Accepting a job in New York City was a difficult decision.
In the summer of 2017, I arrived in the U.S. from Cambodia for a wedding. As soon as my bridesmaid duties were over, I planned to move back to Europe. My loose plan was to settle in Budapest and use that as a base to cover Eastern Europe as a freelance journalist.
Then I received an offer to cover foreign affairs from Newsweek Magazine‘s downtown Manhattan office, and I thought, why not? I’d always been curious about what it would be like to live in New York as an adult.
I was born in Manhattan and spent a lot of time there as a young person. But I’d lived outside of the U.S. almost my entire adult life. My only concept of 21st-century New York came from Sex and the City and friends who had spent time in Brooklyn. They promised New York was about as similar to London as I’d find in the U.S. They described it as an adult playground, albeit more segregated and expensive than most cities I knew.
Most importantly, my mother was only a little over an hour away. After so many years apart, I relished the idea of being close to at least one parent. Perhaps I would come full circle and settle down in the city of my birth. I loved the idea of having a life with a straightforward narrative arc.
Flash forward eight years, and life is slightly different from what I imagined then. I no longer live in Brooklyn or work for Newsweek, but I’m still in the United States. It’s an outcome that I struggle with sometimes. There are a lot of practical reasons to be here. On paper, my life looks pretty great. But I still yearn to report all over the world. I still miss friends and family in Europe. There are so many stories I can’t cover when I’m grounded in the United States. I would much rather not be stuck in one place.
The compromise I’ve come up with is to travel regularly. I try to make two to four transatlantic trips each year. Some of those I pay for myself, while others are reporting trips funded with grants or fellowships. I squeeze in as much time with friends and family as possible on each trip so I don’t lose connection with people I love, even though I sometimes feel isolated on the wrong side of the Atlantic.
People sometimes ask how I can afford to travel now that I live in the U.S. After all, it’s much more expensive to fly from the East Coast of the United States than to cross borders if you live in Europe or Asia. I usually tell them transatlantic travel isn’t as expensive as you think.
Travel is out of reach if you live paycheck to paycheck. I don’t blame anyone for not seeing the world when they’re under financial strain or drowning in student loans like many people in the U.S. But if you’re the kind of young professional who can afford to go to happy hours and order takeout multiple times a month, you can probably afford to travel internationally. You could save 50 to 100 dollars a month by going to fewer bars and restaurants, for example, and you’d be able to travel overseas at least once or twice a year.
Not everyone will want to travel exactly the way I do. These options might not work for people who are disabled or have minimal travel time. But I’ll share my tips for those who are curious. Some of the links included are affiliate links, which means I’ll get a small commission if you use them to purchase something. That said, everything I linked to is something I use regularly and recommend, whether it’s an affiliate or not.
My guide to affordable transatlantic travel:
• Don’t buy your flight directly from an airline.
I have a rule about never paying more than $400 to get across the Ocean. Occasionally, I’ve snagged a round-trip flight from an East Coast city to Europe for around $250 or $300. That usually means you will need flexibility regarding which airport you fly from (more on that below).
The most important thing, however, is to use a flight aggregator. I usually use Skyscanner or Trip.com. You just enter your preferred airport, destination, and dates, and the platform shows you various options from different airlines.
You can also let the platform know if your travel dates are flexible. The more flexible you are, the better your chances of finding a deal.
• Don’t check a bag.
I never check a suitcase for trips that last less than a month. If I plan to spend around ten days away, I often use this bag from the British Amazon. They will ship it to the United States for a small fee. It counts as a personal item, which means you won’t pay the extra fee for carry-on luggage that so many airlines charge now.
Taking so few clothes means you’ll need to do laundry in the middle of the trip (I usually stay with friends or in an Airbnb rather than a hotel. That’s partly so I’ll have laundry access). It also means you’ll need to bring versatile clothes you can wear more than once.
If I’m going to stay longer than ten days, or if I need to bring work clothes and clothes to go out, I will use this suitcase. It has the perfect dimensions for every airline. I’ve fit shoes and weeks’ worth of clothes in it and never been asked to check my bag. It’s perfect.
• Choose your departure airport carefully.
If you’re only willing to fly from one airport, you will have fewer options for cheap flights. You should always check a few of the closest airports to you.
I usually look at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Philadelphia International Airport, or Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport.
The latter is often my first choice because it’s close to my home. But I will take a bus to JFK or Newark for a well-priced flight. Sometimes, I’ll use that as an excuse to see friends in New York or New Jersey before I catch my flight.
Taking a bus or train to an airport a few hours away can be time-consuming and tiring, but it’s often worth it from a financial perspective. In my experience, Newark Airport usually has the best international flight options.
• Pick a good transit hub and don’t avoid layovers.
If you can save money by being flexible with your departure location, the same can be said for your destination.
Let’s say, for example, that you want to travel to Barcelona. It might cost $500 or $600 to catch a flight from Newark Airport directly to Spain. But if you’re willing to do a layover in London or Lisbon, you could save a few hundred dollars.
There are often a lot of good deals on flights to big cities with many airports, like London. Then, you can always catch a separate low-cost Ryanair or EasyJet flight to your final destination starting at around $20. If you have the bag I recommended above, you won’t exceed your carry-on limits for those low-cost airlines.
When I fly from BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, I often fly with the low-cost airline Play. It’s an Icelandic company that started flying from North America to Europe in 2022. They don’t offer meals or in-flight entertainment, so I usually bring a Kindle and pack a lunch.
You’ll have a layover in Iceland on each flight. Reykjavik has a very nice airport with good, healthy food options. The savings on your plane ticket are worth it.
I often recommend a layover in Istanbul if traveling to Asia. Flights to Istanbul usually aren’t too expensive, and there are tons of low-cost flights from Turkey to the rest of the world. You can also spend a few hours wandering around Istanbul between flights, which is always enjoyable.
• Cut down on your accommodation costs.
Staying with family or friends is often my first choice. You save money and spend more time with the people you’re traveling to see. I’ve spent a lot of nights on people’s slightly uncomfortable pullout sofas because I’d rather spend the night in a friend’s living room than splurge on fancy accommodation. But if you don’t know many people in other countries, there are other options.
I’ve stayed with Couch Surfing hosts dozens of times. Some people say creepy men primarily use the website to pick up female travelers. That hasn’t been my experience. I’ve met some of my closest friends over the years through Couch Surfing, and I’ve stayed with lovely people in countries like India and Bulgaria for no cost. You can usually tell a lot about a person based on the references on their profile. That said, I don’t recommend staying with someone who doesn’t have a lot of positive references.
You also have to be willing to socialize. Using Couch Surfing when you have time to bond with your host is usually best practice. The website is primarily meant to facilitate cultural exchanges, so crashing on someone’s sofa when you have a packed travel itinerary and no time to talk can seem rude.
• Use a local SIM card instead of international roaming.
Everyone needs a phone to navigate daily life. That’s even more true if you’re traveling overseas and must look up where you’re going. However, I never recommend splurging on roaming charges to use your Internet data overseas. It’s much more affordable to get a local SIM card.
The U.S. is an outlier because most people purchase a contract with a phone company to get monthly data. That’s not the case in most other countries. When you arrive at the airport, you can usually buy a local SIM card for anywhere between $10 to $20. That will give you enough data to use your phone as often as you want for at least a month (the U.S. telecommunications industry is a ripoff, but that’s a story for another day).
Some phones in the U.S. are locked. That means they won’t work with just any SIM card. Before your trip, go to your local phone shop or wherever you purchased your phone and ask them to unlock it. They’ll do it for free.
I always carry a paper clip to open my phone and switch out the SIM card when I buy a local one. Just make sure you don’t lose your original SIM card. You’ll want to switch back to that when you return to the U.S.
Some companies now offer e-SIM cards that you can purchase before your trip. That might make life even more straightforward because you won’t have to wander the airport looking for a kiosk to buy a SIM card as soon as you arrive. One place to get that is Yesim, a Swiss company that offers digital SIM cards that work worldwide.
• Act like a local
Some people like to splurge on one big fancy vacation a year. If you don’t travel very often, spending money to be as comfortable as possible when you do can make sense. But if you value frequent travel over luxury like I do, the trick is to treat your time on the road like the rest of your life. Go to the local supermarket and cook your host a meal. Rent a bike to get around the city you’re visiting. You’ll get a real sense of where you’re staying without spending more than you would at home.
