really reasonable 5-day rates (€34-44.50) and prices are significantly reduced if you rent for more than 5 days.

Rates - €10-14.50 per 24 hour period.

Note: Prices are shown for half-day and full-day rentals, although multiple day rentals are available through most bike agencies.  A half-day rental makes sense for a fun tour of the town, although real cycle nuts (we see that Lance Armstrong bracelet!) and tourists looking to use their bike for daily transportation will want a longer rental.

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.

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!

There are changes ahead for the infamously conservative Parisian RATP. On July 1, the price of a single trip metro ticket will increase from €1.40 to €1.50.

Some slight improvements will come with this price hike. Metro tickets will be valid for an hour and a half after purchase, enabling passengers to transfer between buses and trams. (Transfering from buses or trams to the metro, however, will not be an option.)

Photo by Tamsin Williams

We had the pleasure of watching a sea of bike riders, rollerbladers, skaters, and sundry other wheel-clad persons roll across a packed Oxford Street last weekend. It was quite a startling break from the usual traffic of buses and cabs. And it was thrilling to see all those people getting somewhere on their own, without the help or frustration of public transit. Just pushing, rolling, and pedaling along at their own pace.

Critical Mass takes place at 6.30 p.m. on the last Friday of every month on the South Bank under Waterloo Bridge, by the National Film Theatre. In mid-May, though, the High Court ruling asserting the legality of the monthly Critical Mass bike ride was overturned. Under the new ruling, the Metropolitan Police have power to make arrests if they are not forewarned of the ride’s route.

That makes it interesting to ponder how police react to the upcoming London leg of the World Naked Bike Ride, which will take place this Saturday, June 9 at 3 p.m., starting at Hyde Park Corner. We say power to the (naked) bikers!

Photo by Iceblinkbaby

We can’t imagine an inefficient Viennese transportation system. Not only do buses, trains, and trams arrive and depart more or less at the expected time, passengers can also map out their itinerary using suggested routes and means of transport via Wiener Linien online.

Recently, the government of Vienna announced that they will increase the prices of tickets along with the parking ticket charges, much to the anger of the opposing political parties and people on the street.

According to Verkehrsverbund Ost Region, the company that manages transportation in eastern and southern parts of Austria, increased ticket prices only make sense. For the last five years ticket prices have remained more or less stable, while vast investments in security and quality have been made. Case in point: last year the U1 metro line was extended five stations, to Leopoldau.

On June 1, the new tariffs will take effect. The price of a single journey purchased in advance will increase from €1.50 to €1.70. A complete list of fare hikes can be seen here.

Photo by Simon_K

The good people at The Foundation for Tourism in Geneva and Unireso have given Cheapos another reason to visit their fair canton (as if lounging about Place du Bourg-de-Four wasn’t reason enough.) As of January, tourists staying in one of Geneva’s hotels, youth hostels, or camp sites are entitled to a free Geneva Transport Card.

The personal, credit card-style Transport Cards cover fares on all trams, buses, local CFF trains, and yellow taxi boats. The cards can only be picked up at your lodging’s check-in desk and are valid for the length of your stay.

We’d file this dispatch under “Budget Deals,” but the Foundation and Unireso plan to offer this “deal” indefinitely.

Photo by Kaymaria Daskarolis

Athens is one of the most walkable large cities in Europe.

Today, the city offers many well-organized, clean, safe transportation options. If you don’t want to walk or drive, you can take the bus, trolley, tram, suburban railway, electric railway, or metro.

If you do not want to have to worry about buying individual tickets each time you use some form of public transportation—let alone worry about figuring out how much you are supposed to pay for each form (€.40, €.50, €.60, or €.80 per ticket—consider buying a pass that gives you access to all forms of public transportation.

A one-day pass costs €3, a weekly pass runs €10, and a monthly pass tops out at €38. Note that a passport-sized photo is required for purchase of a monthly pass.

Also good to know: Children aged six and under ride free on all modes of public transport in Athens.

Once you validate a daily, weekly, or monthly ticket, you won’t need to validate it again. Don’t forget to validate your ticket. If you run into a patrolling inspector without a valid ticket, you will be fined 60 times the cost of the ticket.