3 weeks, 5 countries, $6000?

before you take a rental car to romania, check to see if you are allowed to. Some rental car companies have restrictions, espacially for Romania.
Leasing a car sounds cheaper.
I have no idea how much one would spend on a week. It depends how much and were you guys eat, what you do, where you sleep etc. Hard to to come up with a"real" amount.
The gas , in some countries, like Holland and Germany I hear might be $8/gl.

Kerri, I have no idea where in Canada Milton is,, but here in Victoria gas is 1.31 a litre, down from 1.49 cents a litre last week!! Gas is cheaper here then Europe anyways, so you can't really go by what we pay here.
For a three week ( or more) trip it is cheaper to lease , not rent a car. My dad and his wife always do it that way, you just need to go beyond 21 days.
I cannot tell you which countries you can rent a car in and take to another country,, but my guess is that any country in the EU allows you in and out.. but I sure as heck am not sure.. LOL . With three of you a car may be the cheapest, but , still, I would check into rail passes. There is an alarming array of them, and one may suit your needs.

The more travel you do the higher your costs. I would choose max of 4 countries. I personally think Germany is a beautiful country, but have only heard good things about Poland and Czech Republic,, plus I think I have read Romania is cheap.

I do think your budget is a bit tight, are you including the car? A car will likely be about 1500 or more for the 3 weeks.. and even a cheap hotel would be about 50 euros a night? Maybe consider camping or hostelling( although for three hostels are not always a good deal as they charge by person not room)

Cheapest way to spend time in Europe is find a base and rent an apartment,, so you can eat meals in,, just an occaisonal meal out . Next best thing is pack picnic gear( which is fun anyways) .

Have a great trip,, your course sounds interesting also!!

I was traveling with 4 people and it saved us big time to lease a car through AutoEurope. The minimum lease time was 17 days, but due to where and when we needed to turn the car in we only actually had it for 15 days. I would highly recommend them if you need a car.

Unless Belarus has become significantly less corrupt in the past two years, don't bother. You need a visa to enter the country and you have to pay a "transit fee" to enter the country. Rumor has it that this fee varies depending on how much money you carry.

Getting a visa for Belarus is a nightmare, I hear. I would cut that out of your plans. I'm not sure what the visa situation is for the Ukraine, but getting a visa can take time (and money) so you'll want to check on that right away before considering it.

There's nothing wrong with staying in the same country for a vacation -- I would hardly call that a traveling "flaw". I like to see a lot of places, too, but you have consider what type of experience you want to have. Will it be worth spending a lot of time in the car getting from place to place (as well as the packing/unpacking/getting your bearings in each new place) just to check more cities off of your list?

www.viamichelin.com is a good resource for figuring driving times and distances from place to place in Europe. You might want to look there and see how much you have time for, and start prioritizing.

Cool beans! Thanks for the tips! I think if we make it to only Germany and Ukraine, I will be quite happy.

My estimated $2000/week budget doesn't include the car fee or air tickets (best I've seen is $1200 to Germany), but saving a bit more might be a good idea. I am so excited…..I hate the wait! This is the most advanced (10 months) planning I’ve ever done. Have a great week-end!

(The gas price I mentioned is just outside of Toronto)

Kerri: You asked about gas prices in Europe, gas is about $8USD/gallon or a little over $2.00 USD/liter now in Germany according to internet data. This is the lowest gas price in about 6 months, 2 months ago it was $9/gallon. No telling what it will be a year from now when you go. Regarding the rest of your budget, Rick Steves has published his opinion that in 2009 you can travel comfortably in Europe for about $185 USD per person per day, not including airfare. To simplify this discussion let's assume that in a year when you go $1USD = $1 Canadian, so that's $185 Canadian per person per day for the first two travelers. Rick's budget figures are based on two adults sharing a hotel room. You say 3 weeks, $185/person/day for 21 days for two people works out to $7,800 total cost for two people. We don't any data or published opinions for a family of 3 sharing one room, one rental car, etc--but the per person cost to add the 3rd person, in that situation, will be much less for the 3rd person (in this case your daughter)--the 3rd person will be eating, of course, but would be in the same hotel room (presumably) and in the same rental car (if you do a rental car). If you add $40/day for food for the 3rd person and another $10/day for admission to sights, that's another $50/day x 21 days = another $1,000 to add the 3rd person to your budget. $7,800 + $1000 = $8,800 or about $2,900 Canadian or USD per week for a family of 3 sharing one hotel room (under our assumption that $1 US will be about $1 Canadian in a year when you go). Part of the reason it's so expensive is the exchange rate, if you pay €100/night for accommodations, it's $150USD/night.

I think if you guys decide to stay in hostels or extreme low budget hotels or apts. you can cut your budget a lot. Or if you just use your car and get to a main destination and then use the public transportation, you can also save. For example, drive to Berlin, park your car and use the trains to go to Potsdam, or Sachsenshausen Concentration camp, and to go all around the city. Same with Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt or Prague. Why not go ahead and figure what trains would cost for the same amount of travel for 3 people. It might be less. For meals, if you stay in hostels or Pensions, you usually get your breakfast for free. Make lunch your big meal of the day when restaurants have lunch specials and then for dinner, have sandwiches, etc from the grocery store, butchers or bakeries in your neighborhoods. This will save you a lot of money too.

Kerri:
We have traveled in three of the countries you mention in the past few months: Poland, Czech
Republic and Germany. Poland is definitely the cheapest of the three. We have also done some
travelling with our son and found in Europe that
triples are somewhat difficult to come by and a bigger price difference up from a double than in the states. I also think that $2,000 a week will be extremely tough in a hotel, but maybe doable in a hostel.

Kerri, to begin with, trying to see 5 countries in 3 weeks is a bit "ambitious", especially considering the distances between the countries you listed. You didn't say which areas of Germany you wanted to visit. It's a fairly large country, so would be easy to spend three weeks there.

As someone else mentioned you will probably have difficulty taking a rental car from Germany into some countries in the former "eastern bloc" (insurance regulations and higher theft rates?). You might want to speak to a travel agent. An IDP is required to drive in some countries.

As of 26 July 2005, Canadian citizens no longer require a Visa to enter Ukraine, but I'd definitely drop Belarus from the list! You might consider dropping Romania as well (assume you will return!). If you haven't been to Ukraine before, I'd recommend buying the Lonely Planet Ukraine, so that you have the info to travel smartly!

You might consider an Itinerary that includes Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine on this trip. Check Europe Through The Back Door as there are Itinerary planning tips listed there. Unless you're planning on venturing "off the beaten path", my preference would be to use trains to get between cities. I've found it's often faster to travel by rail than with a car, as trains don't have to contend with traffic problems and some are able to achieve much higher speeds.

If you could suggest a list of cities that you're interested in, it would be much easier to make Itinerary suggestions. Regarding your budget, Cdn$6000, it's going to be "challenging" for 3 people to travel on that amount for three weeks, but may be possible? That's only about €4000. Careful planning will be essential!

You're fortunate that gas is only $1.16/L. in Milton. Here in the Okanagan, it's about $1.299 at the moment (Pat, it appears that Victoria is about the same - Petro Canada in Western communities is listed at 1.299 tonight).

Good luck with your planning