Europe in June

how much should we budget for food and fun?
if you buy somethings like museum or concert tickets in advance before you ago maybe
$70 a day per person but some days you will spend more or less
it is subjective depends on what an individual traveler considers fun;
e.g. people get a rush out of buying things they see spontaneously

We plan a hundred euro per day/per person excluding travel and lodging. Many days closer to a total of 150 euro but the budget is 200.

I can't resist, I'm sorry: You are moving terribly fast. Seven cities in 3 weeks (and how many nights do you actually have in Europe?). London, Paris, Rome and Barcelona are large cities with a great many important sights. You'll have perhaps 2 days in each one. You'll need to fly between Rome and Barcelona as well as to Greece; dealing with airports is time-consuming and stressful. Getting to Dresden will be another flight or a rather long train ride.

In sum, you are going to burn a significant percentage of your time just sitting on planes/trains/buses. All that moving around costs money and doesn't yield much in the way of sightseeing dividends. I certainly would not include Athens in a trip like this. To go to Greece and not get to the islands is a shame.

acraven You are not answering the OP question. Everyone does not travel the same style as you.
How much a day should they budget for food and fun?

Your question is not easy to answer. It depends how much fun you will want, where would you eat and how many of you will travel. You did not tell us anything about you. My not so educated guess based on the insufficient information you provided would be anywhere between thousand and hundred thousand (or more) dollars.

Hi,

From the list of cities within three weeks are the destinations still to be chosen from? Is this list the actual itinerary? For three weeks there should not be more than four cities max unless in some cities you only intend to hit one place and that's it, moving on the next morning. With Athens listed you need to use the flying option, at least twice, likewise with Rome.

ha.. wont have much time for fun.. that's too many places.. and you apparently will need to spend a lot on transport on your tour of airports and trains stations of Europe.. lol

Of course prices vary from place to place.

Generally .. breakfast 10 euros, lunch 10-20 euros.. dinners 15-25 euros. you can do this cheaper of course.. grabbing a street food item and a bottle of soda from a store for a lunch instead of a sit down lunch.. or having your main meal of the day at lunch instead of dinner.. and of course you can spend a lot more, this is just roughly what we would spend.

Beer can be expensive in some places.. ie Paris can be up to 7-10 euros.. unless you go off the main track, but with your whirlwind trip you wont have time for that.. so order the table wine instead. Tap water is FREE and good in France.. not so Italy or Greece

Many big great museums free in London.. but in places like Rome and Paris allow 15-20 euros a day for admissions.. more if you cram in a lot of sites .. depends.

I think your transport costs are going to be high.

Following on Pat's comment about high transport costs, when you say that flights are taken care of, is that just your flight to/from Europe or also intraEuropean flights between cities ? (And transfers from/to airports ?) Don't forget to add to your budget any non-prepaid train/plane/bus/taxi costs.

I agree that you need to scale back your list of destinations, particularly as you have some big hitters in there such as Rome, London and Paris.

In each chosen city, work out what you want to see eg in London, many of the museums and galleries are free entry, but you would have to pay for the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace or the Harry Potter studios. Costs are online to help you budget and the same for travelling around by public transport, which varies significantly between cities.

Food - a breakfast will cost €5-10 depending on what you have. Lunch - takeaway sandwich and a coffee - €5-8. Burger in a restaurant and a beer - €10-17. The sky's the limit for how much you want to spend on a top notch meal with good wines - say €150-200 per person. Dinner is similar - say average €25 a head minimum.

To clarify: Flights and airbnbs/hotel rooms will be booked and paid for in advance. We included Dresden because my sister lives there.

We are celebrating our 20 year wedding anniversary with our first trip to Europe. We are teachers, so a budget is a must. We don't eat big breakfasts and will probably have lunch be our "big/fancy" meal when possible.

If you were to take out 2 cities, which ones would you remove? My sister has not yet been to Amsterdam, and it is a must for my husband, so it has to stay.

Thanks for all your help! I feel a bit overwhelmed.

Take out London they are not really part of Europe so you only have to deal with one currency Euros also it is the most expensive city

and Athens it is kind of far.

Definitely omit Athens for the reasons mentioned above.

I tend to put together itineraries based on train/bus schedules because I started traveling to Europe before there was such a thing as cheap scheduled intra-European flights. These days, flying is an option, but I find it disruptive to my mood, so I still prefer geographically coherent itiineraries. Therefore, I'd tend to also drop one of:

• London: Lodgings are very costly, but the many free museums help to counterbalance hotel costs. And because of the common language, it's a relatively easy introduction to Europe. In addition, airfare into London is often quite a bit less expensive than into the other cities you list.

• Rome: It's a geographical outlier, but it's cheaper than Amsterdam, London and Paris, and your original inclusion of Athens suggests an interest in classical sites. Pizza is usually reliably good and comparatively inexpensive.

• Barcelona: It's a geographical outlier, but it's cheaper than Amsterdam, London and Paris. It has fun modernista architecture and a generally very attractive streetscape, but many of the modernista sites permitting entry will cost 20 euros per person or more. Total daily cost of sightseeing for two people might be higher than expected if you're the sort of travelers who like to go inside rather than wander around.

Actually, I'd consider dropping both Barcelona and Rome from this trip and slowing down even more. But that would probably have you ending in Dresden, from which you'd most likely have to head to Munich or Berlin for the flight home, so you'd have five destinations anyway.

You'll be able to save quite a bit of money on your air and rail connections by buying those tickets as soon as you can pin down your travel dates and times. Intra-European flights for June have been on sale for months, so a lot of the lowest fares have probably already been snapped up.

This trip can be done without breaking the bank if you are willing to settle for lodgings that are clean and neat but small. Large, modern, American-style hotel rooms come at a price in most major European cities. You get to decide whether accommodations like that are essential to you. I would recommend air-conditioning everywhere, though London without a/c may be less risky that your other destinations.

I would drop Barcelona and Athens..
They are the farthest out from all the others.. Athens will require you to fly.. unless you want to waste time on training to Brindisi and then taking a long ferry ride.. fly. And also out of all the cities I have visited in Europe..Athens was my least favorite.. only redeemed by leaving and visiting the rest of Greece, which you do not have time for !!! Greece is wonderful , make it another trip however.

Barcelona, distance and its just hasn't done it for me( been twice too ).. love Spain however.. so there again, to me if you are going those distances, go for at least a week or so and really see a bit of the country , Spain is worth more than 2 days.

So rather odd I know , but because I love Spain and Greece so much I think you should cut Barcelona and Athens.. lol

( ps.. yes, hotels in Athens are cheaper than in London or Amsterdam , but remember you have to add the transport costs to get to Athens, which for only a few nights averages out your daily expenses higher if you look at the big picture)

In terms of hotel costs I rate them this way, from most expensive to least ( that being only a rating, nothings cheap, lol)

London
Amsterdam
Paris
Rome- Barcelona tied
Dresden( well I guess that will be free for you if staying with sister anyways)
Athens( but remember transport costs off set saving 20 euros a night on a hotel )

"...take out two cities, which ones....?" All are all right to a certain degree except take out Athens and Barcelona, if you are dropping two.

Drop Athens and choose between Barcelona/Rome.

Fly to London
Train to Paris
Train to Amsterdam
Fly to Dresden (KLM)
Fly via Frankfurt to Barcelona/Rome

For a three week trip on a budget....London, Paris, Amsterdam, fly to Rome. Have your sister join you for any or all of your trip and skip Dresden, which will cost a lot less than you going there. Mix in some smaller towns along the way (I suggest in Italy) which will cost much less than all the big cities. $150 a day.