Getting There: Low-cost travel options to Europe
There are a few small hotels and B&Bs near Stansted airport - including one Hilton (not cheap!) on the airport grounds, and the quaint (and much cheaper) George Hotel in Bishops Stortford, about a ten-minute taxi ride from the terminal. Some hotels and bed and breakfast inns are also available in the surrounding communities of Thaxted, Braintree, Harlow, and Great Dunmow. If you're REALLY on a tight budget, you could always just park yourself on a bench in the airport terminal for the night, but that might make you a target for pickpockets, so don't say I didn't warn you.
Then, you'll have to choose your airline. We have had good experiences with "GO-fly," but there are a number of other airlines operating quick, cheap hops over to Europe. Keep in mind that many of these airlines place a lot of restrictions on their lowest fares - most of these cheap flights will be non-refundable, non-changeable, and so on. Still, sometimes the prices are good enough that it's worth taking the risk, especially at seat sale times.
Take a look at the web sites of a few different low cost airlines before you make your decision - GO, RyanAir, Easyjet (many flights from London's smaller Luton airport), and Buzz are a few of your options ( http://www.go-fly.com/go-fly.html ; http://www.ryanair.com ; http://www.easyjet.com ; http://www.buzzaway.com ). Compare destinations, fares, and restrictions - also check on seasonal availability, since some destinations are only available during the summer months. Many of these low-cost airlines encourage you to book online, and most have email lists that you can sign up for if you want advance notification of special fares, new destinations, and so on.
If you would rather take a train or boat to Europe, this can also be done fairly cheaply - there are ferries to Holland and France, and of course you can take the Eurostar ( http://www.eurostar.com/cgi-bin/eurostar... ) through the Channel tunnel - this will probably cost you about as much as a flight would, though, so compare fares carefully.
Once you get over to the continent, you can decide whether to rent a car or take the train - when considering these options, remember to factor in the cost of gas, which is MUCH more expensive in England and Europe than it is in North America! Also consider the different types of railpasses available (http://www.eurail.com/ ) - you may decide that a single country or combination
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