I plan on going to europe for 3 weeks next year. I would like to know if taking 3,000 dollars is enough for things such as food and sights I might want to check out.Here is my trip in detail. I plan on staying with freinds of the family in spain and portugal for a bout 11 days. After that I plan on taking Eurolines service to several countries for 10 days. The trip for each country would be 1 day to 2 days the most. I plan on being in Brussels, Paris, London, Rome, Amsterdam, Berlin, and finally prague.Is 3,000 dollars enough. This does not include my flight, My Hostels that I plan staying in for 3 nights, this does not include my eurolines bus pass. Is 3,000 dollars exessive.

Thanks,

I took a 4 week trip to Italy this summer with a family of 4 and carried $200 with me.

Leave your cash in your bank account at home and bring your ATM card.

To clarify, your plane and bus fare country to country is already paid for? And you have 11 days of a free place to sleep?

So $3000 is for food and admissions to places and a hostel bed for 10 nights?

Yes I think that is sufficient.

Not that you asked but I think "1 day to 2 days for each COUNTRY" is nuts.

I agree with Suze on your plan to take a bus from Spain to 7 different countries in 10 days. It really can't be done. You can't teleport from one place to another.

You're planning on spanning basically 1/3 to 1/2 of the entire European continent. Even if buses run those routes you'll spend all your time on the road and even then I don't know if it's even possible.

I got the idea from freinds of the family which took a trip to Europe. They saw about 8 countries doing this. They would take a trip to a city, then take a night train and be in another country the following day. During a couple of those days they slept in one of those countries in a hostel. they saw about 8 countries.

Do you actually have idea about the distances/how long the coach rides would be between cities?

There is absolutely no sense in spending 1-2 days in each places. You might cram 8 countries, but will see very little.

I would skip Brussels, Amsterdam. If you're watching your budget, London is more expensive but it can be done.

Another thing: why do you insist on travelling Eurolines? Sometimes it's quite cheap to fly on non-frill budget airliners. I presume you will NOT be carrying $3000 in cash with you?...

&quot;<i>they saw about 8 countries</i>&quot;

No - they <u>stepped foot</u> in about 8 countries and otherwise mostly saw the insides of train cars, train stations and buses. What on earth do you hope to see/do w/ less than a full day in 7 different very major cities??

Every time you move from one city/country to another you lose 1/2 to 1 entire day. Even using night trains for every long distance connection you still lose time. Plus sleepers are relatively expensive so it leaves you even less $$ for your trip.

Your plan is certifiably nuts -- sorry, but that's the truth.

Yanksrule, even though you know someone who has done this type of trip, it doesn't mean YOU will have a good time. Or is it just a game to see how many countries you can check off a list in 10 days? Sort of a personal &quot;Amazing Race&quot;?

&quot;They saw about 8 countries.&quot;

They would have gotten a lot more out of those countries just by sitting at home and watching Travel TV. Now they saw one railway station and some scenery through a window.

you should do vueling flights between each city.

I think this is a flame. And I'm surprised no one has taken on the op's screen name: yanksrule.

Have you noticed he/she hasn't returned? Maybe the &quot;certifiably nuts&quot; comment was too much to handle. I've discovered that it's only a matter of time before the pejoratives appear on some of these posts.

And, FWIW, it's easy for people who have been to Europe multiple times to say, &quot;You should just visit one or two places.&quot; The first time I went to Europe, I visited 3 countries in 8 days. And I don't regret it.

Maybe it's OK for yanksrule to sample many countries on his trip. Then, if he's lucky, he'll go back another time and savor his favorite places. That's how I've done it.

Hi Y,

Leave your money at home and bring an ATM card.

7 cities in 10 days is 4 more than I would care to try.

sshephard, to me &quot;yanksrule&quot; means baseball, particularly Yankees versus Red Sox .. and the Yanks did Not rule this year, lol!

sorry, sshephard, the OP did post again, the evening before yours .. at least it shows on my screen that way .. you never know with databases what kinks can get in them

sigh, and now I notice that this is the OP's first post with this screenname .. I have seen some posters get bent out of shape when they object to the OP's post and see that .. definitely Not pointing &quot;fingers,&quot; here! .. just observation

the other observation from 7 months of reading is beginners ask questions -- somewhat like this -- that they would like answered and the question is not really answerable (okay, okay! in my opinion, this is) .. it's too open, too vague, too someone-else-do-my-learning-for-me

what they really need is to build some background of traveling knowledge .. so they should read the boards, observe, do a little thinking and pondering of what they see/read .. I cannot imagine that the too-general question would be the one posted after that .. or that's definitely my theory, anyway

oops, looking at my posts .. apologies if anyone feels singled out on this thread .. Not intended at all!

and apologies to yanksrule, too, if I sound too heavy hitting on your question.

but it is still what I feel is the &quot;answer,&quot; if any, here .. browse the travel guides, surf the travel web sites .. build some theory based on others' experiences .. and then go enjoy testing what you finally decide to try on your trip!

most likely you then come home ready to start planning the next trip using what you learn from the experience .. and repeat

sshepherd: Please re-read my post. I didn't call yanksrule crazy - I DID say his <u>plan</u> is nuts. Which it is. I explained about how much all that travel will eat into his time/budget. It was not a flame post at all - the plan is nuts and we've mostly tried to explain why . . . .

(I picture the OP as a fairly young NY Yankees fan w/ a lot of enthusiasm but just needing a little push in the right direction)

Dear Yanks Rule--

&quot;Old Europe&quot; is different than the US. Each tiny village, in every country, can have a profound history vastly different than its neighboring village. For example, in Italy (which only became a country 130 years ago), there may not even be a common language between villages among the old-timers, so you know that there wasn't much else shared.

I think people travel to understand better understand their native cultural experience by seeing the parellel lives being lived elsewhere,

You will get that understanding even by &quot;triangulating&quot; between cities in a region or country. You won't need to endure the rigors and frustrations of long bus travel to do it. You don't need to work so hard!

&quot;We're not here for a long time; we're here for a good time.&quot;

Lisa

Oops! I didn't even consider that he might be an avid baseball fan! Sorry.

And I would agree that seeing 8 countries is nothing seasoned European travelers would do. But first time travelers from the US. . . ? Maybe.

One of the things that yanksrule made me think about is the way US travelers are programmed to travel. As a rule, we have little vacation time and we want to pack as much into it as we can. Thus, 8 countries in 11 days.

A recent Rick Steves podcast offers an interview with John DeGraaf, who is an advocate of legislating vacation time in the US in a way that begins to approach how EU countries do things. I didn't know, for example, that a condition of membership in the EU is that the country has laws that require employers to offer at least 4 weeks paid vacation per year.

For the podcast, go here:
http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/podcast.htm
and find the 20 October episode.

For an article on John DeGraaf, try
http://tinyurl.com/2kfx5r

I thought of a good analogy to a trip like this. You sit down in front of the TV with the remote and zap between channels, stopping for just a second or two. Then you announce you've watched all these programs.

It's a matter of priorities, youth, energy level. I think it probably CAN be done if he is willing to sleep on a bus or train every single night while changing cities or countries.