I'm planning to visit Italy and France the last week of August though early September. 20 days total. I need to know what's the appropriate amount of $$ to budget for the trip?

Definitely plan to travel to Paris and Rome. Other places on the itinerary are Florence, Milan, and possible the French Riviera. Any other places that I should add.

I definitely need some advice on cheap places to stay.

Thanks!

How many people are traveling? Are yo including airfare? I have budgeted outside of accomadations and airtravel 100.00 Euros a day for my dd and myself. Somedays I doubt I will even come close - other days I am sure I will go way over -

We are not "foodies" but will want a few nice meals out over the course of our time in Europe.

&quot;<i>I need to know what's the appropriate amount of $$ to budget for the trip? &quot;

&quot;I definitely need some advice on cheap places to stay. </i>&quot;

The first question is impossible to answer w/o knowing a WHOLE lot more about your traveling style and what sorts of things you enjoy. Some can travel for less than $100 a day while others easily spend more than $1000 a day.

as for the second question - what do you consider &quot;cheap&quot;?

Hello nysmom, to get some good help you need to provide what you can afford per night for your lodgings. &quot;Cheap places&quot; mean nothing..one person's cheap place is a campground and another person's cheap place is 200euro.

You are staying in expensive cities but again it is difficult, well actually impossible for any Fodorite to give you any help without knowing what you can budget per night for your lodging.

And as far as other daily costs that depends on the type of food you want to eat, type of eating establishments you want to go to, places that you want to buy a ticket for to visit, mode of transporation etc.

I don't know how you expect anyone to be able to answer this without explaining who's going, what your plans are, what type of accommodations you're looking for, what kind of foodie you are or aren't, whether you plan to shop or not, how many sights you plan to visit that have entry fees, etc. etc., etc., but just off the top of my head I'd say $15,000. Does that help?

We leave in 20 days... and we'll be in Europe for 3 1/2 weeks. These are rough estimates - too much trouble to look up, but wanted to help nonetheless. And all are in USD not Euros (Yikes!).

Airfare $4800
Car rental $3,000
Hotels $2600 (we save a little here due to having relatives in certain parts of our trip)
Fuel - Geez, this is hard to figure out but I'm guessing it's going to be up there - definitely over $1000
Tolls - over $100
Food - same as fuel
Attractions - over $250 (1 tour in Salzburg is over $100 for 5 of us)
Souvenirs - $400 (mustard, herbs, Fu&szlig;ball jerseys, perfume, riesling and postcards)

So that puts us at over $10k and that's in USD. Good luck!

Thanks for the limited advice. I'll give more details.

It 20 days. I'm planning to budget about 100 USD per day for a lodging but am unsure if that's too little or too much. I'm not that picky but I've never stayed in a hostel and I don't know if it would fit right with me. I'm in my 30s and use to decent (***) accomodations. On further reflection, most of my time will be spent in Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice, Amalfi(possibly)) so suggestions on where to stay there would be most helpful!

I love food but I don't think that good food needs to be expensive so I'm not worried too much about eating.

I plan to buy the eurorail pass for Italy and France. But it seems there are a lot of travel expenses outside of the train.

I'll basically have one traveling partner for the whole trip so I'll get to split some of the cost.

I'm new to this whole overseas travel thing. Although I know these thing probably turn out better when planned well, sometimes you have to go when you can go! So I'm going!

Hello nysmom, do you mean that you can afford $100.00 a day for lodging and that your travel partner can afford $100.00 a day for lodging and so consequently you two can afford $200.00 (USD of course) per night? Just want to make sure I am understanding your answer. Or do you mean that the two of you together can afford $100.00 per night for lodging (which would be about 63 or so euros per night)?

Here my prelim budget:

Airfare: $1600 (two tickets)

Hotel: 1200 (I'm hoping a little over $100/d btw two people)

Eurorail passes: $600

Food: $1000

Have you shopped air fares?

yes.. I was wondering about the airfare as well as the lodging. If you do not want to do a Hostel I am not sure (and could be very wrong) that in the areas you are going to you are going to have an easy time finding a room for two for 60 euros total.

The airfares are good. I found some tickets to Milan for $800 on alitalia.

So it sounds like I'll have to expand my accomodations budget? I wouldn't mind staying a few nights in a hostel actually just to get the experience.

Well be aware mysmom Alitalia is in dire financial straights..although probably they will still be flying when you are taking you trip.

But regarding finding rooms in the major cities you are planning on visiting for $100.00 a night (about 63 euro per night) well I don't have any suggestions at all. And being willing to spend a few nights at a hostel is fine but honestly I hope someone here on Fodor's can direct you to some websites that will have rooms that fall within your budget. Perhaps some rooms in convents or ?? Best wishes to you and I do hope you can receive some information here or elsewhere so you can take this trip. But for sure you will be not be staying in 3 star hotels.

I do not believe 60 euro for a double hotel room is a reasonable budget for cities like Venice, Rome, etc. If you want cheap places to stay I don't think you should be heading for the French Riviera either!

I think you need to research some alternatives pronto, like staying in convents or renting apartments. Your budget is not adequate for 3-star hotels in major cities.

Honestly it is barely enough for hostels, where 30 euro per person for a bunk in a dormitory, is about the norm.

You asked in the original post for a budget. I would say bottom line is $150 per person per day with two people sharing the hotel room. That's still very tight, with $75 x 2 going for your room and $75 for each person for everything else food, attractions, admissions, local transportation.

Are you sure you want to buy a rail pass? If you are mostly in Italy, likely point-to-point 2nd class tickets bought as you go along would be even better.

Thanks for the info about alitalia! I hope it's still safe to fly with them... But what airline isn't in severe financial straits? If they declare bankruptcy I wouldn't even get my $$ back? It's less important that they're flying when I leave but that they're flying when I want to come back!

So it looks like I'll increase my budget for accomadations and make my own lunch...I can do the $75 pp/hotel in the budget. Just no souvenirs and I'll drop the French Riviera. Any suggestions on where to start?

Hi,
I see your looking for cheap hotels
I can highly recommend etaphotels.com in France. They are all over and will be well under $100 US dollars per night and are relatively new and clean.

I would compare them to Holiday Inn quality wise.

Have Fun...I too am going to France and Italy but I am going in September for 20 days

Thanks!

This Alitalia thing really upsets me. I only bought one ticket because something was bothering me... But that's still $800!

Sorry...didn't finish

I am staying at Best Westerns in Italy because my nephew is an employee of Best Western and got me employee rates. So if you know a Best Western employee, see if they can get you the employee discounts. You have to say you are a relative. In my case it actually is a relative but I happen to know he has done this for a few of his friends.

I chose not to stay at Best Westerns in France because the Etap Hotels were cheaper than the Best Westerns even with his employee discount. But Italy was another story...no Etap Hotels in Italy..darn...

I like the Etap Hotel Chain..they are all relatively new so they are still clean and fresh, Check out their site....etaphotels.com

enjoy...

For cheap places you could check out www.eurocheapo.com

As for Alitalia...if you bought using your credit card they should reimburse you if they do go bankrupt.

Oh and in Italy it is usually cheaper to just buy your point to point train tickets instead of a eurorail ticket.