IainH

Going backpacking through Europe in October for 2 months (60 days), starting in Scotland. Made up this budget, does it seem okay or am I way off?

Eurail Youth Pass......$1043
Eurostar Ticket.....$88
Reservation Fees......$525
Hostels.....$1500
Spending Money.....$1500
TOTAL.....$4656

In Canadian dollars by the way, and flight already paid for. Any feedback welcome, thanks!

saps

Are you going to eat any food?

IainH

Food's included in the spending money, with entrance fees and other expenses.

Gavin

I have never done the backpacking thing so I might be off base. $1500 "spending money" is $25 per day. I assume that this is to cover meals, local transit, beer, museum admission and everything else. This seems very low to me. A nice but not extravegant lunch for two can very easily be $50 or more. I would get tired of trying to eat on that budget for two months but I have not been eligible for "youth" anything for a while. Think about living on that in Canada and remeber that in general Europe is more expensive.

What is the $525 for reservation fees?

saps

First off...I've never been backpacking through Europe but

$25/day for food, entrance fees, plus misc expenses such as toiletries, bus, metro, etc seems low even for a budget trip.

saps

I just read Canadian dollars...

1 Canadian dollar = .69 Euro

$25 CAD/day = 17 E/day

Not enough money.

nona1

You can eat on that if you stick to buying stuff from supermarkets but not eating out. But that would be about it.
Far too low budget for spending money. You won't have money to do much sightseeing. Your hostel estimate is rather on the low side too, an average of £11 sterling (that's what I think in) a night. You'll find some for that but don't rely on finding 60 nights worth.
What on earth are those reservation fees for?

christieCA

The last time I went backpacking was in '99, so I'm sure prices have increased since then. I gave myself $50 US a day. This was split between hostel, food, and entrances. Often the hostel was around $20 US, so that left $30 for everything else. We didn't have nice meals (obviously) but we ate out for dinner and then breakfast and lunch would come from the hostel or the grocery store.

The Eurail cost seems high. Are you going to be taking enough train rides to make that worth it?

Hope you have a great trip!

murphy89

Hi lain,

Personally, I think your way off. As a fellow Canadian who just returned from almost 3 months in Europe and I can tell you your low-balling. The CAD is about 66cents to the Euro - which HURTs a lot. So it is important to be realistic.

Lets see if we can brainstorm this a bit...

1. <font color="blue">Transportation</font>: The more you move, the more expensive it is. Maybe give us an idea of your itinerary. When you create your budget count the Eurail Pass and Eurostar Ticket, but do not underestimate costs of metro+bus tickets within cities and day trips to surrounding cities too. I recommend including emergency taxi money in your buffer fund as well. You can easily burn 8Euros on the local metro in a day - in CAD that is 11E. These little cost add up in a BIG way in a long trip.

2. <font color="blue">Hostels</font>. Hostels can easily run around 22-27Euros in big cities such as Paris. They do tend to be cheaper in small towns. Lets say 20Euros/night x 60 nights: 1200Euros (1608CAD)

3. <font color="blue">Food</font>. You can eat at grocery stores, but even still food takes up a lot of money. Lets say bottom of the barrel 20Euros a day (which will be tough) - 20E x 60: 1200E (1608CAD) This would NOT include alcohol if your going to a pub.

4. <font color="blue">Sites</font>. This is a big reason why you are in Europe so don't skimp on sites.
Just one day in Paris/Rome etc you can easily see upward of 4 paid sites/day. In a big city they can range from 5-10E each. Lets be kind and say 6E each. It would be helpful if you sat down and calculated up all the likely sites you'll see to give yourself the best idea possible. It will be way more than you have alotted. Lets say around 20 dollar/day (and I think that is low personally) - 60 x 20: 1200E (1608)

5. <font color="blue">Shopping and Laundry</font>:
Laundry can be hand washed - but not really when hosteling. Washrooms are usually pretty grubby. Laundry can be pricey (8E+/wash+dry) so consider it too. Also phone cards (local and long distance) and of course the actually things you buy as far as souvenirs. I'd say 300Euros for good measure (that is only about 225CAD).

6. <font color="blue">Buffer/Emergency Money</font>: 200E (268CAD)

Also, a reminder to consider the money for your bills (rent etc) while you are away.

7. What are Reservation Fees?

Even above I think I am being kind on &quot;sites&quot; and &quot;food&quot;.

Just a few thoughts.

Cheers,

Murphy

suze

Not enough.

I don't know about all the train expenses, but hostels and spending money are not enough. That's only 17 euro per day for each... so 34 euro total per day that has to cover a hostel bed, food, drink, admissions, spending money, local transportation, laundry, toiletries, etc.

You need to research, but depending on your city a bed in a hostel alone can be near that entire amount!

Are you sure that is the rail pass you need? Are you sure you need one at all? Have you run the numbers for point-to-point 2nd class tickets on the places you plan to go? A rail pass is not always the best value.

suze

If you have not done so already, please read and post on The Thorn Tree, it's Lonely Planet's forum similar to this one but it is filled with experienced backpackers.
www.lonelyplanet.com

IainH

I'm going to 14 different countries so I'd say the rail pass is definitely worth it, no?

IainH

The reservation fee number was what it added up to when I checked all the prices according to my itinerary, most were about $14 CAD per trip.

I know reservations aren't needed on all the trains I'll be on but I wanted to allow for them...just incase.

IainH

Murphy...

What did your 3 month trip cost you in total? If you don't mind me asking. Thanks!

suze

I have no idea. Some people just assume a rail pass is best without having done the math (is all I meant by my comment).

Like I suggest, you should ask the Lonely Planet crowd. I honestly don't think there are many posters on Fodor's that would do 14 countries in two months staying in hostels (or if they did they did it 20 years ago). Ours is not the information you need.

That said, I am pretty confident that your hostel and spending money needs a bit of a boost.

Eloise

You are going to 14 countries in 60 days?

That comes to 4.285 days per country - <b>not</b> counting the days that you will lose in getting from one place to another.

Perhaps you should review not only your budget (which is much too low) but your itinerary as well...

murphy89

Hi lain,

Around 12,000 CAD, but I did not hardcore it on the budget travel. In France I budgeted 40E/day for food - all restaurants because I don't like to cook at home and there was no chance I was going to do it on vacation. I didn't always spend this but I lost the money in other areas so I was glad I had it set aside (sometimes I did use it up at a nice restaurant). Once I left France for Greece I dropped it to 30E/day - that was also very comfortable, but I also easily spent it when not careful.

In France all hostels from 11E-27Euros.
In Greece, no hostels outside of Athens (and one on Santorini) so all cheap hotels (solo traveller - would have been alot cheaper if I had a friend to split it with). 20-40E/night

In France it wasn't worth it for me to get a Eurorail pass, but I still spent around 200E on the intercity train plus quite a bit of money on Paris/Rennes metro. In Greece, Eurorail is pretty useless. Intercity bus's were reasonable, but I moved around constantly so that ate up a lot of cash.

My &quot;shopping money&quot; was about 200E in France and &quot;300&quot; in Greece - I ended up using it on sites and surprises in France, but actually bought things in Greece.

I spent more on sites in France than I imagined - I accomplished more in a day than I expected.

Surprises - I ended up spending a great deal of unbudgeted money on taxis (ie metro strike in Paris - 50E taxi to airport) - needed a lot of taxis in Greece to fill in where bus was lacking.

Laundry - its nice not to stink and its nice to give the clothes a proper wash once in a while.

Band-aids and medical stuff for blistered feet and eventually new shoes. English books, phone cards, sheet fees at hostels, internet access, little excursions (cycle tours, boat trips, cycle rental etc). Alcohol - wine with dinner or at a pub.

In Greece I footed the bill for inter-island flights to avoid long ferry trips. When budgetting it is all about choices.

I also threw the plan out the window and scuba dived to my hearts content toward the end of my trip

I could have done it for much less. I lived comfortably for the most part and made NO sacrifices on sites and activities. All sacrifices on my next trip will come from accomodation and food - I will not curb on the sites and activities next time either.

Cheers,

Murphy

aucho53

Hi LainH,

I backpacked in 2004 and we were gone for 1 month and the grand total for my trip inlcuding airfare, hostels, food, spending, attractions, reservations, etc etc etc was 5000$ CAD, and I came home with .81 Euro cents. You will be gone for 2 months and your budget was under mine. You don't realize how quickly your expenses add up, and I would much rather be safe than sorry. I would take the advice of some other posters and consider seeing slightly less, and try to cut the cost of that rail pass down...I spent quite a bit on my rail pass, and later discovered I had made the wrong move. Live and learn I guess.
Backpacking is amazing, but things like metro/bus fare, laundry, emergency cab rides, and whatever else you can think of will probably come up once you are gone and you need to be ready for it.
Have a great trip, and whatever you do keep your $$$ in a money belt because losing your money on a trip where you have little to start off with can be totally devastating! LOL, that said, revamp your budget and you will have a blast!

Layla

murphy89

14 countries sounds....ambitious. My friends did a super budget trip (only hostels, cooked all there own food), 4 months, a zillion countries (though not 14...), they did some volunteer work and had a few free places to stay - they budgetted about 14,000 and came home with a bit of money.

vcl

We've never tried backpacking through Europe, but we've met backpackers on European trains. One young woman found she could save money by purchasing a first class Eurail ticket and using the train as her hotel. She'd hop on a late night train out of town, curl up with her backpack, and sleep until her next destination. She used station rest rooms for washing up and said she sometimes was able even to shower.
Not my cup of tea, but she'd been at it for months.