Cost to follow Rick's Whirlwind Tour of France

The best info we have on costs to follow that route are given by Rick in the Introduction chapter of his France guidebook.
One thing: a number of travelers reporting in here have found Rick's "whirlwind" tours too fast-paced. I guess Rick's got people to help him arrange things on these trips?

My husband and I spent the month of June, 2012 in France and barely touched the surface. But we are slow travelers.

I don't have the RS France book, so I don't know what's covered in the whirlwind. There are 3 different RS France tours listed here under Tours, each about 2 weeks long, so the whirlwind must be an F5.

We rented a car for about 3 weeks of our trip. After spending a little over a week in Paris and Reims, we picked up the car in Reims (cheaper than getting it at the airport) and returned it in Aix-en-Provence before taking the fast TGV train to CDG to fly home the next day.

We got our car through Gemut.com. Explore the website, read "What you need to know about renting a car in Europe," and contact Andy for help and advice. He seems to be able get better rates than we could find on our own.

There are many resources for finding lodgings, but there is one we used on our France trip that is rarely mentioned -- Logis Hotels (logishotels.com). It is a way to find small hotels in small towns or the countryside. We are more interested in the number of pots (ranking the quality of the food) than in the number of chimneys (ranking the quality of the rooms). Most of the hotels have their own chefs who often are owners. We ignore the stars. There are many ways to make the search more specific.

Based on personal experience and reports from others in this forum, Ricks' excellent itinerary is just not feasible for most people to do on their own in 3 weeks. (My own "personal experience" is limited to following it for a few days.)

Rick's books were originally based on notebooks for his tour guides. The destinations and information are brilliant, but the suggested pace is exhausting to the point of frustration, unless (I suppose) you have your lodging, transportation, and most meals arranged for you so that you can just focus on sightseeing.

On that basis, the cost to do it well might be the cost of the 3-week tour, or the 3-week "my way" tour (which is cheaper), except that I don't think the 21-day France itinerary is offered any more.

Sorry to throw a damper on things! I'm not averse to whirlwinds, but it is really hard to keep up that pace for 3 weeks without letup.

If anyone has done this itinerary in 3 weeks I would certainly like to hear about it. And I hate to prescribe for others, you know yourselves best. But at least weigh carefully what this is going to mean, and maybe try to slow the pace down by adding days or subtracting destinations.

Kent refers you to page 9 of Rick's France book which, for instance, says that you can get by with spending an average of $150 per person, per day for room and board, outside of Paris, and assuming 2 people traveling together. Of that $150, $70 is for lodging, with two people splitting a $140 hotel room. Throughout the book, you'll find double hotel rooms listed in that price range. For instance, I open to the Dordogne chapter and find many double rooms listed for well under €100/night. And, if you ever need to just pull over at a cheap, formulaic motel, Hotel F1 or Ibis Budget have lots of locations on the edges of towns, handy for drivers (see also p. 1051).

The eating part of the budget is $15 for breakfast, $20 for lunch and $45 for dinner with drinks; which is also doable, as long as you pay attention. Myself, I've often found attractive 2-3 course dinner menus around €35 without trying too hard. French hotel breakfasts are usually pretty simple and optional and are not included in Rick's hotel price listings, unless mentioned.

Your car rental will be a fixed price, planned in advance. Gas, parking, and road tolls will add to that. Page 1105 suggests about €15 for two hours drive on the autoroute. www.viamichelin.com is one site that helps you anticipate tolls as you plan your driving route.

Sightseeing costs are also addressed, recommended at an average of $35 per person, per day.

One thing: a number of travelers reporting in here have found Rick's "whirlwind" tours too fast-paced. I guess Rick's got people to help >him arrange things on these trips?

You don't want your travel book written by someone on their first time traveling; much better to get tips from someone that knows the ins and outs of what to expect, can tell when service is exceptionally good or bad, etc. The flip side is they can't see things thru the eyes of a novice traveler. They know how to use transit systems found in europe, are familiar with the signs marking the way to museums, are comfortable at the train station or on the road, have checked into so many hotels they can do it in their sleep, etc. So many things they take for granted and, more importantly, don't realize they are taking for granted, are points of difficulty for the new traveler.

Consequently any itinerary put together by a seasoned traveler is going to be difficult for a new traveler to follow.

I took my husband, daughter, age 7 at the time on the whirlwind "European Trip" that Rick Steves suggested in one of his books.. I pre-booked our hotels and we stayed everywhere 2 nights, every 3rd day we were in a different city. This was our first trip to Europe and it was great to have such a wonderful overview. Since then my kids and I have been back several times and we always travel the way RS says because I have found it the easiest to follow not just for myself but for the kids too. I do not like big tours I want to plan things out myself and the plans laid out in the RS books really, really help. I do take out some of his site seeing suggestions put in other sites I would rather see. You will be tired at the end of your trip but it will be a, "wow! that was great" tired not "I feel like I was beat up" tired. Take your vitamins.

Thanks everybody! My take from all of this is that Rick's itinerary takes planning and stamina as is so if we decide to follow it, we'll slow it down. Also, since my real question was budget, sounds like $400-500 per day for 2, exclusive of air fare and car rental should be fine. Au revoir!

We've seen here that some less experienced travelers don't realize that when Rick says "whirlwind:, he really means, uhm, whirlwind.

Outside of Paris, you can find quite nice b&b's or small hotels for 80 - 90 euro/night If breakfast is included, it's likely to be what we call, " continental"; i.e., croissant, baguette, hot drinks, and, perhaps juice. You can almost always find a patisserie, where you can get coffee and something for under 10 euro, if your breakfast isn't included in your room rate. If you want to go more basic, there are a number of inexpensive French hotel chains. Our preferred meal pattern is to eat our main meal midday. We usually pick up food for an evening picnic in our room or on the grounds of our hotel. When eating in French restaurants, look for the " menu." It's a fixed, multi-course meal, much cheaper than ala carte. Be aware, though, there are no substitutions allowed; however, often there are a couple of choices for each course. As an example, last spring, in Cassis, we had starters, poached salmon, and dessert for 15 euro/pp. I can't remember for sure, but that might have included a glass of wine, as well.

Laura's post is worth reading twice.
Some costs are not very controllable (airfare to/from Europe), and others are based on each traveler's travel preferences.

I was in France for a month two years ago, I found that most places I stayed had an optional breakfast that seemed pricey for what it was. You can do the same at a cafe for less. A few places had a nice breakfast included, but I recall that out of 9 places, only two included breakfast in the room price.

Just wanted to add that I also was in France for a month two years ago and took some trains but also rented cars for a total of 23 days. Traveling solo my average cost was <$200/ day and that included the rental cars (+gas/tolls/parking), hotels, meals, and sightseeing - everything except airfare, and that was when the dollar wasn't worth as much as now. I think your $400-500/day for 2 budget is quite extravagant and would allow you to stay in luxury hotels and eat in 4 star restaurants. If you stay in modest hotels and eat one sit-down meal a day as you say, you'll come home with $$ in your pocket.

Hey, my last name used to be the same as yours, until someone in my husband's family dropped the last "e"....
We haven't done the whirlwind, but I agree that $400-$500 sounds high. I wanted to add that you definitely do NOT need a car in Paris, so you won't need to rent it the whole time. The metro and trains are fantastic. Metro around the city, and train to Giverny (not sure if its on the RS whirlwind, but I say you must do it) and wherever else you can get by train, and pick up a car for part of the trip. I have also done St. Tropez-Cannes-Nice-Monaco in the south. We had a car, but much of this area can be seen by train.

I would rely on Rick's estimates - if anything we have found them to be on the high side. We usually try to target $6-7K for a two week trip, with obviously some variation based upon the destination. Outside of Paris, I think France is about average in terms of cost, among places my wife and I have traveled in Europe, maybe even below average. My wife and I were last in France in 2010, and previously in 2003. We have generally found France outside of Paris to be excellent value for the money. (For example, the hotel we stayed at in 2003 in Chenonceaux, in the Loire, which still gets 4+ stars on Trip Advisor, is today 70 Euros per night in high season). Even Paris might not be as bad as you might think - plan well in advance for your lodging though. Even in Paris, if you don't mind a hearty salad at a cafe for dinner, meals do not have to break the bank. Better to have a full meal in the smaller towns, where the value will be better.