We are planning a trip to Rome, Florence, Venice, Paris (August 2009) and are trying to estimate a budget for meals. Our hotels in Rome and Florence include breakfast (we have not yet booked the others).

What is ballpark for 2 people in each of these cities? what should we be expecting/budgeting for? Thanks!

This is a how long is a piece of string question. Rome, Paris, Florence and particularly Venice are expensive places to stay and eat in. Always book your hotel with breakfast, to give you a good start, but normally you'll get a Continental breakfast, not an American one.

In all of these cities, ther are restaurants ranging right across the board, from fast food to very fine dining. It depends where and what you want. In any case, for lunch and dinner, you shouldn't budget for less than 50-75 euros per day.

That's each, by the way! Even a burger and a drink will cost you 10-15 euros each and if you want something a little more "sit-down" then €20-25 each at least.

"<i>Always book your hotel with breakfast</i>"

I totally disagree - especially in Paris but also in many other cities. Hotel "included" breakfasts are not free - they raise the price of the hotel and are not worth the $$/€€ IMO.

As for how much to budget - I usually go at it from another direction. I decide how much I have to spend and then ask for restaurant suggestions in my price range. Every city will have places to eat from very cheap to very VERY expensive.

"<i>Even a burger and a drink will cost you 10-15 euros</i>"

Who goes to Italy for burgers and a soft drink?

we'd like to alternate between more simple casual meals and a few fancier/more elaborate meals (ex: our 1 year wedding anniv will be our first night in florence so we'd like something nicer for that night) - would like to try some good pizza, pasta, wine, etc.

no burgers or softdrinks!!!

do restaurants let you share?

We often find small, out-of-the-way places to eat in Rome, London, etc. at a cost of maybe 5-10 euros each. You can also save some serious money by stopping by a local store, picking up some bread, cheese, meats and making a picnic lunch. There was one market/bakery/pizza place we would go to when staying near Grottaferrata that for 10 euros two people would be stuffed with fresh pizzas and pastries.

dave

<< do restaurants let you share >>

Not entire meals like in the US. If you haven't been to France and Italy before you'll find that the portions are usually small. You don't have to order every course. You could have a salad/antipasto, pasta or meat (no need to order both), and dessert. It's certainly permissible to share dessert but who would want to - LOL!

The best bet is to order a salad and either pasta or meat and then get a gelato from a vendor later in the evening. If you're young and walk a lot during the day to burn up the calories you may find that this is not enough food.

Each city has restos in every price range. If you want to stay on budget do not eat near major sites but walk a few blocks away to find less expensive restos. Do a search on this board for lots of recommendations.

Hi janisj..I was trying to make the point that even fast food will not be cheap. I wasn't suggesting that they live on it in Italy. Also I've found that if you're booking hotels yourself, you can often get breakfast included in the same rate as you would have paid without breakfast, with a little bargaining.

If you have coffee and toast etc in a cafe, you'll still pay 5-10 euros per person. If you want pastries as the Americans do for breakfast, then they'll cost a bit more.

A "more elaborate" meal with wine, will cost in all of these cities, even a bit off the tourist track. Although buying components of a lunch from a market might be OK for one day, I can do that at home.

The whole point of travelling to any of these places is to experience their food and culture, and as Deli counters in Europe are much the same as the UK or US in big cities, there's nothing better than sitting in the restaurant of your choice preparing to be fed!

A decent three course meal with wine will cost around €30 euros per person. I do agree that only you will know your food budget in total, divide it by the days you are away and there's your daily budget. If money's no object, I'll join you for dinner!

We just returned from two weeks in Italy. We rented apartments everywhere we went and cooked in quite a but, however, not all the time. We didn't spend that much though when we went out. I think the most we spent was 20 euros each, and it was the biggest meal we had the entire time. That included the house wine too. Usually we spend about 9-15 euros a person on dinner, including wine, sometimes less, depending on if we shared a pizza.

As someone already said, you can really spend as much as you want. Most primi plates (the "first course") was a pasta dish that ranged from 6-12 euros. We never did the primi course plus the secondi course. That's just way too much food for us!

I agree that in general you can match a restaurant to your budget.

We spend about 150E-200E per day for meals. We like wine so includes a bottle at lunch and again at dinner, a few coffees here and there, a gelato stop, and sometimes a cocktail before dinner in a hotel bar.

If we had to, we could easily get by on half of that but we go to Italy for the food and wine so we take advantage of both while there.

As for sharing, we generally order a few dishes and share. When we travel with friends, we often order several antipasti and primi's to share and have never had a problem.

Not that you would choose this, but a Big Mac, fries and coke in Venice costs about 7 Euro.
A good meal at a non-touristique place in Venice would cost about 60 Euro for two people, including wine.
Breakfast is best NOT taken at your hotel. Have a coffee and croissant at a cafe - it will cost about three Euros, provided you don't sit down.
If you sit down, the price goes up.

hi summe08bride,

great idea to go to italy for your first anniversary - hopefully the first of many.

when we visited all three of your cities within a year or so [and what a fabulous year that was] we found Rome was the cheapest for eating out, followed by Florence and then Venice. something to do with the ratio of locals to tourists, I thought. but there are still bargains to be had, as others have already said.

one way to save is to do what locals do - eg in Venice, they will eat the little snacks or "cicchetti" which are offered for very few € by bars if you have a drink there, or have the tiny triangular sandwiches you can find for lunch. and no-one will mind if you have an antipasto each, and split a pizza.

you wil find lots of suggestions for reasonable eating places if you search this forum.

regards, ann

I shop price when I book hotels and have often found prices with breakfast offered by certain wholesalers where pricing is less than others that do not include breakfast.

IMO, it is not a sure thing that breakfast always bumps up the cost of a room night. Sometimes, it is really a great deal.

I lived a year in Paris (2010-2011) and spent a month in Rome with an Italian friend. Food in Rome is much cheaper than in Paris. If you eat out at fairly decent places, expect to spend about 15-20 euros including drinks per person. Interestingly, if you cook at home, the prices are not that much different than in France, but Italians are a lot more forgiving on prices than French people. I went to a meat shop to buy salami, and it ended up being 4.32 euros or something and the guy rounded it down to 4 euros! Its something that happens much more often than in Paris.

In Paris, a good meal will easily exceed 25 euros per person. For a romantic dinner date at a good restuarant, double that. Even off the tourist's beaten path, it is at least 20 euros and the servings are small. This is not including the prices of drinks, which can be 5-6 euros for a coffee or 13 euros for a glass of wine.

It should be noted, however, that in both cities, the ubquitious Arab Kebab is cheap (4.50 or 5 euros for a big Kebab (basically meat that's been roasting for a day) with fries, but who wants that stuff? It is usually oily enough that you wont want to go back a second time. And if you go to Europe, it's about enjoying European food.

On the upside, if you cook your own stuff, there are a lot of comparatively inexpensive grocery stores. You can make your own decent food for 10 euros a day. My advice is to buy from the larger chain stores because they are required to sell everything at the same price throughout the city and don't jack up their prices just because it's a tourist area. I found that all those neighborhood stops owned by Arabs or Africans selling American liquor store quality merchandise would have beer for 3-4 euros a can, while Fran Prix, the chain store had it for 1 euro!

This is a two year old thread!

I really do not know why people are always saying the portions in France and Italy are small. An Appetizer portion of pasta in Italy is more than I eat as a main course. And Salads in France are enormous. Last trip every time I had potatoes there was enough for 4 people on the plate. Maybe if you are comparing them to the hideous sized US portions you can consider them small