Hello,

We are a family of four and have travelled extensively all over the states with our children even before they could walk. I am a teacher, my husband is in tech support, so we don't have loads of money - we've always enjoyed the challenge of travel on a budget, usually mixing camping with free or inexpensive hotel stays and mostly eating out of coolers. Now the kids are teens, our son will be off to college before we know it, and we'd like to have a last big trip -- this time to Europe - probably Great Britain or Ireland (have figured it would be too expensive to do both). We are currently in sticker shock!!!!! I've enjoyed reading the tips on budget travel, but am wondering if rooms for four even exist....and doubling the rooms, then doubling the rate (do to the terrible exchange rate) puts us at our usual lodging cost for several days! Any advice out their for budget family travel - or should we just hang it up and seek a somewhat European experience in Montreal? From what we figure, 14 days would be at the very least 8,000 minimum...figuring roughly 1000 apiece for airfare, and 150-200 per night for all of us, even for the hostels and B & B's. Then adding on car rental, and food.
Does that sound about right?

Thanks a bunch! I'd love to hear from the families who travel out there!

deb

In many places in Europe, I think you could very often get away with 80-100 Euros per night for a hostel room with 4 beds (probably two bunkbeds). In Eastern Europe, Spain, Portugal, and Germany, you could likely do better. In Britain, more like 80-100 pounds.

I think your best bet might be to pick say two locations, get an open-jaw flight if possible, and make those your home bases.

Would Montreal really be cheaper than much of Europe? It might depend where you live. I'm always in shock when I price tickets to Montreal - I'm in Vancouver, and with enough luck and patience I can often get a cheaper flight to Europe.

Where would you be flying from? Sites like airfarewatchdog.com can help you find the air bargains. And have you thought about an apartment vs. 2 hotel rooms?

With a little creative planning I think you could do a European vacation on a budget!

i don't know about hostels but decent to good (but not the best) b&bs are very consistent in price in the UK at between £60-70 (including tax and breakfast) for a double room. i agree, coming from the US with two rooms at a total of US$240 can be difficult. however, don't forget that with tax included this may compare favourably with one large room in the US or canada.

however, since you don't mind budget travel, there are a lot of better options. most families of modest means in the uk do not stay in multiple rooms at b&bs but would stay in a cottage or other weekly rental property with separate bedrooms and a kitchen.

but, they would probably not holiday in the UK or ireland at all. similar arrangements are easily found all over europe where living is much cheaper. just something to consider.

wherever you end up, b&bs or hotels are not the way to go when you are staying many nights and require beds for 4 people. eating in restaurants can be expensive all around the UK and ireland and the value is generally poor. if you don't mind cooking some or most meals, you can save a lot.

i don't think you should give up on coming to europe since this is what you really want. europe can be cheaper than the US or canada. it just might require a little more creativity.

Choose your European country carefully. I went to Greece last Sept and was pleasantly surprised at the hotel prices. In Crete, we had a very nice 1 BR that slept 4 right on the beach for 115 euros/night; you could find other nice places for less. IMO, restaurants were very inexpensive and car rental was cheaper than any other country I've been to. High cost to get there, but if you keep an eye out on sales, (depending on where you are flying from) you could do it for under the $1,000 you've budgeted.

Currently researching a trip to Turkey for 2007 and found a website that shows daily costs for meals/food/transportation at 40 euros/day for a moderate budget trip.

My only experience in England has been eating in the airport between flights. Prices there were so outrageous, I have no desire to venture outisde the airport (based on cost only).

I have to ditto the remarks about staying somewhere other than the British Isles for an affordable trip for 4. The ONLY way you might be able to make up for some of the double exchange rate would be to get cheap airfares into London.

I haven't been there, but I've heard that Spain is relatively cheap. We're taking 2 grandsons to Paris and Rome in March, and are staying in apartments. Granted, the one in Paris is a studio, quite small by the photos, but both have decent kitchens where we can keep sodas, snacks, and prepare or heat up simple meals to keep the costs down. They also have washing machines. There's no way we could afford to eat all meals out, so hotels were out of the question for us.

Don't give up, just start researching and see what you come up with. Wish you luck!

Friends of mine swear that the hidden secret of hotel costs is that France is relatively cheap, at least outside Paris. If you have a car the B&B system in France, such as Gites de France, offering overnight stays or long-term stays, may be of interest for you. http://www.gites-de-france.fr/eng/index.htm

Don't give up on the UK. There are LOTS of ways to economise. I give travel talks about travel to the UK concentrating how to do it on a budget w/o roughing it or staying in hostels.

Some things to consider:
- Most museums in London and in other UK cities are free.

- Renting a 2 bdrm apartment in London will be a LOT cheaper than two hotel rooms, plus you would have a full kitchen and be able to eat b'fasts in and make picnic lunches.

- Instead of 2 or 3 rooms in B&Bs, you can rent a nice 2 or 3 bdrm cottage for a week. Same advantages as a London flat - except a country cottage will cost half as much. If you pick a cottage somewhere central to the Cotswolds, or central Scotland, or North Wales (or whatever part(s) of the UK that interest you) you can use it as a base for day trips overa wide area.

- For the adults, the Great British Heritage Pass will save you hundreds of $ in admission charges at places like Warwick Castle, Stonehenge, Edinburgh, etc . . . .

Just noticed you posted two threads w/ the same questions - to find your threads, click on your name.

..Have you considered a house exchange? This is a great way to save$$ and often get a more local experience.

I go along with most of comments above. UK hotel advice for me when I travel

Book ahead through an agent may knock the rack rate down 30%
Consider the Youth Hostel Association, I'll let you surf. Rooms are very nice now and while the Foot and Mouth outbreak has reduced the total availability still worth going for. Don't worry about the "Youth" bit.

House swap and house rental worth looking at also "holiday cottages" for a week can make sense.

B+Bs can be startling good or a bit odd but you will meet the Brits in all their glory.

So if I had this to solve start at the YHA and see if their sites are where you want to go

debbl I just had to check they have hostels in London too!

http://www.yha.org.uk/

Posting from Ireland, I am sorry to add to the suggestions that you avoid my country if you are working to a budget.

You don't tell us much about what sort of holiday experiences you like. Places where your dollar will go further include the Iberian peninsula, central Europe, and south-eastern Europe (that's not an exhaustive list). In some places, short-term apartment rentals are commonplace and less expensive than hotels, and that gives you opportunity to do your own catering.

I would agree with those who suggest a short-term rental; being able to eat some of your meals at home saves money...and time, usually. If you haven't yet seen this, www.untours.com works really well for families and is highly recommended by many people, including myself.

There is a British version of this called "Home at First", I believe, but I haven't used them yet.

I really like staying in one place and using the train system to get around; I've travelled many different ways, but the Untours way is really one of my favorites.

I think Portugal is made for family budget travel. Your best bet is renting a place where you can save in lodging, cook your meals and day trip from there. I gather you need to travel in the summer months? where would you be flying from? Unfortunately, airfares to Europe are at an all-time high this year. However, with some advanced planning, you can still find some good fares to some destinations. Last year the August prices to Spain were really good; no way to predict this year with all the merging going on.

We spend a week at a rental in France last May. A (gorgeous) 10-people house in the beautiful French countryside ($1500/week). We ate breakfast/dinners at home cooked from fresh supplies we bought at farmer's markets, very, very convenient and cheap. Plenty of choices for day trips, including the beaches of the French Riviera or breathtaking Provence.

Your first brainstorming section should be from where can you fly from/to the cheapest. Once you have 3-4 candidates, choose. Then, select what type sightseeing you want to do. Select a rental home base that would allow you to hit most of the spots within a day trip. Then surf the net for holiday rentals. See how far you can go with this action plan!!

Portugal may be a good fit for your budget. We are a family of 5 and we bring our kids to Europe once or twice a year and try to do it economically.

As far as hotels are concerned, we have struggled with finding rooms for 5. Spain was particularly troublesome, as they insisted on 2 rooms for parties greater than 3. We did have good luck in utilizing American chain hotels and in renting apartments.

Regardless of where you go, I would limit my time in the big european capitol cities as they are expensive. But you can save lots of money by carefully planning your museum time around the free admission days and times. Sometimes its just a trade off. For example, we found London to be really expensive, but most of the top museums were free and the tours were in english.


We saved lots of money by eating breakfast in and packing up sandwiches and fruit for lunch. We liked going out to dinner at small family run restaurants which we found could be a little cheaper and alot friendlier. Good luck.

Here are some of my tips: Travel in the off-season if your kids have breaks during February or April. I also have an credit card that gets me Frequent Flyer miles and use it all the time so I can rack up miles. Last year I had enought for one airfare to Israel, that saved a lot of money, this year my husband had enough miles for a ticket to Italy, and next year my daughter and I should have enough for Europe again. So that really helps- domestic or international travel. We have also used 1800flyeurope for a trip last April to Paris and airfare was about 550 per person- about $200 less than other flights. We love Britian but it is just too expensive so you could consider going to a non EU country. Airfare to England is reasonable but the exchange rate is ridiculous. We are going to Italy in February and renting an apartment - a much cheaper alternative than hotel for the week. Pensions in countries are also great options and often have a good breakfast that can hold you until dinner (with snack in the afternoon). There are a lot of budget accomodations out there- I've learned about a lot on this site - and I have found that you can eat well in most countries without spending a lot of money. In many of the countries we visited museums were free or discounted for students. For Paris we stayed at Hotel Jeanne d'Arc in the Marias -your teens would love this area and Paris is truly lovely. You could also rent an apartment. In Italy you may find good pensions or apartments - try an area like Trastevere. Prague is a great city to visit and I can recommend Pension Dietzenhoffer. Four a 14 day visit you may wnat to base yourself in a good location and do a few day trips to save some money or just break up your trip between two locations to save on train fares.

We enjoyed our stay this fall in a quad room at Arran House in London www.london-hotel.co.uk, 96 GBP/night including full English breakfast. It's in the Bloomsbury area, very close to British Museum, walking distance to Covent Garden, right on bus line to Trafalger Sq, and a fun atmosphere. Our family with two teenage girls is used to camping together, so sharing a room no hardship, and using the bathroom down the hall no big deal compared to using the one 10 campsites away.

Reading recent threads about home exchange has me fantasizing about trading for a home in the English or French countryside, staying put to cut down on time and expense of local European travel. I'd still somehow budget for at least a few days in London or Paris.

Hi,
We travel lots and I am always budget conscious. My rec to you are:
1) choose another country. May I recommend Italy, Portugal or Spain?
Food and accomodation are cheaper.
2) Rent a villa--yes, it seems more spendy, but it comes out less expensive and more fun than a hotel. If you are going for 2 weeks, do 2 different villas in different parts of the country. Day trip from there.
3) Rent a diesel car.
4) Go in June and skip the crowds and the high season.

Everyone has good advise, all I can say is unless you and the kids are used to cramped quarters and 4 people using one bathroom (day after day) I'd suggest renting an apartment or getting two rooms in a hotel (at least you then get 2 bathrooms). European hotels generally have very small rooms, putting 4 people in one room would be very uncomfortable (you also would have no place to put luggage for four in most rooms).