Insight on budgeting
 

Hello all,

Myself and my S/O are budgeting about $7000 each for our trip to Europe. We have booked flights, as well as half of our hotels/apartments. Before we book the rest we just want to make sure we have enough left over for train travel and travel in each city, as well as for excursions, sightseeing and food.

Our costs are as follows (each)

- $1440 flights
- approx. $1400-1500 for accommodations (if we decide to spend a little extra on where we stay, this is subject to change based on your feedback)
- $300-500 for travel to and from each country/within each city

This leaves us each with approx. $120-140 each per day to spend on food and sightseeing.

I am worried that this is cutting it close, please let me know what you suggest is a good amount to budget for food and sightseeing each day. Thanks in advanced!

Our itinerary is as follows. Each day is subject to change, I just listed possible things to do in each city.

Paris
Arrive July 7th - Depart July 12th
Day 1: Jet lag, relax, walk around look at cafes and hotel area, eat dinner
Day 2: Lunch at the Eiffel Tower Grounds, Museums, walk the seine river OR Eiffel Tower at night and seine river tour at night
Day 3: Versailles (afternoon) walk Monmarte at evening
Day 4: Champ Elysees, Arc de triumphe, Lunch and dinner
Day 5: whatever we feel like - Notre Dame, explore
Day 6: Leave for Boppard

Boppard
Itinerary/Days: Arrive July 12th - Depart July 15th
Day 1: Arrive late afternoon from Paris. Check in, walk around, eat dinner
Day 2: River boat tour Bacharach, Oberweisel
Day 3: Possible river tour to cochem, see Mosel, explore and relax
Day 4: Go to Munich

Strasbourg
Itinerary/Days: Arrive July 15th - Depart July 17th
Day 1: Arrive late afternoon. Check in, explore see sites
Day 2: see cathedral, big sites, petite france, vineyard
Day 3: Breakfast, explore, leave for Stuttgart, final destination Munich

Munich
Itinerary/Days: Arrive July 17th - Depart July 20th
Day 1: Arrive at night Check in, eat dinner
Day 2: Big Sightseeing day
Day 3: Marketplaces, explore and relax day

Venice
Itinerary/Days: Arrive July 20th - Depart July 23nd
Day 1: Arrive at night, check in
Day 2: Walking tour, See the churches, walk venice ( takes a few hours to walk the whole city), dinner
Day 3: Breakfast, more sightseeing, gondola ride, late dinner
Day 4: Leave for Florence

Florence
Itinerary: Arrive July 23nd - Depart July 28th
Day 1: Arrive in morning/afternoon, check in, relax explore some sights
Day 2: Walking tour, sight seeing major sites
Day 3: Day trip could go to siena, san gimignano, the tuscan hill side
Day 4: Relax day, do whatever we want day
Day 5: Day trip to pisa
Day 6: Travel to positano

Positano
Itinerary: Arrive july 28th - Depart July 31st
Day 1: Arrive, check in, get there late
Day 2: Beach day, go to Da Aldolfo
Day 3: Sightseeing
Day 4: Leave for Rome

Rome
Itinerary: Arrive July 31st - Depart August 4th
Day 1: Arrive in morning, check in, chill day, explore area
Day 2: see the colosseum - walking tours, major sites
Day 3: Day trip: to orvieto or tivoli - you can just decide to go, you don't need to book
Day 4: Exploring day, packing relax on the last day
Day 5: Flight home

As far as I can tell you will be sleeping 25 nights and have allocated $3000 for both of you - or about $120 per night for both of you. This is doable but certainly in the budget category. You mention you have booked some hotels/apts already and I would ask -

Are they centrally located?
Do they have AC (many modest places in europe don't and you will need it in midsummer)?
Have you checked for other amenities (elevator versus stairs - and how many flights of stairs - etc)?

It's hard for me to be very specific since this is not our price point - but I would make sure you are prepared for the decisions you will be making - picnics, lunch of a slice or sandwich, etc - not upscale restaurants.

As far as I can tell you will be sleeping 25 nights and have allocated $3000 for both of you - or about $120 per night for both of you. This is doable but certainly in the budget category. You mention you have booked some hotels/apts already and I would ask -

Are they centrally located?
Do they have AC (many modest places in europe don't and you will need it in midsummer)?
Have you checked for other amenities (elevator versus stairs - and how many flights of stairs - etc)?

It's hard for me to be very specific since this is not our price point - but I would make sure you are prepared for the decisions you will be making - picnics, lunch of a slice or sandwich, etc - not upscale restaurants.

Hi nytraveler,

Yes, we have booked an apartment for paris in the Montemartre district with stair but we are young so that is not an issue for us. Other bookings we have made are hotels in Boppard, Strasbourg, and Munich all of which have AC and centrally located.

We are choosing hotels based on location (close to train stations, city centres, etc. that are still quiet). We have chosen to spend a bit more on hotels so that we are comfortable with the area but if we need to reduce the average cost per night in Italy we are willing to do so.

A/C north of the alps. You could just open the window. :-)

Some tips for ONE part of your trip...

"Boppard
Itinerary/Days: Arrive July 12th - Depart July 15th
Day 1: Arrive late afternoon from Paris."

Pre-book a saver fare from DB at €39 each. Do this 91 days in advance when tickets are first available - prices go up if you wait.

DB itinerary page:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

"Check in, walk around, eat dinner"

The Sonnenhof (IME a good budget choice, great location, great breakfast) has two doubles available right NOW on booking.com for $196 total for your 3 nights.

"Day 2: River boat tour Bacharach, Oberweisel"

To see the best part of the river start the cruise in Bingen (at the south end of the scenic section) and cruise north. Visit those two towns you mention above on the way to Bingen by train - then catch an afternoon river boat back to Boppard. Normal train fare is €10 each. Show the train tickets at the Bingen KD kiosk for a 20% cruise discount.

It is possible to visit towns hopping off and back on the boat but you have to put up with a very limited boat schedule - only 5 boats per day. So do your stops by train and you can stay any length of time you like as long as you get to Bingen for the last cruise (16:30.)

"Day 3: Possible river tour to cochem, see Mosel, explore and relax"

Forget cruising the river. Takes forever and a day. DO take the train to Cochem. But FIRST... You ought to include a visit to Marksburg Castle on the Rhine. To get to Cochem, you have to change trains in Koblenz anyway, so get off there and take the 10-minute train (or bus) ride to Braubach first. Tours take an hour. Awesome castle. Only intact castle you can visit that has never been destroyed (Rheinfels in St. Goar is a set of ruins.)

http://www.marksburg.de/english/frame_nj.htm

You can do all your train trips this day with one day pass called the VRM minigroup ticket, a daypass, only €21.80 for the 2 of you:
http://www.vrminfo.de/en/tickets-and...eisure-ticket/


"Day 4: Go to Munich"

Try the DB saver fare again for this - Looking 91 days out from right now I see a fare of €49 for two adults (be sure to enter 2 adults or you won't get the 2-adult discount.)

Also...
Nice walk around Oberwesel's old town wall - it's FREE:
http://www.oberwesel.de/uploads/pics...dweg_karte.jpg
http://www.oberwesel.de/uploads/pics...rrundweg_2.jpg

Have you booked for Positano?
I just did a quick search for your dates and budget using venere.com and there is nothing at all in Positano. There is a B&B in Montepertuso, a couple of hotels in Praiano and one in Nocelle. If you want to stay in Positano you'll have to increase your budget or plan to stay elsewhere.

With the current exchange rate, that's about 100-120 Euro a day.

In my opinion this is more than enough for food and sight-seeing.

I think your daily budget is fine . . . But I also think your hotel budget for Positano and Venice probably need to be upped a fair bit.

Hi Janisj, the overall hotel budget took into account the higher prices of venice and positano, we found a couple places between $100-130 a night.

Hi Blueeyedcod, We have not booked but you are right there is nothing in positano, however we found a B&B in nocelle which is the closest we found find to positano. I did some research and I know that it is a bit of a trek to get to positano but we are okay with that, and are happy to explore the area close to our hotel as well.

Kayla - Nocelle is a bus trip away and buses leave every half hour. It's a gorgeous little village and the start of the Path of the Gods walk. IMHO it may be a better choice as July can be frantically busy.

Thanks Blueeyedcod! Hearing that is very encouraging, I think we will go with the B&B in Nocelle and book quickly so we don't miss out.

Overall, you have done some good planning. Bravo!

Thank you Sassafrass :)

I agree with the comments about buying the train tickets well in advance.

If you want to see the Eiffel Tower I strongly suggest buying your tickets in advance. I'm not sure how many days in advance they are offered for sale, but they go on sale each day at 9 a.m. and in many cases all of the tickets are purchased within a matter of minutes.

Do note that the 9 a.m. is Paris time! I ended up having to extend our time in Paris by a day because I missed the first day I wanted to buy. In order to buy the tickets you have to stay up until around 1 a.m. and then buy them. If you don't have advance-purchase tickets the wait to buy them on site can be several hours long.

Thank you FHurdle, I am all for skipping as many lines as possible so I will try to buy tickets to the Eiffel tower early.

Is there a specific website that sells them?

I am covering some of this ground at the same time as you. Advice for train fares:

Munich to Venice: there is one day and one night direct train each day, it's an Austrian train tickets on sale 6 months in advance at oebb.at so buy them now, there are only 4 super discounted tickets per train. If you wait till the tickets post on bahn.com or similar the cheapest fares will already be gone.

In Italy: the Italo and national high speed trains start selling 118 days in advance but there are so many trains I am not sure how quickly the lowest prices sell out.

The strong dollar will help,you. Keep your fingers crossed that it holds.

I break our travel expenses into four categories ...

Transportation :You can calculate your transportation costs, air, trains, busses, boats, etc. Make sure you include something for public transport in the cities.

Lodging: For lodging I would guess at least $150/night in the cities, $125 in villages. this is NOT for 5 star accomodations. the good part is that cost covers both of you.

Food: Lots of European hotels include breakfast in the room rate. It will cost you more than you spend at home eating out all your lunches and dinners. You can ocasionally skimp with a picnic or cheap sandwiches. You might also include a splurge dinner or two on your trip. Sometimes we follow the German tradition of Kaffe und Kuchen (coffee and cake) in the middle of the day then a big meal at night. Full disclosure the C&C can cost about the same as a meal depending on where you get it.

It looks like you have a "Conquer the Continent" trip planned out. It the budget is too tight just cut out a stop or two and put those places on the next rung of your bucket list. Have fun.

Fun in my budget includes entances to sights or performances. You can also round up a little to include souviners or other purchases.