Before the selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower, the sunset meals on the Mediterranean and the breathtaking rail journeys across the Alps, there's the small matter of the transatlantic flight.
For North Americans, unless you plan on sailing over on the Queen Mary 2 or grabbing a spot on a repositioning cruise across the Atlantic, you almost certainly will arrive in Europe on an airplane.
And that flight will play a huge part in your overall trip expenses.
There's no getting around it: flights to Europe this summer are pricey, perhaps leading some travelers to wonder if cheap flights to Europe were a thing of the past.
Fear not.
Even if flight prices stay high on average, there will always be significant fluctuation, and if you're savvy, you can score yourself the least expensive flights to Europe available at the time.
So how do you find cheap flights to Europe?
Flexibility Rules
If you're tied to travel dates, then the airlines have you right where they want you. This fact cannot be stressed enough: besides traveling in offseason, the number one thing you can do to save money on your next flight to Europe is to be open to a variety of arrival and departure dates.
Oh, and like in North America, it will typically be cheaper to travel on weekdays in Europe, too.
Sites like Google Flights, Kayak and Skyscanner offer a "calendar view" which is fantastic for seeing which dates are the cheapest at a glance.
If you're locked into certain dates (wedding, festival, etc), then you're going to want to at least be a little flexible on where you land, and that's the second big tip.
Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium. (photo via Getty Images)
Open-Minded Arrival
Europe is home to an incredible intracontinental public transportation system and you can use that to your advantage.
Broaden your horizons on potential entry points and you just might save big time.
I'm not saying scramble your trip itinerary around completely, just consider the possibility of flying into one city and then taking the train (or bus) to your final destination.
Looking to kick off your trip in Paris? Broaden your search to include cities with direct, high-speed train connections like Brussels (1.5 hours), London (2 hours) Amsterdam (3.5 hours), Geneva (3 hours) Frankfurt (4 hours).
Dreaming of a Roman holiday? Make sure to search the flights for Milan (3 hours). Making for Munich? Consider Frankfurt (3.5 hours).
The wider net you cast, the more potential you have to save some serious cash.
Depending on the deal, you might still save a bundle even when the cost of the train tickets is added on. The aforementioned flight search websites offer great tools on this front, including the ability to see flight prices plotted out on a map, which can be very helpful.
Sign Up for Alerts
Time is money, so why not let someone else do all the searching for you? Many websites and flight clubs exist solely to find cheap flights and pass the word along. Sometimes, there can be "freemium" type fees associated with them, but each one operates a little differently from the next.
The most esteemed of the bunch are Going (Formerly Scott's Cheap Flights), airfarewatchdog and Secret Flying.
PHOTO: EasyJet Airbus A319. (photo via Sjoerd van der Wal/iStock Unreleased)
Book Budget
Semi-related to our second tip: buy the cheapest round-trip transatlantic flight you can find with a major airline and then connect to your destination of choice using one of Europe's many budget airlines.
This can be a very effective way to reach many of the coastal resort towns and islands of southern Europe (Ibiza, Dubrovnik, Mallorca or anywhere else Europeans love to go on vacation) from northern locales like London, Amsterdam or Berlin, but it applies to all sorts of European itineraries though.
Remember that some of these budget airlines like PLAY and Norse cross the Atlantic too.
Go Incognito
Okay, so this one is a little more out there, but stick with me: many people attest to the fact that searching for a flight in Incognito or Private mode on your browser will help score you a cheaper flight.
Why? As the theory goes, if you repeatedly search for a particular flight on a website without booking it, then the site knows you are really intrigued and so then they might just raise the price on you, figuring that you'll just buy it anyway.
Why not give it a try, you've got nothing to lose but cookies.
PHOTO: young couple on laptop. (Photo via Royalty-free) (Photo Credit: Peopleimages / Royalty-free)
Translate Your Way to Savings
Last but not least, if you're willing to navigate a European airline's website in its native language (with the help of a browser translator), then you may be rewarded with a cheaper fare compared to if you had stayed on the English version of the website.
While not gauranteed to work every time, it has been documented that prices for "locals" can be less expensive than for travelers surfing in to the website from abroad.
As if you needed another reason to brush up on your foreign language skills before your trip.
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