OReilly

I have been reading some posts from young travellers planning a trip to France, on a REALLY tight budget. Responses have generally been: Too small a budget, get real, reduce your number of days …etc.


It made me think about my first trip to Paris at 18. We stayed in a very cheap, very clean and very basic hostel. We had nowhere enough money to eat in a restaurant, and were probably hungry for most of the time. We lived on bread and cheese, when we could afford the cheese. We had an occasional drink, but I really did not drink back then.


We had an incredible time, it was so exciting and life-altering, and I would not have missed out on it, despite all the nay-sayers: The sights we saw, the museums and art galleries we visited, and the sheer joy of just walking around in Paris, which cost nothing at all.


I barely remember the hunger. However, the joy of my first encounter with Paris resulted in a long-lasting passion.


Are we not being very judgmental, and forgetting when we were young, when new experiences were the most important thing, and good food and comfortable lodgings were unimportant, even irrelevant?


Are we also not forgetting that there are very many residents in Paris and London and other major cities living on very tiny budgets on a daily basis?

A question to Paris people: Just how cheap could a young person do Paris, on a daily basis?

Envierges

I agree that sometimes people are too "strict" about answering expense questions for youngsters who are looking for the types of experiences you described. However, I do feel that posters generally are very fair in giving the broad expense ranges most inquirers are searching for. Frugal for one isn't necessarily frugal for another.

"A question to Paris people: Just how cheap could a young person do Paris, on a daily basis?"

I don't know that many Paris people could answer that as we have different sets of expenses, but I'll be interested in seeing what answers your question draws.

Edward2005

To some degree you are right. Rick Steves describes it as "experiencing more by spending less." Usually, the harshest critiques I have seen (and given) here regarding shoestring budget itineraries is the unrealistic pace or activities they want to do. Champaign on a beer budget simply is not possible.

Like you, my richest experiences have been while flying low to the ground. I'm reluctant to do that now that I'm in my 50s. I'm a lot more persnickety these days.

PalenQ

A question to Paris people: Just how cheap could a young person do Paris, on a daily basis?>

Hostel or couch surf - eat from supermarkets- walk - buy a museum card (if European free entry I think for those under 27)-no entertainment or cafes- $60/day? Rock bottom except sleeping at the Hotel du Park Bench! (Like I did when young on a few occasions).

Be interesting to see what Parisians say.

Kathie

I'm guessing that you are referring to the thread about the couple going to Europe for two and a half weeks and had $600 for everything in Europe. Half their time was in Switzerland. If you look again at that thread, You will see that they made some revisions in their itinerary as a result of our discussions, and have ended up with a much more realistic plan.

I think we were very gentle with the OP, and not discouraging of their plan to travel, just giving them some reality-testing.

flanneruk

"my first trip to Paris at 18...We had nowhere enough money to eat in a restaurant, and were probably hungry for most of the time."

I didn't eat in a foreign restaurant till I was well into my twenties. My first Continental holidays were hitch-hiking/youth hostels, school trips or exchange visits with French schoolboys.

The most I ever took with me (in the days before credit cards, or phone calls home - actually, in the days before we even had a phone at home) was £50 for three weeks.

Yes, of course the budgets we now claim are the minimum for European travelling are several times greater than legal minimum wages. But someone else's house is even cheaper than hotels, and cooking from scratch in someone's house is many more times cheaper than buying supermarket sandwiches.

And my perception is that in northern Europe, outside the UK, museum prices have increased far faster than inflation over the past 50 years - and places that used to be free (esp: Anglican cathedrals, Kew Gardens and Florentine & Venetian parish churches) now charge enough to devastate budgets.

On the other hand, Ryanair more than compensates for all that. And looking at the enormous number of young Europeans weekending 500 miles from home, it's simply not true that short-haul travel's got tougher.

Stand at any European airport on a Friday aft, look at the departure boards and the people getting on the planes and it's screamingly clear: the average twentysomething has infinitely better, easier and in real terms cheaper access to abroad than we had 50 years ago.

Even if far fewer anglophones seem capable of understanding anything but English, and their ignorance of the Continent's history is excruciating.

cheska15

We too did our first European trip on a shoestring and we spent a fair amount of time eating bread,cheese etc. As mentioned previously we choose to do it differently now because we are older and have more resources. However I still remember our first breakfast in Paris and the omelette and coffee was fantastic. I don't know if it was really good or just the fact that we were in Paris having something to eat. Lol. Only time I have ever come back thinner from a trip.
I caught the travel bug so badly on that first trip. Personally I think when you are young is probably the only time you are prepared to live on a shoestring. Now I'm not, and would encourage any young person to travel.

WoinParis

Some of us do forget that we could travel in a rush sleep 5-6 hours a night for several days or week and eat and drink frugally.
However this forum is much more for oldies - oops seasoned travelers than backpackers.
Methinks.

kerouac

In my part of town, there are hotels for 30 or 40 euros and the extremely popular modern Yves Robert youth hostel is located here as well. Ethnic eateries in the area propose full meals for less than 10 euros, and of course the small shops and supermarkets can supply more than enough food for a meal for 4-5 euros. A baguette here costs 0.80€ and from what I have read, there are lots of tourists who are completely satisfied with something like that.

So $50 a day is a perfectly reasonable budget for a young person.

fuzzbucket

Don't forget that if people buy food from supermarkets, they will often have leftovers - meaning, half a bottle of wine, half a tin of sardines, half a baguette...
So, no money spent for the following day.

WoinParis

18th arr is the best quality price ratio of Paris in terms of hotels and restaurants.

tuscanlifeedit

OP, what came to mind for me was a thread from a young(ish) mother who wanted to travel to three countries with a young baby and a low budget.

While a very few posters were judgemental, most offered what seemed like solid advice to me. That OP had some unrealistic ideas about taking baby supplies with her, and the cost of said supplies in various countries. Also, carrying baby, supplies, luggage, stroller, and more to various airports and train stations from non-central lodgings was cautioned against. Most of it made a lot of sense to me.

My own niece-in-law came to my inexpensive US city with her family and spent at least twice as much as she had planned for. Her airbnb was a huge disappointment, public transport wasn't working for a family of five (it stinks here, anyway) and without the rental house to cook in, food expenses grew.

Of course, we're not always talking about young people with children. Young people alone can make do more easily.

PalenQ

Don't forget that if people buy food from supermarkets, they will often have leftovers - meaning, half a bottle of wine, half a tin of sardines, half a baguette...
So, no money spent for the following day.>

IME Yes - except for the half bottle of wine -well maybe if I bought two bottles.

TexasAggie

Best trip of my life was backpacking/hosteling after grad school in 2002. Yes, I spent a few nights on overnight trains and didn't get much rest. Yes, there were some less than stellar hostels. No, I didn't eat gourmet cuisine. But the experiences... fundamentally changed my outlook on life and for the better.

We take our two young sons with us to Europe every year and they are growing up with a considerably nicer travel style. But we are showing them the ropes of how to travel well on the super cheap too. I want them to have the same experience I did.