julies

I'm curious. I did this about 35 years ago and I think it has greatly influenced the way we still travel today. I'm wondering what your experience has been.

I think from that 3 month trip I learned that you don't need to worry about not speaking the language, you can have a fun time even if you don't pay a lot for a room, shopping in the neighborhood grocers gives you a flavor of a place and is the way to save money, you are much more likely to meet interesting people from different countries if you stay in pension type places, and you can easily manage to get around on your own. We still travel very much in the same way today preferring inexpensive, small, family-run lodging; however, we now opt for private baths and want rooms that are a tad more comfortable. We picnic a lot and look for the prix fixe meals. We look forward to interacting with people other than just American tourists. We are fine using public transportion on our own even though we now usually rent a car outside of the big cities. I am sure this is why we don't take tours, don't spend a lot on lodging, seek out small restaurants the local favor, and have been able to visit many place off the beaten path in both western and Europe on our own. I guess we see the differences from home as intriguing rather than a challenge, and we look for opportunities to immerse ourselves in the culture rather than trying to replicate what we could find at home.

If you did this type of travel when you were younger, what is your style today?

annetti

Just about the same as yours. Except, we do a lot of home exchanges, too, which gives us a deeper flavor of an area and thus we are more often off the beaten track.

ira

About the same as yours.

LVSue

Interesting thought. That way of travel was so ingrained that it was years (and years) before I finally realized that we could permit ourselves to have a better room and splurge on a nice dinner or two. So no more hotels with bathrooms down the hall. But I'm still more comfortable in small simple accommodations usually.

And now I have discovered apartments and gites, which I love, not necessarily because you save money (and sometimes you don't), but for the freedom it affords you as far as meals are concerned. With one cup of coffee costing $5 or more, it's nice to be able to fix your own and have a couple of cups (with fresh croissants from the local bakery) or pick up a roast chicken on your way home from a long day.

But gone are the days of the bathroom down the hall, and "madame" bursting into the room to say she forgot to wake us up, paying no attention to the fact that we were naked as jaybirds!

feltoni

Thank you, thank you!! I was beginning to think that I was pretty whacky, reading all these postings about $250-350 hotels, and $125 suppers. I spent '71--73 in Europe on your program Julies, and still pretty much plan our trips that way. Gone are the shared baths and poor beds. Age, bad backs, more money all contribute to that change. But still, modest digs rule! Finds in great AND cheap eateries still give me a rush...I suppose thats why Portugal, Belize, and Quintana Roo have been the focus of our travels forthe last couple of decades.

Intrepid1

Even back in 1970 when <b> some </b> of us were doing the $5 a day thing to Europe there were travelers who were spending far more than that and not regretting it.

It is a fact of life that prices rise, as do most salaries, so in a few years there will undoubtedly be someone asking if anyone remembers when you could go to Europe for $200 a day!

isabel

Well I'm not quite old enough to have traveled to Europe o the $5 a day plan, but when I did start traveling to Europe I also had other financail obligations (like kids) so I needed to be financially restrained in order to afford to go as often as I wanted (twice a year). I totally agree with you that spending more does not in any way assure a better trip. I just posted a trip report on this very subject (How I had a great time in London and did not spend a fortune). So even those of us who didn't travel to Europe when things were more of a bargin can still appreciate the advantages of a more modest (financially) trip.

I realize everyone has their own style of travel and they are entitled to it. But I wish more people here would post their experiences, their &quot;finds&quot;, their tips on frugal travel. Seems like whenever anyone asks a question in this area they get told to go check out Lonely Planet's website. Well, some of us are not college age and don't want to backpack or stay in youth hostels, but do still want to travel inexpensively. There ARE more benefits than just financial to this style of travel.

WillTravel

I read this book when I was a kid. It made the possibility of going to Europe seem a lot more real.

However, I think there's no longer such a huge gap in price between a small pensione and a chain hotel in Europe. With Priceline, it's quite possible the latter is cheaper or about the same price, at least in a few cities. There are fewer respectable places that offer shared facilities - many of those have put tiny bathrooms in every room.

Kate Simon's 1972 book on Rome mentions a place in Trastevere that cost $4 USD/day, and included three meals. I suspect, if it's even available, that such a place would be no less than $120 today. For most people, income has not risen 30x since 1972.

On the upside - look how cheap airfares are today!

sandi_travelnut

I wish I had been traveling long enough to think of today's airfare as cheap.

logandog

I am now fifty years old. On a trip to London in March my family stayed in a hotel with a bathroom down the hall. Force of habit from my Frommer years.
I do this for my children so that in the breakfast room they are surrounded by Europeans, not Americans.

palette

My first trip to Europe was 1960. The entire month cost me $1,000, half of that was airfare. And, I wasn't backpacking - had American Express do all the booking; we were collected at the airports; day trips were included; nice hotels. So, considering how everything else has risen, I would say airfare is &quot;cheap&quot; based on the percentage of my current trips. But, I still budget carefully. I would rather have several trips at my comfort level, than one big splurge.

bobthenavigator

Hmmm ! We did 21 days in Germany and England in 1961 and spent a total of $350 including airfare, but that was using USAF space available flights and staying in a 4 star hotel in garmisch for $3 per nite courtesy of the USAF. A drunk German man, ex Luftwaffe, in Innsbruck told me at the hotel bar one nite that I should have been there 20 years sooner. His exact qoute was &quot; ahhh, Hitler would have liked you--you would have been a breeder&quot;. My wife, 5 months pregnant, died laughing and we have never forgotten that nite.

julies

Feltoni--
I agree with you so much about the assumption many people make on this board that if you are not looking for 4* forget it and go look at Lonely Planet. I think many of those types of people are missing out on the joys of being a traveller and not a tourist. Several days ago I posted a question about looking for a decent place in Barcelona for less than $100 a night. Although later posters had many helpful hints, the first response I got was to double or triple my lodging price for a room.

WillTravel

julies, I bet there are more people looking for the moderate to low end of the budget scale here as there are looking for the top-end 5* range. So just ignore any such remarks if they seem inappropriate for your situation.

sandi_travelnut, I'm not sure how old you are, but even though I wasn't paying for airfare as a kid in the 1970s, I do recall it being very expensive.

mikeycora

In the winter of 1969 my wife and I stayed in Paris for 2 nights at the Hotel Freeman with breakfast and transportation from Germany at 26.95 per person booked through American Express on the military base. Still have a copy of the 5.00 per day book and enjoy looking at the prices. Not many of the hotels left. Many were around the train stations. Her ticket was one way from Chicago at the cost of 295.00. What memories.

Patrick

Well, I'm old enough but never did it. On the other hand my first trip to Europe was a week at Easter to Torremolinas. It was a teacher charter and cost $199 per person for round trip airfare (from Columbus, Ohio) 7 nights deluxe hotel and two meals a day plus transfers. The following year at Christmas we did a week in Lucerne, but the costs went way up -- I think to $299 a person all inclusive.

What I did learn from that was mainly that I didn't like spending the entire week in one place when I was in a new country. And I certainly didn't like having two meals a day at my own hotel! I've avoided half pension like the plague ever since.

Patrick

Ooops. Sorry, the years were 1970 and 1971.

abbydog

I first visited the UK in 1979 on a study group, staying at Stirling University and Mansfield College in Oxford. I flew over on Freddie Laker for $300. My friends and I actually hitch-hiked (horrors!) on weekends to reach neighboring villages (don't try this on a Sunday in Scotland), where our budget for B&amp;Bs was 3 pounds a night. At the end I visited Paris, where I never saw the inside of a restaurant but enjoyed bread with melted cheese from street vendors. My credit card was only for emergencies, so I clung to my travelers checks (in dollars!) as I watched the pound climb to $2.45. I thank my lucky stars that nothing about my current travel habits resembles that experience, but I've never lost my love of visiting other countries.

Jean

In the summer of 1968 (aka, The Summer of Love!), I travelled through Scandanavia, the Soviet Union, Poland, Austria and Germany. I had $300 and a train pass to cover me for about two months. The week in the Soviet Union was a prepaid guided tour (the only way you could visit in those days).

I stayed in university dorms (otherwise empty for the summer) which averaged about $2 a night, and ended up meeting kids from Europe and the U.S. travelling in the same way. Small groups formed and split and formed again as we decided &quot;Where/what next?&quot; We had a blast. Sometime toward the end of my trip, I realized I needed more cash. No ATMS in those days, so my terrific mom and dad air mailed (no FEDEX either!) three envelopes with a $20 bill in each to me at the American Express office in Vienna. Amazing how far $60 went in those days.

Fast forward 37 years, I definitely need more than a dorm room and a communal bathroom down the hall. We spend more on hotels and food but fly free using frequent flyer miles. I still find the best part of any trip is meeting people (locals, other foreigners, even Americans) and learning about their lives and experiences.

vivi

I went twice in the early 70's with about 300-400 bucks, a backpack, and a Eurail pass. Once I did the whole summer solo. Once I met several friends from home there and we split off into pairs or dashed off with new friends and then re-rendezvoused on appointed dates and times (usually in a beer hall or brewery.) Sometimes we took 12 hour overnight train rides just so we would have a place to sleep (Amsterdam-Copenhagen was a favorite). We slept in a few trains stations, too (Zurich was the nicest!) I dont know how we did it with no cell phones, ATMs, computers! Towards the end of my trip I was running way low on cash. My Grandma sent $50 to the AmEx in Amsterdam and I was euphoric to receive that windfall which lasted my whole last week!

In May I am going back to Paris and Amsterdam for the forst time since '73. No hostels, backpacks, or communal bathrooms for me this time. But it's gonna cost a bit more, alas.