Why Rick Steves Recommends Flying 'Open-Jaws' When Traveling Through Europe

Travel guru Rick Steves has decades of experience exploring Europe and has written dozens of guidebooks with some of his best travel tips to help travelers follow in his footsteps. One invaluable piece of advice that will help you save money and minimize your risk is purchasing an open-jaw ticket if you're visiting multiple cities on your trip. 

An open-jaw ticket, he explains on his website, is flying "into one city and out of another." Instead of buying a round-trip ticket to, say, Dublin, consider flying home from another city in Europe — ideally, the last city on your itinerary. That way, you get to travel around Europe without having to schlep all the way back to your starting city to fly home. While many travel hacks, including skiplagging and booking on Tuesdays, are going the way of the dinosaur, booking open-jaw tickets is a simple travel hack that still works. Steves notes that open-jaw itineraries save you from going back to start, leaving you a day to check out that last museum or extra time to relish a last meal. 

Open-jaw tickets are a blank canvas to design the Eurotrip of your dreams; however, you will have to do more planning and possibly pack a few extra things, like phrasebooks or power adapters. For your efforts, you'll dodge expensive U.K. departure taxes if you are flying back to North America from Dublin, Barcelona, or Berlin (a must-see when visiting Germany) rather than London. They are easy to book on most online travel agencies, Google Flights, as well as some airline websites, by clicking the "multi-city" option. Once you see the search results, be sure to carefully check the itinerary to see the specific airport your flight leaves from if you select a major city such as Paris, London, Milan, or Istanbul. Moreover, scan the details closely as luggage sizes, fees, as well as seat assignments, which may change if you are using different airlines. As for getting around European airports, try this simple hack from Steves. 

If you've never been skiing before, it would seem crazy to strap on a pair of skis and head for a black diamond run. But once you get the basics, you can ease your way to more difficult runs. When booking an open jaw, Steves recommends a similar strategy of progressively immersing yourself in foreign cultures to cap your stress. "When considering the beginning and end points of a long trip, try to start in mild countries (such as England) and work into the places with greater culture shock (such as Turkey)," Steves advises. "This way you'll minimize stress, and save countries offering the cheapest shopping — and greatest health risks — for the end of your trip."

You won't have to deal with a significant language or culture barrier in Dublin or Edinburgh, and you will be able to stretch your travel budget further at the end of your trip in Turkey or Bulgaria. From my own personal experience, you'll likely have more confidence to step further outside of your comfort zone as you've previously navigated transportation and foreign cuisine. You may even want to dive deeper by exploring local markets or the local food scene.

As you hop from city to city, Steves recommends using a budget airline to save money; however, you may pay with time as airports commonly used by budget carriers are farther from city centers. A rail pass can also be a good value, though Steves recommends doing your homework first and not only planning your route, but also the countries you plan to explore on your trip. If Paris and Milan are on your itinerary, don't miss taking one of Europe's most picturesque–and affordable–train rides.