onieru

My girlfriend and I are going backpacking through europe this spring and I'm a little worried about our budget and our time in each city. We will be there for 67 days of which 4 are considered travel days. Our budget is $13000-$15000 USD for everything except for travel. All train tickets, plane tickets have been paid for and reserved. Also take into consideration that the euro and USD are almost neck in neck. Which is the best exchange rate in years!
We plan on small breakfasts and lunch, tasting local street foods for snacks in between meals occasionally , and a good dinner most evenings. We will stay in hostels most of the time. But in places where we stay for 4 days and longer, I've found apartments on airbnb to be cheaper, and much nicer (especially in places like Paris).

Our itinerary is as follows:
Stay
Milan arrive. 2 days
Annecy Fr. 2 days
Nice Fr. 2 days
Barcelona. 4 days
Paris. 6 days
Bayuex Fr. 1 day
Brussels. 2 days
Amsterdam. 2 days
Berlin. 4 days
Prague. 4 days
Karlovy Vary. 2 days
Munich. 2 days
Füssen. 2 days
Salzburg. 2 days
Hallstatt. 1 day
Vienna. 3 days
Venice. 3 days
Florence. 5 days
Rome. 5 days
Naples. 1 day
Sorrento. 3 days
Tropea. 4 days
Final travel day, fly home the next day


Any thoughts????

sanderskn

Looks pretty good to me. You might lengthen some of those two night stays.

sandralist

Heads up that rentals in Paris have become the focus of considerable concern about bookings not being upheld due to legality issues. You should inform yourself as to whether these risks apply to your situation.

Where is your airport of departure? Transportaton out of Tropea is not always reliable to all destinatons.

papillon20

My suggestion would be to try to have substantial lunches and then eat smaller dinners or make your own because lunch prices will always be cheaper than dinner ones and there IS a difference, trust me.

onieru

I leave from milan. We are taking a train from Tropea to Milan. It will take about 9 hrs. It is by far the longest train ride of the trip, but worth it.

I will definitely consider taking a few of the two day trips off. There are about 2- 3 cities that I'm not totally crazy about. So I will post the new itinerary when complete.

onieru

Cool, on the longer trips, we will be buying groceries to make meals cheaper. Besides, I think you can still get a taste for local cuisines from a deli, bakery, or even grocery store

papillon20

Also if you normally eat breakfast and need to, like I do, try to book hostels/hotels that provide breakfast (unless the difference in price between the room/bed is significant - some of those places charge $30-40 more for a breakfast that would only cost 5 or 6 euros if you were paying when there.) Having to look for a place for breakfast takes time and money which you could save by just eating at the hotel/hostel.

And a tip for Paris, most bakeries sell sandwiches which are quite large and filling at lunch time and they only cost around 5 or 6 euros. And a savoury crepe from a stand is often even cheaper but also filling.

Make sure to budget for souvenirs!

bilboburgler

M 2 F you should be able to find a 3 course lunch with wine for about E14, if you want to keep costs down on that then go veggie and the best deals on veggie food will be go ethnic, so Turkish/Morocan/Indian etc

Breakfast included pricing can be tricky as suggested above. Look out for where locals get breakfasts, so for instance in Germany it is a big thing and you will find great ones in supermarkets rather than in hotels. French breakfasts and Italian ones are frankly expensive and poor on the nutrition front.

Avoid fizzy drinks, you will find the prices horrifying, keep to barrel local beers and local jug wine, order tap water (you'll be fine) and carry a water bottle filled up at drinkable water outlets (water in those blue plastic bottles are amazingly expensive.

Sandwiches are great deal and most of the countries you mention will have fruit markets (like a farmer's market) on many days of the week, but these are not in the tourist area, you need to use google maps and step back a couple of streets to find them

I'd skin at least 4 cities out of your pack, for me Brussels, KV, Fussen and Munich could go today.

You need a couple of wash days built into all this, where you just chill, get the cleaning done and watch the world go by.

bvlenci

Do these days mean nights spent in the city, or does it mean you arrive one day and leave the next (one night in the city). If it's one night, and if you have a long trip to get there, it's not really worth going.

onieru

We came up with a solution for the abundance of 2 day trips by getting rid of 2 cities. This is what we have:


Overnight stays
Milan arrive. 2 nights
Annecy Fr. 2 nights
Nice Fr. 3 nights
Barcelona. 5 nights
Paris. 6 nights
Bayuex Fr. 1 night
Brussels. 2 nights
Amsterdam. 2 nights
Berlin. 5 nights
Prague. 5 nights
Karlovy Vary. 3 nights
Füssen. 2 nights
Hallstatt. 1 night
Vienna. 3 nights
Venice. 3 nights
Florence. 5 nights
Rome. 5 nights
Naples. 1 nights
Sorrento. 3 nights
Tropea. 5 nights
Final travel day by train to Milan, fly home the next day

onieru

Also thanks everybody for the great advice, my last trip to Europe wasn't this long and it helps a lot having your help.

sandralist

I would probably plan to leave Tropea a day earlier than you planned, or go from Rome to Tropea and then for the finale, leave from Naples to go to Milan. Also would even consider going from Florence to Tropea -- to have the nice lazy break from sightseeing in the middle-- and then work my way back to Rome, and leave from Rome for Milan. But probably would choose Florence>Rome>Tropea>Sorrento -- leave from Napoli for Milan. Might even consider a flight from Napoli to Milan.

onieru

Great idea sandralist

onieru

Ok after lots of careful consideration, I've devised a final draft. Thanks everyone for the help again.

Overnight stays
Milan arrive. 2 nights
Nice Fr. 5 nights
1 Day trip Vence
Paris. 8 nights
1 Day trip Bayuex Fr.
Bruges. 2 nights
Amsterdam. 4 nights
Berlin. 5 nights
Prague. 6 nights
Karlovy Vary. 3 nights
Füssen. 2 nights
Salzburg 4 nights
1 Day trip Hallstatt
Venice. 3 nights
Florence. 6 nights
Rome. 6 nights
Tropea 5 nights
Sorrento. 4 nights
Naples 1 night
Fly from Naples to Milan. Next day fly from Milan to home.

Thanks to the new schedule I saved over 28 hours in travel time!

Avg length of train ride: 3hrs 21 mins
Avg time of arrival: 12:30 p.m.
Avg time of departure: 8:22 a.m.

Now is the $13-$15k USD budget sound reasonable for everything except transportation?

kybourbon

The OP has two itinerary threads going. Here's the other one.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...e-545710-2.cfm

You should put all your Milan time at the end of the trip instead of staying there twice.

sandralist

Differen't strokes for different folks. I don't think you should change the beginning of your itinerary, unless you really feel like it. I would probably land and stay in Milan first before undertaking the trip to Nice.

onieru

Im keeping Milan especially since I'll need to crash somewhere when I land. What better place than somewhere i can rehash at the end of our trip

bvlenci

That explains why I couldn't find my response to this thread!

I wouldn't fly from Naples to Milan. The fast train takes a little over four hours, and flying would probably take longer, when you consider getting to and from the airport, security, waiting for luggage, etc. If you buy your tickets early (four months ahead is best) you can get very cheap tickets, but they're not changeable or refundable.

I agree about putting all your Milan time at the end. That would mean heading straight to Nice upon arrival, which would take over five hours. However, there are now direct Thello trains from Milan Central station to Nice, so it shouldn't be an arduous journey. You can sleep on the train.

I don't know what you want to do in Naples; if it's just a stopover on the way to the airport, you could just leave from Sorrento, especially if you take the train. You could even spend a few hours in Naples en route, leaving your bags at the left luggage facility in Naples Central station.