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This is my first Travel Hack ! I had found this Eastern Europe trip in one of my many travel brochures and was quite interested.

But I was not a fan of doing a coach trip for two weeks or the price involved. It would have come to nearly £3000+ and I know that we wanted to experience and see things at our own pace – not at the whim of a touring company. So I decided to see if I could make the trip cheaper and stay in less places

• Flights – Ryanair to Budapest with reserved seating: £81.98
• Hotel in Budapest; Queen’s Court Hotel & Residence for three nights: £185.00

• Flights – Budapest to Belgrade: £193.48
• Hotel in Belgrade; Hotel Excelsior for two nights with complimentary dinner: £152.00

• Flights – Belgrade to Sofia: £186.40
• Hotel in Sofia; Hotel Downtown for one night: £63.73

• Flights – Sofia to Belgrade: £147.54
• Hotel in Bucharest; Europa Royale Bucharest  for four nights: £189.01

• Flights – Ryanair with reserved seating Bucharest to Stansted: £87.85

We land at 13.30 pm – perfect as I returning to work at 8am the next day ! The total cost so far is £1,286.99 and that is not including transfers, tours and food. But I very much doubt that it will top the £3000 I was originally quoted to do the other tour. So this should be fun, and this will be my test, to see if I want to book more independent travel rather than rely on a travel company. Time will tell.