How much will I spend on food on my trip?
I am trying to really nail down my budget and have accounted for entrance fees for all the touristy sites we want to see, but I have no idea how much food will cost us.
We will be in London, Paris, Venice, Rome, Barcelona and Madrid.
thanks for any insight you can offer.
It depends...
You can eat out all the time, eat food from the many fastfood/cheap food places, or do grocery shopping.
We combined them all:
Breakfast was either included or we went to a grocery store.
Lunch was sometimes grocery store, or a fast/cheap place.
Dinner was from a grocery store, or a nice restaurant.
I would say budget $50 a day for food per person (not expensive dinners, etc), but you could in theory do it for a lot less if you put your mind into it and do a lot of grocery shopping.
If you plan to mostly eat out, you save money if you actually make lunch your big meal of the day as the prices at restaurants are typically 20 to 50% off what they charge for the same plate at dinner.
Also, try to pick up items at outdoor farmers markets. You will find the prices (and often the quality of the food itself) better than in the grocery stores.
Plenty of cheap food places in the cities you list if all you want is some takeaway for a picnic lunch or dinner. Use the search feature of this board and you'll find many suggestions.
Groceries: Imagine US prices and multiply by 2 (rough average - some items like bread might even be cheaper abroad, meats are much more expensive)
Sit down restaurant; Think of comperable US place and multiply by 3 (order tap water instead of a drink and multiply by 2.5)
Sandwich shop/street vendor; Think of what you would expect to pay in a big city here and multiply by 1.5
That said, the exchange rate is excellent right now, those multipliers might be just a bit high, but who knows what will happen a month from now, or if places will raise prices to make up the difference.
We choose our food items carefully, never eat at high class restaurants, try to stay at places that serve a heavy breakfast and only eat a light lunch, if any lunch at all.
Randy,
I disagree with you somewhat on the 'light lunch'. As Ceidleh already mentioned, lunch specials are an excellent deal to eat excellent food for less than dinner would cost. Almost all European eateries have 'menus', meaning three course lunch specials, mostly consisting of a soup course, a main dish and a dessert for laughable little money. These 'menus' are a wonderful way to sample local specialties made with the freshest local ingredients in season at the moment.
Do as the Europeans do, stroll along reading the menus posted outside the restaurants, cafes and inns, until you find the food and the place which appeals to you that moment, and make lunch the big meal of your day.
Of course, a nice dinner out here and there should also be enjoyed!
Except for the special occasions, stay away from 'restaurants', as inns and taverns offer good food for less.
And Ceidleh again is right about the farmers markets: fresh food for little money, not just fruits and vegetables but also local specialties, sandwiches and such.
Corinna,
We don't disagree. You are exactly right about lunch specials. But our "American" habit is to eat a large meal in the evening. We eat a large breakfast. We simply are not that hungry at 1PM. If the lunch special was still available at 3PM that might work better.
ahhh, yes. I know about that, Randy, because I lived in the Stateside for many years. We Europeans also eat late dinners, large, leisurely ones at that, but really only on special occasions.
Maybe Chantielle can do a little bit of both ;-)) Try the European lunch concept, and have a nice dinner out here and there, to keep her American equilibrium intact :-))
I'm not suggesting Chantielle eat a big lunch every day...often you do want to grab something quick on the go to continue to sightsee. But I do disagree that you can't get hungry for a main meal at 1PM...Europeans don't typically eat large breakfasts (unless you are talking the UK or Ireland). If all I have is a hard roll and a cup of coffee at 8AM and then I've just spent 5 hours walking around sightseeing, I can easily sit down and have a 2 or 3 course restaurant meal by 1 or 2PM and then have a light picnic or takeaway for dinner later in the evening.
If time does not permit, then a quick sandwich or snack can be enough to hold you over until dinner. Most Americans eat dinner typically between 4:00PM and 7:00PM, I really recommend Chantielle have at least 1 or 2 of her splurge dinners later when the locals are actually out eating (8:00-10:00 PM). If you walk into a restaurant at 5:30 PM for dinner, the only other people eating in that restaurant will be other Americans.
"If you walk into a restaurant at 5:30 PM for dinner, the only other people eating in that restaurant will be other Americans."
And, especially in Spain. The traditional time for dinner in Spain is around 9:30 p.m., and later, because traditionally, the Spanish take a siesta in the afternoon, then stay up late. I think this tradition is changing in the big cities that have a lot of tourists, such as Barcelona, where you can find some restaurants open just about any time. But, in smaller cities and less touristy areas, you might be hard pressed to find anything open before eight or nine.
With my Russian upbringing, I also never quite got into the big breafast, small lunch, early big dinner thing either. For us, breakfast was just a couple of small open-faced sandwiches (we called them butterbrot...sure wonder who we stole that from) and a coffee. Traditional lunch would be a three-course meal of soup, some kind of entree, and dessert. Dinner wouldn't take place until at least 9, and was only slightly lighter than lunch. Even when my family moved to the States, we never really shed that eating pattern. I am extremely unlikely to find myself hungry at 5 or 6PM.
