Budget travel

1000/per person or for all of you? Does that include air fare?

I am only familiar with London, which I regard as expensive. Most things cost in GB pounds the same as they do in the US, except its 1.3 dollars to 1 GBP. So, a £15 dinner is really $20.00. For a short time, the pound was down. Not so much anymore. Rome is probably not cheap, Amalfi coast more so.

Your question would be a little easier if you came up with a few more specifics. You can "keep it chill and just explore" in about a million places, and that's so general it's not possible to address.

It's probably only remotely possible if you get one of those packaged Expedia/ Travelzoo deals with the really cheap, hard-to-believe pricing (and off season). The flight itself will suck up at least half of your budget, and stretching $500 over 5 days is close to impossible in expensive cities like London and Rome unless you can really get your lodging cost down and split it across multiple people.

Frankly, it is even worth the long flight to go all the way to Europe for 5 days? I assume you've got 7 days total, right (and you're accounting for two days flying time)?

Sorry, $1000 per person. Including airfare. By keeping it chill, I mean not spending money doing a ton of things. Stick with seeing the free things, sitting and people watching, walking around, stuff that doesn't cost money. We are thinking if buying groceries for 2 meals per day and then 1 meal dining out.

Price out airfare and lodging and you'll have your answer (you can probably get an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin for less than $500, for example). These two items are highly variable and will eat up most of your budget, unlike food and museums. How many people can split the lodging costs?

Would be helpful to specify what airport you're flying out of and what time of year. Unless you're near an airport hub, airfare will eat up most of your budget. Assuming from your user name you are near NYC, a quick Google Flights search in mid-January for a five day trip to Dublin (on Wow airlines), London (on Norwegian), or Paris (on American) is $400-420 round trip. Remember the "cheap" airlines like Wow and Norwegian charge for bags, seat reservations, etc. so the low price may not reflect actual cost.

As Agnes pointed out, if you're not counting travel days in the five, you really only have three full days, not accounting for jet lag. That's not long enough to tempt me, but if you're set on the short time frame, good luck to you!

Did you go to either Italy or Ireland after posting questions about them in June?

London has the most free, world-class museums. But the cost of sightseeing admissions anywhere is much less than you'll spend for airfare, hotels, or meals.

Depending on flight cost and time of year, Rome would be a good choice. There are a lot of free things to do and explore and you can easily find apartments and airbnb in advance. The Rick Steves Audio Europe app has several "walks" that you can do to explore in Rome including the Heart of Rome, Jewish Ghetto, Trastavere and St. Peter's Basilica. It costs zero for the Trevi Fountain (except for the coin you will toss in!), the Spanish Steps and any piazza in town. Rome is also easy to navigate and walk and has budget friendly food options. If you go in July or August, expect it to be hot!

No this is the same trip I'm thinking about from back in June, but we've had to lower the amount of days due to vacation time for work. The plan is to have 4 or 5 of us that can split the cost of hotel so that it's cheaper for everyone. We would be flying out of Dallas. Typically, how much would you budget for food per day if you were to eat out for lunch and dinner? We are hoping that our lodging will be very cheap if we split it 4 or 5 ways, which would leave us with food and airfare costs.

I was on a very limited budget for my first two trips to Europe and hardly paid any admission fees. I wandered around outdoors, soaking up the atmosphere. Forty years later, I still have not been up the Eiffel Tower or inside the Colosseum. You can certainly have a fine time without paying to go inside traditional sights. As already mentioned, London has world-class museums that are free (though a donation is requested), and churches are usually free as well (not always). Inexpensive food options are normally available at street markets, small supermarkets, bakeries, etc. So food, too, need not be a major expense. I suspect alcoholic beverages would be pricey, though.

The key factors will be the cost of airfare and lodgings. For the Amalfi Coast you'd have the additional expense of transportation from (probably) the Rome airport. Flying into Rome is usually more expensive than flying into the UK, so I'd suggest leaving Italy until you can spend more time there.

I agree with the others who've pointed out that you're talking about a very, very short trip. If the limiting factor is finances, I'd urge you to scratch around for enough money to stay longer. The flight days are a total loss, whether you have a 5-day trip, a 10-day trip or a 15-day trip.

Lodging costs at some destinations vary quite a bit by season. You must also be sure you're not trying to visit a city during a major local festival, because that will certainly drive up the cost of hotels; often you will find all the budget options already booked up.

Edited to add: It's pretty difficult to estimate someone else's food expenses, especially since you're now thinking of restaurants rather than cheaper options. Sodas can be expensive in Europe, and refills are virtually never free. In Italy it is conventional to order (and pay for) bottled water. It's a very rare day when I eat two restaurant meals; that would be too much food for me, and it would chew up more sightseeing time than I'd like. My one restaurant meal in an inexpensive spot (but not a chain if I can avoid it) usually costs between $20 and $30 (US), but it has occasionally gotten up around $40. My beverage of choice is water--tap water in places where it's not culturally frowned-upon to request it. Most meals are two courses because that's enough food for me. Three courses will usually send the cost north of $25.

When you settle on where you'd like to go, folks may be able to give you more specific information on food options. Italy is awash in great spots for pizza, which is usually about the least expensive hot, freshly-prepared meal you can get.

When someone says, "budget travel," I still think of Eastern Europe, although I know this is no longer (or starting to become no longer) the case in many places. Still, have you considered Krakow? It has a world-class Main Square (Rynek) that is great for people watching. The fanciest restaurant I went to while there (and I waited to go with my parents!) is Miod Malina, which is this Polish-Italian semi-fusion restaurant. It's very good as a splurge - and even then the most expensive item on the menu is grilled lamb chop for 74PLN - or $20.50. You can get lasagne there for about $7. Sharing the same street is a Milk Bar (these are all over town), and you can get pierogis there for ....wait for it..... $2.50. I did a very quick AirBnB search and saw some places for pretty cheap. The main issue here, as others have mentioned, is that airfare is going to really cut into your bottomline. It looks like Norwegian has a flight from JFK to Krakow (about $445 for random January dates, but that's their no-seat-reservation, no-checked-baggage, no-meal price) and it's not direct.

Assuming you can get a flight for $500 that leaves you $100 a day for lodging, food, transportation and and touristy things. That will be very tight in my opinion

Have you considered a more domestic destination where you do not have to play for flights?

If you can figure out a good flight option (and Allison has pointed out one from NYC to Krakow), I'd agree that much of what used to be called "Eastern Europe" (i.e., the formerly Communist countries) is a budget paradise. It can be difficult and rather expensive to get to many of those destinations, though, and you may have a harder time rallying a bunch of people for a trip to Romania or Bulgaria, as opposed to Rome, London, etc.

Time of year might makes a difference as lodgings are usually more expensive during high and shoulder seasons. But yes, I think airfare is going to be the make-or-break factor right off the bat.

Remember the "cheap" airlines like Wow and Norwegian charge for bags,
seat reservations, etc. so the low price may not reflect actual cost.

This is very important so read all the fine print.
Traveling from Minneapolis we've never been able to land airfare to continental Europe for under $1000 but that's seems to have been a factor of our particular airport plus times of year we've wanted to go.

London accommodations are expensive but some free museums can offset a chunk of the cost. Almost all the churches in Rome - many of which are essentially art museums - are also free as well as some other attractions/activities which really help pinch the pennies. The Amalfi is quite pricey during the seasons most folks want to visit although staying in, say, Salerno versus Positano would help.

In all cases you'd need to factor in ground transport to/from airports and around bigger cities - such as London - and the Amalfi.

Personally, I'd probably put this trip off until you could save some more money? The one thing I never want to see a tourist scrimp on is sightseeing and FUN. You do not have to take expensive guided tours but I see you'd previously asked for a list of our fave attractions in Rome? If you're truly interested in seeing them, it would be shame to have to be stuck on the sidewalk because airfare and other costs gobbled most of your funds. Same goes for fun, like sampling some local cuisine, wines and beer. You don't need to go to expensive places but don't want to have miss a lot of that either?

A couple of suggestions:
1) Use a website like https://matrix.itasoftware.com to investigate airfares. I found DFW-AMS for $405 RT on several airlines on certain dates in March. You could easily spend 5 days in Amsterdam and surroundings. Other websites like www.hipmunk.com will send you an email when the fares decrease.
2) Go to the Travel Tips section of this website and read up on things like eating and sleeping. Or, get RS's Europe Through the Back Door for the same or similar info.
Have a great trip.

But a note about Amsterdam? We found accommodations there to be very pricey (but maybe they're less so during the winter) and almost nothing in that city was free to sightsee.

Note that European hotels are not like the US: they charge a rate based on the number of people, not number of beds, so you can't just all plan to cram into one room like you might here. A five person hotel room might be difficult to find anywhere. Might want to look at hostels.

Good point, Stan.

Remembering that Haarlem has been suggested as an attractive but less expensive alternative lodging location for trips to Amsterdam, I used booking.com to check availability there for a random 5-night period in March. Although results would be different for a different date range, it is somewhat concerning that I found only seven places priced below $290 per night ($58 per person per night), of which one was a hostel offering dorm beds and one was a spot that appears to be way out of the center and quite a walk to the train station (though bus service may well be available).

Pay attention to Stan's advice about European hotels charging per person, not per room -- if you try to squeeze 5 into a room listed for 2 or 3, you may find yourself on the street (strict local laws -- fire marshals ?)

What about Spain? You can fly non-stop from Dallas to Madrid and take plenty of day trips.

Ok, let's say you have a total combined budget of $5,000 (5 people * $1,000 each)

Let's assume a low $500 per person flight cost * 5 people = $2,500 (half the entire budget)
Let's also assume a low $150 per night * 5 nights lodging = $750

By now, you've gone through $3,250 of your collective $5,000 budget.

That leaves $5,000 - $3,250 = $1,750 total for all other "on-the-ground" expenses

$1,750 divided by 5 people = $35 per person per day
That $35 per person per day has to cover food, entertainment, sightseeing, additional transport to get around (public transit, taxis, etc).

As you can see, that's a really, really tight budget. You decide whether it's doable. And keep in mind that the lodging and flight costs can turn out to be a lot more than $500 each and $150 per night, especially if you have to get 2 rooms or a big enough apartment to sleep 5 people.

I'm still not certain when this trip will take place (what month)? Much depends on how much your airfare would be and that will be dependent on when you're flying and where you are going. Another dependent would be which 5 days (nights) - during the week or weekend included? Airfare will be the biggest chunk of the $1000/person, so that will show you what's left for your other expenses.

As an example of lodging I looked at Rome for all 5 days (nights) in June 2018. Looking on booking.com I can see several 2 bedroom apartments for under $1000 for 5 nights, which would be about $xx/person for lodging depending on how many of you there are. Buying groceries and doing meals at your apartment should be doable for your budget.

Best advice, which has been given before: start with finding a cheap airfare for your time period, most airfare sights have an 'explore' type of search that will show you which destinations have the cheapest airfares; then see how much budget you have for lodging and food and transportation.

With the right destination your budget is doable but your options will probably be quite limited.

The places that you list are not very consistent with budget travel. The main driver of your costs, as others have pointed out, will be airfare and lodging. Skipping a sight to save 12 Euros won't make a dent in the overall cost of your trip. The best ways to save money: go to countries where expenses are lower, and stay outside of big cities. Unfortunately most of the cheaper countries can be more expensive and inconvenient to get to. Portugal is an inexpensive country. For a big city, Madrid can be a real bargain. Budapest is very inexpensive, and there are a lot of apartment rentals. Among countries formerly behind the iron curtain, flights to Hungary tend to be more reasonable in price and convenience, than say Croatia or Poland (at least based upon my research). Prague is cheap for a lot of things, but I think lodging can still be on the expensive side (was there in 2011 so it may have improved). Krakow is not the easiest to get to, but there are definitely bargains to be had (I am currently researching a Krakow to Berlin itinerary). Flying from Dallas you may be a little more flexible, from S.F. the flight schedules and pricing are always challenge. I always end up paying a little more than I would like to, and count myself lucky to only pay $1200 in shoulder season just for the flight.

I still don't quite get how many days you are planning on. What exactly does "5 or so days" mean? I do hope you are not counting the flight days in that. And as others said, you can pretty much forget the first day because you will be jetlagged and exhausted.

Everybody has a right to their own tastes, but this sure doesn't sound like a trip I'd want to take. Why travel such a huge distance if I hardly have any time to enjoy the place I am visiting?

The ratio of travel time to vacation time is just completely disproportionate, IMO, and the same thing goes for the travel expenses. Assuming that you will have five days plus two travel days, and assuming that you will be spending approximately $500 on the flight, it's a simple calculation: You will be spending 30% of your vacation days and 50% of your money on pure traveling. Is that really worth it?

Mind you.. london is usually the cheapest for airfare as it is such a major hub for Europe.. and many museums are FREE!

Food is easy if you can get a place with a small kitchenette.. going to MS food floors and buy take out.. just heat and eat.. they have everything.. you will eat a good dinner for about 5-10 GBPs each doing it that way.. going out to eat is a lot more money.

Finding a cheap place to stay may be harder though.. and staying outside london is a false economy as transport costs not cheap.. try and find somewhere as central as possible and you can walk many places ( I am assuming you are young and healthy.. I walk miles everyday so figure you could too , and I am not young)

Just my 2 cents worth, but to do what you want to do, including eating out, you're going to need to delay this until you can save more - a minimum of 7 days (including transatlantic travel), and double your current budget.

If one of you owns your own place then you might consider home exchange! That way your lodging will be free. We use the website homeexchange.com to arrange our exchanges.

Hands down- Amsterdam.
Found airfare- O'Hare -Amsterdam $400.00. round trip, Ibis Hotel-$50.00 per night.
Middle of February.

Much of what you can afford on a $1000 budget depends on the time of year you travel and airfare. You can eat VERY CHEAPLY if you make breakfast and lunch things you pick up at a grocery store or stay at lodging that includes breakfast for all 5 of you.

So when are you traveling and what is the airfare?

There's a house for rent in my village (Waterville, Ring of Kerry Ireland) that in the summer costs 1,000 a week, but in the winter is 250. Yes, 250! There are cheap rentals all over ireland in the winter!! You can stay very cheaply in Ireland or other places not always known about to some.

I stay in London regularly often. I stay in hostels sometimes because I'm going to bed late and leaving early for photo tours at dawn, so don't want to stay with friends and bug them. There are hostels in London (Green Man, Smart Russell Square, Parmers Lodge?) and more that are cheap! There are plenty of museums in London that are free, too.

Have you looked into Couchsurfing? I have surfed for 7 years and I love it. It's NOT about "free accommodation" it's about staying with locals - but you may consider that to keep costs down.

Now - to sound like your mothers: I travel alot in Europe and see lots of backpackers and kids on a budget that go out and spend 30 - 40 - 50 euros a night on drink. Let me say, I'm the first to order the cocktails, and I do love my pint of Guinness, but -- my friend's daughter met me for drinks where they went regularly while in London, and the drinks were 12 POUNDS each!! There are ways to travel cheaply, and drinking at hip Dublin or London bars is NOT on that itinerary!! Just give that some thought!

Susan
Expat in Waterville, Ireland