My dream trip to Europe - is my budget enough ?
 

Hello everyone,

I just finished school and been hired in a good and reputable company with a decent salary. But I'm 24 years old and never got the chance to travel to Europe, which I always wanted to do.

​​​​​​For my first trip, I was thinking about going in Paris between April 7th and April 19th. It's the only time I was able to have vacations and airfares are somewhat affordable.

I was planning on a budget of more or less 2500$ CAD (1623 Euros) EXCLUDING plane tickets.

I plan on visiting Paris (of course), Brussels (with a day trip to Bruges or Ghent) and Amsterdam. I plan on sleeping in hostels and finding affordable options to eat. I will probably visit a museum or two, do a tour and taste some beer. Generally speaking, I try to be a frugal traveler.

​​​​​ Having that said now, do you believe it's something doable ? What are your suggestions for me ?

Thanks and have a great day ! :)

One issue . . . the more one moves around the more it costs. But €1600 to cover the 11 days not counting your travel to from Europe gives you £145 per day. That is very doable but the extra moves/transport will eat into your budget a fair bit.

Forgive me for thinking in US dollars, but that's about $1900. If you spend $200 on round trip rail travel, that leaves about $140 a day. A hostel might cost $30-40 a day, so you should have $100 a day for food, local transportation and attractions/tours. Sounds like you might have something left over for a minor splurge or two. Go for it and have a great time!

You can save tons on trains by booking well in advance - for lots of insights on that and trains in general check www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts. Fly into Paris and out of Amsterdam.

You may also be able to time your museum visits so that they're free - for example the Louvre is open for free for those under 26 on Fridays from 6 to 9:45pm and several Parisian museums (for example Musee D'Orsay) have free admission on the first Sunday of the month (that's the first day you're there, April 7, 2019) - so if you time your flight right (or even better, if you can get in on April 6th), you can still try to make it to a museum for free.

Let's Go Europe is a great guidebook for folks your age on a low budget - tremendous objective coverage of hostels and youth hotels and budget accommodations in general - www.letsgo.com.

Lots of expenses are discretionary - cafes are neat to sit at and at night go out but these things can also cost a ton - hostels and youth hotels have usually have cafes on premises and plenty of folk your age to mingle with. Hostels also have kitchens you can cook your own foods in and supermarkets are ubiquitous -picnicking is great too and again can be very cheap - most have take-out deli fare. Formal restaurants can be very expensive - again Let's Go Europe has great tips on cheap eats - street food can be really nice too and local markets a joy to shop in for fresh veg and fruit.

135 euro per day for 12 days is enough for the style of trip you describe.

I agree with the comments though that moving around so much eats into your budget, more so than if you stayed in the same city, you'd have a little more wiggle room with spending.

Also, for travel between - say - Brussels and Amsterdam: Flixbus. Takes about the same time, does require a bit of planning, and is very cheap. Used them a lot for travel between Rotterdam, Brussels and Paris: totally ok and safe.

Anyway I think OP's concern about budget is that it is possible but with some planning as to transport costs is crucial.

Thank you everyone for your insights on the subjects.

To be exact, I'll be 11 days on site because two of the days are spent traveling by plane.

If I want to explore more and spend less time commuting between destinations, what if I spent 5 days in Paris, 2 in Brussels, 2 in Bruges and 2 in Ghent. All those cities are very close from each other by train. Would that be helpful in terms of the budget ?

Not really. Paris-Amsterdam and use each as a base if want to hit smaller towns can be cheaper all in all with discounted Thalys tickets than doing all those train trips. And IMO Amsterdam especially for younger folk, is a fabulous city- I'd skip all but Amsterdam and Paris - those other places are nice but Amsterdam is exceptional and its many hostels and youth hotels can be just as cheap as anyplace.

I am not the train route expert. But one thing you can do, is if you did go to Amsterdam, look at what cities your route stops at.

Take an early morning train, then get off part way to see a smaller town, then get back on in the afternoon and go the rest of the way to your final destination.

Key point: This strategy only works if the train station you visit has lockers and you are backpacking/traveling light and can fit your things into the locker.

Hi, just checking but I guess you are a native French speaker based on reading your notes. You'll be fine as they sort of speak your language in Paris.

Money looks ok, Flexibus will help on transport. I'd also try to avoid North American brands which are expensive in Europe, if the budget is very tight I might even consider going vegetarian for the trip while ethnic restaurants will save you lots. Beer can be expensive but you will find deals especially in Belgium such as early bird and maybe a tasting range of beers in the better places where say 3 small special beers are a good price. Note that the best beer is Belgian in the areas you are going to, though Dutch beer is beginning to catch up.

If your hostels have washing machines you can really reduce the weight of your pack

I am a native French-Canadian. I'm impressed. How did you know simply but reading my notes ? :)

As for my trip, I think that I'll do Paris (5 days), Amsterdam (3 days), Brussels (3 days).

Thank you for all your tips. They have been really helpful !

"hired in"rather than "hired by" :-)

Take an early morning train, then get off part way to see a smaller town, then get back on in the afternoon and go the rest of the way to your final destination.>

Only problem that n discounted tickets you usually cannot stop off without buying another ticket so it would be more expensive doing that.

I believe that Brussels now has the vibe that Amsterdam used to have regarding "alternative culture". You'll find that in Amsterdam, hostels are not really cheap, unless they are of very low quality. If you have months to plan, consider fixing your Amsterdam nights at once and book those at Stayokay (former Youth Hostels International). That way you can even book a private room. There are two stayokays in Amsterdam, but a very nice one is in Haarlem, 10 minutes from Amsterdam by train. Their prices are also lower. You can book through booking.com

Haarlem is a good solution to the cost of accom in Amsterdam, plus the railway station is very pretty