With the decline of the dollar, this may be hard to answer... We'd like to travel to UK/France/Italy next winter, perhaps Christmas to mid-January. I have family in the UK that we'd most likely stay with, but Paris and Italy will be on our own. Where possible we'd probably travel by train, but for sure Naples/Amalfi coast husband will drive. Yes, he can handle Neapolitan traffic, he spent over 3 months working in Naples - when he came home I refused to ride in the car with him for 2 weeks. There would be some driving in the UK, but I've done that before and could do it again.
When not staying with family, what would our approximate expenses be per day? Since neither of us have travelled to Europe purely for pleasure, we have a hard time with estimating how much to anticipate spending.
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
These estimates are subjective. As a very rough guideline for Paris in 2008 with the weak dollar, Rick's analysis in his book Paris 2008 indicates about $150 per person per day for hotel and food. Add to the $150 per person per day. Add to this the additional cost per day of sightseeing (admission to museums etc) plus getting around Paris every day (metro etc.) plus transportation to/from the airport (roundtrip per person). And of course this does not include transportation to/from Europe or transportation within Europe. Your trip is 8 months away and no one knows what the dollar conversion rate will be in 8 months; 8 months ago it was $1.35 and now it's $1.60, an increase of 15% to 20% in just 8 months solely due to the plummeting dollar. If the dollar did not further weaken against the euro, here's what Rick says in his book Paris 2008, the only change I've made is increased his dollar costs by 23% because his costs are based on 1 euro = $1.30 but now it's $1.60. He says for hotel and food: "You can easily manage in Paris on $150 a day PER PERSON," this is based on two people in a double room costing 100 euros/night ($160). He's not saying you can't do it for less, but to do so you have to start serious cutting that many people find they are not up for when they get there, such as a few restaurant meals. Rick's cost estimates are for an average American couple, two people staying in a typical Paris hotel located in one of the usual central hotel areas of Paris. Costs may differ for different scenarios or groups larger than 2.