takemeaway37

My girlfriend and I are planning on going to Europe for an 18 day vacation in July and are looking for some advice on creating an itinerary and solid budget. We're in our early 20's and don't make an income that allows us to have a luxury trip. We originally planned on a $3,000 budget for the two of us but that was including travel/accommodations/daily spending and I'm worried that isn't enough. Here is a rough idea of what we have planned so far:

July 4th - Leave to fly to Copenhagen
July 5th to 8th - Copenhagen
July 8th to 12th - Munich
July 12th to 16th - Prague
July 16th to 19th - Bruges
July 19th to 23rd - Amsterdam
July 23rd - Return flight

We are considering doing two to three day trips depending on the cost but aren't sure where we want to go yet. We are considering Rothenburg, Innsbruck, Ghent, and Alkmaar as possible destinations. We're open to suggestions for both our itinerary and day trips.

After spending the majority of the day trying to figure this trip out I think our budget is no where near enough. We know if we book our flights soon we can get tickets between $650 and $800. We looked at AirBnB already and have found relatively cheap places to stay. If we book our current spots we like our housing costs would be $700 (rounding up) for the trip. We still need to figure out the daily costs and how we are getting from country to country, we're planning on taking trains right now. We want to have at least one nice meal in each country but will otherwise be eating cheap and trying to cook our own meals. We'd like to leave enough in our budget for sights and what not and for having some drinks.

Basically we would like to know if this itinerary is doable. We would also appreciate suggestions on the best way to get from country to country on a budget, what our budget should actually be, and suggestions on what to do in each country.

janisj

What you actually have is:

July 4th - Leave to fly to Copenhagen
July 5th to 7th - Copenhagen 2.5 days -- at least partly jet lagged
July 8th to 11th - Munich 3 days plus a few hours on the 8th
July 12th to 15th - Prague 3.5 days
July 16th to 18th - Bruges 2 days plus a few hours on the 16th
July 19th to 22nd - Amsterdam almost 3.5 days
July 23rd - Return flight

And you want to carve 3 day trips out of those short stays.

>>Basically we would like to know if this itinerary is doable.

nytraveler

OK - I'm confused about your budget. Are you talking about transatlantic travel plus all expenses for 2 for 17 days for $3,000?

If you deduct $1600 for air fare (which seems low unless you have already bought it) and $700 for accommodations ( which is $41 per night and certainly doesn't seem doable) you would have $700 left - or about $20 per day per person for food, sightseeing, local transit and entertainment.

And this leaves nothing for trains to get from one city to another (which could also take the majority of your daily budget).

No - this isn't even vaguely possible. Many major sights would take the entire day's budget. Food will take most of the day's budget. At many places one drink would take a good part of the day's budget. (Beer and wine at student cafes/pubs can be reasonable - but not free - but hard liquor or mixed drinks are expensive many places).

As for special dinners - we do a special dinner in each city we visit and allocate $300 per couple for this. Even if you mean a much simpler "nice" dinner you need to allocate $80 to $100 for a dinner for two with wine.

Separately, you already have a full itinerary. If you are going to do multiple day trips you need to allocate more funds for those - and also extend the length of your trip - or you will have a very frustrating tour of the train stations of europe.

Strongly suggest you look at the Let's Go Student Guides to determine a realistic basic budget for the places you will be - as well as a bunch of tips to save money.

They lay your trip out day by day. listing where you will start, any travel you will do, and where you will sleep that night. For info on trains have a look at bahn.de - it has train schedules for all of europe and will help you determine how much time you will spend in transit and how much you will have to see/do anything.

ElendilPickle

It cost about $3000 for Mr. Pickle and me to spend 11 nights in Italy in May, but we got a great airfare deal ($400 RT from JFK to Milan, and used airline points to get us to and from JFK) which helped us keep our costs down.

I would raise your budget and, like others have suggested, cut a couple of cities and spend more time in the ones you really, really want to see.

Lee Ann

janisj

Oh -- I thought the $3000 was to include internal travel but not the transatlantic airfares. If you mean $3000 all in, I don't think that is doable w/o at least some couch surfing.

If you did mean $3000 all in -- then you really need to pick ONE destination and still skimp a bit.

takemeaway37

janisj - Thanks for breaking down what our actually lengths of stay will be in each city, makes it much easier to figure out what is possible and what isn't. After looking at that we would probably only attempt one day trip, if that, now. I've been to Bruges and Amsterdam before so I'm ok if those are a bit rushed. We might even take a day off of Amsterdam and put it to one of the places neither of us have been.

nytraveler - Yes, that $3,000 budget was originally for all of that but I obviously was way off in what I thought things would cost. We have found flights that will cost $728 per person for the trip. I know the accommodation budget sounds impossible but we have found places on AirBnB which make it completely possible! So that puts us at $2,155 for flights and accommodation but also makes it completely clear that $3,000 was wishful thinking. What would you suggest as a more reasonable budget? I think we would only do one day trip at most now. I will definitely check out the student guides you suggested, they sound extremely helpful and like just the thing I have been looking for.

I also forgot to mention in my original post that we have a $500 gift card to a travel agency that we are hoping can cover our train costs. I appreciate the quick replies though as they have both been very helpful! If you have any more suggestions/tips/advice I would love to hear them

Sassafrass

Cut your trip to 10 days on the ground, so 11-12 days total. Pick 2 (max 3) of your favorite choice places where you could base and have short, but interesting day trips. The 2 or 3 places should be close enough for cheap train or super cheap flight between. They should be places where you can get cheap multi-city flights into and out of.

I strongly suggest you do not go with such a tight budget that you can't go into some of the great sights (cathedrals, museums, etc.) you will see. That would be sad and a shame.

Cooking is fine, and fun - some of the time, but you might want to spend more time sightseeing and less time shopping for food and cooking. If you are going to spend time every day just trying to get by, you might as well cut your time and spend what you do have seeing and experiencing things.

Many people take 9-12 day trips and have a wonderful time. You are young. You will go back. Take a trip you can actually afford now.

Fussgaenger

It's nice that you have such large block of time. But some of those days are full days or half days on the train. And those train trips will not come cheaply. You have about 8.5 days tied up in Munich and Prague up from the time you leave Copenhagen on the 8th to the time you arrive in Bruges on the 16th - and a whole lot of that time is train time.

There are in fact a good number of interesting places that could replace Prague and Munich if you want this vacation to be more time- and cost-effective. Just pick a more direct route between Copenhagen and Bruges. I'd book two or three of these excellent options instead:

Lübeck, UNESCO World Heritage site: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/272

Hamburg, UNESCO World Heritage site: https://marketing.hamburg.de/unesco-world-heritage.html

Bremen, UNESCO World Heritage site: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1087

Münster

Cologne, UNESCO World Heritage site: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/292 (with a visit to the castle-studded Middle Rhine Valley, also UNESCO WH: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1066)

From Cologne you are quite close for your journey to Bruges.

Note also that you can cut travel costs within Germany when you use day passes as you move from place to place or go on day trips; these tickets can be bought as you go:

http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/pr...r-ticket.shtml
http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/pr...d-ticket.shtml
http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/pr...d_ticket.shtml

Fussgaenger

Also, I see you are averaging $85/night for accommodations. You might stay a couple of nights in the Middle Rhine Valley, where the towns, the scenery and the hiking are great and where less expensive lodging is possible. This small apartment in St. Goar is right in town and goes for €30/night for two:

http://www.st-goar.de/586-1-fewos.ht...id=586&clang=1

View across the Rhine from St. Goar: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/78022484.jpg

Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-c...FF80wORNQ#t=32

Fussgaenger

Transport: Look into the German Rail pass as well. A 4-days-in-30 twin pass covers two adults for about €150 each - AND it covers transport from/to COPENHAGEN and BRUSSELS (which gets you almost to Bruges.) If you can get one from your travel agency with a gift certificate, all the better.

http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/pr...ss-flexi.shtml

janisj

>>Cut your trip to 10 days on the ground, so 11-12 days total. Pick 2 (max 3) of your favorite choice places where you could base and have short, but interesting day trips.

tonfromleiden

I feel with you that your budget is too limited for a long stay. If only you didn't have the costs of the flight...
A lot of good advice above. An alternative you might consider is to concentrate on Munich and Prague, and combine it with Vienna, which I find much more interesting than Munich. Have a look at www.bahn.de (German railways) and www.oebb.at (Austrian railways) for the price of tickets between those cities. (Pick a random date in January. Advance reserved tickets often come with a huge discount.)

alexandrak

My fiance and I did 16 days in Italy this past July and it cost around $5000 - including airfare (two flights within the country) and a few car rentals. I'm not sure how you plan to get between cities but I would imagine your costs would be around the same. AirBnb was a way we saved money as well.

I would either shorten your visit, raise your budget or cut some cities out to save transportation costs.

janisj

>>I would either shorten your visit, raise your budget or cut some cities

suze

Agree. I would either shorten the trip, up the budget, or at least cross a couple of the places off the list. It's all that moving around that will not help your budget.

10 days in 2 places costs less than 10 days in 4 places!