travelbug92

So as the title says, I am a newbie solo traveler. I am a female in my early 20s and will be traveling around Europe for 3ish weeks. I was thinking of hitting the UK (London specifically), Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Greece. However, I have no idea on how much the trip would total.

flights: ~$1200 round trip (flying into London from the western US and traveling back to London to fly out)
in between travel: ~$1000??
lodging: ~$1300 (decently priced hostels/hotels...about $60 a night Im assuming)
food: ~$900(maybe $40/day? I do not drink and am not a heavy eater)
extra spending cash: ??

Does this seem about right? Im actually trying to figure the price to travel europe for 3 weeks vs japan for a month (or a bit more). Which would be cheaper?

Christina

I think that's the best way to try to estimate, daily average for lodging, food, travel, and extras. I'd check out lodging where you are going, with the high value of the dollar right now, $60 a night sounds doable in hostels. You can get some cheaper hotels for that, but not in the major capital cities (UK is more expensive than Spain, I'm not up on Italy and Greece prices for cheap hotels).

I think your budget does sound about right if you don't intend to buy a lot of food or drinks, and I don't necessariloy mean alcohol, between meals. Any kind of drink in a cafe will add on a couple euro, most likely, not to mention if you want a snack. But you can eat for $40 a day, sure.

Entries to attractions, museums, and souvenirs, etc., would be your extra spending cash, and you probably want at least $10-20 per day for that (I"m thinking atttractions, not buying a lot of stuff). In-btween travel, not sure, as you have picked a lot of countries that are far apart, but you probably could do it for $1000 with cheap flights, you'd need at least four or five.

If you are from the US, you might consider flying into Dublin and starting in Ireland, as there are cheap flights from the US to there and then you'd be going in the right direction (Ireland, London, Spain, Italy Greece perhaps). You can do cheap flights on Easyjet from London to Spain, a lot of British people go there on vacation. They probably have flights to Malaga, Barcelona and Madrid.

DK about Europe vs Japan as I haven't been there, but I thought it was expensive.

Jean

Five countries in 21 days?? I don't know for a fact, but I suspect you'll need more than $1000 for the in-between travel. Actually, I think all of your estimates are a little on the low side. Some destinations will require more cash than others, and you haven't stated exactly where you plan/want to go. Or what time of year.

You should check out this website for lots of info on train travel. (Note that there can be costs beyond a rail pass itself.) Then think about how much you'll be using public transportation within cities, taking day excursions or whatever, which will add to your travel expenses.

http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-E...m#.VSmMvsJ0zmI

If you were thinking of flying between countries, you'll have some additional costs to/from airports. Sometimes these costs are minor, but they still add to your travel expense. Make sure you understand the luggage fees the airlines will impose. It doesn't help that you have to return to London.

Extra spending cash depends on how many museums, galleries, other sights, etc., you want to enter. You can research these costs online.

You're lucky that the dollar is presently strong against the other currencies. You won't starve on $40 a day, but you won't have much for anything extra.

I haven't traveled to Japan in years, but I know the rail fares are generally expensive. Lodging costs run the entire range.

http://www.seat61.com/Japan.htm#Japan Rail Pass

PalenQ

Since you're under 26 years old you can get a Eurail Youthpass - a good deal probably for a wide-ranging trip - in most countries still can hop any train anytime - full fare tickets like that can cost a ton.

anyway assuming you're going by rail (buses just are not practical) check out these IMo suerb sites: www.budgeteuropetravel.com - download their free and superb online European Planning & Rail Guide for lots of rail itineraries; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com.

nytraveler

A couple ofnotes:

I think you are trying to get to too many different places and will be spending a large part of your trip just in transit rather than seeing or doing thing (check out rial schedules on bahn.de and budget airline schedules - often only one per day) - and don;t forget that for many anyhting larger than a gym bag is an extra charge and can be a lot

Also think you are uderestimating the costs of travel within each city (this is NOT part of a rail pass and can easily be more than $5/$6 per day).

A few major sights are free - esp in London - but many are $20 or more - and I thnk you need to allow more for this

Your food budget is based on a coffee/roll in the hotel or a nearby cafe, a slice or picnic sandwich on the bench for lunch and a one dish dinner in a very modest cafe. It does not include the cost of even student night life (beer and wine are cheap most places - but hard liquor tends to be very expensive - as do soft drinks) so carry your own water bottle with you.

I would suggest you lay out a day by day itinerary, see how that matches with what you want to see in each city - and you MUST leave 1/2 to 3/4 of a day to get between any 2 cities - so don't count those days as sightseeing since you just won;t get to it.

I think you will find you need to cut back on cities if you want to see much in the places you do stay.

Christina

I don't see why one can't go between 4-5 countries for $1000. I've taken several flights in Europe on Easyjet and they only cost about 50-100 euro, and yes, that includes checking luggage (Easyjet flights are cheap, you can often select cheaper days to travel, if you book in advance). Getting to/from airports doesn't cost that much if you use the cheapest method (bus/metro or whatever). The Airbus in Barcelona only costs about 5 euro, for example. A fligght between London and BCN, for example, is only around 40-50 GBP (or 70 euro). So if you spend even $150 per flight (I never have within Europe), you should easily be able to do 4-5 within $1000 budget.

So I don't have any problem with that budget, but I agree some of the others costs for local travel may be low.

By the way, I often don't spend more than $40 a day for food and I don't eat slices of something sitting on benches for lunch. I don't spend for expensive meals, but my dinners are perfectly decent and don't consist of one dish. There are plenty of cheaper restaurants of one cares to find them and get off the main tourist track or Chowhound boards.

PalenQ

Lots of expenses are discretionary - like if you stop at cafes for coffees several times a day which I would love to do but can't afford the $4-5 cups of coffee often - or nightlife is very expensive, etc - $100 a day is about a bare minimum including transportation, cheaper lodging and supermarket or snack bar meals - proper restaurants can be about twice as much as in the U.S.

thursdaysd

You will find more and better info on traveling on a budget over at Lonely Planet. You might also look for their guidebooks - they have outline budgets at the front.

Why are you "traveling back to London to fly out"? It will be cheaper and less hassle to fly into London and out of your final city. It's the "multi-city" option on booking sites.

With only three weeks I would pick London and two countries, one week each. You will not get bored in London in a week, but you could do some day trips - Windsor, Oxford, Salisbury-Stonehenge-Bath. Take a look at http://www.walks.com/ if you don't want to plan them yourself.

PalenQ

Ditto to thursdaysd suggestion of flying open jaw - into London and out of a city at the end of your trip - keep moving west and north or south and then instead of having to return to London at perhaps great cost just fly out of say Rome or Athens or Berlin, etc.

thursdaysd

Err, I think you mean east, PQ. Unless the OP is going to Ireland (which I would not recommend, given the alternatives, unless she has family connections there), in which case she should start there.

rosetravels

I think you can easily do this on your budget. However, you might consider going to fewer places as places like Spain and Italy have so much to see. I could happily spend 3 weeks just in Italy, and have several times! There's a lot to see and if you don't hop from place to place, you'll get to know the countries you're in a lot better. I think that makes for a more meaningful experience.

That said, at your age I biked across Europe to Greece and barely saw a thing. I wish I'd taken it a little slower. On the way back we spent a week in Rome and two weeks in Paris and much preferred that pace.

isabel

I think your budget is fine, but the five countries you want to see in 3 weeks is not. Five countries that are close geographically might work, but the five you mention are far apart meaning you'll need to fly. That fact alone is not necessarily expensive - check easyjet.com to see where you can fly between and the cost. It is usually cheaper the further from your travel date you book. But it does mean you'll loose a day each time you change countries (essentially, cause even a two hour flight equals about 6 once you add in getting to/from the airport, getting there 2 hours ahead of flight time, etc.). I guess it would work if you only want to see one city in each country. But a more enjoyable trip (for most people) would be to see two or three places in each country you visit (or more).

So figure out what you want to see in each country and then come up with a list of destinations - for example in Italy do you just want to go to Rome - or would you like to see Venice, Florence, some of the coast, a hill town or two, etc. So is Italy one destination or is it four or five? Do the same for each country. Then, for a three week trip figure you probably want an average of at least 3 days in each 'destination' so that would be about ten (ten different hotels/hostels).

If you had an itinerary with a lot of contiguous countries then five in 3 weeks works - eg. London to Amsterdam to Belgium to Paris to Switzerland to Venice to Florence to Tuscany to Rome. That's six countries, 8 'destinations', yet all doable by train with no trip more than half a day max. Your problem is that the countries you choose (all wonderful places) are far apart.

Just some things to consider when planning an itinerary. In terms of $60 a night for lodging and $40 for food - that is very doable. You can see what the cost of travel between places is by checking easyjet or another low cost carrier and the rail websites. As pointed out above, you also need to budget for at least some entrance fees to 'sites'.

bilboburgler

Another vote for less travel and also travel to nearbye. In Europe traveling only a small distance can mean both a change in language, but also architecture, systems etc. So just doing Amsterdam/Brugges/Luxembourg/Trier covers 4 countries, three languages, a host of time periods and moving from a beer culture to a wine culture. All this in about 400 km.