Student Trips : Travel across Europe in budget
Asha MenonCommunity desk
Brussels · Belgium · 22 January 2024 · 2 min read
Belgium is a good base for seeing Europe cheaply — everything is close and the trains and buses are dense. Whether an organised student trip is the right way to do it depends almost entirely on whether you are travelling alone.
At a glance
When a group trip is the right call
Organised student trips — See EU and pm2amtrips are the two names that come up most often here — are worth it in one specific situation: you want to travel, you do not have anybody to go with, and you are on a budget.
- Nothing to plan. Transport, beds, entry tickets and guides are handled.
- You arrive with company. For a solo traveller this is the real product, and it is why these trips exist.
- Bundled pricing is often genuinely cheaper than assembling the same trip yourself.
- Someone who knows the route — useful in a country whose language you do not speak.
They are packed, and they are not comfortable
These itineraries fit a great deal into very few days — overnight coaches, early starts, shared rooms, four cities in a weekend. That is the trade being made for the price. If you are travelling with a partner or friends, or you want to actually sit in a square for an afternoon, book it yourself instead.
Doing it independently from Belgium
Belgium’s position is the advantage: Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne and London are all a short hop, and the Netherlands, Germany and northern France are trivially reachable for a weekend.
- Coaches — FlixBus and similar, cheapest by a distance if you can tolerate the hours.
- Trains — book well ahead for the fast international services; walk-up fares are punishing.
- Weekend rail deals within Belgium make Bruges, Ghent and the Ardennes very cheap indeed.
- Hostels — good standard across this part of Europe, and where solo travellers meet people anyway.
Check your residence permit before booking anything
A Belgian residence card generally lets you travel in the Schengen area, but carry it with your passport — and if your card is still being processed, or you hold only the temporary receipt, confirm your position before you cross a border. Non-Schengen destinations, the UK and Ireland included, need their own visa.
Written in 2024 — operators, routes and prices change. For which trips people have actually enjoyed recently, ask in the Namaste Community app.
From our desk, not official advice
Written by the Namaste Community desk under our standing byline, from the questions this community asks most often — not a single person's own account. Rules change and offices differ — check anything that matters with the people who decide it.
Been through something too? Share it