How much per day -London, Paris, Venice, Rome?
 

I am planning on traveling to Europe after high school graduation with a group of friends. We plan on going to London, Paris, Venice, Rome, and Berlin OR Amsterdam. We plan on spending about 3 days in each place. How much should we allot to spend each day on food, admission to museums, and subway/bus/taxi fare? Keep in mind that while we are students, we would like to do as much as possible.

Thank you very much!
-Justin

Well - first you need to figure out the cost of hostels (or hotels if you've got a bigger budget).

Then you need to decide how cheaply you are willing to live (walk everywhere, each mostly sandwiches from supermarket with perhaps a pizza dinner, go to only free sights or those that have entrance fee - and if you're willing to hold your eveing's entertainment to a single glass of beer or wine).

You must realize that the dollar is very low at this point - so all the prices in europe will be much higher than for the same thing in the US.

As an example - I believe entrance to the Tower of London is around $30. And a McDonald's meal is about $10.

To figure this out you really need to to a bunch of research -and you will get the best info on a student travel board/student guide books. Check out the Let's Go guides (but assume costs are about 40% higher than they list due to the all of the dollar) and have a look at the Lonely Planet web site - the Thorn Tree forum.

Well you can easily find the current price of transportation by googling it. For example google "London subway" and you'll get the site for the Tube (the name of London's subway, actually it's really called the "underground" I think) - anyway, then you can find out the per ticket price, and if they still have a three day pass (I think they may have done away with it). London is large and you'll need to take the tube or bus at least some of the time. Paris is a little smaller but you'll probably take the metro some there as well. Venice is small, you can walk everywhere, although a ride on the vaparetto (water bus) is alot of fun. Rome is pretty small too, you can walk to most areas. /msterdam is walkable too.

In London museums are free, but churches (most) charge. In Paris museums charge, but churches are free. Once you do some research as to which sites you want to see you can easily google them to find out the current cost. Just about every place has a web site. You do really need to do the research first though, since with only 3 days per city you'll have a bette time if you do some advance planning.

I guess what I'm saying is , you can find out very acurately how much things cost. I also do this before my trips and it really helps. Asking people here how much to allow isn't as good because some everyone has different travel styles.

As far as food, I am a real budget traveler when it comes to food and usually manage on less than 25€ a day - mostly picnic foods or pizza or panninis, that type of thing with a "sit down" meal every couple of days. I rarely buy bottle water (refill it) but do buy alot of gelato in Italy and pastry in France. England is the most expensive country to eat in but they have ready made sandwiches in places like Marks and Spencer, and even small convenience stores and they are quite fresh and much better than a premade sandwich in the US. I probably spend half my food budget on coffee and desserts.

I would budget according to the city's own currency (ie. GBP in London, Euros in Paris, etc), instead of dollars, to gain a more in depth idea of how much things would cost without the fluctuations of exchange rates.

According to BackpackEurope.com and many other backpacking websites, the barebones daily budget is 30GBP in the UK and 50E in the continent.

Keep in mind that this means staying in hostels, getting most of your meals from grocery stores, taking public transportation and walking a lot, and getting as many discounts as you can through ISIC or ISE.

This also (obviously) does not include your international flight and transportation within Europe.

This is how I'd break down the 30 GBP barebones budget for London:
12 pounds hostel (most cost more, but this sort of deal can be found in London)
5 pounds transportation (maybe you can get it down to 4 with the right card and length of stay)
10 pounds food (buy cheese, bread, yogurt, fruit from the supermarket)
3 pounds miscellaneous

Museums are free. It's possible, but you'll definitely feel pinched, is my assessment. 10 pounds more per day would help a lot.

Here's a very cheap, nutritious, and filling restaurant option:
92 Chapel Market
http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/restaur...urant-1347.php

HI J,

>Keep in mind that while we are students, we would like to do as much as possible.

It is because you are students that you are even considering this trek through Europe.

It will still be there for your next visit in a few years.

You have about 2 weeks. As planned, you will lose 2 days just traveling between cities, not to mention the cost of transportation.

taxi fare? on a student budget?

London is quite expensive.

Berlin is an outlier.

My suggestion is to fly into Rome - 4 nights, train to Venice - 3 nights, fly www.myair.com from Venice VCE to Paris ORY - 6 nights.

All 3 cities are very walkable.

Are you planning on hotels or hostels?

Are you thinking of going this June?

Have you looked at airfare?

((I))

I agree with ira, you are traveling to too many distant places in too short a time frame and will lose a lot of time traveling between them and it will add to your budget. Rome, Venice and Paris are all doable and as ira says, walkable, so you will save money on transportation. Wherever you stay in Italy, be sure it provides breakfast included in your room rate. Preferably, a breakfast buffet which has cereal, fruit, yogurt and meat and cheese. Otherwise, you will spend about 3 Euro for a cappucino and croissant and will be starving by lunch. Buy a bottle of water and fill it up at the many fountains in Rome to save additional money (cans of soda can cost 4 Euro each). Just make sure there isn't a "non potabile" sign on the fountain.