cmeyer54

You're a bit late to start finding cheap apartments at this point. Assume $1000/week for a 2 bedroom unless your children would be ok sleeping on a futon or pull out couch in the living room of an apartment. Look at rail passes to see what the best deal will be for the countries you want to visit. Apartments are not always cheaper than hotels but the higher cost does allow you to offset the cost of eating out every day and believe me, you will get tired of restaurants over 2 months.
I would also assume around $250/week for food at a minimum for 4 people as a mix of eating in and out. Also make sure you have laundry facilities in the apartment. 5 days in Brussels seems long to me unless you are going to add in day trips to Brugges, Arden forest or Ypres.

Christina

Well, I do think staying in major cities gives you a flavor of a country. You are in that country, regardless, and I do think staying in NYC or Wash DC would give you a flavor of the US if you've never been here. So I think it's a fine idea and would certainly help -- you'd see some main cities of interest and cut down on traveling costs.

SOme things are more expensive in cities (like restaurants), but often cheap apartments won't be, and you'll have much more choice. And you will cut down on transportation costs.

SO I think it will help your budget, sure. YOu can't really pick 4-5 cities from that list that are close together, seems to me. They are far apart (at least you didn't throw in Spain). Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam wouldn't be that far apart, but I wouldn't put Brussels at the top of a must-see European trip compared to everything else. Prague and Vienna aren't too far apart, but are far from the others. SO don't know how you could do that.

Gretchen

I disagree that you wouldn't get a taste of the country by staying in the large cities.
Staying in the cities cuts down on transportation costs since you would not want a car in them.

As for this assessment of expenses-- "I would also assume around $250/week for food at a minimum for 4 people as a mix of eating in and out."
That is $30 USD per day for 4 people. On what planet!!

Seamus

golfdude -
5 days is not carved in stone, right? I'd recommend staying based in one place at least 7-10 days, doing local and day trip activities before moving to the next city. There are incidental costs as well as the nuisance involved in changing from one place to another which you can limit by reducing the number of times you change your "base camp."

Back in the day when rail passes were a bargain a popular book was "Europe by Eurail." I am not advocating that you purchase rail passes, though you may want to explore and evaluate any economies that offers. But if you can get your hands on a copy of that book it can show you options for planning using the base city approach combined with day trips.

$250/week total food for 4 is probably unrealistically low without strict imposition of a meal plan based mostly on oatmeal, rice and beans.

Gretchen

THat budget is not even a possibility, as I said. That is $9/day per person. Puhleeze!! And that is "dollars" not euros.

janisj

You have some big issues - one, it is getting very late to find apartments in some of those places. The best and cheapest ones go first - like months ago.

Then there is the matter of the EXTREMELY low food budget. Sure - if you ate every meal in you could make that work. But even fast food or a modest cafe will set you back your whole day's budget for one lunch.

Why not cut back to 3 or 4 weeks, cut back the number of destinations, and have enough $/€ to actually see/do things.

Christina

yeah, I didn't notice the food budget. US$9 is a bit less than 6 euro per person per day. YOu can't eat on that unless you eat nothing in a restaurant or on the street (no drinks, fill a water bottle at "home"), and only eat rice and pasta and maybe bread. Oatmeal actually isn't that cheap where I shop, but most people like rice and pasta, I guess. You could maybe get some cheap cereal for breakfast or eat toast. Or don't eat more than 2 meals a day. YOu could never eat in fast food restaurants for that, they are not cheap compared to making stuff yourself (a combo meal in McDonalds is about 8 euro).

In France, for example, bread is very cheap (I think the govt sets the price), and vegetables and fruits seem about the same as in the US.

travelnut265

Hi golfdude
Without stressing a point you really need to set a plan now and stick to it.Time is running out and planning needs to be done.
Booking.com is good as you can can choose to cancel if a better choices come up.If you look for rooms that include a fridge at least you can go to a supermarket and buy food. Carry a small picnic set with you that could act as a mobile kitchen.If needed buy disposable plates etc.
You have chosen some big expensive cities maybe mix it up with smaller ones.
Train travel for your travel times now coming up for you to compare to car hire.
But you need that plan......
Goodluck

Gretchen

He may be equating food prices to India--and not to travelling, even eating from supermarkets. It is undoable.
As someone says, go for a shorter time-and for pete sake, build in a cushion for emergency.

AisleSeat

I applaude you for a great dream and your forward planning to make sure you can work it out. There is lots of great advice here and as others have said it really boils down to Transportation (air and ground), Accomdations, Food and Fun (Admissions, etc.)

Don't let the high cost of reality throw you off track. If you were thinking about $21,000 for the ground portion ($350x60 days) and that is not realistic maybe you can adjust to 45 days ($466/day, $21,000 divided byt 45 days) and save some portion of Europe for next time.

Good luck in your planning and we all hope it is a wonderful trip.

golfdude

Thanks a lot for all replies. Time is running out so let me see what can be done.

Regards.

golfdude

Folks,

How is this plan:

We can go for a 15 day trip to Italy only. The destinations in Italy will be:

1) Rome
2) Florence
3) Sorrento
4) Venice

Are the above good picks for Italy ? We can add another 5 days for Paris and make it a 20 day trip. How is the plan ? Assuming $300 per day for a family for 4 which includes everything except airfare, I can do this trip for USD $6,000 plus airfare.

Since I am selecting only one country, is Italy a good choice or should I select France over Italy ? Although I have added Paris in my itinerary above to get a flavor of France.

Please advice.

Thanks.

vincenzo32951

I think most people are going to say that 4 cities in 15 days is too packed, but it's your vacation, so you'll have to decide. But consider: You're going to have to chop three days off your available time to allow for transport from city to city.

You may be thinking that it won't take a whole day to get from one place to another, but by the time you gather up 4 people, get to a train station, wait for and make your train, get to your accommodation, and then do the settling-in process at your destination, believe me: it's a day.

Me? I'd do Rome, Florence, Venice, and skip Sorrento this time, especially since it would involve the most travel time. I see no problem with Paris for 5 days (but remember, that's another travel day to get there).

Also, by limiting your cities, you can rent apartments for longer stays and maybe get a slightly better deal than for shorter stays. Plus, the longer stay in an apartment gives everyone the settled-in feeling and is a little less hectic. And by all means, if you're trying to save money on accommodations and food, an apartment is the way to go.

I understand you're trying to squeeze everything you can out of the experience by hitting as many spots as possible. That's natural. But more is not always better. If you hit the three cities in Italy and then Paris, you'll have a good time and plenty of memories. Isn't that the point?

adrienne

Is it 15 days on the ground or are travel days included? If you have 15 days in Italy then you could see those 4 locations. You could split the time:

Rome - 5 days
Sorrento - 2-3 days (see Pompeii, Amalfi Coast, Capri)
Florence - 2 days
Venice - 2 days

The rest of the time would be used for changing location.

janisj

>>Assuming $300 per day for a family for 4 which includes everything except airfare<<

That is about €220 a day or only €55 per day per person. That isn't very much at all when you need this to cover your hotels, transportation, meals, and admission charges.

The more moving around you do the more money it costs.

nytraveler

$300 per day for a family of 4 is VERY low when you have to account for

Lodging - $150 a day is low for accommodation for 4 versus the usual room for 2 people
Food - 3 meals plus beverages and snacks
Local transport - bus or taxi if feet are too tired
Entrance fees - have you gone on line to see what the typical entrance fee is?

Plus trains - of flights - between cities

I can't be accurate since we don;t travel at this level (we assume $300 per night for a quality but not luxury hotel in a very central location - more in London, Switz or Scand) but I think you are cutting it very close and should get sample costs, run the numbers and look at a realistic total.