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.