krisabug27

This may have no real answer, but I'm attempting to make a guess at what our food costs will be for 1 week in Paris, 4 days in Venice, 3 days in Tuscany, 3 days in Sorrento/Amalfi, & 2 days in Rome.

We are planning on going to markets/delis/cafes for breakfast & lunch with moderate dinners and a few splurges (splurge for us would be 25-30 euros pp). We will drink mostly water with a glass of wine during the splurges.

Did anyone follow this sort of meal plan and can give me an idea of spending? This is for 2 college students (male & female)

Thanks for any help!!

Christina

I don't think there is any answer at all. I don't know about Venice or Tuscany or Rome, just Paris, There, it will be what you choose to spend and what you order, and depends on how much you eat. You can eat something for breakfast for about 5 euro, lunch probably at least 10, and dinner maybe 15-20. These are cheap places and you won't be eating a lot for those prices. I would not call 15 euro a "moderate" dinner price, but you can eat something for that amount.

natinwpb

When I went to school in Florence and travelled around food was pretty reasonable, but the Euro has slightly altered that. You can definitely find good reasonably priced food in Tuscany, Sorrento and Rome. Venice is a bit pricier so look for recommendations on this board. The best thing I did was go to the local grocery store and get stuff for sandwiches for lunch. That saved alot of money.

jabez

Paris ,in my experience, has more expensive food,e.g. comparing what you get for your money.
Rome has many good inexpednsive restaurants. Amalfi can be expensive, if you're not careful.
Wine in Italy won't hurt your pocketbook.
Plan some picnics and pizza and you'll be fine. Make sure and save some money for gelato.

isabel

All over Italy you can get pizza by the slice, and you tell them how large a slice you want, and it's priced by weight but a good size piece will only be 2-4€. Bottled water and soda will be cheaper in grocery type stores than in restaurants - even pizza places so to really save money carry a bottle with you. The pizza is so good, and so varried, that you can eat it every day and not get tired of it. Lots of restaurants have no problem with you just ordering pasta (which is considered a first course) and skipping the meat/fish course. So you could pretty easily get dinner for under 10€ each. It will be good, but obviously not Michelin Star level. In Paris there are panini stands everywhere - wonderful hot or cold baguette type sandwiches for under 5€. There are plenty of small restaurants (in the 5th near Place St Michele) with two (or even three) course price fixed dinners for 10€. Ask for a carafe d'eau to get free tap water. If you just ask for water it will be bottled and they will charge you. But wine is cheap (much cheaper than in the US) in both France and Italy. Finding a market and buying picnic supplies and lots of fruit is also a great way to save money an get some really wonderful food.

kerouac

Paris can be one of the cheapest cities in Europe for food. The street markets in "normal" neighborhoods can be cheap to ultra-cheap and moderate dinners can be had for less than 15 € per person (less than 10 € if you enjoy ethnic food such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian or Turkish). As a "carafe d'eau" is free, you will often be able to afford a bottle of wine, rather than a glass.
Italy generally proves to be considerably more expensive.

SHADRACH

Hi! I am also a college student. Last year, I visited Paris, Venice, Milan and Nice. I also follow a 30 euro meal plan when I travel and it works. Of course, I have breakfast at the hotel. In Venice, on the corner of Ponte delle Guglie in Cannaregio (I don't remember the name) there was a pub where I had a pasta dish and a stuffed calamari as an appetizer for less than 10 euros. The food was restaurant quality. also, near the train station there was this place similar to delis in New York which offered italian inexpensive meals and they were superb. I also had panini filled with prosciutto for dinner and they were both inexpensive and good. I only ate at a restaurant once, on Burano, and that was one of the highlights of my trip in terms of food. Something I really enjoyed was almond milk (latte di mandorle). It was sold at a refreshment stand on Strada Nova also in Cannaregio. I stayed at a convent in Cannaregio, that's why I had most of my meals in that area. I had coffee at both Caffè Quadri and Florian in two different mornings. Man! The prices there are really expensive, but they are so charming that, to be honest, I don't regret having spent that money there.

Paris and Nice were much more expensive in terms of food (and everything). After Paris, I visited Venice and everything seemed like a bargain (and people say Venice is expensive). I remember that ice-cream in Paris were as delicious as in Italy. Of course, the ice-cream parlors (Amorino. They are all over the city) in Paris were italian so I guess that's why they were so good.

ira

Hi K,

In France and Italy you can get a cuppa and roll for 2.5 - 3.5 E.

Lunch can be 4 - 8 E, depending on whether you sit or stand.

Dinner will generally be in the 15 - 25E range.

You might want to consider having your splurge meals at lunch. Usually much less expensive than dinner.

Your plan looks very nice.

Have a nice visit.

annhig

We just got back from Rome and ate out most lunches and dinners. For 4, the most we paid was about E120, and the least E50.
You can get pizza for about E6-8, a starter for e5, and a decent main course for under E10. house wine and water are about the same price - E2 for a 1/2 litre and litre respectively.
Some places do an anti-pasti buffet, which can be very good value. Even the street food is good, and it's very cheap.
Finally, you can get ice-cream for under E1 a scoop, [average is E1.50 for 3 scoops] and buy fruit and biscuits at the supermarket or market stall - very cheap. Venice might be a bit pricier, but you can usually find cheaper places around a corner away from the throng. Have fun.

scrb

What is the Italian equivalent of carafe d'eau?

Or are Italian restaurants loathe to give you water rather than sell you the bottled water?

wego

bookmarking

suze

I have not found costs of food in Europe dramatically different from my home city for buying similar types of items or meals.

Figure a budget using as a base: if you ate out or purchased individual meals at home, the way you are planning to do on your trip. Convert USD to euro, that will give you a rough estimate.

wlzmatilida

Hi Kris!

It's nearly impossible to figure out your food costs before you go because there are so many variables to be considered: what activities you're doing (lots of walking, building up an appetite); the weather, where you are, what's available, how you eat at home, etc.

For example: I'm not a big breakfast person, so I'd have a granola bar I brought with me and a cup of tea while my husband would go out for a cappachino and a cornetto in Italy.

We had our own apartment in Tuscany and usually had a larger than normal lunch than we would at home and would have a light meal back at our apartment of cheese, wine, bread and salami, or a salad, tomatoes and bread.

We were in France during the "unseasonable" heatwave and I existed mostly on salads - I may be the only person to go to France and have LOST weight while there!

Paris and Sorrento/Amalfi would probably be your most expensive options, but even there, with a bit of leg work you can find reasonable meals.

In my experience, wine in Italy has always been cheaper in Italy than in France.

Regards,

Melodie

eurogirl2006

For cheap food in Paris, cheap out Rue de la Harpe near St. Germain... Crepes are also reasonable. You can get a ham and cheese crepe for 3.4 Euros.

scrb

I can tell you that even simple sandwiches are not cheap in Florence. They're 4 euro in most of the major tourist areas and all you get is a thin slice of ham and some mozarella. No crudites, unless you just want a tomato and mozarella on bread (thin and small bread at that).

The pizzas sold by the slice didn't look that appealing and I didn't try them (Siena by contrast has very tasty-looking pizzas on the main strip for 2-3 euro). Gelatos are a minimum 2 euro, small bottles of water about the same, sodas and other drinks 3 euro or more.

A lot of places here don't disclose their cover and service policies. Or I didn't look enough before I guess.

A capuccino and a half a croissant came to 6 euro because I sat outside very early in the morning and she brought it out to me.

But at a little latteria not far away, a full lemon crossaint and capuccino was 1.9 euro and I sat down there too.

The first place charged 3.5 euro for capuccino, which is much higher than I recall in Rome.



Paris used to have pretty unimpressive takeaway food too. But now, you can go to larger supermarkets like Inno and get decent panini and a selection of drinks for much cheaper than at any street vendor.

I used to think the French and maybe Europeans looked down at sandwiches with tomatoes, lettuce and other fixings. But fortunately, there are enough exceptions, hard to find they sometimes seem to be.

kerouac

In Paris, a giant Greek sandwich, full of meat, onions, lettuce and tomatoes -- along with french fries -- more than I can eat in any case, so the pigeons get the rest -- costs 4 euros.

scrb

What, a gyro?

JandaO

scrb,
Gyro (yee-roh) - A Greek sandwich specialty. A proper Greek gyro is made with meat cut off a big cylinder of well-seasoned lamb or lamb and beef. This meat is on a slowly rotating vertical spit the name gyro, implying the circular spinning motion of a gyroscope). The sandwich maker slices off strips of the warm meat when the sandwich is ordered; heats pita bread on a griddle or grill, and then serves the meat on the bread, topped with the sauce, and usually garnished with lettuce and tomato.

Gyro is probably the most often mispronounced food name. Even its fans usually do not get the pronounced correctly - whether it is mispronounced as "jee-rohs," "jai-rohs," "gee-rohs," The correct Greek pronunciation is “yee-rohs.”

scrb

I thought it was pork, not lamb or beef.

Anyways, there are Greek restaurants out here and the gyros they make do not come from some cylinder.

Do they have such places in Paris?

MaureenB

Be aware that in Italy, we found most restaurants charged as much for a bottle of water as they charge for a half-liter of house wine! So, be advised before you order-- may as well drink the wine.

Also, we weren't terribly successful in finding markets when we wanted to have a light picnic type meal. And it wasn't easy to find a place to sit and eat outside, either. We did successfully enjoy fruit, yoghurt, cheese, wine, etc. at a couple of different spots, but it wasn't as easy as we'd hoped. Luckily, budget isn't a big issue, so we could do whatever we pleased. But it's nice to have a picnic now and then. One of the best we had was in Vernazza, sitting on a bench at the waterside, before we headed off to walk to Corniglia.

If you search for my recent trip reports of Rome, Florence, Venice and Nice, you will find the names of restaurants we liked there, with price quotes for each meal.

Have fun! Eat lotsa pasta!