Best European Cities for Free Attractions

Europe on a shoestring budget: The best budget-friendly city breaks

Travel, like anything else, requires a carefully thought out budget. Thankfully, Europe’s capitals and cultural meccas are packed with options for the budget-minded traveller. From affordable accommodation to inexpensive meals to discounts on transport, Europe is the perfect destination for savvy travellers.

Omio is here to make travel simple and affordable. That’s why we have put together this ranking of Europe’s most budget-friendly cities. This study analysed 38 of Europe’s top destinations, ranking them in terms of free amenities and activities. So, put away your wallet and let’s get going!

Free ride: Europe’s cities ranked in terms of freebies

Here you’ll find the full-ranking list as well as a list of events for September.

We’ve used several factors to determine the rankings—free attractions, tours, events, Wi-Fi, accommodation and even whether the tap water is drinkable.

London and Paris top the list, naturally. London has the most free events, but Paris boasts the highest number of hosts offering free accommodation. Madrid ranks first for free tours. The Spanish capital offers a range of walking tours that guide visitors through the square of Puerta del Sol, the oasis of El Retiro Park and the museums of the Golden Triangle of Art.

How the ranking works

The European cities included in the study were those that had the highest number of arrivals in the MasterCard 2016 and Euromonitor 2017 reports.

The Top Three City Breaks for Free Activities

Ready to go? Get there with Omio.

Which European Cities have the Best Transport Options?

We researched and compared travel times from the airport, coach station and main train station to the city centre in 35 European cities, from Stockholm to Berlin to Edinburgh to Marseille.

Here are the top three best connected European cities in terms of transport:

Check out these Best Connected Cities and find out how other European cities ranked.

Omio analysed a total of 35 cities from 12 European countries to create this “Best Connected City” ranking. For each country, we picked three cities with the highest number of overnight stays. Google Maps was used on 28th June 2018 at 16:00 GMT +1 to pinpoint the location of the city centre, as well as the total time it takes when departing from the airport, bus or train station. If several routes were available, then the fastest route was chosen when travelling either with public transportation or by foot (excluding taxis). To compare the cities and rank them properly, we calculated the value of the time taken to travel to the city centre from the respective airports, train stations, and bus stations.

City Breaks Across Europe

With over 2,000 city break destinations to choose from you might think: where do I even start? At Omio, our goal is to make travel easier and we wanted to help undecided travellers find the best destinations. We decided to team up with HomeToGo to combine the most important elements of a city break to create the ultimate guide. Each city has been ranked on the following criteria: day activities, nightlife, accommodation, food and drink, and transport.

We identified the 10 best in the above five categories which you can find below. The best combination of these deciding factors resulted in the overall best city break destination of 2017 being awarded to Barcelona.

Sources

The criteria used to weigh and classify cities in each country are as follows in order of importance: Nightlife: Based on the approximate number of bars/clubs, their closing time and the average beer price. All the information was gathered from the Omio Beer Price Index, TripAdvisor, ResidentAdvisor, TimeOut, The Culture Trip, Numbeo, Telegraph and tourism board websites.

Day Activities: Includes the approximate amount of activities and clothing shops along with the average shopping price, taking into consideration the average price between one pair of jeans and one summer dress in a chain store, based on Tripadvisor and Numbeo data.

Food and Drinks: Average price between a meal in an inexpensive restaurant and a meal in a mid-range restaurant. This is along with the average price of a coke and the approximate number of restaurants per city based on Tripadvisor and Numbeo data.

Accommodation: The average price of accommodation based on the price per person and per night and the approximate amount of accommodations per city based on Hometogo data. The prices of vacation rentals for max. 6 people were calculated on a basis of more than 800,000 bookings made via HomeToGo metasearch engine between October 2015 and September 2016.

Public Transport: Based on the average price of public transport including one-way ticket and the taxi rate, including the starting price and one kilometer ride, taken from Numbeo data.

Total score: The final calculation includes other factors such as the Climate Index, Pollution Index, Safety Index, Purchasing Power Index, Health Care Index, Cost of Living Index, property price to income ratio, and Traffic and Commute Time Index based on Numbeo data. Along with these elements, a deduction of the overall score has been applied to those countries where a visa is required. These factors have been integrated in the final calculation but are not displayed in the ranking table.