We are four girls traveling through Paris into Venice and Rome. We will be in Europe a total of 10 days (not including travel days). Please help us with cheap places to stay, to eat and places to visit outside the usual. Thanks!

Check out www.eurocheapo.com and the Thorn Tree "forum"(s) of www.lonelyplanet.com

Best wishes,

Rex

Dear tank,

Please rethink your itinerary.

Ten days in Italy (Rome, Florence and Venice) would be a great trip.

Paris and Venice or Paris and Rome or Paris and Florence would be a great trip.

Three cities in 10 days is a hurried, stressful and unsatisfying trip.

Hey, Ira...they're young (describing themselves as "girls&quot and they are unabashedly trying to do it on the cheap....the only "stress" they may encounter on this whilrwind and totally unforgettable, for them, adventure probably couldn't be discussed here anyway! Ahhhh, the hubris of the young..sigh!

Dear tank

Dig up a copy of Rick Steves' "Europe Through the Back Door" for a quick intro to budget travel and time planning.

Remember that 'cheap' and 'places outside the usual' aren't mutually exclusive terms, since what isn't usual might not be served by public transportation. Also, you mention only cities, in which costs are nearly always higher than towns or villages. "Cheap Venice" is something of an oxymoron - it's the most expensive city in Italy. Finally, spreading your net wide is fine if that's what you want, but remember that this too will increase your costs, as opposed to being more selective.

In the end, you might want to review if 'cheap' really is your top priority. Good luck.

Cheap will mean staying in dorms for a couple of € per night and eating Pizza etc. rather than touristy restaurants.
It's quite do-able. If possible get overnight trains and you'll save on a nights accomm as well as arriving good and early. You should do most of your "homework" through Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree. Just do a search before asking anything as a lot of your questions will already have been answered a million times.

There's a great free publication you can get from Budget Europe, their European Planning & Rail Guide (call 800-441-9413) - it has a ton on info on budget travel. Even though it specializes in rail, many other topics are covered. I've used these folks for years to plan my Eurail forays, they're the best and I'm sure their guide will be of great use to you.

i agree with ira. pick 2 and really enjoy yourselves. if you have never been to europe paris and rome would be a great start. rick steves does not always recommend the least expensive places but his touring recomendations are second to none. also when are you going? that will affect your budget. we go at christmas and find rates cheaper. email me with any questions. [email protected]

hi tank.

i traveled with two other girls through europe my junior year of college, cheaply. three cities for a taste-test should be fine for you. are you flying into one and out the other, or is your flight round-trip?

pick up lonely planet's europe book, or just the italy and france ones. this collection caters to the backpack set, and lists the most popular (read: affordable) hostels in each country. these are where everybody else who is backpacking will most likely be staying as well, so it's fun, too. i think it also lists the "good but cheap" places to eat. make sure you splurge on a good meal at least once in each city - you won't regret it. i carried my fodor's guide to europe around with me as well, to find the "better" restaurants.

i walked EVERYWHERE, because i found the public transportation a little overwhelming (i wasn't a city girl, at the time). you get to see so much more on foot. that'll save you some money.

keep in mind that you'll be so exhausted every night, your accommodations won't need to be spectacular. always ask to see the room before agreeing on it, but all you're really looking for is cleanliness, a bed, and a pillow.

i only stayed overnight in rome - there's a clean hostel/hotel about two blocks from the train station. the name escapes me but i can find it... it had a private bath, a double, and a twin, and i think it was less than 50E a night. try to fit all four of you into one room, also - that will help, because you'll be splitting the price four ways. we didn't run into any arguments on this one, either.

You girls must be at the University of Colorado. My daughter is a freshman there. Anyway, we traveled last year throughout France, Austria, and Italy real cheap. In Paris, we stayed at the Hotel Turenne. Not the greatest place in terms of size, and kind or worn down. But, they had rooms for 3 or 4 and we spent about 100 Euros a night having a private bath, and walking to the Eiffel Tower. With 4 of you, you can find quad rooms as cheap as hostels, with more privacy. In Rome, a few years ago we stayed at a convent. Had a curfew, but it was about 11pm. The convent was Casa Beata Margherita and the price at that time was 65 E for 4 of us. In Venice, it is hard to find a cheap place, but look for convents or hostel for cheap. We visited a place called Lido di Jesolo. It was a hopping place in the summer, and a ferry ride from Venice. I agree with the above, that trying to do 10 with those three cities is alot to do. Even if you take a cheap airline between cities, you lose a day in traveling. Think about doing Paris and London, or Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam, or Rome, Tuscany and Florence. Just tell yourself that you will be back again. And if you are anything like my daughter, get some beach time. It was a highlight of her trip.

PS. If you want my email address, it is [email protected] or [email protected]

A couple Euros per night for a dorm? Not likely. The going rates in the places they are visiting will be more like 20-30 Euros per night for a dorm bed.

I mentioned these sites on another thread, but they are worth mentioning again:

http://www.guideforeurope.com
http://www.eurotrip.com
http://www.bugeurope.com
http://www.lonelyplanet.com

Since there are four of you, getting a quad room will be as cheap (or cheaper even) than a hostel/dorm. In Paris, Hotel St Andre des Arts in the 6th has a quad for 105 euro including breakfast. That's only slightly more than $25 each, I don't think you can beat that. In Venice and Rome we paid a little more for quads but wanted air conditioning since we were there in July. Hotel Canal and Walter in Venice had a quad (with breakfast) for a little under 150 euro (that was summer of 2002) and in Rome we stayed in a quad for about the same price - Hotel Picasso. Booked everything on the internet. If you don't need the a/c there were definitly places just over 100 euro for a quad. Venice being the most expensive. But I would still urge you to stay "in" Venice rather than Mestre or somewhere. We considered that to save money and realized that not only would it not save much, what we would loose by not being in Venice proper was not worth it. Do one less day there and one more in Paris if it comes to it.

One of the main ways to save money is by eating take-out. Picnic or eat in your room. Paris and Rome were very easy to do that in, and the food is still wonderful. Venice was a little harder but there is plenty of pizza.

Just got back from a Nice/Florence/Rome/Amalfi Coast trip. Most people here also said it'd be too much for 10 days, but we had a great time! Our situation was similar to yours...young (late 20s), on a budget, and travelling lightly (backpack).

We stayed in a great hostel in Rome that was actually nicer than most hotels we saw. It was called The Beehive, and they have a website you can look up. I'd recommend getting a room with a shared bath instead of a private bath. The rooms are huge and have a sink and mirror in them. There are several showers, so sharing those was easy and it cuts down on the cost.

The Enjoy Rome tour office is right next door, so if you decide to do a tour, it's easy to get tickets. They have a website too, and their prices were reasonable. Have fun!

Girls?
Youth hostels the ones in Padua, Florence (30 minutes outside city center).

WillTravel,

Absolutely right, my apologies for the misleading info. That's just very casual use of "a couple". Us Irish tend to do that, you know - "your B&B is just a couple o' minutes walk out that road". Translation - 3 miles across mountainous terrain.

Travel Cheap, but do yourself a favor and research quad rooms with a private bath.....divided by 4 you'll find good rates....and have a private bath!!!

'Girls',
Most of the important websites have been mentionned.
Also to limit your trip to 2 cities has been mentionned, proposition to which I subscribe.

Maybe just a suggestion for Venice: look for lodging in Venezia MESTRE, it is the train station befor Venezia SL, the main station. Or even in PADOVA, which is also a wonderful town, a lot cheaper, distant at 30 minutes by train, with 2 trains to Venice per hour until 11pm.

An inexpensive place to stay in Rome is The Beehive -- http://www.the-beehive.com; it's frequently mentioned on Lonely Planet's travel board -- http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com