Europe trip help

First.. you have to figure out your own airline costs. .. its hardly reasonable to ask people from other countries to do that for you.. you know what airport you are closest to.. I have no idea.. same with your friends.

Secondly.. you have chosen an EXPENSIVE time to visit.. many places are very busy before Christmas.. you should move trip dates to January for cheaper prices.

Lastly.. you do not have enough money for 7 days .. let alone even 12!!! I suggest you wait and save more money.. since airfares are expensive it make sense to go for as long as you can.. 12 days.

I suggest you rethink dream and save more money.

I am sorry.. but airfare is going to cost a lot of money.. and you should allow at least 50-100 EUROS a day for accomadation, food and admission costs.. and that's a very cheap budget.. you will have to eat mostly take out food from grocery stores and take aways.. and sleep in very cheap places with budget,, it can be done.. when one is young ( I assume you are young) .. one does not care so much for fancy hotels or meals.. but your plan of 1500 dollars to include all that.. and airfare.. is impossible.

If your budget is $1500 (US?) all in per person, and that includes airfare - if plane fares from the US average around $1000 or so, is that about $500 per person for the 7 to 12 days - or about $40 to $70 per person per day for hotels, travel between destinations, food, admissions, souvenirs, and all other incidentals?

That sounds like crawling pretty close to the ground....

Of course, I don't have a clue about flight prices from India or Pakistan. Are they particularly cheap so that you can subsidise the US flight?

I've checked airfare and have a rough idea for all three of us it's coming out around $600 to $800 each plus I was looking up packages and there were some on contiki for around 700 to 1000 euros for those places including accommodation transport and meals so I figured it would be possible :/

nan,

I can well appreciate your desire to visit Europe, but some thoughts on your plans......

• To begin with, you'll need to revise your budget as $1500 is not realistic for 7-12 days including airfare. Is that US dollars? That's only about €1100 and even staying in Hostels will use a lot of that.
• If your friend from the U.S. is travelling on a U.S. Passport, they'll be covered by the terms of the Schengen Visa so won't need to obtain a separate Visa.
• There may be a cost for the Visa for you and your friend from India. You'll need to allow some time to obtain that.
• That's not the most ideal time to visit Europe. Especially approaching 24 December, some places will be closed for the holidays and many Museums and other attractions will be operating on reduced hours.
• For such a short time frame, I'd suggest limiting your trip to Germany, Austria and Italy (places with easy transportation connections). The transportation in Croatia could prove to be more of a challenge, so I'd suggest skipping that on this visit.

In order to help with your planning, you may find it helpful to read Europe Through The Back Door, as that provides a lot of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe. As I recall, it includes a section on Itinerary planning. If you can't obtain a copy at local bookstores, you may be able to download the E-book version. There's a free Kindle E-reader that works on PC's Mac's and Smartphones.

Good luck with your planning!

nanwar.. my nephew took a contiki tour.. he had fun.. but it DOES NOT include all your meals.. He felt he constantly had to put his hand in his wallet.. they charge extra for many sightseeing options. Do not be fooled by prices that seem so cheap..

I am impressed you found airfare from States to Europe for 800 dollars.. that seems low.

hostels can be a cheap option.. but not always the cheapest as they charge per person.. so sometimes its just as easy to find a cheap hotel room for same price.. at least then you get your own bathroom and can leave your stuff in hotel room during day and not have to lock it in a locker.. Depends where you go .. but hostel prices can vary from 20-35 euros per person.. but even at 25 euros per person .. it is sometimes possible to find a cheap but clean room for 75 euros.. ( this of course would be hard in big cities right at Christmas time though)

Hi thanks for the responses!
Like I mentioned earlier ive never planned a trip by myself before so my bad for not having any idea of how impractical my plans are.
As for the itinerary I don't mind even if i have to cut down to just one country due to budget also right now in trying to get a rough idea so we can try to increase the budget. And yes my friend from US has an American passport so won't need a visa. I would and I'm not including the visa cost in my budget
Ps I did a quick check for flights from US and its coming out to be around $750 by Norwegian airline.

Also if these places are impossible in that budget are there any other possibilities at all? I could be wrong but I've heard Greece is cheap during that time because it's off season for that.

That's a great price.. tell friend to buy it at that price as soon as you set dates.. those good prices can disappear.. where was that flight going into ?? Seems that would be the logical start point.

Yes.. staying in one place will help keep costs down..

Germany will be cold and possibly snowy... Italy will not be warm.. but most unlikely to be cold and snowy.. just cool and possibly rainy.. you would need warm water proof type clothes however.. you will likely feel the cold more then those of us from cooler countries then yours.

Germany does have some very popular Christmas markets.

Lee ( another poster on here) is a our resident expert on cheap accomdations in Germany.. go on Germany forum and ask for some ideas from him.

Italy , if thinking Rome.. will be busy at Christmas .. being a very Christian city of course.. so prices may be higher then if you go even two weeks before or two weeks after.

Look into Turkish Airlines for airfares - I've flown it before and have been able to get a less than $800 fare more than once for off-season flights. The key is being flexible with your dates and likely having a long layover in Istanbul (by the way, Istanbul is a great place to visit if you get the chance). If you need to stay on a budget, consider several "Eastern European" countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, etc that do not use the Euro as their currency because they are much, much less expensive. However, they are quite cold in the winter time, so keep that in mind. If you are looking for warm(er) weather, try Portugal as it is relatively inexpensive.

Thanks guys all the info seems helpful! And yes I'll look into Turkish! Also will probably stick to one country only and Agnes that's true I've seen airfare from Pakistan to Rome as low as $600 it's just that they have crazy layovers if I didn't have a visa issue to settle first i would've already booked my ticket at that price!

Agnes are Romania Bulgaria doable in this budget? I wouldn't mind that option either just have to see what visa situation will be for me so far I only know that easiest visa option is Italy or Germany for schengen. Will check out Romania and Bulgaria if they are affordable!

Agnes are Romania Bulgaria doable in this budget?
It really depends on how little you end up spending on the flight itself and how much you have left over for the on-the-ground travel. Look at the Lonely Planet books to get a sense of daily cost. I mentioned those countries because it makes sense to pick lower cost locations if your budget is really tight. European countries vary a lot in cost and so I am just giving you ideas, but you should do some research and figure out if it's doable. The cheaper countries typically have less (or even very little) English being spoken and a more rudimentary tourist infrastructure, but that doesn't imply they would be less interesting or beautiful. Keep in mind I'm not comparing "apples and apples" (Germany vs Romania), just giving you lower cost ideas. For example, this is a link to one company's guided tours in Romania and the associated costs: http://covinnus.com/. If you travel on your own, it will be cheaper than that, although not as efficient and you may not see as much. Good luck!

Great thanks! Also one last thing sorry if this is a redundant or repititve question but are there any sites that give u a rough breakdown of daily costs of different countries? I know one called budget your trip but not sure how updated or reliable that is.

but are there any sites that give u a rough breakdown of daily costs of different countries?
Not in one place (that I know of). Each Lonely Planet book (available in PDF format), for example, will list estimates for "budget", "mid range", and "top end" daily budget that is recommended for that country, which you need to translate to your local currency. So you need to compare several countries. Since these numbers are averages/estimates, I'm not sure how useful they are is except to give you a sense of which countries are on the extremes (Norway, for example). There is a huge variability within and across countries (you can find something at most price points, except in extremely expensive cities), so I would say it's better to stick to your budget and pick hotels, food, etc at your daily price point and not to exceed that.

When you start to consider using very limited airlines you need to consider how frequently they fly and how that will affect ease of use, and the city pairs that they fly between. It will do no good, for example to find cheap airfare from New York if your friend is in Cincinnati or Dubuque. They then still have to add on a connecting flight each way and all the extra costs that that will add, maybe even an extra hotel night.

When you start to consider countries or cities beyond where these flights go, you then have to consider the time and cost of relocating to those places. If you land in Stansted in England and have to get to Romania, how will you do it and how much will it cost in time and money.

If if all three of you are coming from different countries, with different entry requirements based on where you are all coming from, that becomes interesting, and then you have to deal with the fact that the cheapest flights from each of the three countries may be to different destinations.

Usually the cheapest flights (are you sure you can easily get really cheap seats at such a high traffic time of the year?) are where lots of people from the originating airport want to go.

Good luck, but I think some reality has to take hold in the pocketbook and logistics coordinator. Is that you, or are all 3 of you working on it?

The flights I checked for all three of us were to Rome and Berlin tentatively just to get a rough idea for pricing.

Secondly lets just say hypothetically were able to increase the budget to $2000 is that good enough for my original choices?

And I checked from NY, Chennai And Karachi respectively as that is where each of us will be travelling from.
Secondly if we can increase our budget to a sufficient one I still need suggestions on what cities to include in the trip based on our interests that I mentioned in my original post.

Thanks again everyone for being so prompt and helpful!

"are Romania Bulgaria doable in this budget?"

Regardless of the cost, I'm not sure that Romania or Bulgaria would be pleasant destinations at that time of year. Ease of transportation could also be an issue.