What's the least amount you've spent for a trip to Europe?
 

I'm considering a trip to Europe (no destination picked yet) in May from Philadelpia for a week. I have a limited budget and there would be 2 of us traveling. I'm just curious to see if an overseas trip is doable on my budget. (Oh, and backpacking is not an option!)

So for those who have gotten a great deal, how did you do it? Did you book it through a third party search engine, travel agent, directly through the airlines, etc.

My best rates came directly from an airline, probably 3-400 per ticket from the midwest. you might have better rates from a major city like Philly. If you have more flexibility, you might be able to do better via consolidator or go today type orgs.

I used www.go-today.com for a package deal. It would be a great starting point for you to see what typical deals are going for right now.

If you are adventurous enough, you could try expedia, travelocity, hotwire or orbitz and create your own package. If you are a bit tentative (like I was) about doing something like that first time around, you may want to investigate the package deals that are available through companies such as Go Today.

Good Luck and continue to do your research here...fodorites are fantastic!

Tell us your budget and where in Europe you want to go and I'm sure suggestions will flow in based on that information.

In October we did a week in Paris for slightly under $2000 including air fare from California, hotel, all meals, Metro and museum passes for two. That's a budget of $1000 each.

Our hotel was clean and centrally located and our food tasted fine. We also took a day trip to Versailles.

I got the airline tickets on Expedia.com and just kept plugging in dates until I got a good price. It took a couple weeks to find the price we wanted. We got our hotel through France.com where you can do a search by budget.

We're going to Rome in March and expect to spend about the same thing. We got a hotel-airline combo on Go Today.com and will do a lot of walking and eat at reasonably priced restaurants.

You won't stay in luxury hotels, but you don't have to backpack either.

Go for it.

By "no backpacking", do you mean no hostels? For one week, I would look for the cheapest airfare to a city that has cheap hotels (either through Priceline or other means). Then mostly skip restaurants. Despite London being an expensive city, it might be the case that it's the cheapest option considering airfare and Priceline deals. Paris or Amsterdam might work too for these reasons.

If you want to do so, post your budget and posters here can probably figure out how you can meet it.

1st. Plan an itinerary
2nd. Travel in the "shoulder season", for AA that ends May 15
3rd. Check alternative airports
4th. With 2 traveling, check renting a car as opposed to rail, check out the Select Saver pass on Rick Steves
5th. Buy the "makins" for your lunch at a local store, ham, cheese, tomatoes are pretty cheap, have a picnic
6th. Shop for lodging, easy to do if you have a car

Thanks for all the great suggestions so far.

Since I'm still in the brainstorming stage of planning I don't have any set budget or place yet, however I'd be looking at a rough estimate of $1500 to $2000 for 2 people, ideally including everything - flights, hotel, meals.

As for where, I'm considering Spain and Italy. I've already been to England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Wales, and Switzerland, and would consider revisiting any of them. My husband has never been overseas, so I would love to be able to share the experience with him. The trip is to mark our 5th wedding anniversary, so I would like to stay someplace more romantic than hostels. My husband is also a native Spanish speaker, which I thought could help us independently travel around some countries easier than others.

Even though I've traveled overseas before, this is my first time planning an entire trip myself, and I want to make sure I get the most bang for my buck! That is, if I'm not completely off-base for thinking I could do a trip to Europe on my budget.

My answer to the question in your post. I spent a total of $ 465.00 Can to travel to Paris for 9 days 31 years ago. At that time, it was equal to approx. $ 475.00 US.

1st trip I spent a total of $1200USD going to London/Paris for 3 days March 2001. That included airfare, hotel, food, Channel Tunnel train, Metro pass, museum costs, souvenirs.

I tend to get savvier as time passes. Last April I spent about $2,000 for a 9-day trip to Paris that covered the above. But then again, I don't do a lot of shopping. I did, however, have a few memorable splurges. A $90 lunch at le Vieux Bistro & a $35 afternoon tea at the Ritz. NICE!

I'm a confirmed budget (but not hostel/backpack) traveler and I think your budget is possible, but would be cutting it pretty close. Air fare is the major problem. I always use the internet sites like Orbitz (but I check quite a number of them). In May you are probably looking at $700-800 to either Spain or Italy and around $500 to London. That's per person. London is a much more expensive city to visit but you could spend a couple of days there and then fly one of the many cheapo airlines to either Italy or Spain. I haven't been to Spain but I've heard it's even cheaper than Italy. I have been to Italy (and am currently researching a trip for this summer). I can tell you that May is considered high season there but you can get a private double room for under $100 a night. Won't be fancy but will be clean. If you are willing to share bathroom it would be even less (the room would still be just the two of you). You could probably get something as low as about $50 a night and not be sleeping in a dump.

For meals you can eat OK for very little if you are willing to do mostly picnics, pizza, etc. If you want sit down meals with service it will be considerably more. I think the prices can be pretty comparable to any city in the US. If you could eat for $10 a day here you can probably do it there, if it would cost you $50 to be satisfied here, it will cost you that much there.

You'll also need some form of transportation to get around where ever you stay, admissions to sites (but the best site of all in Europe is free - that the cities and towns themselves - but you would probably want to go in a few places that charge.

So all in all I don't think you can do a week for two including airfare in May for under $2000, but you can probably get fairly close. Good luck. You don't have to spend a fortune to enjoy Europe

I was going to resist the urge to answer your question literally but since DougP already did, I challenge anyone to top this:

Went to Europe for 3 months with $1000, airfare was about $350 round trip. I think that averages out to about $15/day. Of course it was 1973.

Rick Steves says $75/day/person (or something like that last time I checked, but that might have been before the US dollar fell against the Euro) for double occupancy hotel room and food in continental western Europe. That's significantly more than we spent this summer, but that seems to be a reasonable budget level for many people.

A good point to remember is that since many expenses are indeed "daily" in nature, you can make budget by not insisting on an entire week. A five-day, four-night Thursday-Tuesday trip can be very affordable when you can pick up attractive mid-week airfares.

I once did 6 weeks in Europe with a Eurail pass in 1969 for $900. OK, I stayed in Youth Hostels and it was 1969.

You would spend a lot more than that now.

I customarily spend $3,000-$4,000 for a month in Europe NOW including airfare when I do an August home exchange. The exchange usually comes with a car.

Home exchange is not for everyone, but, if you like it, it is a very inexpensive way to travel. Remember, your best insurance is that you are in their house and they are every bit as worried about their stuff as you are about yours.

If you home exchange, you will be wedded to your exchange house or apartment and use it as a base for day trips.

Home exchanges customarily require a lead time of at least 6 months.

You might want to check British Airways. They have some very cheap flights into London.

Because we're traveling in winter and also my aunt and I got a special airfare from San Francisco to Paris for less than $400 RT each. So now we can spend a bit more on the hotels, meals, etc.
Also in 1999 when there were lots of specials we got an Air France 2 for 1 airfare to Paris and that worked out to $350 RT per person. It came in handy as our family of five were traveling together.

hmm last year from CA hotwire posted $600 for the flight to Italy- right now for Italy in May it's around 600 something - maybe cheaper from philly. book it fast though.

Second check out eurocheapo.com and venere.com for italy hotels - we got all of ours under $50 per night. I'm going to spain in march and used eurocheapo.com for hotels and all is under $40 bucks per night. Well 1 or 2 are hostels also so never mind.

If you stick with mostly bakery pizzas and to go sandwhiches - splurge once or twice on night sit down meals with wine and candlelight - you can def. save $$ on food too. It's the sit down service fee that hurts.

I did it for $2000 for 12 days last May to italy alone - but i did a lot of shopping too. :) I hear Spain is def cheaper - esp the food - stick to tapas and splurge a few times on nice sit down meals - heck im a student right now so have to do budget trips.

Hi Mcat,

Since hubby hasnot yet been to Paris, that is where I would take him.

You can fly non stop from PHL in late April/early May for about $600. You can find a nice hotel for under 100E per night dbl.

Alternatively, British Air is offering cheap flights to London. From there you can take the Eurostar to Paris, or Ryanair to Venice, Rome, Trieste or Barcelona.

We always do it on a budget. If you don't have your heart set on a destination, do what I do. Check dream maps on travelocity to see where there are cheap tickets in your time frame. Then if you have flexibility, play around with dates until you find the lowest possible fare. WE've done lots of trips this way. We always have private baths and have stayed at plenty of decent pensions, gasthauses, and 2* hotels that are in very convenient locations. Northern European places always include a full breakfast so eat up and you won't need to have anything agin until late afternoon. We always go to the local grocers for snacks and a bottle of wine for our room. Dinner can be had very nicely at a small neighborhood restaturant. For 2 of us we have almost always found that a rental car is cheaper than the trains if we plan to move around a lot. Nova in northern Ireland has beat AutoEurope's prices nearly every time for us. If you stay away from the major cities your costs will also be considerably cheaper. We've really enjoyed eastern Europe and have visited Hungary, Czech Republic, southern Poland and Romania. They are all delightful places and your money will stretch a lot further.

Our best deal ever was 2 years ago when we got a Valentine's package from Minneapolis to Paris that included 3 nights in a centrally located 3* hotel and roundtrip airfare for $400 each. I have never paid more than $600 for airfare from the midwest where there are never any bargains. The time I paid $600 we flew from here with a 1 night stay in Iceland and the went on to Luxembourg where we had a 2 night stay and from there to Vienna with a return flight home from Munich all for our $600. that was 5 years ago. By the way, that was a 19 day trip and our total expenses were $3500 for the 2 of us and to top it all off we had a 3rd person for half the time because our daughter who was studying in Vienna travelled with us. 2 summers ago we rented a delightful cottage in Normandy for $400 a week. Last year we rented a house in a small vilage in Andalucia for about the same price.OF course the dollar is way down now so things are going to cost you more. In the past we always used to figure that we could guesstimate an average of $60 a night for lodging if we were not staying in major metropolitan areas. LOnely Planet, Rick Steves and Rough guides all have good suggestions for affordable lodging and eating. Doing it on a budget, but not totally cheap has enabled us to take 7 Euroepan trips in the pst 5 years. We've visited Normandy, Brittany, cote d'Azur, Bavaria, Paris, Andalucia, Prague and the greater Czech Republic, several places in Hungary in addition to Budapest, Romania, southern Poland, and Austria. We never could have done it if we hadn't travelled on a budget. Travelling the way we do, I would guess that our average 2 week trip for 2 people runs us under $3000.

I travel to Germany, France and Italy regularly every May/June from Australia.

By sharing accommodation and car rental, and staying in holiday apartments in smaller towns and villages, where we can prepare our evening meal, we can do an eight-week trip for $US6000 pp.

Because of the strong Aussie dollar this will come down to $US5500 this year.

Harzer

You should be able to do it for $2000 easily. Get an air deal at $500 each to Frankfurt--hopefully there will be some this year; we've been able to fly BWI/FRA for under $500 in June the last 2 years. But let's assume $500.

Leaves $1000 for 6 nights. You can find nice pensions (some like B&Bs) for $60 a night or less double including breakfast. Less for just rooms in peoples homes. Leaves $640 for lunches, dinners and sightseeing--you will eat in simple local places, and bratwurst for lunch, but it will be fine.

Probably stay in an area with a lot to see and do without moving around much from place to place--like the Rhein or Mosel.

Airfares--in 2002 we used bestfares.com and got a great deal. But they changed their membership cancellation policy, so I don't recommend them any more.

In 2003, we just happened on a big USAir sale and booked directly with them.

But who knows what kind of deals will happen this year and when?

We also used Nova car rental and were very happy with the experience.

Well, you haven't mention what you would consider a "deal" to be.

Web resources are positively incredible, combined with printed tour guides.

For the very best deals, the best bet is to read the tour guides, then shop like the dickens all about the web.

Then, there's those "last mintue" tours. Some of which, if your dates are flexible, are positely incredible.

I am trying to book a flight for the two of us to Italy in October. Seems that fares are about 920.00 each. Can I find fares for less than that?

robbiegirl -

I think it's too early to look for October airfares, that's why it's so expensive.

My trip to London in January was pretty "on budget":

Airfare from California - LHR: $500 dollars
4 nights in hostel: 55 pounds
(I was traveling alone so hostel was good to use. But if you have company it's worth staying in a hotel - try Priceline to get a cheap(er) hotel rate.)

Good advice so far. There are many sites that show travel airfare deals. Usually when i'm researching a trip, i sign up for several e-mail newsletters. For example, see if Alitalia or Iberia have airfare e-mails, as well any major airline out of Phildelphia. One of my faves is also smarterliving.com. You can look up airfare deals from your departure city and can get the deals e-mailed to you every week. Some of these e-mail notices are for last-minute travel, but at least it'll give you an idea of what's out there.

I went to London and Paris, a week each, by myself in early May 2002. Total was about $1400, including roundtrip first class on Chunnel train. Live in U.S. but got a charter flight out of Vancouver, B.C. for around $400 USD to London.

Bought weekly tube and Metro passes both places. Did standard sightseeing things, like London Eye, Tower of London, cruise on Thames, Paris Museums, Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, Basilica Creve Coeur, Pere LaChaise cemetery, etc. paid individual entries to museums instead of pass. Took a Grayline type trip to Versailles. Went to one play in London.

Found budget lodging both cities through this forum by inserting budget lodging Paris or London in that box up there ^ at the top of this page. Some nasty posters here came on and chewed out the woman who recommended the Paris lodging because she found it from a newspaper article and had not stayed there herself. It was a wonderful and cheap place. Shared bath in London, private bath in Paris. No, I take that back, just shared toilet in London, shower in my room.

Ate mostly modest evening meals at restaurants near my lodging. B&B in London included full English breakfast. In Paris, I ate sandwiches for lunch from sidewalk sellers at restaurants and grocery stores. Bought my fruit snacks on the street from friendly vendors and my wine at grocery stores. Had both morning and afternoon coffees at cafes.

Had a wonderful time and lacked for nothing.

Hi Mcat If you are going to Uk I suggest you go on the internet for Telext.com.uk. and there last minute deals are excellently priced. My son & I went from Gatwick to Marmaris (Turkey) June 2003 for 167 pnds sterling. This included airfare with all transfers included, an apartment with one bedroom (twin beds), sitting room, balcony, kitchen & bathroom. Not posh you understand but sitting room ws resonably large with two settes and a table with 4 dining chairs. From there we booked a cheap o'nt trip to Ephesus. Can't remeber price but had to be cheap tho hotel was not all that good there. Good luck

Hi Mcat Re: my reply. I meant 167 pnds stlg. per person.

My guide used to be to double the amount of the 'Europe on XX Dollars per day' book and add airfare.

Airfare is the biggest component and the easiest to get a deal on. A good place to start is bestfares.com. Even if you don't use them, they have lists of what is out there that you can then seek on your own.

I remember in 1987 being glad to get a flight from Phoenix to Germany for less than $1000. Now I wouldn't even consider paying that much - last trips Phoenix to London were $600 (June 1999) and $400 (March 2000)

If you are interested in just going to one place, a combination air/hotel package might be good - you will know your costs up front.

I did Ireland for 6 days this February ( very off season)very inexpensively and stayed at great places. Found airfare on Aerlingus RT for 277 incl tax. per person!Our car rental was $250 with CDW and our hotels were $500 Euro. We could have stayed at less expensive lodging, but found that the hotels had very discounted rates in the off season.

One drwaback was that food and pints were pricey with the $$ so down agianst the euro.

If you want a <b>real</b> estimate for a week long trip to Barcelona in <b>May, 2004</b>, here it is:

Airfare PHL-BCN - $600 and up per

A decent hotel fo 2, nothing fancy - $100 and up per day.

So far we are looking at about $1900 for flight and hotel.

At the very least, and I do mean very least, I would say $100 per day for food and few outings.

That brings the total to $2600, but being real, I would say $3000 for 2 people for a week in a beautiful Barcelona.

Somebody suggested go-today.com, and I agree that may be your best option at this time.

Good luck!

The best airfare I've ever gotten is for a)trip next month--$199 round trip (plus tax) introductory fare on Lufthansa flying Charlotte to Munich. They had this fare available for flights March 24 -May 24 when they announced service during the winter.

I'd love to see this as a regular winter special!

In 1972, I spent $400 for the airfare and $100 for 5 weeks of travel. Very bare bones. It is difficult to get by on $20/wk but we did it.

I guess this doesn't help you but I thought I'd throw it in for posterity.

Mcat...

Oh, about 20 years ago I did not spend one red cent.

My boyfriend took me for a month= GREAT DEAL...he booked everything himself as no such thing as a search engine was even around back then...

I am now in charge of travel budgets, destinations and all of the many details...as his wife!

Oaktown Traveler

In Sept. 98 one week in London (air, hotel and food) $465.
In Jan 03 6 days in Ireland (all expenses) $620

Both trips from California.

robbiegirl - If you can wait to go to Italy in November, the airline prices should drop. I have a friend who wanted to go to Rome last Oct and found the prices were too high. I told him to go in Nov and the price dropped by nearly half. It pays to go in the off season. The weather is not much different by waiting one week. My airfare to Iceland dropped by 50% by going at the end of March instead of April.

my husband and I spent our 1st year wedding anniversary in Paris (11/01) and including airfare, hotel, souvenirs, meals (good restaurants), entertainment and museums for $2500 total for 7 days.
I thought this was a bargain!

In 2001 we flew to Milan for $250 roundtrip with friends and family tickets from our friend who is an airline captain, then spent 4 days in our house in Masserano, a few days in Venice, two in Florence and 0ne in the Cinqua terra. I think the we spent $1500 for 8 days...not bad.

Hi Mcat-

Your biggest expense will be plane tickets. From PHL, your options are:
British Airways (to LHR), Air France (to CDG), Lufthansa (to MUC &amp; FRA), and USAirways (multiple destinations). Since there aren't that many airlines, competition is not that fierce. You can get better fares if you are willing to travel Mon-Wed rather than weekends. Another option is to fly out of Newark. That will give you more international airlines and more options, and prices are almost always cheaper out of EWR (but don't forget to add in the travel costs from Philadelphia to EWR).

Like others say, you can also fly to London, then take a budget airline to another destination. But if you are only going for 1 week, the back and forth to London will eat up 2 days of your vacation, and I'm not sure if it's worth it.

I used go-today.com once for a trip from PHL to Berlin. I used it because there was no way I could find plane tickets as cheap as they could. I would use go-today.com again if the price is right.

Mcat-

One more thing. Subscribe to the email alerts/newsletter for the airlines I mentioned above (BA, AF, Lufthansa, USAirways). That way, you'll find out as soon as a sale is annouced. From my experience living in Philadelphia, the seats go very very quickly. Grab it as soon as you see it.