Experts only please - What is the average cost of a European vacation?
 

I know that airfare varies from Jan - Dec and I know it depends on ones accomodations and what type of dining is done. Could you give me a range in the Budget/Moderate catagory for a one week or two week vacation please. Anything in Western Europe from Portugal to Austria, England to Italy. Thanks.

Appx $1500 per person for a 10 day trip.

And it depends on your definition of "budget" and "moderate". Not to mention whether a "week" is 6 or 9 days and includes or excludes travel days. <BR> <BR>$50 to $100 per person per day on the ground. Travel to/from and days traveling are extra, as are rail passes or other intra-European travel (but a sense of local travel is included.) <BR> <BR>These costs could nearly be cut in half by some people, in some destinations. <BR> <BR>If you were to fly from the US to Europe your roundtrip airfare would cost anywhere from $350 (or less) to $1200 or so, for low fare economy tickets. <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

One week Saturday - next Sunday 9 days including travel. Two weeks = 16 days. <BR>Budget/Moderate is lodging 2 stars <BR>Dining at regular local restaurants. Airfare from Chicago. No eurorail passes, just discovering a region with a radius of 300 kilometers (200 miles).

Jason Do you have a college ID you get great discounts

My family (2 adults, 2 kids 11 & 14) spent 2 weeks in the UK in June, one week in London, one week divided between York and Edinburgh. Round trip airfare Detroit to London was $2700, room in London (Travel Inn, budget place very basic) was $105 per night, room in other cities (B & B's) was $125 - $145 a night, Britrail and tube passes totalled about $500, spent about $3200 over the 2 weeks on meals(mostly simple meals, no fine dining), admissions to attractions, and souveniers (didn't buy very many). Total trip cost was about $8000. You could probably do better on airfare outside the summer season.

Jason, <BR> <BR>Figure $90-120/night for budget-moderate hotels, two people in one room (often one bed). <BR> <BR>Figure $7-15/breakfast; $7-$20 lunch; $15-50 dinner per person -- less if you are at a B&B or can survive on a coffee+pastry breakfast, less if you share, less if you are willing to pick up groceries at local stores and "picnic" for lunch, less if you go to small cafes for dinner. Upper end represents going to a "moderate" restaurant in a "moderately expensive" city. This is the category you are most likely to be able to keep under control. <BR> <BR>Then add $10-40 per day depending on whether you will spend much on tickets to tourist sites or tours, or on shopping to bring back trinkets. (You might not spend $15. every day, but you might spend $65 in five days for a pair of shoes, or a special bus tour, etc.) This is the category that is least foreseeable -- the one where I always have to revise upwards on my budget. <BR> <BR>Strongly recommend knowing ahead of time what train tickets or car rental will cost and separate that out of your "per diem" calculations.

the cost of our 3 most recent trips(all to italy) has come in at approx $2000.00/ea. this includes air from the west coast, food,lodging and ground transportation- trains and busses. each trip was 13 nights in-country, mostly 3 star hotels.

Jason, it really does vary alot by timing and destination. However: <BR> <BR>ITALY TRAVEL BUDGET---2002 <BR>by BOB the NAVIGATOR <BR>Independent travel to Europe continues to become even more popular with American tourists, and it seems that Italia has become everyone's favorite destination. This phenomenon is certainly not difficult to understand for those of us who have learned to savor "la dolce vita". <BR>During the past four years I have been fortunate to have planned more than sixty personalized itineraries for independent travelers to southern Europe----most of them to Italy. Understandably, one of the first questions I get from a prospective client is about the projected costs. My quick answer is the obvious one----" that depends on you and your preferred travel style". As we delve deeper it becomes clear that the style choices of would-be independents can vary widely-----from youth hostel backpackers to luxury five star jet-setters. We will ignore these extremes for now and concentrate on the more mainstream middle ranges. Here are some assumptions for our hypothetical itinerary: <BR> <BR>A. This is a 14 day [13 night] itinerary to Italy for a couple during the shoulder season months of April, May, Sept. and Oct. These are the best months for travel to Italy. <BR>B. Flying into Milan or Venice and out of Rome, or vice versa, with the purchase of tourist class tickets well in advance, or from a consolidator. <BR>C. The 2-star budget assumes rail travel. The rental car options include all insurance and unlimited mileage. Car choices are compact/manual [3-star] and mid-size/auto [4-star]. <BR> <BR>Now that we have our parameters set let's go ahead and plan our budget. Remember, this is for planning purposes only and is really controlled by you. You may decide to blow the budget on Murano glass, Florentine leather, or silk in Bellagio. But, I do feel this to be a realistic estimate of expenses for this itinerary, based upon an exchange rate 2200L/$. <BR> <BR>TRAVEL EXPENSE ITEM: 2 STAR 3 STAR 4 STAR ================================================== ========== <BR>AIRFARE--2 PEOPLE 1600 1600 1600 <BR>RAIL TICKETS--2 PEOPLE 500 N/A N/A <BR>CAR RENTAL--ALL INCL. N/A 550 900 <BR>* PETROL N/A 200 250 <BR>* TOLLS N/A 50 50 <BR>TOTAL TRANSPORT $ 2100 $ 2400 $ 2800 <BR>HOTELS & INNS--13 NITES 900 1500 2200 <BR>FOOD & DRINK 600 900 1200 <BR>TOURISM COSTS 300 300 500 <BR>GELATO & CAPPUCCINO 150 150 200 <BR>MISC. EXTRAS 150 150 200 <BR> <BR>LIVING & TOURISM $ 2100 $ 3000 $ 4300 <BR>============================================== ================= <BR>TOTAL TRIP COSTS: $ 4200 $ 5400 $ 7100 BUON VIAGGIO ! <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

HI! My boyfriend and I went to Paris this past April and will be going again in December. Let me give you and idea how much was spent... R/T tickets on Air France were $408.00 p/p tax included. We stayed at a two star hotel in a nice area (District 8) and we paid $500.00 for six nights, with continental breakfast. So just on fare and hotel $1300.00 was spent. We ate at some economic restarants and at some expensive ones as well, we went to many attractions..Louvre, Eiffel, Notre Dame, Many other museums, all the arches, etc.... One day we rented a car from thrifty.com and it was $20 a day insurance included (Gas is more expensive but when you calculate car/gas it was about $80 for the two of us which is a great deal) We drove to the beautiful medieval city of Brugge in Belgium (3 to 31/2 hours away). Anyhow, I think we spent about $2000.00 for the two of us, maybe a tad more. But we had one of the best times of our life!! Ingrid

Off season or with planning from most major airports (at least from the midwest or the East coast), you can find plane tickets for 300-500 each, to many locations in Europe. Decent lodging in most countries on the continent can be had for $60-80 per night (slightly higher for major cities). For London, double (at least) the price of lodging. Food and drink is flexible, depending on your tastes and the fanciness of the restaurant. However, assuming breakfast is included w/the hotel, $10-15 for lunch and $15-20 for dinner, each, in a sit-down restaurant. These amounts can be greatly decreased and increased.

If I stay in one city, with just an occasional day trip, I can keep it to $110 a day; once I start traveling from city to city, or do lots of day trips, I add another $50 a day for the additional transportation. <BR> <BR>This is one * hotels, no gourmet restaurants (pubs, bistros, trattorias are the mainstays), no taxis (subway, buses and lots of walking - no first class tickets, only second class), and mixing free stuff (spending a day wandering around Burano) with fee-based (a whole day in the Louvre). If I intend to visit a lot of fee-based sites, I buy a museum pass if available.

I paid about $1500 for an 8-day trip. I travelled by myself to Paris and Bruges in May-June of this year, stayed in 2-star places (paid around $75/night for a single in Paris, $50/night in Bruges), and that's about what it ended up being when I added everything up. Obviously if I'd travelled with someone and split hotel costs it could have been less. I generally spent an average of around $35/day on food and drink, including at least a glass of wine and lunch and dinner, and ate in very good bistros and restaurants for both lunch and dinner, mostly prix-fixe places (can honestly say I never had a bad meal the entire trip). <BR>Airfare $450 <BR>Hotels $475 <BR>Meals $280 <BR>Transportation & sightseeing around $300 <BR> <BR>I have been to Europe two other times for longer periods of time using Eurrail. In general I have found that I can travel very comfortably in Europe for an average of around $130/day excluding the cost of airfare (including hotel, meals, transportation and sightseeing), but again, it depends on where you're going. I find London to be significantly higher and southern Europe less (Greece was very inexpensive outside of Athens).

I recently did a deal on go-today.com -- Paris for 10 days (including airfare, hotel, pick up and drop off at the airport, and daily French breakfast [croissant, baguette, yogurt, tea/coffee/chocolate]) for $750 including tax and travel insurance. This was for individual/independent travel.

There are many variables to be dealt with in this problem: time of year, country, and city vs. small villages, among them. <BR>Airfare will be lowest from November through May and the bottom end of the range would probably be about $300 to heavy traffic destinations such as London or Paris. In season fares will be several times that, but with flexibility and the use of consolidators you would have a chance to get them as low as $600-$700, though this may take a bit of hunting. $800 to $900 is probably more likely. <BR>Budget hotels outside the cities may be in the $50-$75 range; in the cities figure at least $25 more, but that's a rule of thumb that will vary dramatically by country. Unless included in the room price, breakfasts in hotels tend to be costly. One can usually take breakfast at a cafe for $5 or less. Lunch purchased at a market or eaten picnic style might be $5 to $10. In an informal restaurant, expect to pay twice that. I think a moderate priced dinner would run about $15-20 in villages and at least twice that in cities. You've got to figure daily miscellaneous costs as well for things like buses, subways, etc. <BR>If you are extremely careful and travel off season, expect to pay $400 for airfare and at least $400 a week for lodging and food. On season, airfare will be about double and the cost of lodging and food may be slightly higher. Do allow a buffer for expenses you hadn't planned on. There are always some.

My husband and I usually get away with between $4,000 and $5,000 for 2 weeks.. thats total not per person. But we have been gone as long as 3.5 weeks on less then $3,000. We don't shop, stay in 2 star hotels, eat big b-fests lunch and light dinners, or just snacks. <BR>We usually have one big meal out and use our spending cash for seeing the sights!

My typical costs, based on mostly city travel (per person where applicable): <BR> <BR>Airfare = $400-800 <BR> <BR>Hotels = $560 (about $80 per night) <BR> <BR>Ground transportation (let's say trains, cabs, buses, subway) = $100 to $150 <BR> <BR>Food = $3-5 per day for breakfast, $7-12 for lunch, about $20 average for dinner <BR> <BR>Sightseeing - $200 <BR> <BR>Film = $100 <BR>Processing = $200(I am not typical in the photo expenditures - I would guess half for the average person) <BR> <BR>I think a good estimate would be in the neighborhood of $1,500-$2,000 per person. <BR> <BR>Souvenirs - $200 <BR> <BR> <BR>

My experience has been for a two week trip the total cost runs somewhere around $5,000 for a couple.

I am COMPLETELY amazed with the figures on this thread. My last 5 vacations -all in Europe (44 days of total vacation time) cost my family (wife and two very young children) approximately $5500 total and I am an American! We've been to Paris, Brussells, Brugges, Holland, Provence, Denmark, Sweden, Tuscany, & the Loire Valley.

My daughter and I spent four days in Germany, drove to Venice, spent three days there in a Grand Canal-front room, flew to Rome, spent three days there, flew to Athens and spent two days there, and then visited two Greek islands for six days in May. The total cost was about $5500.