Going to Europe? Here are ways to cut costs

SPECIAL tactics are required for thrifty travel in Europe. Here are some often-overlooked approaches.

* Use the “fares and schedules” feature of www.raileurope.com to figure the cost of each train trip you plan to make; you’ll see if you will save money by buying a rail pass. Often it’s cheaper to buy point-to-point tickets than a Eurailpass, Eurail Selectpass or regional rail pass. (You buy them from Rail Europe at www.raileurope.com or from CIT Tours at www.cit-tours.com.) And often it pays to fly from place to place on one of the new cut-rate European carriers. Among them: Ryanair, www.ryanair.com; Virgin Express, www.virgin-express.com; Air Berlin, www.airberlin.de; and easyJet, www.easyjet.com.

* On most overnight trains, a second-class “couchette” -- a lightly padded 6-foot ledge on which you can stretch out -- costs only $20 to $30 and will enable you to sleep. Thus, you use the night to travel and save a night’s hotel cost.

* Nearly all European restaurant prices include a service charge. If a menu has a word at the bottom looking vaguely like “service” with a figure or percentage after it, the tip is automatically included. If the service has been particularly good, feel free to round up the bill or leave a euro (about $1) per person extra to show you appreciated the effort. But don’t double-tip.

* The keys to low-cost dining in Britain and Ireland are pubs that serve hot meals -- shepherd’s pie (beef stew capped with mashed potatoes) or bangers and mash (sausages and those potatoes again) -- and fish ‘n’ chips shops.

* On many European visits you will save money by buying a cheap round-trip ticket to London and using the European airfare booking engine E-Bookers.com to find a cut-rate flight on to more distant cities (such as Rome, Stockholm or Athens). E-Bookers has specials between London and other European cities that are not always available to our major U.S. airfare booking engines. And they let you stop off in London on the way.

* Find budget lodgings in Paris on a little-known Web site. Access www.paris-travel.com for discounted rates at good-quality two-star hotels throughout the city.

* If you do most or all of your shopping at one store in each country, it will be easier to obtain a refund of the “VAT” (value-added tax) that’s in the price of every item you buy. Virtually all European countries require stores to furnish you with the paperwork needed to get such refunds if your purchases reach a minimum amount. Global Refund, www.globalrefund.com, has a “VAT calculator” feature that will show you the minimum figure (from $25 in Germany to $154.94 in Italy) needed to set the refund process in motion.