Coming To London October 28

It is much (a lot) cheaper to buy tickets for the Eurostar from Australia than it is from UK - so you might want to book them before you leave home

Try hostels.com for places to stay.

It is relatively cheap to travel to Paris for the weekend, the cheapest way is probably by coach by taking a National Express service, but it's not the fastest by any means. I enjoy the Eurostar which goes via the Channel Tunnel and takes about 2 hours, it not usually cheaper than flying but it is faster (given total travel time of waiting at airports and transferring between remote regional airports, which most budget carriers fly to), it's also a lot less hassle than flying. The EuroStar only departs from London, so you'll need to get to London by train first before heading off.

You can fly to just about anywhere in Europe quite cheaply using budget carriers like EasyJet, Ryan Air, etc. You'll find out all about them once you begin planning your travels, best to book your flights well in advance to make the most of cheap fares. As an example you can often get flights for 1p, then you just pay airport taxes and baggage fee's (where applicable). Although it's no good for the environment and blah, blah, blah flying is the fastest, cheapest way to travel to and from Europe from the UK. Once there it's cheaper and more pleasant to travel around by train - and it keeps the tree hugger's happy!

If you're planning on travelling in Europe for an extend period of time (a straight month or two) then you should invest in a eurail pass of some description, it's expensive but it'll save you a shed load of money in the long run. You can only buy the eurail pass while outside of Europe, so if you want one you need to do it before you leave.