Daily $$$ in Europe?

I carry the same amount of money as I would in the US, maybe $40 to $50 (Euros in Europe except a few countries). I always charge anything greater than $10/euros. For my wife and I, 200 euros cash will last us several weeks. I get any euros I need from an ATM after arriving in Europe.

Agree, somewhere between $50-$100 Euro's a day. That works if all what you said is already paid for.

We charge everything we can - which is most places. Food prices depend ALOT on what kind of dining you're looking for. I try to find hotels at decent rates that offer at least a continental breakfast. Lunch is usually something from a museum restaurant, fast food or takeout like Pret a Manger, the local department/grocery stores that have restaurants and take out like Monoprix in Paris, a boulangerie, etc. Dinner is either the same or a modestly priced sit down meal.

We typically carry about 100-200 Euros (or equivalent) between my husband and I. ATMs in major european cities are easy to find.

To get an idea of how much to budget for, I use google to search around the hotel or places we'll be visiting to find nearby restaurants. Many will have websites and menus with prices so we can get an idea of how much we might spend.

I try to have between 1 and 2 hundred Euro on hand every day. It varies some but 100 Euro/day/person is not unreasonable.

It's unclear to me from your post whether you intend to charge things like meals when you can. If you plan to pay cash for everything not already prepaid, I'd expect that to come to a good bit more than 50 euros per person. I eat in rather simple restaurants, but my main meal of the day (drinking water at no more than 3 euros per bottle) isn't much under 30 euros, and it sometimes creeps up near 40 euros. I think I'm on the low end in terms of food-and-drink budget except for folks who avoid sit-down meals entirely. Public-transportation costs in London and Paris may not be inconsequential.

What are the tickets you expect to buy in advance? I'd be hesitant to buy sightseeing tickets very far ahead of time this year, except when necessary due to high demand and likely sellouts. They're nearly always easy to charge, though.

We budget €100 ppd and keep that amount in cash in our wallets. However we usually end up using our CC for some things each day, so usually have some portion left over at the end of the day. But that figure still works out to our daily spend over all for food and incidentals.

100 is reasonable. 30 for lunch, 40 for dinner, 30 for snacks/cab/random items. Some days will be cheaper (street food or fast food or just inexpensive cafes, no cab, no shopping) others more (fancy restaurant, purchase of more expensive souvenirs, take a cab a longer distance).

100 as an average is good. It’s not quite per person - cabs are shared, sometimes souvenirs are or only one person buys one at that particular stop. Food is almost per person, but appetizers, wine bottles, and larger bottles of water can be shared bringing the per-person down a little.

Agree that 100 Euros per day is reasonable (although we've never come close to spending that much cash in one day). Credit cards are universally accepted and expected as method of payment.

We do make certain that we have enough cash on our last day to take a taxi to the airport and always bring back 100 Euros extra in various denominations to pay for our from the airport taxi on our next trip. We try to avoid airport ATM's.

We budget $125.00 a day for two people for cash. This is for food and fun and I make sure any hotel we stay in has breakfast included in the price, we may grab a snack during the day (I just want to go go go and not stop and eat!) and then have a nice dinner. If we take a tour we like to have cash to tip the guide or bus driver of the tour and cash for small purchases like gelato, coffee, beer, cash to throw in an artists bucket, my husband enjoys buying music CD from street performers.
We usually take 500€ out of the ATM at a time and get 100 each and keep the rest in deep storage in our luggage and at the end of the day we cap off our wallets to be 100 to start the next day pulling from the storage. Once that is gone we go back to the ATM to get more, this limits our ATM visits. Depending on the day we could spend zero or all 100. I have one bank account that is JUST for ATM withdrawals while traveling. I use this method in case my card is compromised they won't have access to our daily living funds. I calculate $125x days of trip, so our last trip was 21 days and I put $2,600 in it and we used it all.

For us, having $200-300 in cash is useful.

In 2019, we spent 29 days in Europe, and the entire trip (for 2, 68 and 72) was in total $5500. This works out to $190/day for the 2 of us, or about $95/person/day. Paid for airfare with CC points, so no money there. We don't rent cars, and I am more reluctant today than in 2019, as rental car costs have apparently risen. We spent $50-75/day on rooms (we're cheap), same for food, and maybe $30-40/day on tix, etc. We would stay at places like Hotel Ibis (€ 70/night), or as a separate room in a hostel. We don't stay in fancy hotels ever.

A couple of years ago we flew to Europe with about €10 in our pocket and didn't get any more until the third day of our trip.

Costs vary considerably between expensive countries like Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries vs. countries like Greece, Portugal, the Balkan countries. A beer in Norway is 8 Euros while in Portugal 1 Euro or less.

I like to call emergency cash, something like $300 worth. However, I keep it in our hotel safe or money belt and only carry about 50 Euros in my pockets.

You need cash and possibly coins for toilets, parking if renting a vehicle and tips.

One reason for always having one or two hundred Euros on one's person is technology. It's great when it works. But it doesn't always do that. There have been a several times when credit cards would not work, although the same cards worked fine later that day or the next. What happened? GOK (God only knows). But we had plenty of Euros so we didn't have to wash dishes to pay for a semi expensive meal.

When using euros, we take the max our bank allows to minimize transactions. This can be $200-$500 usually....then do like others-split the cash we plan on spending for the day. The rest goes in a money belt or the room safe. In countries with their own currency withdraw only what your plan to spend. You will pay dearly to convert the leftover cash. It is a game we play-to leave a country with no leftover cash. 2 cents is the standing record. Euros are no problem. There is always more trips in the future. 100 euros for 2 of us is our daily food and normal site seeing budget. Rooms are charged. Breakfast at the hotel or we get coffee and yogurt/fruit, one meal local street food or sandwiches made from market and a reasonable cafe/restaurant meal. We buy most of our beer or wine at a store and enjoy it on the terrace or a park. An overpriced drink is enjoyed at a sit-down place overlooking a busy piazza in the mid-afternoon. We make memories and eat our budgeted trip expenses. A bus or train transfer or room that wants cash would be added to the daily cash total. Never have had $10 last three days. Well, maybe on a tour where everything was paid for in advance. The caveat is tour cost almost 3 times or more than our daily total (about $200/day) traveling independently for the 2 of us.

Wow I love all of the responses. So the main consensus is about 100 euros/day. That’s pretty much what I budgeted for so it’s good to know I’m in a good spot with that. Plus anything I don’t spend on my daily hostel budget...which is like $120 a day hahahaha

I agree with using the credit card for most purchases and then having a little "walking around money" for misc things. It is convenient and adds a level of safety. But be sure to get one with no foreign transaction fee. 3% seems to be the current foreign transaction fee, and that adds up after awhile!!!!

Something that I don't think has been mentioned is that now, due to covid, many places will only take credit- contactless at that. I am an American living in England and there are many businesses here that say "contactless only." So I have apple Pay on my phone and I pay for 95% of my transactions that way.

For anyone returning to Europe post-covid I would expect a more contactless world. Of course there will still be places to use cash, but I would not take out a bunch of euros/pounds. Just maybe $20 or so and the rest you pay with your phone.

Cheers!

Original post was about $$$ on one's person in Europe. However, yesterday we went to a local business and planned to pay with a credit card. Internet was down, but we had cash on us to pay the bill. To paraphrase someone who stated a week or so back, technology fails a lot more often than cash.