An old thread was recently resurrected, dealing with the "must be nice" comments when informed about a(nother) trip to Europe. Several posters mentioned that going to Europe was often cheaper than going to Disneyworld.

I just don't see it.

Our weekend paper is advertising a vacation package to Orlando, including return airfare, 7-nights at a "Disney Value Resort" hotel, and 7-day park hopper/waterpark admission for $987 pp+taxes. (My Toronto-Europe Apr-May flight *alone* this year is $964 pp, but does include taxes.) Another ad, a Disney one this time, touts "Family of four, six nights, seven days including Theme Park tickets" for US$1600 (no mention of taxes and no fine print, so I assume that price is all-in). Could you do Europe for about US$60 pp/day?

Our most recent family trip to Europe was to France (Loire, Normandy, Paris). This 2-week trip cost over $16K for 5 of us (all Cdn$). Now this includes the food budget and a rental car, and both of these items are way pricier in Europe than in Florida, but still? We normally stay in places for less than 50€ pp per night.

I can maybe see someone in Suffolk making the claim that Walt Disney World is dearer than continental Europe, but I'm presuming that this is coming from Americans. Granted airfare USA-Europe is less than for me, but airfare USA-WDW should be much less too? And you could possibly drive to Disney, something that would be difficult to do for Europe from North America.

So, what am I missing here?

Okay. I'll bite. Last March we were looking for a 10 day vacation. We considered Florida, but since the airlines know when people want to escape Minnesota's winters, airfares weren't the cheapest during the time period we had free. Plus, if we were really lucky, to get semi-interesting lodging in a place that would interest us, we knew we would be looking at a minimum of $100 per night. We're budget travellers, but we also didn't just want to go to Florida and stay in some dumpy little motel on the main drag in an uninteresting town. (We did WDW twice when our kids were young, and that was enough for us).

Since it was off-season, we found plane tickets to Paris for $10 less than tickets to Florida for the same dates would have cost us. We found a 11 day apartment rental in a nice location in Paris for $900. I don't even have to comment on what interesting foods one can find and how well one can eat economically in Paris compared to Florida.

By the way, there are only 2 of us, but we have never, ever spent anywhere near what your per person costs were for your last trip. Breaking it down this is a little over 3K Canadian or $2600 US per person for a two week trip. Our total costs, including airfare and rental car, and often in peak season to Europe are usually in the $1600-$1800 range per person (USD).

&quot;<i> . . . but airfare USA-WDW should be much less too</i>&quot;

Not always true. I'm flying next week to London from SFO for US$411 inc. all taxes/fees. I can't usually get anywhere near Orlando for that. A few years ago I flew SMF to Edinburgh in June for $630 and my friend's flight to Miami was well over $800.

Last fall, we thought we'd try something different in the states vs. going to Europe. So, we planned a trip to New England, visiting Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. When we added up the final cost of everything (including airfare, rental car, accommodations, food, admissions, etc.) and compared it to what we usually spend daily on a Europe trip, it was about 20% more. We felt that both the accommodations and food was very overpriced for what we got. When we got home, we kept saying &quot;Oh my gosh, we could have went to Europe for less that what we spent on this week--why didn't we do that?&quot;

If you find a reasonable airfare to Europe and stay in B&amp;B's or apartments, you can definitely spend either the same or less than traveling in the US.

Hi G,

&gt;Our weekend paper is advertising a vacation package to Orlando,...&lt;

Were your prices in US or Canadian dollars?

When?

What, specifically, is included?

Our last visit to France cost

Airfare $1500
1 week in the Dordogne
Hotel $ 500 w/bkfst
Car $ 200

If we had gone to Paris, the cost would have been about the same, as we wouldn't have needed a car and the hotel would cost more.

I think that the costs are pretty much similar.

My question was specifically on cost of Europe v. Disneyworld. Based on my own trips, I didn't believe WDW would be more expensive.

Is Europe a &quot;better&quot; destination? For my family at this time in our lives, absolutely. Can you spend less than we did/do in Europe? Seems like it (I thought we were budget travellers, but looks like we still have a ways to go.)

But is Europe *cheaper* than Disney? No one's given me any reason to think so yet.

If you go to Europe off season and you're flexible you may be able to get comparable prices. I think if you compare peak season at Disney w/ peak in Europe then Disney would be less. I just checked www.Kayak.com and found several flights from Toronto to European cities for under $700US (in April), most were Sat-Mon or Tues.

I don't think they mean that WDW is really cheaper than Europe..is just that for a comparable amount (sometimes a bit less, sometimes a bit more , it depends on the season) they can travel abroad
But I think it all depends also in the business different airlines have between different places...it also happens to me here in Spain that plane tickets are often cheaper to London or Italy than on an internal flight in Spain to some less tourist destinations and the States is very much bigger...so I suppose these kind of things also happen there.

Kenderina, travel on discount airlines intra Europe seems incredibly cheap to me. I frequently travel between Toronto &amp; Montreal (~500km), and the cheapest fare YYZ-YUL is normally about C$300. I've booked BCN-SVQ this April for 20&euro; (total price including taxes), a trip of twice the distance!

But getting to Europe... well that is another story!

To me you're talking oranges and apples, or maybe more appropriate, Pepsi and vino de casa. Sure, we went to Disneyland when DD was very young, but when we took her to Europe was she was &quot;old enough&quot; to appreciate it, one of the first things I said to DH upon seeing DD's jaw drop in literal amazement when she first saw the view at the Sein--&quot;Disneyland is for people who can't afford Europe.&quot; Don't want to sound like a snob, but really, it's the QUALITY of the experience that can't be compared. (P.S. DD is now, like me, &quot;hooked on Europe&quot

Yes, Ginto, that was what I mean Most of those cheap airlines don't do internal trips except for the big tourist locations...so it's cheaper to fly outside Spain
And yes...going to the States for me it's a completely different story that I still can't afford except if I go and turn back the next day Delta has an offer these days to new york from madrid, about 300 euros.

Yes, sometimes it is cheaper depending on what the plane fare is and where you stay/what you pay to stay there, etc.

People just say that, but I don't think it's true. Sure, you can go to Florida in a peak period and maybe it will be more than going to Europe in off-season and you can stay in cheap hotels in Europe and expensives ones in Florida, etc. But my sister went to WDW with her son in an offseason (January) from Ohio and it was pretty cheap. It was a lot cheaper than a week's vacation in Europe would have been.

I can't speak for Disney World, and I'm already in Florida, so I couldn't compare. But we go to Europe every summer for a few weeks and I can say that our trips there are considerably less -- all inclusive divided out to a daily average -- than our trips to California or New York or actually anywhere else we've gone in the US. And that is with comparable type accomdations and similar &quot;scale&quot; of dining.

Isn't anyone else wondering how they spent $16K on a two week vacation? They must've bought full fare coach tickets. I haven't spent 16K in the past 5 trips to Europe. Those must've been some pretty awesome souvenirs they brought home.

And as far as Dineyworld, isn't a one day admission to the park over $80 pp now? We don't spend $80 pp a day in Europe for hotel, dinner and lunch. A little bit of research and a willingness to experience Europe like the locals do will result in saving lots of Euros.

Ginto, I also think you're making the mistake of comparing a self planned independent (obviously pretty luxurious if you spent that much money) trip to Europe with a bare bones budget package to Disney World. You can find bare bones budget package tours to Europe too if you want to compare apples to apples.

I'm with Zeus. Good God, man, how did you spend $16K - Canadian or not - on 2 weeks in Europe for 5 people?? Incredible!

For me, airfare is the variable. Last couple of years it's been high when I wanted to travel, so my trips have been more expensive. But I can assure you that I have always spent less on car rentals, food, and hotels in Europe than I have in the US, and though I guess the car rentals and hotels have been about equal, the quality of the food I eat in Europe is almost always way beyond what I can get at no matter what price in the US. And I say this having made way more domestic trips this past year than any other. Spent time in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia, and no way can I make my dollars go as far in those cities as I can in Paris and Rome, and especially small rural areas in France and Italy (the two places I tend to gravitate to).

I don't know what the price of a trip to WDW is - never been and don't want to go. But I do see those cheap package deals advertised all over and they look horrible to me on several levels. So I do think we're not comparing apples to apples here.

But 16K? Can you tell us how that broke down into different categories of spending? I find that absolutely incredible.

Here's a breakdown of the costs of that infamous $16K trip, all in CAD:

Flight, charter YYZ-CDG: 4950
Hotels, 14 nights: 4110
Car rental, misc transportation: 1300
Food: 4000
Attractions: 1200
Misc: 500

The trip *did* cost more than I had first anticipated. And this at a time when CAD was stronger than it is now.

In defense of my (now ebbing!) claims to be a budget traveller, remember that this is for a family of 5, the youngest of whom just started university. We covered a lot of ground on this trip (drove over 1800km), taking RER/metro in Paris, and 0 taxis.

We didn't skimp on the food (prix fixe menus for dinner was the norm). Our most expensive lodgings were in Paris, where we paid 240&euro; per night for 5. We did investigate an apartment, but didn't find anything suitable (A/C, privacy). We had to travel in July due to the constraints of schooling.

I don't know about Disneyland (not cheap no matter how you get there!), but in 1993 I was planning a vacation with my then fiance to California from the Northeast USA. We ended up in Costa del Sol, Spain with an offer that included roundtrip tickets, lodging (wonderful apart-hotel!) and an Opel Corsa for HALF THE PRICE that we would had paid for the California trip. The fact that this may be much, much, much more difficult to come by these days does not take away that at one point THIS WAS VERY, VERY TRUE.

In May 1996 I had to go to Huntsville Alabama for business. My ticket (coach seating)to AL was more expensive than my ticket for the following week to Munich. True stories.

&quot;Food: 4000&quot;

Neither WDW package included food. Or misc. Or car. So to be a fair comparison, you'd have to take $5800 off those Europe prices right off the top. Maybe you don't need a car at WDW. You also don't need one in Europe. All depends on where you're going in Europe.

Which brings up another matter...