ilovelabs2003

What can my husband and I expect to spend per day in Paris (not counting lodging)? We are somewhat on a budget. I have been squirreling money away (I am proud to say that I personally have saved over $600 in four months; may not sound like a lot, but for two teachers, that is a large some of money!), and I know that my parents and in-laws are planning on giving us a bit of cash for the trip, so we will have some extra dough. Still, we would like an idea of how much we will be spending on food, museums, etc.

Thanks!

jay

we usually budget 150e per day for everything except for hotel. i think that is an amount that would allow for some fun and souveniers(sp). have fun.

martytravels

With lodging included, it can vary widely. You could spend as little as 20 euro per person per day or a whole lot more. I tend to eat at quick, cheap boulangeries, creperies and Middle Eastern restaurants for lunch, with more elaborate dinners. (Every hotel I've stayed at has included breakfast). Factoring in transportation (metros and the occassional cab), admissions to various sites, and spending on this here and that there, I would guesstimate that I average about 50 euro a day in Paree.

martytravels

That's for one, of course.

Gretchen

We spend about $100/day and eat in nice mid range restaurants. Be aware that breakfast can be an expensive meal especially if you eat it in your hotel breakfast room--perhaps 7E each. Beat this by going to a cafe and having coffee and a croissant. For lunch we may have soup or a salad somewhere simple--or a main meal at a nice restaurant (saving money by having lunch). For a nice dinner we spend about 30E each. You can spend much less than this also. Buy a sandwich for lunch and eat in the park or on a bridge. All cafes and restaurants have their menus posted so you can plan exactly how much to spend. Tip and tax are ALL included so that is the final price. Buy the museum pass and plan your museum going for the consecutive days of the pass--3 day pass is 36E each. Transportation on the Metro is a little over 1E each/trip. If you will be in Paris from Monday to the end of the week you may want to get a Carte Orange for unlimited use of Metro and buses. There are streets in the Latin Quarter that have very cheap food. You can get better food at the same price by doing some research. Don't eat anywhere where a guy is standing on the sidewalk trying to get you to come in.

m_kingdom

Please could you advise how much a "bit of cash" is? 600 USD won't even get you there, I wouldn't imagine.

Paris is even more expensive than London, more elegant, but you can get some very good deals in London at the moment. Not that the two are really substitutes, but I'd consider your options.

yk

Hello-

I went to Paris last fall on a budget, and here's the breakdown(prices are per person):

Meals: Croissant for breakfast (1E); sandwich or crepe takeout for lunch and bring your own water (4-5E) - sodas in Europe usually cost 2E, that's why I bring my own water. Dinner: prix-fixe dinner at bistros without wine (20E)

Museums: if you buy musee carte, it will come out to around 10-15E/day, depends on how many days you buy. That will cover most tourist sites except Eiffel. If you want to visit Eiffel for free, try entering for their free ticket contest at:
http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk...x.html?id=3_10

Transport: assuming 4 metro rides/day (4E)

That will come out to about 50E/day per person, which is what martytravels suggested.

Have a good trip!

Underhill

To cut your costs for picnic meals, head for a Monoprix: large selection of foods, including prepackaged meals, in the basement. That's where we buy our water, too, and it's a great store for saving money in general. You can pick up nice French soaps to take home at low prices, along with the little wash mitts that I love and that aren't easy to find here.

Gretchen

TOTALLY disagree with m kingdom. Paris is the bargain destination of the world even with the weak dollar.

We spend about $100/day and eat in nice mid range restaurants. Be aware that breakfast can be an expensive meal especially if you eat it in your hotel breakfast room--perhaps 7E each. Beat this by going to a cafe and having coffee and a croissant. For lunch we may have soup or a salad somewhere simple--or a main meal at a nice restaurant (saving money by having lunch). For a nice dinner we spend about 30E each. You can spend much less than this also. Buy a sandwich for lunch and eat in the park or on a bridge. All cafes and restaurants have their menus posted so you can plan exactly how much to spend. Tip and tax are ALL included so that is the final price. Buy the museum pass and plan your museum going for the consecutive days of the pass--3 day pass is 36E each. Transportation on the Metro is a little over 1E each/trip. If you will be in Paris from Monday to the end of the week you may want to get a Carte Orange for unlimited use of Metro and buses. There are streets in the Latin Quarter that have very cheap food. You can get better food at the same price by doing some research. Don't eat anywhere where a guy is standing on the sidewalk trying to get you to come in.

m_kingdom

"Paris is the bargain destination of the world"

Spain, and Italy are far far far cheaper! A good hotel in Paris sets you back from around 400EUR per night, Spanish counterparts are only 280EUR. Italian hotels in Rome, Venice are equally expensive, however, the Neapolitan Riviera, which I prefer is again around the 300EUR mark.

Yes I'm talking about top-end travel, but surely this is a trend that is echoed in lower end properties. I'd suggest to you that perhaps you save for a grand European tour, taking in 2 nights in Paris, then Italy, and Spain if of course you can achieve the funds.

cocoaloco

I've never actually calculated how much we've spent per day in Paris, but I know that it really isn't as expensive and extravagant a trip as people think. You can dine inexpensively and well. I've been so accustomed to staying in Paris hotels that cost less than $100 per night that I tend to cringe when I have to pay that here in the states. I mean, you'd be hardpressed to find a decent hotel in NYC for $100. Or at least I haven't found any.

clevelandbrown

We stayed in an apartment, which generally costs less than a hotel, but has more space, and has kitchen and laundry facilities. We went to the monoprix and got orange juice, eggs, butter, tea, and jelly (we ended up not using the jelly). Each morning I walked to one of the nearby bakers and got croissants and sometimes tarts, all for pocket change. Thus breakfasts for two were less than 5 euros a day. We didn't have the ambience of the sidewalk cafes, but we had excellent breakfasts that suited us.

Lunches were usually a sandwich and drink (except the day we blundered into a restaurant on the Champs Elyses) and I think was always less than 10 Euros (for two).

There was a very good restaurant near us and we had superb dinners there for between 80 and 120 euros (for two). This included some very good bottles of wine. We also went to a couple of other restaurants that cost far less, yet were still quite good. Because we were in the Marais district and there were a number of food vendors within two blocks, and because we were often exhausted from all our walking, we often just bought food from the vendors, and wine from the vintners (far less expensive than the restaurant wines), and ate in our apartment, or at the parc. These meals probably cost at the most 25 euros, and were quite good.

We bought a carnet (a book of metro tickets) and used the metro when we were going a ways, but more often we walked. I think we used two carnets, at about 10 euros each, in two weeks, and had some tickets left over.

We love art, so we bought five-day museum passes, that I think were about 45 euros each, and spent a lot of time in museums, but no time in museum lines, since the pass lets you bypass the admission lines. Since we were there two weeks, we ended up getting a second set of passes, and they were well worth it.

We used the RER to get from the airport to our apartment, and to the airport on departure; I think that was about 7 euros each, each way.

Beyond that, we bought gifts and remembrances, but those are costs which you can choose to pay or not.

I ended up coming home with a lot of money left from my original budget; my conclusion is that Paris does not necessarily have to be expensive, and you can enjoy it on a budget easily.

Enjoy your trip. This board is an invaluable resource, so spend a lot of time here while doing your planning, and post a report when you get back.

StCirq

<<A good hotel in Paris sets you back from around 400EUR per night>>

Nonsense.....or else your idea of a good hotel is so much different from mine that it doesn't matter.

London is, and always has been, considerably more expensive than Paris. For food and lodging, Paris is a bargain.

m_kingdom

"Paris is a bargain"

A coffee is nearly three times the price of one in London, a mid-range meal over double. At the top end, again well over double that in London. Hotels are more expensive - the Ritz Paris being maybe thirty per cent more than the Ritz London, for a rough comparison.

Paris is one of the most expensive places in the world!

Christina

I agree with the estimates that you can get by without overly sacrificing with a budget of about 75 euro per day per person. That's everything (food+misc. entrance and transportation fees).

I don't agree that London is a bigger bargain than Paris or that there are great deals there -- besides it's kind of moot since I know ilovelabs has this trip planned (for a long time) and wants to go to Paris.

Don't agree that you have to spend 400 euro for a "good" hotel in Paris. NOw I know that was described as high-end travel and thus the same differential must be seen at the lower end, but mathematically and economically that isn't always the case. HIgher end properties have larger margins and markups and thus you cannot compress that percentage price difference into lower-end price ranges and assume all prices must be equally 33 pct apart (or whatever). This is true for a lot of things, not just hotels.

I just booked a trip to Spain for Spring, for example, and am paying about the same thing for hotels in Seville/Madrid as I do in Paris and from the ones I've viewed, that is the case at a moderate price level.

I don't agree that you save money in an apartment, they seem more expensive to me in Paris than a hotel. I am always interested when people say that exactly what prices they are comparing between hotels and apts.because I suspect they are comparing apt. prices to rather expensive hotels in prime areas, not avg. to budget hotels or hotels in less prime areas. I've seen a lot of Parisian vacation apt rentals and anything remotely decent that I've seen is not cheaper than a modest hotel and it won't have AC unless you spend a lot.

martytravels

Paris is NOT more expensive than London by any stretch of the imagination. There are few cities on this great green and blue planet that are more expensive than London.

m_kingdom

martytravels my friend, I live in London, and know everything pretty much here. Paris is far more expensive, perhaps not for property (real estate), but most tourists do not budget for a Seine side apartment with sunken bath.

Drinks, food, hotels, the lot are more expensive! Petrol is cheaper, as are motor vehicles, but once again this is not a normal tourist commodity.

martytravels

Well, with all do respect mkingdom, those aren't the Londons or Parises I visited.

ira

Hi M_K,

If you go to http://www.state.gov/m/a/als/prdm/
You will see that the US State Department allows

Hotel M&I Total
London 272 135 407
Paris 277 131 408
Rome 288 165 453
Venice 223 141 364
Berlin 234 124 358
Madrid 227 116 343

m_kingdom

So it would appear Paris is marginally more expensive than London, hence the greater allowance?