How long can I go?

William, Does your $5000 budget include air fare to and from Europe? That will probably cost $1200-1500, which will leave about $3500 for the trip. One other factor to consider is that your travel funds will go farther in some countries than in others. For example, travel in eastern Europe will be cheaper than in Switzerland or the U.K. It would help to have some idea which countries you plan to visit. Cheers!

So many variables, especially transportation, that it is hard to guess. If you do a lot of traveling even with cheap trains, it will cut into your funds. If I had to chose a number, I would say four to six weeks.

Nigel and I must share a brain or something. When the thread started I used my gouge numeber and got fourty-one point six to infinity days for a solo trip. The number has climbed through the years but one hundred twenty bucks per day has held constant for at least the last five years without needing to be rethunk. My trips include a car the whole way, but public transit is cheaper. What's going to balance the higher car expense is that I don't pay many entry fees unless I'm showing somebody around since I've aleady seen anything that costs money. I don't stay in urban hostels. Breakfast and lunch come out of a sack; supper has no set monetary limit - - if I want it, I eat it, but I don't eat in the tourist areas of the major cities. I drink a lot of stand-up coffee and beer. Nigel's fourty-two days looks golden to me.

Yeah, you probably need to do some more work to nail down transportation cost, (Airfare, Railpass?, rough itinerary with travel segments). Beyond that, it also depends what your expectation is for sightseeing. Many days, for two of us, $120 was way more than plenty, but that was just a cheap 25 euro room, one decent meal a day, a few grocery items, and lots of time on the beach for free. If we were in Paris though, visiting museums, that $120 was spent on the room alone and we could easily triple that for the day.

I budgeted $250 per day (food, lodging, gas, entrance fees, and misc.) for two people this last trip - so about the same as Rick's suggestion - or $7,000 for a 28 day trip. The costs that weren't included were our plane tickets, rental car, and one AVE leg, which were paid ahead of time. With budget lodging and cheap food, you can stay within that pretty easily. We ended up spending quite a bit less than we budgeted, primarily because lodging and food came in well under our plan. The plan was $100 a day for a double room and another $100 for food for two. When I finish totaling it up, it will probably total about two-thirds of budget for each. I think it's important to give yourself some wiggle room in your budget. It's infinitely better to come home with extra money than to run out while you're on the road. Budget busters for me are expensive meals, expensive rooms, and expensive souvenirs. For some these are important to having a good trip. If you won't be happy without any of those, budget for them. Don't budget for cheap lodging, eats, souvenirs, if you won't realistically stay within that on the road. There isn't much you can do about entrance fees except try to plan around free entry times or skip sights that aren't worth it. I find myself going to sights now that I would have skipped a few years back. Now, I'm more likely to see a place, even if it's a little overpriced. I've paid a lot to get here and I'm not likely to get back here soon, so I better see it now or, possibly, never.

Excluding the overseas part of your airfare, I'd say € 92/day (=$120/day) is a tight budget if it has to cover intra-European transportation . The best way to extend your stay is to cut down the number of places you visit and spend more time in each of them. The reasoning is simple: moving from city to city always cost a reasonable amount of money, and requires a handful of small costs that keep adding up. Now, to the specifics: HOSTELS - their cost varies among cities. Less expensive in Portugal, Spain and Eastern Europe (€ 20-25/night buys you a bunk bed in a good hostel dorm), more expensive (up to € 35-€ 50/night) in Netherlands or United Kingdom and countries using overvalued currencies like Switzerland and Norway. INTERNAL (CITY) TRANSPORTATION - most cities will have some sort of city transit multi-day pass that is a good bargain compared to individual ticket purchase. Another reason for you to stay longer in each place. FOOD - the best way, downright, to lower your food bill is to resort to buying food in the supermarket and prepare/assemble your dishes at your hostel. MUSEUMS, MONUMENTS AND ATTRACTIONS - fees vary widely, sometimes you can find better pricing buying city cards. Or you can just skip them, but then what is the point of travelling? The underlying question you should ask yourself (and only you can answer) is how much "downgrading" in your trip would make it still worthwhile for a longer time vs. splurging more on a shorter trip where you can enjoy better accommodation, food and interesting places.

William, if your airfare is beyond this money at the rate you are asking about that's about 7 weeks or 42 days. But you ask "how long". If you somehow manage to stretch it further you should be aware of the Visa problems you will run into if you remain in the Schengen area in excess of 90 days.