Best of Europe for my money

Oktoberfest ends October 6, so if that is your goal for Germany and your dates are firm you can cross that off your list if you can't get there before then. If your goal in Greece is to see the Greek Isles, a lot of things might be closed for the season. I would think you'd get the biggest bang for your buck with Portugal and Spain.

Where will you get most for your money? Clearly in Berlin, Dresden, Swiss Saxony. Where will you get least for your money? PRAGUE.

Hi Shelly, We drove the South coast of Spain, into Portugal and up the West coast back into Spain, earlier this year. Very inexpensive in comparison to say, the Netherlands or Northern Italy. We got great deals on hotels/meals the whole way, in part due to the very bad economy there.
The only bummer was, that it rained almost the whole time. Still was great. But, that being said, Berlin is really a great place to go right now, and you can catch cheap flights down to Greece from there. Tough choice to be sure. And Andreas is right. Prague has really gone down in our eyes too. Getting seedy...?

You may want to put Poland on your radar. My husband & I recently got back from 2 1/2 weeks spent there, where we traveled around a great deal, ate and drank a great deal, saw many important and interesting historical sights, and could not get over how relatively inexpensive it was, starting with the $650/person round-trip airfare. The VFM was incredible. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Thanks all!! I will keep all this in mind as I make our travel plans. Please keep the info coming!!!

Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia is where I have gone for second class travels on sub-third class budgets. http://budapestflat.shutterfly.com/ has some of our vacation photos in central / eastern Europe. Look for the links; BU=Bulgaria, etc. We love the region and just keep going back.

The cheapest major Western European city to visit is Berlin. But almost all of Germany is can be a good deal if you know how to do it. Even with the dollar to euro conversion you can get a decent place to stay for cheaper than you would in many places in the U.S. if you stay in B&B type accomodations (zimmer) although sit-down dining is a bit more expensive than in the U.S. Luckily there are a bevy of filling fast-food (imbiss) options that are good deals and sometimes even tasty. In Berlin there's a wide range of food options for very reasonable prices. Beer and wine are always much cheaper in Germany than the U.S. Netherlands is substantially more expensive. Spain (outside of Barcelona) and Portugal especially are supposed to be quite reasonable. In general though, you'll find the best deals going further east - and it seems the further east you go, the cheaper it gets (for instance, Serbia was a lot cheaper than Croatia). Romania and Bulgaria are VERY cheap, although traveling independently there is significantly more difficult than what you're used to, and if you take a tour/hire a guide/driver that will drive the price up. I found Serbia and Bosnia and Herzogvenia for me personally to be the best travel experience for price versus comfort, as they were easy to get around in and felt very safe, challenging my preconceptions. Romania on the other hand felt more like a "developing" country with the issues that implies.

Bucharest was somewhat "interesting" at best but once out of the city the towns were pleasant and felt comfortable. Bulgaria felt comfortable no matter where we were and in a lot of ways I enjoyed Bulgaria more than Romania. Yes, transportation can be a little more difficult. We opt for guides in both countries. The guide, car, nice hotel runs about $300 to $400 a day; or about the cost of a room alone in London. That's why I say second class trip on a third class budget. Only Second class because there aren't many 5 star hotels to choose from. Still every hotel in both countries was really special, unique, clean and enjoyable. One notch up is Slovakia which has better transportation so you can skip the guide but I think you will still find it less expensive than Germany or France or ........ And its an amazing country full of castles, mountains, villages and towns. And some five star accommodations if that's your style. These are the places you want to see before they change forever.

James, you can get hotels in London for less than $300-$400/night. It's not THAT expensive. I just feel you're often somewhat disingenuous pushing Romania/Bulgaria as budget trips and you always fail to mention until much later that you are hiring guides at $300-$400/day in which those trips cease to be budget. Because this is an RS board it's implied in most questions that people will be traveling independently. Traveling independently in those countries is graduate-student level of travel, it's not for newbies. Bucharest is...interesting, and it's difficult to do any travel in Romania without traveling in and out of Bucharest by air. So that's a given for many people.

In October, I'd consider southern Spain. They're hurting these days so some things will be cheaper, and you stand a better chance of nice weather than in much of Europe. Plus, Spain is just great anyway.

Spain is a great budget choice. It should be easy to find lodging in October without reservations. Southern Spain will be warmer than the north - so this is the best budget choice with good weather in October. Spain has more to offer than Portugal, IMO, which tends to make Portugal even cheaper. Another great place on the pocketbook is Poland. Trains, lodging and food are very cheap compared to most of Europe.