White-washed building on Portugal's sun-soaked Algarve coast. Photo: regio de Turismo do Algarve

May and September are the best months to travel in Europe; the weather is pleasant and you won't feel like just another sheep in a flock of tourists. High season in Europe is between June and August. The weather is terrific (although Mediterranean countries are swelteringly) but the crowds make travelling in summer highly unpleasant. If you must travel then, book accommodation in advance and be prepared to spend a lot of time in queues.

Northwestern Europe has a cool, temperate climate. Eastern Europe experiences more climatic extremes, with frozen winters and sticky summers. The Mediterranean enjoys the most consistent year-round climate with dry, hot summers and mild, generally sunny winters. Northern Scandinavia and Russia have an arctic climate.

Thanks to the euro, gone are the days of changing currency at every border. The euro is now the currency of 13 European countries - Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Portugal and Spain. Countries in the European Union that are yet to adopt the euro are Britain, Denmark, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden.

Eurolines buses are the cheapest, albeit most neck-seizing way to get around Europe.

Aside from Britain train travel is cheap and efficient. If you plan to conquer a lot of countries in a short space of time, a train pass is the way to go. Europeans can purchase InterRail passes; for everyone else there's Eurail passes. If you plan on extensive travel in any one country, many countries have their own national rail passes.

Numerous ferry lines link European countries.

The proliferation of low-cost airlines often makes flying the most economical - and environmentally unfriendly - way to bridge distances in Europe. Ryanair and Easyjet are the biggest budget carriers.