I’m a solo traveler going to Europe in Late may and returning in mid June As you can imagine money is going to be a big concern. I will be traveling to four cities, London, Amsterdam, Krakow, and Prague. I’m taking the eurostar from Amsterdam to London. I got a cheep flight to Krakow from London. Next I will take an overnight train to Prague from Krakow. I’m staying in hostels and really only spending my money on beer, food, a few museums, and a few half day tours. I will be gone a month. Do you think $3,000 will be enough, not including my flight to Europe and home?

couple of questions. exactly how many days are you going? What are the expenses you know of now (trains and flights and approximate cot of hostels. Start wrting these down and then a per city cost. ie cost of museums in each cities, etc.
$3,000 sounds like enough, but give us more info!
please.

I'm not sure why this is such a mystery.

Simply add up the cost of the hostels, add the cost of the eurostar and flight and deduct from $3000.

Then check on the costs of the museums (for example the Tower of London is $25, while Prague Castle is only about $8), tours, local transport in each city and deduct that from the total.

Take that number and divide by 30 days. I think you will find you have almost nothing left for eating or drinking beer.

Assume food and drink will cost at least as much as in the US (small town equal to small town, big city similar to NYC prices).

There are a lot of ways of saving money - walk vs take public transit, go to only free museums and attractions, buy food at the market or make sandwiches from stuff at the deli - but be aware that a Coke is about $3 in a cafe - and beer/wine won;t be substantially less.

Do you only WANT to spend $3000 - or do you only have $3000? There's a huge difference. Honestly - if I only HAD $3000 I would do a shorter trip. If you have flexibility - go right ahead with your plan.

The hostels will be your major expense & you should be able to calculate that cost fairly easily. It would seem enough to me...

nytraveler: I think you mis-read gawr's info. Ypu divided by 30 days and told him he'd have little left.

But instead he is going &quot;<i> Late may and returning in mid June</i>&quot;. W/o knowing exact dates, it still won't be nearly 30 days. Could be as little as 10 days to 2 weeks. $3000 might very doable.

gawr0008: How many days are you talking about?

Again, as above, it's a fairly simple math problem.

Take the price of trains, the number of nights x cost of hostel bed, subtract from 3,000 and divide what's left by the number of days. This gives you your walking around/pocket money. Then you can see for yourself if it's enough.

Are you gone 1 month? Or from late-May to mid-June which seems more like 2 or 3 weeks? You say both in your post.

How on earth is the Eurostar (by which you presumably mean the Amsterdam-Brussels train followed by the Eurostar) the most cost-efficient route from Amsterdam to London?

There's no point at all going through Brussels: check prices for planes at Skyscanner and whichbudget, and compare with the train/catmaran option at amsterdamexpreess.

If you're taking the Eurostar for the experience - there isn't one. At least not one worth paying more than a low cost airline will charge for a faster service.

Whatever the maths of your timetable, you're running tight financially. Squander your money on useful things (booze, food, the opposite sex and necessary museum admissions). Trains you can get anytime.

And if you're only in London for a week or two, don't waste money on admissions at all. There's far too much free stuff (especially if you use your brain. Go to services at the great churches, for example).

With close attention to behaving like a complete skinflint, you'll easily make &pound;1,800 last. But if you're splurging on unnecessary trains, you may not have fully researched all the important ways of keeping your wallet intact.

Crucial rule on these occasions: Behave Irish. Spend Scottish.

ttt

To answer your question I’m leaving on 23 of May and returning on June 20. Thanks for the correction. I want to take the train from Amsterdam to Brussels, and then take the Eurostar to London. I know it would be cheaper to fly directly to London from Amsterdam, but I want to spend a few hours in Brussels and try a few beers in Brussels and maybe a waffle. After my plane flight to Krakow and my two train tickets, I calculated that I will have about $2,400 left. I have $2,400 left that I can spend. I would like to save a little but I’m willing to spend it all. I will spend 6 nights in Amsterdam, 6 nights in London, 7 nights in Krakow, and 8 nights in Prague. I will graduate college in May and have never been out of the United States, so I want to have a great time within reason. I posted this message because looking at other peoples post about the cost of sights that I wanted to see. I will take a tour of Auschwitz, a day tour of Bath and Stonehenge, a bike tour in rural Amsterdam. I saw post that a tour of the Tower of London was $25 and that the Van Gogh Museum is $16. I can spend $50 a night at the bars in Downtown Minneapolis. I love to eat and want to try everything that is offered. I just wasn’t sure if the prices were the same in Europe as in the US. As you can tell I’m a newbie that this

Thanks for the background info, it helps provide a better response.
Can you do it? Yes.
Will it be difficult and will you have to watch your spending very carefully? Yes
Will you encounter things that you really want to do / try but that do not fit in your budget? Almost certainly.
Are there alternatives? Always. Some are:
1. Find a package tour that includes most of the places you want to visit, check the itinerary and see if you can take advantage of the group discount but not have to participate in all the scheduled activities. Sometimes this works, sometimes it does not; for example, on a given day the group may start from the hotel and do a couple things en route, so you would have to be able to meet back up with the group (which may not be easy or cheap.) Check out www.travelzoo.com for a list of current specials from multiple places.
2. Trim your planned itinerary. Your $2400 will be hard pressed to cover four weeks of all travel costs, especially if you like to eat and drink. A major travel lesson I have learned is that quality trumps quantity - better to enjoy two places than regret the things you couldn't do in four.
3. Consider finding a travel partner. Solo travelers often pay a premium.
4. Resign yourself to scraping to get by every day and just forge ahead. Attribute the unanticipated bumps in the road to the naivete of youth (how I wish I could still use that excuse.)

As someone who is money constrained (and you will be tight), I would recommend not taking a more expensive option to only have a beer and waffle in Brussels. I think your approach of selecting a few cities and doing them 'in-depth' vs. lots of cities in small amount of time is better. (and yes, I did that as a college student)

There will be many times in your life when you can visit Europe in the future. Save Brussels for one of those times!

ymmv...

Prices in Europe are similar to the U.S. If you can spend $50 in your own home town in an evening, you can easily spend at least that on vacation in Europe!

Dividing your 2400 by 27 days and converting it to euro gives you approximately 72 euro per day. I'd subtract minimum 30 euro from that for your dorm bed in a hostel. So now you've got 42 euro per day for food, drinks, transportation, admissions, and entertainment.

THAT is a very tight budget.

I would shorten your trip, lower your expectations of what all you will be able to do, or raise some more cash!!

I think Suze is being kind. If you can spend $50 per night eating and drinking in Minneapolis the same things will cost $75 in major cities in europe. That is your entire budget ($2400 minus transfers of $100 for 4 cities is $2300 divided by 27 nights is $85) and leaves $10 per day for hostels, local transport, tours, and sight entries - never mind breakfast and lunch. Your only option will be to sleep on a park bench.

So you will either have to cut out your nightlife completely and go for very basic food (like from the supermarket or street stands) or cut the length of your trip in half.

I'm not trying to be discouraging.

But - for persepctive - when I was 19 my boyfriend and I went to europe for about 5 weeks. We didn;t stay in hostels, but did stay in simple pensions and B&amp;Bs. It cost us over $2500 plus flights. That was in 1974 - when the dollar was stronger and prices were maybe 1/3 of what they are now.

Cutting down the amount of days in London might help a little bit because there your dollar is only worth about 55 cents. The good thing about London though is alot of the museums are free.

$100/day is a good rule of thumb for the budget traveler -- per person.

My husband and I estimate that for food and hotels, and it's worked well. It wouldn't hurt to pad that bank account a little more since London is spendy, but if you're staying in hostels and not eating at the trendiest restaurants in town, it can be done -- even in London.

Happy travels,

Jules

Hi gawr0008,
I am in Minneapolis right now at a computer at the U.
Have you visited STA Travel? There is one in Coffman and one in dinkytown. They may be able to help you more since they are geared toward students. Also, I find their flights to have the best prices and you can change the dates for only $25. I backpacked in Europe the summer of 2001 and we started with a 30-day Contiki tour and then backpacked through Amsterdam, Paris, San Sebastian, Lisbon and Lagos. I didn't spend more than 5000 but it was also before the Euro.
Good luck-- what have you actually PURCHASED so far?
Liz

Jules, remember traveling as a couple is cheaper than traveling single.

Sure you may find a nice double hotel room for $100 and share it. But for me to find a single room for $50 is much more difficult!

Suze -- you're right if you wanted a single, but the OP said they were staying in a hostel, so I figured that would be under $50.

Otherwise, I would expect to spend more on a single.

Jules

OK - now I see it is much nearer a month than 2 weeks. You can manage but you MUST economize.

No splurging on Eurostar - the fare would cost as much one full day's budget and all just for a beer and a waffle. You CAN get Belgian beer in other places.

You'll need to really watch your pennies. Hostels cost money too you know . . . . .