branderson925

Hello Fodorites,
It's been a bit since I've posted but the cold weather looming has got me daydreaming of an excursion. I apologize if this topic is redundant but I seek genuine advice.
I have been planning a 5-8 week backpacking trip and while I have some broad strokes of my plans I feel as though I need to start aiming for a budget so I can see how soon I can project to be commencing my travels.

The details:
Length: The length of the trip for purposes of this thread is 6 weeks. It may be a little shorter or longer all said in done by I think 6 weeks is a great gauge to start.

Where: Spain > France > Italy. Very loose but definitely need to hit Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, Burgundy (Day in Dijon), Venice and somewhere in southern Italy (Sicily/Calabria)
[Flight: Probably fly into Madrid and out of a big airport in Italy (i.e. Milan) this is coming from Boston or Philadelphia (whichever is cheaper)]

Accommodations: Mostly hostels. I'm 24 and love to just get around to places, meet new people and live as freely on a budget as possible. When I lived in Europe, essentially all of my trips' lodging involved hostels. I'll probably spend a night or two in a moderate level of hotel just for kicks

Other details: Trip will involve mostly bigger city visits for 3-4 days with small town day trips sprinkled in, a couple of vineyard trips (Hoping for Burgundy and Piemonte) Don't plan on spending very much of souvenirs and am deciding between train passes (Eurail has a discount for the 3 country pass) and discount air like RyanAir. Eating would be on the lower end with a couple of splurge meals per week since I am a bit of foodie and wine geek. Some of the trip would be broken into doing outdoor activities with little cost and perhaps a bit of camping since I'm an outdoors guy

So with this is in mind what type of budget do you think I should target for. I'm counting around 900 for flights (Looking to leave around mid-February/Early- March). If anyone knows a good resource for planning a budget like this that would be very helpful.

Thank you all!

Christina

I don't know specifics for your trip, but when I budget, I find it easiest to just break it into clear categories where you know the cost. Otherwise, you can't budget one amount per day if it includes everything under the sun.

So, I'd probably divide the budget into these categories:
airfare to/from Europe
transportation between major locations within Europe (train or air)
accommodations (especially since you have a varity of things from free to hostels, and major cities will likely cost more)
general daily budget for everything else (food and drink, local activities and local transportation)

The last one is fairly easy for me, for someone on a limited budget, it could be from 50 euro per day to 100 euro per day. You could spend less than 50 euro a day, of course, but I'd have that amount in my bank account just in case.

branderson925

So do you think 75Euro/day is enough to budget for a 6 week trip. (Leaving aside flight and an emergency 300 euros)

I understand this is very broad but I'm just trying to do some calculations

ekc

it depends on how much your hotels and train tickets will cost. Even if you get a train pass, you still need to pay for the seat reservations in Italy.

PalenQ

Don't plan on spending very much of souvenirs and am deciding between train passes (Eurail has a discount for the 3 country pass) and discount air like RyanAir.>

The Eruail Select Pass now I believe only comes in a 4-country version whether you want an extra country or not (but it is easy to bop into Switzerland from Italy) - anyway for loads of great info on European trains nuts and bolts and passes I always spotlight these IMO superb sites: www.budgeteuropetravel.com (download their free and excellent European Rail & Planning Guide for lots of suggested itineraries in each of those countries; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com.

Being under 26 you can get the bargain Eurail Select Youthpass - trains are a great place to meet fellow travelers from around the world and you see the lay of the land not just tarmacs and airports- overnight trains connect many far-removed places and it saves on a night's cost in a hotel.

ribeirasacra

A lot of information about budgets here too.
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntr...before-posting

branderson925

Thanks for the links ribeira and PalenQ,

It at this point seems a bit tough to decipher which will be the better deal concerning discount airlines vs. Euorail select passes. I feel like the 6 travel day is not a lot at all between 3 separate countries

PalenQ

Keep in mind if ove25 the Eurailpasss is automatically first class and that is a real perk IME of decades of riding European trains - lots more relaxed even though 2nd class is not a cattle car but usually much fuller, smaller seats, less room to stow heavy luggage (pakc light!), etc.

kybourbon

I like to get my longest flights out of the way at the beginning of a trip so I would fly into Italy (Milan or Rome) and work your way to Spain. Fly home from Spain.

Take a budget flight from Milan to Sicily or Calabria. Check flights to Palermo, Trapani and Catania. Easy Jet has flights to Palermo, Catania and Lamezia. For other budget airlines, check www.whichbudget.com and www.skyscanner.com .

PalenQ

And between Italy and spain there are overnight ferries to Barcelona (via Canaries I think) - save on a hotel and throw in a cruise.

there are overnight trains between Milan and Sicily too.

branderson925

Thanks again for the bits of advice. I like the idea of flying into Italy and leaving from Spain but hitting France in the middle with a possible stop in Switzerland or Germany just for 3 days. I know this may put me off course but I think it would be nice to get a totally random segment of the trip. So this means the cruise from Italy to Spain might not make that much sense....unless I fly into France and move south to Italy and sort of "triangle" back to Spain

branderson925

Sorry for the shameless bump but I've been working on some very rough estimates.
Accounting for $1000 US for flight. I'm looking at putting aside $3000 EU for travel expenses/hostels/food without accounting for either a Eurail select pass or a budget separate for trains/buses/discount air.
How unreasonable does this seem for a trip like mine suggested given I am a very low-frills traveler who like to do just a couple of semi-nice sit down dinners per week. I know it is a really hard thing to gauge but I just wanted to get some feedback since I'm pretty green at this. (I lived in italy for six months but it was while I was studying abroad so budgeting was a bit different but gives me a modest yet halfway-decent perspective)
Thanks everyone!

branderson925

Rough, rough sample itinerary. 40 nights plus 5 for travel between places/emergency (possibly add 2 more of these on

Madrid + Toledo 4
Sevilla 3
Granada 2
Ronda 2
Jerez 1/2 - 1
Ferry to Italy
Sicily 4
Reggio 2 (Have an old friend there)
Bologna 3 (Day in Parma)
Venezia 2
Barolo Territory 3
Torino 2
Toulouse 2
Lyon 2
Burgundy 3 (Day in Dijon)
Paris 3(Fly Home)

This may be seem a bit scatter brained but I have a wide range of interests and people along the way I'd like to visit so I apologize if some locations seem a bit random. What tweaks would you recommend. I don't know how to streamline getting from Northern Italy to Toulouse and back around clockwise through Lyon and Burgundy in an efficient manner. I am super OPEN to tweaks so please critique as I am a noobie who can NOT wait to get back to Europe!

kybourbon

>>>>Jerez 1/2 - 1
Ferry to Italy
Sicily 4<<<

I'm not aware of any ferries from Spain to Sicily. There is a ferry from Barcelona to either Civitavecchia or Livorno. Sicily is a long way from either of those. It would make more sense to take a budget flight. You can't see Sicily in 4 days (is that 4 days meaning 5 hotel nights there?).

Not sure a pass is beneficial, but you would have to crunch the numbers and calculate all the supplements you must pay that aren't included in passes. While a pass might get you on a ferry (it depends on which pass), it's not going to get you anything else on the ferry (often only deck passage or just a discount off the regular ferry price). If you want a seat or cabin, you have to pay for it as you have to pay for food (you are on there quite a while). The ferry departs Barcelona about 10pm, but doesn't arrive Civitavecchia until 6pm the next day so you lose a day taking the ferry. If you don't get a cabin, then you are sitting up all night.

IF your cheapest flight option is Madrid/Paris (I usually find cheap flights Zurich, Geneva, Basel which is close to some of your stated goals), then after Spain, fly to one of your furthest points (Sicily? Reggio?)and work your way back to Paris. Not sure which Reggio you are talking about.

branderson925

Thanks kybourbon! I was referring to the Barcelona ferry but that seems out of the way and WAY lengthier than I was originally told. Yes, I would be looking to budget air travel in this case to Sicily. Thanks for pointing that out. I think a ferry would be cool but I've already spent time recent enough in Barcelona so I can't justify a repeat.
As for Sicily, I just wanted to spend 4 nights in two different cities to just get a very basic dip. (Or perhaps just Taormina and Mt. Etna) Maybe I should look into expanding that segment and taking from others. I definitely want to do some exploration of South Italy on this trip as I got to see a good porting of central/northern Italy while I studied in Firenze.

As for cheapest flight options from the US, I am not really sure if it is the BEST but I can try plugging in different cities. As I said before I am flexible but I know that Madrid is a city that make sense to fly into (or potentially out of since I MUST visit Madrid on this trip) Paris is up in the air as I had a rushed run through it but is not extremely pertinent for this trip.
Thanks again!

kybourbon

For Sicily, Vueling flies Jerez/Catania, but wouldn't be as cheap as departing from some other Spanish cities (Madrid departure would be half as much).

For flights from the US, use Itasoftware to search, then go to the airline to book. You can search a range of airports and dates. You can select to search by month and number of days you want to stay which you can enter as a range (ex: 40-42). To enter airports, search your departure using the airport code and arrival listing several (ex: MAD,MXP,FCO). If you don't know the airport codes, look them up.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

PalenQ

you have to pay for it as you have to pay for food (you are on there quite a while).>

Well you can bring on board all the food you want - just like on trains so that need cost nothing. Yet it is a long slog so if not into a mini-cruise - the boats have lots of amenities and entertainments on board - flying makes more sense for most.

and yes a railpass I believe only gives a discount on the base fare - but it may include a reclining chair or on some ferries with railpasses a free berth - not sure on these boats.

PalenQ

check exgtra charges for airlines too - some discount airlines are notorious for tacking on extras or charging for things like reserved seats - Ryan Air's CEO even floated the idea of pay toilets aboard before he was ridiculed into shame over that but that is the mindset... some of these airlines let you bring your own food aboard too - well I guess all airlines do come to think of it.

branderson925

Thanks for that link kybourbon and all others for their feedback. Now I'm looking into adjusting somethings around as it may be most logical to fly from Madrid to Sicily as a reasonable segment of the trip. Perhaps, Ill start in Italy move south towards Sicily fly up to Madrid, do my Spain Segment and then travel through the Pyrenees to my France segment and fly home from Paris....or do 3-4 days in London and fly home from there. Ahh the possibilities.