One of the best parts of living in London is our proximity to the rest of the world. You can fly from London to Paris faster than you can fly from Sydney to Melbourne... get ready to enjoy this to the max!

First things first. If you're working an office job you're going to want to know when the public holidays (bank holidays in the UK) are. Check out the list here.

If you're a teacher... well... get ready to experience "half-term". This is extra time off during the school term, and while there will be the need to do some marking, you can also use this time to go travelling! Half-term dates sometimes depend on the school in which you're working, but a general list can be found here.

Okay, now you know WHEN you can travel, the next step is working out HOW you can travel. From London there are myriad options for getting you across to Europe. You can fly, bus, drive, train or even catch the ferry!

In terms of flights, there are a number of options for finding cheap flights:

You can also catch the bus across to Europe or around the UK and this is usually the cheapest option. Make sure you check out:

The train runs all over the UK and across to France, Belgium and The Netherlands in Europe. Check out the following sites:

If you're looking to plan your travel starting somewhere other than the UK, Rome2Rio is a really good site which can help you out.

Make sure if you fly with RyanAir you don't get caught out by their visa check policy. This may all change with Brexit, but at the moment as an Aussie you need to print your boarding pass and go to their "visa check" desk to get it stamped before you fly. This can take ages, so it's important to get to the airport with plenty of time.

Now you've got the WHEN and HOW sorted. If you need the WHO then make sure you come to our events to meet people to travel with, or you can go on an organised tour with our mates at Contiki, Stoke Travel, Travel Talk, Top Deck or Bus About. We will try our best to keep the Travel Deals page updated with their latest deals.

Looking for inspiration for the WHERE? Check out our Travel Inspiration page for some travel blogs that we like.

We don't reckon you need help with the WHY 😉