basingstoke2

For us it was 1968. The Hotels I remember were the Hotel du Danube in Paris where we paid $16 for a top floor room with balcony (elevator to the floor below), $10 at a fantastic historic hotel, Hotel Post I believe, near Lyon, $12 at the Hotel Regina for a huge room with balcony overlooking the lake and $8 at the Hotel Silberhorn in Grindlewald with a great view of the Jungfrau from our bedroom window. The Silberhorn was memorable also because it had a kosher kitchen, something we never would have suspected in that part of Switzerland. We have returned to the du Danube several times since at somewhat higher prices.

scatcat

I don't remember the prices, but it couldn't have been much. We had the book Europe on $25 per day in 1983.

november_moon

About the same as they do now - it was less than 10 years ago.

Aduchamp1

Our first trip was in 1972 and we spent most of the six monthes in Spain on $15 a day which included meals, room, admissions, a newspaper, and a pack of American cigarettes.

After staying on the family farm for a few weeks, we splurged and stayed at the parador in Avila. I think it was around $20 a night.

The cheapest meal was in Barcelona where you got a seven course meal for $1.25. I think one of the courses was the knife and another the napkin.

Bedar

New Year's Eve 1960, my husband paid $5/night at The Palace in Madrid. He stayed for a month, of course.
We paid $2/night at the Hotel de Lisbonne, rue de Vaugirard, Paris, in 1964. We stayed for 6 mos. before renting a 2bed apt in the 7th for $200/mo.
He bought houses in Spain in the 60s for $50 apiece, and we could have bought a 2 bed. apt. in Paris for $65K in Feb. 1985.
Oh, for the good old days !

FoFoBT

My first trip to Europe was a school package tour in the mid 1970s, so I don't know what the hotels cost per night.

In the early 1980s, when I studied at the Sorbonne, I stayed in a foyer on the rue de Vaugirard with a direct view of the Luxembourg Gardens (next door to what is now the Luxembourg Parc hotel). I shared the room with two other students. Bed, bath and breakfast cost me $5 a day. The building has since been converted into offices for the French Senate.

The first true hotel room I had in Paris that I paid for myself, the Hotel de Nevers (not the funky one, the quieter one near the Pantheon), cost $22 for a double with private bath and breakfast. The little hotel we stayed at in Milan on that same trip cost $14 for a single with bath and breakfast. In Switzerland, we stayed at the (in)famous Balmer's hostel in Interlaken for about $8 per night.

dugi_otok

Our first trip was in 1964. Our travel bible was Arthur Frommer "Europe on $5 dollars a Day". We were there for the summer. For example in London we stayed at the Maree Hotel on Gower Street for one pound a night($2.80) per person. For that we got a room, English breakfast, toilet/bath down the hall. In Paris we stayed in the Sorbonne Area, at the Hotel du Square Monge et Bernardin. The room contained a bidet and an American electrical outlet. We paid 17 francs for a double ($3.40).In Salzburg we paid $2.00 to stay in a private home after being approached when we were in line at the tourist office. The gentleman said "follow me" and off we went. His wife spoke English she learned from a US military officer and his family who stayed at their home post war. She treated us whith American coffee for breakfast. In Copenhagen a hotel clerk, who had no vacancies, called a local farmer who rented out his daughters room (she was away at college). He came to the hotel and we followed him home. I think we paid him $2.00.I have been hooked on travel since then. On that trip I bought a new VW bug for $1300, and after driving 13,000 miles that summer I had it shipped home.I recall that Europe by Car tried to sell me a car manufactured by a new company named Bavarian Motor Works, but I did not have $2300 at the time.

LSky

What a great story dugi.

My first trip was to Spain back in the early 90's, my friend was my travel guide and teacher. We shared rooms and it seems they were between 25 - 50 USD.

The airfare is what I remember, it was $483.

Rastaguytoday

1985. France and London. Most exepsnesive hotel was $36.

The franc was at almost 10 to a $1. I still remember my first meal there. Dinner, with a bottle of wine was $8.

They kept trying to give me more cheese varieties. The meal was delicous.

Jean

In the summer of 1968, on my first trip to Europe without parents along, I stayed in several college/university dorms for about $1.50 a night. Two to a room, no private bathrooms.

irishface

First trip in 1967 with Frommers "5 dollars a Day". I traveled with a college friend. Our most expensive room was in London B&B. We met two other friends and four of us in one room. Three twin beds wall to wall. I (as the shortest) slept on some sort of make do with my feet hanging over the end. Bathroom up one flight. Room to open the door and that was it. At night we took our suitcases off the beds and stacked them by the door. We had to put suitcases on the beds in order to get out of the room. Paid one pound each @2.80 to the pound for bed and good English breakfast.

On that trip we usually paid about $.75-$1 for our room with bath down the hall or down the stairs. That $5 covered meals and room transpotation and entrance fees. Though in London it went up to maybe $7 a day.

The first time I had a room with my own bath was in York in 1986. I think I paid $15.

ira

Hi Bas,

>[in 1968] we paid $16 for a top floor room with balcony...<

You must have been very wealthy.

In the mid 70's I was using "Europe on $10 a Day".

Barbara_in_FL

1981...Let's Go was my bible...I don't remember exactly what we paid, but I don't think it was ever more than $20 (split between two people, as I usually traveled with a friend) and usually less - I remember paying $6 or $8 for my share several times. It was cheap enough that I only used hostels once or twice - even then I preferred having my own sink. : ) I don't remember the first hotel I stayed in, but it would have been in Rouen. Went back in 1983-84 when the exchange rate was almost 10F/$1 and was able to pay less than $10 for some very adequate rooms. But to put that in perspective, you could still find a $20 hotel room here that was clean and safe when you were on the road. And LSky, I think my first ticket was $209 to London (back in the days of Laker's Sky Train) but then I had to get over to Paris on the overnight ferry.

As much as I complain about airfares, thank goodness they haven't increased proportionately to the hotel rooms!

bobthenavigator

It was 1961 in Bavaria and I was in the USAF and we were flying " space available". We stayed at the officers hotel in Garmisch for $3 per nite--it was the Von Steuben hotel.
We were in Europe for 19 nites and spent a total of $385 including transport. What a good way to start.

NeoPatrick

My first trip to Europe was for a week at Easter to Malaga/Torremolinos Spain in 1971. It was with an Ohio Education Association package, so I don't know what the hotel cost was. But it included 7 nights at the Melia Torremolinos (beautiful) and also two meals per day. Along with the round trip flight from Columbus, Ohio and a couple of included side trips, the entire package was $199 per person, so I'm figuring the room itself must have been about $5 per night == LOL.

basingstoke2

bobtheN - I stayed there too, also space A - a very nice place. The hotel at Rhine Main AFB was nice too.

tdk320n

My first trip to Europe was in 1957. I traveled alone. I left NYC in January on the ANDREA DORIA. I went to Calabria, to visit my fathers family, then Sicily, Capri, Ischia, Rome, Florence, Venice, Majorca, Marseilles and ended my fabulous trip in Paris.

I returned to the USA on the French liner Ile de France.
I was sailing back when the ANDREA DORIA sank.
My entire trip was almost 6 months and the total cost including the ship fare to and from was $1000.
Yes $1000. for the entire 6 months.

My love for travel and Europe started with this trip and I still go to Europe every year.

Obviously my trips cost a bit more now but I still consider my first trip one of my best.

I also learned that it is sometimes fun to travel alone and it is possible to travel on a budget.

StCirq

First trip cost nothing, as I auditioned for and was chosen to go perform for US soldiers on a USO tour. We stayed mostly on military bases, but when it was hotels they were paid for.

Second trip in 1972, I stayed in a hotel in Earl's Court in London that cost a couple of pounds a night. It was a filthy dump, so we moved out into a nicer place after a day that cost 4 pounds a night. Then we went to France and stayed in foyers for about the equivalent of $5 a night. I fell in love with Honfleur on that trip and tried for days to figure out how I could buy a beautiful house right on the main quai that at the time was going for $13,000. I decided the only way I could handle that was to start dealing drugs, and I wasn't about to do that, so I gave up.

irishface

Tdk, I grew up on the Cape and remember when the Andrea Doria sank. The Cape Cod Times (it was the Standard Times then) had lots of pictures and writeups. So I was wondering if you came back on the Andrea Doria, but see that you were safely on another ship.

nytraveler

1975 and I don't remember all the prices. We stayed in a charming gasthaus in Garmisch for about $10 per night including breakfast.

In Paris (arriving at 2 am - don;t ask)we stayed in a dump for $6 a night - I slept in my raincoat on top of the quilt and the next day moved to the Hilton (only decent place we could find on an hour's notice). Was too much - but I wasn't staying in the other place one more night.

In Spain, on the coast north of Barcelona we stayed at a beachfront resort - modern room with balcony overlooking the water - including breakfast and dinner was about $25 per night. (But Spain was dirt cheap then.)