Hello! My sister and I are traveling throughout Europe for a month July 24- Aug 22, 2013. I have never been and she is currently studying abroad in Trier, Germany so our trip will start out there. We have already purchased our return tickets from Madrid, Spain as we have friends in that area. We currently each have a budget of $2,500 and are planning on staying in hostels and traveling with just a small backpack each. We have been looking at Ryan Air for some of the travel as well as by rail. I am 26 and she is 19 so we are interested in some night life but not on a nightly basis. This is our rough draft itinerary. I welcome all thoughts on destinations/time frames, travel advice, anything really!

Arrival: July 24th @ approx. 11:30
Departure: August 22nd @ 11:00
Total number of days in Europe: 30
Total number of places: 15

Approx. number of days in each place:
1 day in Trier
1 day in Luxembourg
2 days in Cologne
3 days in Berlin
4 days in London
4 days in Paris
4 days in Nice
3 days in Milan
4 days in Rome
3 days in Venice
2 days in Pompeii
3 days in Barcelona
2 days in Madrid

You need to realistically figure in the time it is going to take you to get from one place to the next.

Some of those transfer will eat up most of a day. Trying to see 15 places you need to subtract at least 7 days from that list (meaning 1/2 day in between each place for your bus, train, or plane ride).

In my opinion with 30 days, 7 places would be a much more reasonable number.

Your budget works out to around $83 a day. If that includes travel within Europe much of your budget will be eaten up by getting to your 15 locations. Virtually impossible.

You need to cut way back on locations and start booking hostels NOW. Chose your top 5-6 places and see what you can come up with for reservations.

Sound advice from Suze and Cath. Since you are young, I suspect you will return to Europe. Narrow yoru choices figure out the budget,etc. For major cities look at Time Out on-line since their world is geared to people your age.

Well fofr a good fix on the train system check out these fab IMO sources - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com. On some legs you can take overnight trains and save on the cost of a night in a hotel as well as travel time.

I would try to fly into London and then work you way to Berlin via the Chunnel or Eurostar trains to Paris rather than putting London in the middle of your trip.

Oh dear!!! I missed the budget part.

Worse yet, $83 (assuming you are quoting in USD) is only $61.92 euro. That is simply not enough to do what you describe, even backpacker-style.

You need more money or less places... or better yet both

Will your sister have visited any of these places during her time in Trier?

Absolutely agreed with the others that you need to properly account for getting <i>between</i> places. Pompeii to Barcelona, for example, is not just a hop on a train. That will likely take most of a day.

I can't speak to the first part of your itinerary, except to say that I was in Cologne in 1999 and wouldn't make a point to visit it (it was fine, just not that exciting compared to many other places on your list).

<i>4 days in London
4 days in Paris</i>

Really 3-3.5 in both once you factor in travel time. Okay, but both could use another day or two if you have it. Lots to see.

<i>4 days in Nice</i>
I haven't been, but what do you plan to do? Will you be renting a car, or is this beach vacation time, or...?

<i>3 days in Milan</i>
Under the circumstances I'd drop this entirely or cut it to one full day.

<i>4 days in Rome</i>
Same advice as London/Paris.

<i>3 days in Venice</i>
Fine here.

<i>2 days in Pompeii</i>
Can't speak to this one, but you've got it out of order - you'll want to do Venice first, then Rome, then Pompeii (or maybe Pompeii then Rome would be easier for getting to Spain, I'm not sure). Either way, it doesn't make sense to go from Rome to Venice back down to Pompeii.

<i>3 days in Barcelona</i>
<i>2 days in Madrid</i>
Haven't been (yet!).

August is prime vacation time in Europe, so you want to book accommodations ASAP - especially given your budget!

I agree with everybody, you have to cut off several destinations and give more days to the larger cities such as Paris, London and Rome.
4 days for Nice sounds too much for me, perhaps 2 days will be enough to relax a bit. Same for 2 days in Pompeii, 1 full day should suffice.
On that budget you need to start looking for lodging options NOW.
Look for apartments isntead of hotels for the longer stays and you can save money by making your own food.

I don't think the budget is sufficient to be looking at apartments.

I am assuming train fares have to come out of this amount? That makes a day look like: 30 euro for a bed in a hostel, and 30 euro for everything else. That's way tight.

It looks like you need to cull some of the towns to save on transport money and time usage. I'd cull Cologne, Nice and Milan which are second raters compared to the other towns. If your sister has seen Trier why not chill out on the Mosel river and bike path, move some of the time to Paris.

You might like to look at Paris-Venice- Rome-Pompeii as an easier sequence if you make the changes I propose.

August first 2 weeks is very much high season in Europe, booking hostels for the whole trip might be good but especially these 2 weeks.

You have 30 days in Europe but your itinerary adds up to 36 days and you did not factor in travel time to get from place to place. You really need to cut back on destinations.

E62 per day is not gonna make it. Hostels in cities are about E25 leaving E37 for food, sightseeing, and transportation.

Most inexpensive train fares are booked 90 days out and you're well within the 90 days so will be paying more for your tickets.

I would cut out London, Paris, and Nice since they're out of the way. That gives you 30 days in Germany, Italy, and Spain and makes the trip more manageable.

There is also the cost factor. London and Paris are extremely expensive. Not that the others are cheap but they are not in that stratosphere.

Here is a listing of the relative costs of visiting by selected European cities.

http://www.priceoftravel.com/2427/eu...raveler-index/

Sorry but your budget is TINY for what you want to do. Transit between places will eat up most of it (I assume air fare from outside of europe is NOT included in the $2500).

And as noted above - you will be spending about 1/3 of your time just getting from one place to another. Add in a bed in a hostel and some street food and your budget is blown. Don;t know how you will afford 3 meals a day or entrances to sights or a glass of wine in a student hand out on so little.

Really suggest you have a look at Let's Go guides and Thorn Tree - to see how students manage on next to nothing. (They may reco couchsurfing to stretch such a small budget.)

My D and some friends went 2 summer ago and spent about $8K in 6 weeks - but that included modest hotels with AC and dinners in a place they could sit down versus a picnic or slice on a park bench.

You're going to have to hitch-hike, sleep on park benches, and kill your own food. Seriously - and I have been an impoverished young traveler trying to get by on extremely meager amounts of money - what you have outlined is just not realistic, not to mention a plan for a pleasant trip. You could do this in Asia, but not in Europe.

Find more money or cut way back on the travel.

I agree about dropping London/Paris/Nice. Too expensive and cheap lodgings are gone in these places of you haven't already booked them.
You could spend more time in Spain, it is worth more than just the few days you have allotted for it.
A lot of people seem to budget time and money wisely in traveling from n-s or s-n through Italy. The only other suggestion is that if you want to see a beautiful city that is more affordable than Paris or London, check out Prague.

Agree with the above. You could double your proposed budget and still have to watch costs. My suggestions:
1. To get a bit grounded, sit down with a map and look at the distance between the places on your list. Remember that even if flight time between two places is only an hour or so, you need to account for the time and expense required pre- and post flight for airport procedures and getting to/from the airport and the city itself.
2. Have a glass of wine, bid adieu to the original plan, and get down to brass tacks.
3. Start two documents - one a calendar and the other a running list of costs. you can do both in Excel or a similar program.
4. Presuming your flight out of Madrid is fixed point, add another day or so there with your friends where your costs will be low (assuming they can house you)
5. Work backward from there. You have a total of 30 days from arrival 24th July to return 22d August. Spending one day in places is unsatisfying under the best of circumstances, let alone when you are hungry and yearning for a decent bed and shower. Choose the couple of places you most want to see on this trip, put the rest in a future file.
6. For each place on your wish list look up the cost of travel to that location from where you would be, likely cost of lodging and food, allowance for admissions to local attractions. Put those costs on your running list as you go and keep a running subtotal. Don't forget things like the cost (and time required) of the occasional visit to a laundromat.
7. When you see how quickly your running subtotal reaches your proposed budget, have another glass of wine and get ready to make some choices.
8. Everything is on the table and up for negotiation except your already purchased flights. Get creative. Where will you arrive in Europe? If it is a major city, might it make more sense for your sister to meet you there to begin your shared trip rather than for you to travel to Trier and launch from there? Or, if she has access to reasonable accommodation in Trier, for you to go there and to spend a couple days? Keep in mind that London hotels are expensive but most museums are free, Paris has cheaper hotels but almost everywhere has an admission cost. If you do spend more days in fewer cities you <u>might</u> be able to find a lower cost studio apartment to serve as your base, airbnb type place.
9. We all work better with motivation. No more wine until you come up with a workable itinerary.


Bonne chance!

Not piling on but: >>Total number of days in Europe: 30
Total number of places: 15<<

Right there even without the teensy budget should be a big red flag. 30 days/15 destinations doesn't equal 2 days anywhere. Some of those transfers will take 1/2 a day and others nearly a FULL day. So you will actually have less than a full day in most of those cities.

So even w/ a fortune to spend the itinerary doesn't work.

But w/ $2500 it becomes utterly impossible. Even staying in Hostels and eating exclusively picnics on park benches you would need an absolute <u>minimum</u> of $100 a day. And that gives you very little money for visiting any sites (which all have admission charges - often $20 or more)

But then there is all that traveling around you want to do - just the inter-city transport/transfers/buses in the cities would eat up a big part of your budget. The more places the more it costs.

So back to the drawing board -

There is a travel blog my kids like called Nomadic Matt, he has a book available on Amazon called how to travel the world on $50.00 per day. Check it out it might help.
Ditto to all of the above I am afraid you may need to shave your stops.

But w/ $2500 it becomes utterly impossible. Even staying in Hostels and eating exclusively picnics on park benches you would need an absolute minimum of $100 a day.>

I travel on a shoestring and rarely spend $100 a day, even staying in B&Bs and low-budget hotels - it can be done- the major variable is transportation costs - I always have a railpass that covers all transportation and if I added in that cost, about $50/day I would be over $100 - about $120 a day - now hostels can be cheaper than I pay a bit. And I take overnight trains a lot - saving on the cost of a hotel, etc.

But yes you have no money to spend on extras - and extras like sitting at a cafe sipping coffee and watching the crwod go by can be priceless!

PQ - >>I travel on a shoestring and rarely spend $100 a day,<<

Your rail pass alone takes more than half of the OPs budget. She is talking $2500 for 29 days, which is only $86 per day. Subtract your beloved rail pass and she is left w/ $36 a day. Utterly totally impossible.

And even IF she has already accounted for all their inter-city travel (which I doubt since she mentioned both budget airlines and trains as possibilities) . . . $86 a day isn't doable. If they can find hostels for €20 she'd have $60 a day for everything else. Sure that is doable in SOME of the cities. But others will require twice that.