ilovetulips

My husband and Iwant to travel to Amsterdam, Bruges, and Paris for about 8 days. We are planning a trip in late May of 04 or 05. Staying in 2 or 3 star hotels, taking picnics in place of restaurants for lunches is it an accurate estimate that we could do this for $2000 or $2500 a piece? (including air)We don't want to go low budget nor do we want to spend lots of money. We want to do the typical sightseeing of museums, canal cruises etc. Thanks!

DougP

It's extremely difficult to know your spending habits. One man's frugal is another's lavish. That said, from what you have said it does seem likely that you can do what you want for $5000.00 US or less. The low end of travel expenses to Europe is likely $60.00 - 80.00 US per day per person plus airfare. So your budget will probably not require you to backpack.

WillTravel

Why not write down every expense you can think of and then add about 20%? You can research most costs ahead of time and the 20% provides a cushion.

SalB

Add the price of your plane tickets and the price of your hotels (both fixed expenses) and you'll know how much you have left for other things.

If you're eating picnics and aim toward 2-star hotels (or the 3-star hotels that have the same prices!), you should have no trouble. Do keep an eye on the exchange rate though.

We go budget most of the time, but enjoy museums, concerts and the occasional Seine trip. We usually manage to eat in a nice, i.e. moderately expensive, restaurant once. Honestly, though, our most memorable meals have been in crazy little budget places that just happened to have great food.

Enjoy your trip. Remember, budget travelers see the same sights everyone else sees!

Keith

ilovetulips, I would spend a bit less than that, so (since there are two of you to split the room cost), you could be more extravigant and stay in that range.

Keith

ira

Hi love,

You can do the trip for about $5000. Figure the euro at about $1.30 for when you go, and you shouldn't be disappointed.

Check www.railsaver.com for train fares.

Are you flying into Amsterdam and out of Paris? This might be cheaper than taking the train back to Amsterdam.

SAnParis

Easily. You could do it even cheaper by going in March or April. Earlier this year we spent a week in Paris w/an infant. Breakdown of costs for us - Airfare = $900 (2 tix, used upgrades to Envoy Class + supplement for infant). Apartment (1 Bdrm loft near the Bastille) = $1400. Food, transportation, shopping = $1100. We could have stayed someplace cheaper, easily. We ate in a lot as we were close to many markets & I wanted to be able to cook while I was there. Plus, we needed some place w/sufficient space to 'stretch out' while my daughter was napping. Most times she ended up napping on park benches though. This trip was also taken in March. So, $3400 for 7 days, a little less than $500/day for everything. I would consider this cost pretty typical as we are not lavish spenders, included a day trip to St. Germain-en-Laye, a drawing of my daughter in Montmartre & several museums.

SalB

I added up our costs. We just spent a week in Paris in mid November and it was less than $2300 for both of us combined and including airline tickets, food and souvenirs.

We stayed in an $80 a night hotel. I think that's the difference. We did get museum and Metro passes although we walked so much the Metro passes were probably a waste. It's so pretty that you want to walk!!

You can do it. Go and have fun!

JandaO

I just went to Amsterdam, Venice, Florence, Venice and Rome for 3 weeks and spent $3000 all together. Most hotels were about 50-60 dollars a night. My airfair was $712.00. I travel modestly and dont eat in fancy restaurants.

rex

The answers here seem on target, even if vague - - though as much as 40% of your total trip budget (your transportation costs getting to and from Europe) really can't estimated since we don't know where you are traveling FROM.

Juneau? Melbourne? Montreal? Bermuda?

Best wishes,

Rex

Travelnut

My thread relays info about nearly the same trip, including some expenses information. Go here if you are interested:
The title is:
Trip report: Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and more...

The URL for the thread is: (it's broken into pieces, paste it together)
http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...19&start=0
&searchText=alice+and+paris

I was using previous posting name "Alice" (pre-registration).

Hope the information is of use to you.

rex

No reason to have to break a URL into pieces. Here is a shortened form of the same thread:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34375777

Everything after the "tid" field is not required.

bobthenavigator

I would expect to pay $4200 total for that trip in May at a 3 star level.

Travelnut

Rex, is the url always the same except for changing the numeric reference?

ie. this part is always:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...fid=2&tid=

then just add the 34375777 at the end?
Thanks!

(p.s. the only place I know to get it is by right-clicking on the post heading (left column) and copying it from the Properties).

rex

Get it from the heading at the top, on the RIGHThand column. And yes, I think it is always the same.

allisonm

We will spend 6 nights in Paris in February. Our airfare and hotel are just under $1400. We won't be doing any expensive dining (maybe one splurge, but the rest as moderately as possible). We will buy the Metro pass, probably the museum pass. I am sure we can do it under $3000. (But if I go over budget, oh well!) My downfalls are going be the pottery store Maison de Ivre, and BHV. I have gone away too many times and decided not to spend $50 on something only to come home and berate myself for being such a cheapskate.
While this vacation expense plan may be too much of a budget slash for some, I think it is a fair example of how much you can reasonably spend. (In February, I'll tell you how close we came! I'll title it something like "you idiot, what were you thinking??!))

RufusTFirefly

Shouldn't be any problem. My wife and I spend an average of $6000 for two weeks including air fare on our European trips, and we live well.

We don't like big 4 star hotels, but we stay in nice places always with private baths in good locations. Not into 4 star restaurants, either. We find local places to eat outside the tourist areas most of the time. Though we aren't into picnics at all--we'll often have something like bar sandwiches with wine or beer for lunch. Almost always eat in a real restaurant for dinner.

Even with the devaluation of the dollar (assuming you're referring to the US dollar), you should be fine.

ilovetulips

Thanks for all of your advice. To answer a few questions we wil be flying from Austin Texas so I expect airfare to be between $700 and $900 per person. We are also planning a late May trip because I work for the schools and as you can see by screen name I would love to see Europe in the spring. Thanks again for all of the feedback!