annienan

I am trying to work out a budget for my daughter who will be travelling in Europe this summer - Italy, Spain and France. She's travelling with 3 girlfriends, staying in hostels and sharing rooms in hotels. Not sure what limits to put on her spending for the two weeks or what to anticipate for daily costs. Hostels are not as cheap as I thought they might be especially in major cities! Thanks for any help or advice you might have.

lindy27

http://www.backpackeurope.com/tips/costs/index.html

That is a link to a good website written by a lady who has traveled extensively in hostels and by herself through Europe.

She says 10-20 euro per day for food and 10-30 euro per day for fun/sites. A ton of other prices are also broken out including flights/trains/hostels etc

I used that website a lot when I went over in 2009.

julia_t

I would budget on an average of 100 euros a day - some days this might be plenty, other days not enough. But it should be a comfortable amount.

My children (now all aged between 18 and 22) seem to be able to manage well enough on this amount when in mainland Europe, and that includes travel expenses, nightclubs and drinks. Not to mention some shopping along the way!

If your daughter has any money left over at the end of her trip, then that's not going to be a problem!

I'd rather my kids had sufficient funds rather than struggle to cope on not enough. Budgeting can be fun, like hunting down the best value food in side street restaurants off the tourist track, but it can be tough when you can't afford 1 euro for a gelato, particularly if your travel companions can.

Which leads to the question - how much are her friends taking? It could cause problems if one has a lot more to spend than the others, or vice versa. I think that should have some bearing on your decision re budget.

jlubeck

When my daughter went to Spain with her high school trip, they had some absurd amount set aside for "spending money". Can't remember the exact amount, but something like $75 per day. This was for lunch which was not included in their trip and snacks. The bus would stop at tourist spots which would sell cokes for 5 Euros (or something like that). So, I think avoiding the 5 Euro coca-colas is essential to anyone on a budget.

michele_d

Hi olddognan,
My husband and I (45 & 50) spent 97 days traveling around Europe in the fall of 2009. We spent under $180/day for that trip for two people for lodging, food, admissions and some train trips. Not included in that price is our lease car, gas and souvenirs.

We stayed in apts, B&Bs and hotels. We did not eat out at expensive restaurants. We did picnic lunches and dinners mostly, which we bought from the local groceries, and loved it.

We had a fabulous trip, didn't feel like we missed out on anything we wanted to do and are planning to do it again next year for 6 weeks using the same budget.

I definitely think your daughter should be able to do this trip on about $75-$80 a day, especially if she is staying in hostels some of the time.

Take care,
Michele

julia_t

jlubeck - I'm not quite sure what the dollar to euro rate is, but that seems quite a lot for just one meal. When my son went on a college trip to Italy in March, he was told that 20 euros would be enough each day for spending money, which was to include his lunch AND dinner, plus snacks and drinks.

Because his accommodation and travel was taken care of, I ensured he had 50 euros per day to cover both meals and a beer or wine in the evenings. He actually brought some money home, together with a bottle of Limoncello for me!

None of his friends on the trip had taken less than him, and many had taken more.