How much money for lunch & dinner in Germany & Austria?
 

I will be spending two weeks in the spring in Southern Germany and Austria. How much money would you recommend, on the average, for a light lunch and traditional dinner in Bavarian Germany and in Austria on a day to day basis? Thanks for your response!

Mike, I assume of course that you have breakfast included with your room and that is why only two meals. <BR> <BR>In "traditional", I view it as I would like it: Soup, bread and a pils at lunchtime. That's maybe DM10,00 or $6.00. Dinner would be (me, again): Weiner Schnitzel mit bratkartoffeln, salat und zwei pils, about DM 15,00-20,00 depending on where you go. <BR> <BR>I would play it safe and say $30.00 per day or $420.00 for two weeks, IF you are eating economically. Each restaurant will have daily specials and that would be to your advantage to pick one of those. You could presumably spend much less. <BR> <BR>Good luck.

Mike, as you can well imagine, restaurant prices can vary greatly. <BR>We looked at the prices at the Alt Weinerhof Restaurant in Vienna and quickly calculated that $80 per person was too easy to achieve. So we ate elsewhere!! <BR>Around Salzburg, we found good dinners for under $20.00 per person. Much of the cost is a function of how much wine and beer you consume with your meal. <BR>That can run the cost up quickly -- just like in the USA. <BR>I looked back over my charge bills, but are not much help at isolating costs. We either paid cash for meals in Austria, or they were incorporated into our hotel bill. The one that was separate was a light dinner on the train to Salzburg. The cost was a little under 200 Austrian schillings for a fish dinner, that was quite tasty. But I could have spent 300 easily for a fuller meal with a beef dish. At an exchange rate of 15 to 1, that comes out to $20.00 (obviously). <BR>

Our experience in Salzburg was about what Bob indicated, about $20/person for dinner at nice cafes in prime tourist locations. We thought we spent less for food in Austria than in Germany.

Will you be staying in bed and breakfasts? They usually serve a sizeable breakfast, so we pick up lunch in a grocery store (bread, cheese, fruit). You can do this in the morning and then have a nice picnic later. If you get off the tourist path, you can find a traditional dinner where the locals eat for around DM20-25, which is not much with the current exchange rate.

At lunchtime we stopped in one of the numerous backeries in whatever town we were in and grabbed a sandwich. They were usually large enough to split and cost only 3-4 dollars. We didn't want to take the time to have a sitdown meal in the middle of the day as the service in Germany is quite leisurely. Dinners in reasonably nice traditional restaurants usually only ran about 30-40 dollars for the two of us including a couple of beers.

Last night we ate at an Italian place in Munich for 55dm for 2. We each had a pizza a 2 glasses of wine. The night before we ate at a Chinese place for 110 dm. We each had a meal with shrimp and 2 glasses of wine. When we eat at the Ratskeller, a typical Bavarian restaurant, it usually costs about 100dm for 2 (with wine and no dessert).

One thing that's cheap and that the locals enjoy when strapped for cash is to grab a "doner" (umlaut on the "o") - which is a turkish meal-deal (around DM 5 or 6) and sort of like what burritos are here (quick fill) =&gt; meat strips in sort of a thick, warm, doughey pita bread. very filling and usually easy to get. have fun traveling there!