Doesn't the tour organiser offer any advice about this?

Amount sounds okay, but, obviously, you'll need Euros. Will you have an ATM or credit card? Do you know if any withdrawal/currency conversion fees are involved?

You may want to open a bank account at a credit union and get an ATM card.

Also, learn how to safeguard your cash/cards to protect yourself from pickpockets.

I'd ask same question as Patrick. Ask the tour organizer.

It may also depend on the schedule/itinerary. If you are taken to sights or museums as a group, you will probably have only so and so much time for lunch break before the next item on the list is due. So you may be forced to eat where you are instead of having lots of time to look around for cheaper options.

So you should have access to cash via ATM card both for your planned budget as well as to some "emergency" cash.

obviously, you'll need Euros.

And Swiss Francs and Pound Sterling.

Lets break it down. I'll give you some numbers for London and others may chime in for other cities:
Lunch: a sandwich will cost between 2 and 5 pounds. A cafe(starbucks, nero and the like) coffee will cost about 2 pounds. A sit down lunch at a pizza express will run you about 10 pounds. The best way to economise is to avoid sodas(about £2 each) and stick with tap water.
Museums: most of them are free. Some of the churches charge a fee though. Usually between 8 and 12 pounds for students.
Transport: A day travel card for zone 1&2 (most tourist attractions are in zone 1) will cost £8.40. Not sure how an international student would get discounts, but here's a good place to start researching: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx

You might want to change that daily budget on a per city basis and still average at $55 per day.

Have fun!

I would try to have a bit more money so you're not deprived of that extra ice cream or souvenir that you fell in love with then stick to your original budget if you can. The above advice about drinking tap water rather than soda is sound.

I'm surprised that a school trip would charge extra for transportation and entrance fees. The tour organizers know where you'll be going and how much it will cost. They can't possibly be collecting money on the spot for an entire group of students. That would take an enormous amount of time.

Hi jd,

Good advice from ss.

Much depends on how old you are - a 17 year-old ingests a lot more calories than a 77 year-old.

Lucerne is going to be about the same price as London - only in ChF instead of BGP, so convert the prices.

Munich and Paris will be similar and not so pricey for food and public transport.

You can find admission prices for museums, etc online by googling the name of the site.

You might do well with day passes, but it will depend on how long you will be in each city.

If you give us your itinerary we could help you better.

jdragon, welcome to Fodors.

ssachida is about right for UK
Paris and Munich will be about the same though they will charge for museums (6-8 Euro a time)

Lucerne will be about 25% more expensive than Paris and Munich and in Swiss Francs.

One of the dangers of traveling so far abroad for the first time is that a lot of things will "look" like home but will be different. This is part of the adventure but for instance

1) In the UK the cars drive on the wrong side so crossing the road means look right rather than look left at the start. You might think this is a little matter but you may be surprised by how people forget
2) Foods will be different, both in quantity and taste. Treat it as part of the adventure and try everything you can
3) Behaviour will be different, generally europeans tend to be a bit quieter (part of living in more crowded countries) for instance
4) Languages vary, not only will you find German and French fun you may also find that English in England is very different. If you fancy it surf on this site and you will find a bunch of notes about British Phrases.

and of course

Look for grocery stores, many department stores have a food hall in the basement. You can get great lunches and snacks and they are much cheaper and the assortment is great. Don't spend all your time shopping for gifts to bring back home. I hate when people I travel with get bogged down with buying EVERYONE a gift. Buy a handful of frig magnets at the airport or some candy at the airport and enjoy your trip.

<<I'm surprised that a school trip would charge extra for transportation and entrance fees. The tour organizers know where you'll be going and how much it will cost. They can't possibly be collecting money on the spot for an entire group of students. That would take an enormous amount of time.>>

To the OP: Adrienne is right. You should check with the trip organizer about this. They probably cover your transport and entrance fees to some degree. I doubt they'd expect kids to pay 17 quid or even 13+ (assuming the student rate) to enter the Tower of London, etc.

In the UK you can usually buy meal deals for lunch in any of the supermarkets. These include a sandwich or salad, a cold drink and crisps or fruit for £2.50 to £4 depending on the shop. They are usually situated in a chiller near to the entrance and are a very popular lunch choice especially for people on their lunch break.

I, too, wonder why you'd need to pay for entrance fees, unless you have free time and would be going to see attractions not included on the tour. And yes, the tour operators (I've been one) should have briefed you thoroughly on exactly how much money you'll need, how to get access to it, how to carry it around, and so forth. Not to mention the various exchange rates between the dollar and the currencies of the countries you're visiting.

I think your estimate of $55 a day is probably OK - better in some places than in others - but it does depend on how much you eat! And it's great to suggest that you buy cheap food in supermarkets, but will you have an opportunity to get to such stores? Look for "street food" no matter where you are; that's always cheap. Stay away from sodas - incredibly expensive - and drink water. Resist the urge to buy cheap trinkets for friends (it's YOUR trip - they can go to Europe and buy their own at some point). Remember that you will in all likelihood be smitten and return at a later date when you might have more spending power. Have fun!

Since you will be on a tour you probably won;t have the opportunity to shop around for budget lunches or to buy things in a market to make a picnic.

In terms of cost there is an online McDonald's calculator. Not that you shuold be eating McDonalds - but comparing the cost of the same meal will helpyouput togethr a budget. For instance, the Big Mac meal that costs $8 or $9 in the Us will cost about $18 in Switzerland. The other thing to watch out for is soda. It is very expensive and comes in itsy bitsy cans (I think like 6 oz). It is much cheaper to drink water (carry a quart bottle with you in your day pack and refill with tap watr in hotels ) - or even wine or beer.

the other thing is that portions is most of europe are considerabley smaller than in the US. this wasn't a problem when we tok our teen daughters - who eat human portions - but I know many teen boys eat huge amounts of food. One of my colleagues went to europe last summer with his family and he said they had to order two meals for his 16 year old son - since otherwise he was just starving all the time. (They started out ordering one meal and found they had to stop every two hours for him to have another.)

As for souvenirs - shop carefully - most are tacky - and postcards, attraction guidebooks and photos are really the best memories of a trip.

jdragon16,

It is wonderful that you are so excited for your trip. I took an EF trip my senior year in high school to Swizerland, Austria, and Germany. It was a really good introduction to Europe that whet my appetite for future travels.

You can spend as much or as little as you want, as the tour will really cover a lot. As I recall, we had some free afternoons here and there where we were responsible for our own lunches. We purchased things like subway tickets and museum tickets if we had enough time to see something, but honestly, I do not recall getting free from the tour enough to be able to see much else. Things we spent the most on included snacks, drinks, candy and stuff during the day (or at night in our hotel rooms). I found that the hotels often provided a rather meager breakfast, so I was grabbing a bratwurst here and there between meals. As you won't have large amounts of free time, it's hard to imagine you would rack up significant transportation or admission expenses.

55 dollars a day should more than cover such incidentals.

The other thing people spent a lot of money on was souvenirs. In fact, young people often fall into the trap of spending most of their time searching for gifts for family members. I'd advise you to refrain from this as much as possible, since you may later come to regret spending your three hour break searching for the perfect beer stein. EF will probably try to feed you to tacky souvenir shops and tourist traps along the way. If you don't get carried away, you can save your money for things you really want to do or have. So give that some thought before you get caught up in the moment when all your friends are filling their suitcases with shopping.

>>>Doesn't the tour organiser offer any advice about this?<<<

Often the teacher getting a group together has never been. They get a free trip for every six students they sign (or cash).

This is probably the OP's trip.
http://www.eftours.com/educational-tours/tour-detail.aspx?code=LPH&year=2013

It's been a long time since I've used EF and they are a very low budget student tour company. Breakfast will be skimpy. The students won't be allowed to wander off on their own so any other meals not included are typically in very touristy areas where prices are high. On travel days, the bus will stop somewhere (EF's choice) and you will have to pay those prices as often there will be no other choice.

Free time lunch in London is often Hard Rock London as a group (lunch will be $15-20 for a burger).

You won't have much free time for traveling around in cities so I wouldn't worry about transport costs. EF is to include transport (whether by their bus, city bus or metro) to included sites.

If you want to spend less money on food and more on souvenirs, throw some granola bars or other easily packed snacks in your luggage. Nothing fresh (nothing containing meat either).

Thanks , your replies have given me great info about spending money for my first trip to Europe and I'm glad Confirmed what my tour organizer and ef's website told me
-thanks

For my EFTour kids I recommend $50 a day to have available but they really usually got by for about $25/day PLUS souvenirs.

My experience as an EFTour group leader was not ky's above as far as lunch was concerned--we were never dictated where to eat lunch or taken to someplace like Hard Rock. We always had a variety of options from sit-down places to local markets to fast food places (but I never "let" my kids go in those!). I have been in London with EF for I think 8 or 9 days on 2 trips and we never even saw Hard Rock, so I would respectively disagree with ky's "often."

Also on my 20 days on 2 EF trips, I did not experience skimpy breakfasts except for 4 days. These 2 trips were in the UK so that might make some difference. But having a few granola bars or other packaged snacks is a good idea anyway.

Again, your group leader will instruct you more specifically from his/her specific itinerary and from his/her plans for how to spend any free time you all have.

Your group leader should be telling you this, but as said above, definitely get an account that gives you an atm/debit card, figure out how to use it stateside, and be sure the funds are attached to a CHECKING not a savings account. A credit union will probably offer the cheapest fees for such an account.

I am taking another group back with them in 2013! Have fun on your trip.

Texasbookworm makes a good point about sorting out the money situation stateside - talk to your bank and make sure you are all set.

As for the breakfasts, I recall in Germany most breakfasts consisting of *literally* low quality Brötchen, butter, jam, and coffee. We would pack several extra Brötchen in our bags for the bus ride just to try to put a dent in our hunger until we made it to lunch.

I assumed this was how Germans ate, until I travelled and lived there on my own and had the pleasure of finding out how wrong I was. Indeed, some of the best breakfasts I have ever eaten have been in Germany.

My son just returned from a January school trip to London, Florence and Rome. He spent $680 over 12 days for lunches, dinner, pubs and some extra museums on own. That's about $56 per day. They were given a metro/bus transport card in each city and most of entrance fees were covered or free. Take your student ID with you as you may get reduced admissions at some venues.

Update. In an awesome twist of fate my parents increased my spending budget to 150 dollars a day however I had several friends who made it with a 45 dollar a day budget. They weren't able to do as much shoping though.Thanks

The OP reported back after the trip. Very nice. Most ask for advice and never report back for the benefit of others taking a similar trip. Good manners are always appreciated.
So jdragon16, if you are still reading this, let us know what impressed you the most. What did you see that you will never forget?
Any advice for others taking this kind of trip over the next few months?