Rick '09 Trip Budget: $13000 for 2 people, 30 days, $8000 for 15 days

I have done it for less. In fact I spent less this past trip, and I am including airfare from west coast to Paris. I did not spend 2000 dollars on transportation within Europe though, thats alot, I guess it assumes you are moving every few days.

I can say its probaly a fair average, for the average tourist who tours through serveral countries or cities and does not consider eating picnics more then once or twice.. LOL

i have done it for less too, 11 000$ for 2 adults and a 10 year old, for 28 days, including airfares, and we did everything that was on our list!

It is possible to do for less and not cut back. Your $2000.00 for transportation within Europe, I don't think so (maybe going first class). I traveled for six weeks and spent less then $1000.00 and that was for two.

It seems like a fair estimate, but like others said the transportation within Europe seems a bit high. I did it for much less, but I was staying in hostels for a lot of my 4 week trip and eating cheaply.

It seems like a fair estimate, but like others said the transportation within Europe seems a bit high. I did it for much less, but I was staying in hostels for a lot of my 4 week trip and eating cheaply.

Kent, I think any comparison like this is meaningless unless it is done in Euro and less airfare.

The dollar could change by 10% and there goes your comparison.
Someone flying from the West coast to Rome will obviously pay a lot more for airfare than someone flying from Boston to London.

Even the ground part can vary depending on where you are traveling.

See here for ways to keep expenses down.

For my solo trip through Bavaria last October:
my rooms averaged €37 per night w/ breakfast. Real hotel rooms, not hostels. Only one place had the WC down the hall. Most places charge somewhat less for 2 people in a double room.
I spent €19 per day for meals (2), including beverages. That was eating mostly in restaurants, average priced dishes (not the cheapest, not the most expensive). I tipped like a German.
I spent €15 for transportation (about 2 hrs/day, average). Because I was sightseeing extensively, not traveling, I could use a lot of Bayern-Tickets. With 2 people I would have spent less per person.
I spent €8 per day for admissons and misc. I got a lot of use from a €20 Bavarian castle pass (saw Linderhof, Marienberg, Nürnberg castle, and Burghausen with it).

My total expenses for 13 days (12 full days plus 2 half days) came out to about $1400 at $1.42/€. Because I was alone, I spent more than half of what I would have spent for two.

Clarifying the original post: It summarizes what Rick has written in his just released 2009 edition of Europe Through The Back Door. It's for a 30-day trip, not the average trip of 10 to 20 days done by most of us. An improvement in the accuracy of these costs is that for the first time Rick used €1.00 = $1.50, his 2008 books used €1.00 = $1.30, which has been way too low for 2008.

I find all the budget questions very interesting. Me and my husband are leaving for two weeks in Italy in a few days, and our budget is $8000 for two people, including airfare.

I have spent the last few months scouring this website, and travel books planning our time, and looking for cost savings tips.

Can we do it for cheaper? Yes, of course. But, we are an average couple, early thirties, and don't want to stay in a hostel. We want to experience a gondolla ride in Venice, enjoy great food and wine, and not limit our dining experience to a slice of pizza or bread and cheese from a market. (Or as a previous poster suggested....bring protein powder from home!)

I have gathered alot of great tips from this website. So, I will certainly post back when I return and share with you how our budget worked out.

This doesn't seem out of whack or unreasonable, but I would spend a little less, chiefly by cutting back in three areas: (1) less classy lodging, (2) less time in big cities (which are often pricier), and (3) less transportation costs by staying in places longer.

These are just my personal preferences, obviously. I can see how spending what Rick suggests could be worthwhile for others with different priorities and travel goals.

I do believe if people were willing to stay in other places than the main advertised hotels, they could save a lot. I have stayed in beautiful hotels and B & B's for 75 € a night. I would never pay 100 € a night. Perhaps I am just cheap, but it doesnt seem worth it, when you can stay in lovely places for less. Renting apts. has been brought up often and can be a huge savings over a big hotel. Planning is the key, and I mean planning and doing some research before you ever book a flight or hotel. Play with dates and days, when is high season and low, use the package deals to your advantage. There are a lot of hotels where you can get 4 nights for the price of 3, etc. In some cities, the weekends are cheaper, in others they are more expensive. The only way you find this out is by spending time on line and going to different websites. Check out the trade fair or big sport event dates in any big city, Milan, Berlin, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Munich for example. Go to the cities websites and they will tell you what is going on when. Do not rely on just the Rick Steves guide books and website. The man has not been everywhere and can not know every event. As to food, just move out of the main tourist areas and you can eat well for less. Make lunch your big meal, cause lunchtime specials are a great deal. Most Europeans think lunch is the most important meal of the day. There are really a lot of good tips here from all the posters that have been here and done that. Just have to pick out the ones you can live with.

I've done some quick figuring to revise Rick's Budget Cost from his 30-day trip down to a 15-day trip that's more typical of trip length for people here: When you apply Rick's numbers to a trip of 15 days instead of his 30 days, it works out to about $4,000 to $4,500 per person x 2 = $8,000 to $9,000 for 2 travelers sharing a typical Rick pick hotel and eating one sit down restaurant meal per day.These are rough estimates only, your trip cost will vary. These numbers aren't intended to apply to travelers with children, to solo travelers, or to travelers with more than 2 people in a hotel room.This is $3,000 per person + whatever your airfare turns out to be. For rough budgeting purposes, Rick uses a "typical" airfare these days of $1,000 to $1,500 per person depending on departure point (east coast/west coast) and time of year.For example: If your airfare is $1,000, then that's $4,000 per person x 2 = $8,000. If your airfare is more like $1,500, it's $4,500 per person x 2 = $9,000.Obviously, Rick intends these figures to be rough averages only and of course your trip cost will vary. He also explains how travelers whose budgets require that they have to do it for less, can do it for (somewhat) less by "giving up" certain things. Yes, he also discusses the concept that trip enjoyment is not always equal to money spent.

We did it for less.

Airfare per person: $1071.00
11-day (1bonus) Rail Pass: %552.00
No more than an average of 100Euros per day for 2 people combined.
Our last 2 nights was 135 Eros per night in A'Dam. The rest of the time was either inexpensive hotels or hostels.

My wife and I just returned a month ago from our first trip over and spent between $8500-$9000 (at $1=1.50 Euro) for 32 days (not including airfare because we used miles for our flight). We averaged about 80 Euro per day for a hotel/B &B and felt for that price we had great accommodations. We spent just over $1200 combined on rail and took about 12 or 13 different rail trips (our only way we got around). We saved a TON of money on rail by buying our long distance trips in advance from the US (PREMS, Dauer Spezials etc) and the fixed rate shorter legs in Europe. The rest we spent on food and sightseeing. Though we didn't splurge a lot on high end restaurants, we did eat very well with both a full lunch and dinner each day. We also saw all the sights we wanted.

If we can do it as first-timers for that price then a lot of people can! On the plus side, if people go in expecting to pay $13-$14K for a month and it costs a lot less, that's a lot better than blowing the budget!

I'm sure we could have easily spent $13-$14k, but we spent hundreds of hours planning the trip and exploring ways to save money while still experience everything. For us, the money saved was well worth the time invested, especially with the rail fares. I should close with a big thank you to all the regular posters here who helped us save all that money and plan our trip. THANK YOU!

Jed & JB: Rick believes two "student or rock bottom budget travelers" can go to Europe for as low as about $110/person/day, not including airfare--that cost is based on staying in hostels, using a youth Eurailpass, and really watching the extras. The $110/person/day rock bottom is based on $30/day/person in a hostel or private room + $10 picnic lunch + $20 dinner = $60/person/day for room and food + rather austere allowances for sights/entertainment/misc. Applied to your trip duration, Jed, his $110/day/person is $220/day x your 32 day trip = $7,000 not including airfare for 2 people, 32 days--a little less than your cost (Jed) but sounds like you didn't stay in hostels so his lower cost is not apples to apples. You did well! but didn't quite make it into the rock bottom budget traveler category (and probably don't want to, right?). JB's numbers are lower than Rick's rock bottom, if her/his cost is a total cost for two people that includes food, admissions to sights, etc.One caution: Rick says at the beginning of his Budget discussion: "I'm cautious about sending people to Europe with too much confidence and not enough money."

Hi Kent! Definitely one could do it for a lot less than we did. At our age (40's) and it being our first trip we wanted to be comfortable, but not extravagant. We wanted a certain level of comfort as we knew coming back to the hotel or B&B that night we'd just want to relax in a decent setting. I think with all the research we did it helped as we hit the "sweet spot" in terms of comfort and convenience for us, especially on a first trip.

We stayed at places all recommended in his book like the Hotel Beaugency in Paris, and the Hotel Staubbach in Lauterbrunnen. We offset these "higher cost" hotels with places like Pension Lettie's in Bacharach, so that helped to even out the hotel costs.

It is amazing how once you total the costs of a trip how much it really is! Believe me, when we looked at the $8000-$10,000 estimate there were a lot of things we thought about spending the money on. When your spending $100 here and $100 there you can lose track and pretty soon it's $10,000! My wife laughed at me, but each night I would spend about 10-15 minutes reviewing how much we spent that day, and taking money out of our money belt for the next day's anticipated expenses. It really helped as I could see how easy it would be to spend a lot!

Jed: You did well, your hundreds of hours of trip planning paid off.I have a suspicion that most travelers reading the Helpline, if they've done a trip in the last 8 months since the dollar fell to $1.50, are spending closer to Rick's average of $185/person/day (not including airfare)--if they actually added up all the costs.But, human nature being what it is, we're not going to get too many posts here saying: yeah, we spent the average or more on our trip. I know I won't admit it.:)

I'm putting together a budget for 2, for a 14 night Ireland trip (16 days total with 2 travel days from the West Coast) in late fall. Here is what I have come up with: Airfare $1700(2), Park and Fly Hotel Portland $115,B&B 14 nights 35 Euros/person total $1411, Auto Europe rental car full ins. coverage 12 days (staying 2 days in Dublin W/O a car) $700. With a big Irish breakfast, we will only need snacks for lunch 10 euros/day total $200, Dinner and a Guiness at Pubs 14 nights @ 17 euros/person total $700, Pub beer during trad music 14 nights total $300, Daily mid-morning Latte total $120, 3% conversion fee on ATM's and Credit Card transaction $100. I figured the in Ireland costs based on 1 Euro @ $1.45 After reading the above posts, I realized that I havn't included gas/diesel for the rental car. We plan to drive from Dublin-Belfast-Derry-Westport-Galway-Ring of Berra-Skibberean-Cahir-Cashel-Kilkenny-Dublin. Rough estimate 1300 miles/Kil?? What will our petro bill be? Have estimated $200 souvenirs/entry fees. Is this enough? We plan to do laundry in the room. Have I left out anything else important...I believe my total stands at$5546.00 less petro. Is this realistic? Your opinions please! Thanks Dan

Dan: Nice job with the numbers! You may have missed admission to sights, the main reason you're going so you don't want to skimp there: Rick estimates admission to major sights at $8 to $20 per person, smaller sights $3 to $5/person. At first I was going to suggest $1.50 conversion instead of $1.45 but maybe your 3% accounts for that? the $1.45 is the interbank rate today and you'll probably withdraw money from ATMs at the interbank rate +2% and maybe a similar "markup" on payment made by credit card. Maybe you've already accounted for all that. To estimate fuel cost for rental car, go to your car rental website, find your car class/type, click to get more info about the car and it should give your kilometers per liter. Once you know the liters you'll burn, come back here and I will have posted for you the current fuel price in Ireland: which turns out to be roughly $8.00 per gallon which converts to €2.10/liter. And your 1300 miles x 1.6 = 2100 kilometers.

I just finished my second trip to Europe with my last one being 2 months, and have saved lots of time and money with the help of everyone on this site. I find the time you spend on research, and booking ahead can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

To save money I do a few things, I will mix hostels with hotels, some cities have better selection of hostels like the Beehive in Rome or the very well known Wombats in Vienna, these hostels have been just as good as some of the hotels I have stayed in. I choose to splurge in a couple cities, like Paris its nice to stay in a hotel, and from my research there are not many great hostels there. Also cities that are more expensive such as in the north I may use a hostel where as in the south or east you can find better accomadation cheaper.

Staying in hostels will give you access to a kitchen so when I stay in hostels I take full advantage of that. If not I try and load up on breakfast if my hotel has a free one, and then eat light the rest of the day and just splurge on dinner. If I am tight on budget I may eat out in nice places just a few days a week but not everyday.

I will not skimp on sights, I have a friend who just got back from Paris and did not go up the Eiffil Tower or in the Louve because they did not have enough money, what really is the point then? Yeah you can enjoy the city but how can you enjoy being anywhere if you are so worried about money.

Also I very rarely take cabs most Europe cities have excellent transit connections, and Rick's book make public transit very user friendly, even in cities where transit is not in English I have still managed to get my way around.

Most of all create a budget, I budget for each day and use paper clips to seperate money, keep all your money in your money belt just taking out what you need for the day, once its gone its gone!

Also flights can be much cheaper than the train, I got Athens - Vienna, Berlin - Zurich and Rome - London for $40!

Cora: You've learned important things from your experience, including: don't skimp on admissions to sights and other experiences, because that's why you came in the first place.

Interesting- just as a data point for our June 30- July 15th trip to Germany, Switzerland and France for two adults and one 13 year old, our actual budget broke out like this:

$2100 rooms (B&Bs, inns,small hotels, no hostels)

$1300 rail tickets (TGVs, P2P and Swiss Passes)

$1300 food (grazing, picnics, no dumpsters)

$1200 Misc ( sightseeing, admissions, amusements)

$5900

16 days works out to ~$123 pp/day. Tossing out the 2 travel days there and back, (no room or train those days skews the total) ~$140 pp/day for 14 days or thereabouts.

The "Third Person" effect:

Harder to find airline seats together on all connections.

Harder to find rooms for three- availability impact.

Less per person for rooms in our case but our son was never "free" to sleep anywhere.

Definite impact on meals, sightseeing options varied in how they charged youth.

Little to no impacts on rail transportation thanks to German rail policies, Swiss Pass family card, etc.

If the exchange rate was better then, I'm convinced we would have spent almost the same and made up for it by spending more on food or dining out more.

I've read everyone's posts with great interest. My own trip starts 9/11 and ends 10/13. I have to admit, I am hoping to spend less than what Rick has been quoted as saying it will cost. Absolutely will not scrimp on admissions and activites, but I have found ways to economize. This trip I have been helped by the fact that we will be traveling with my brother-in-law and sister for 3 weeks. That means we will be sharing transportation costs (we have a rental car) and we have found some good options for apartments instead of 2 rooms. (The apartment I found in Lauterbrunnen is about the same as one room at Hotel Staubbach.) One challenge for me, has been to bring the trip in at about what we spent on previous trips. Since the dollar has dropped in value over the last 8 years, we have had to change what we choose for accommodations. In 2001, we stayed in Pensions and smaller hotels. By 2003, we were in B&B's and even a hostel or two. This time our only hotel is in Chamonix and the rest of the time we are in B&B's, apartments, and agritourismos. We also can save a lot on food. Some people travel to eat, we eat because it is neccessary. Having said that, we will enjoy an occasional nice meal. I'll let you know how the budget worked out.

Connie: It hopefully helps you to know that Rick thinks a "student or rock bottom budget traveler" can do a trip for about 2/3 of the costs summarized in my original post, if necessary and with effort and discipline. And he tells how in his new/revised book.

I must be a savvy and disciplined traveler in order to continue my trips.
I can do 3 weeks in Germany and France when 2 are sharing costs for $95 a day, no hostels. I just returned this summer with these figures, of course this does not incl air from west coast. Folks do not give up Europe as a destination becuz of the xchg, it can be done!

JS: Yes, you're doing a great job of controlling costs. We could learn from you--can you give us the details of how you do it, including your cost of these items:hotels/accommodationsfoodtransportation within Europeadmissions to sightsother entertainmentall other costs except airfare

I think it matters quite a bit what the style of your trip is. A "tour of Europe" type of trip, particularly Western Europe and especially if the UK is included, will certainly cost much more. Our trip, which was a little over two weeks and included lots of rail travel and staying mostly in decent hotels, came out right in line with Rick's estimates. If we had done the whole trip in, say, just the Netherlands and Switzerland (which I'd love to do!), we could have saved a lot on travel, a bit more on food (you find good places and return to them!), and a bit more on lodging (apartment rentals, etc). For a traditional "European vacation" though, these numbers are pretty accurate.

Also an impact is whether a major city is involved- in our case, 4 nites in Paris. Our per person per day average took a hit there...esp at $1.60 a Euro.

That's why I advise on my website that if you want to travel in Europe with minimum expense, avoid large cities.

And in his revised book Rick agrees with Bill (above): Your trip cost will be higher if you're spending a significant # of your trip days in one or more of the very high cost cities, such as London, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and other Scandinavian cities.

Lee- I checked out your pages, a lot of good stuff there, please keep building it up as you have a lot of facts, experience and pragmatic advice to share.

I also checked out Lee's website. It is chock full of good advice. Kudos to you for also learning German well enough to utilize the German websites. It does make travel more fun if you can speak even a bit of the language. Keep up the good work Lee.

I found this thread very interesting. For a first timer it was nice to compare what I've been able to pull together for a 33 day trip to Germany & Austria for two people with what other seasoned travellers have been able to accomplish. Air travel, $821.34 pp; Lodging $44.16 pp per day; Transportation in Europe, $31.96 pp per day; Attractions, $17.33 pp per day; Food/souvenirs & unexpected expenses, $55 pp per day. Total per person for 33 days, $5720.34. Grand total for the whole trip, $11,440.68.

Lee: I've got to learn your secret to reducing the cost of travel by rail. I've seen several of your posts and hope to do better next time.

We have found the more we travel where Rick's guide books DONT go...the more we save....

i.e.

Olomouc, Czech Republic and Piran, Slovenia were some of our highlights 4 years ago

Since then the Hotel Piran has quadrupled in price as it's been discovered AND highlited by Rick

2 years ago some of our adventure included the back roads of Latvia and Lithuania

This year was Croatia, Montenegro and Mostar in the VERY off season

and next year we spread our wings from Bulgaria all the way to Capadoccia by way of Meteora in the off season

Each 3 week budget staying in 3-4 star hotels, eating 3 FULL meals a day and extensive sightseeing was under 3,000 per person

and in 2010 we will be in Romania, Ukraine and a dabble in Poland...

traveling this way and in off season has given us an incredibly enriched adventure that hasn't drained our travel budget!

I highly recommend that you ponder this approach

Well- I am back from the trip I was anticipating in my 9/5/2008 post. We left on September 12 and flew home on October 13. It was very easy to keep track of expenses since we either used a credit card (mostly for things we paid for before we left home) or we used cash from an ATM. All my bills and bank statements have come in and I spent $7100 for 2 people for 33 days. ($215 a day for 2) This includes rental car, all B&B's, hotels etc., food, sight admissions and purchases. This does not include airfare since we went on air miles. Our most expensive hotel was in Venice (85 euros a night). These are the only nights we spent over $100 for a room (and I mean dollars-not euros). All the other nights we spent from a low of 55 euros (Lauterbrunnen) to a high of 65 euros (Rome). Stops included Hallstatt, Salzburg, Lauterbrunnen, Chamonix, Cinque Terre, Tuscany, Rome, Venice and Munich. Tips:
Don't make a lot of purchases. We did buy some things, but didn't get carried away.
Eat cheap for a couple of nights and then have a reasonably price meal every third night. We actually averaged a nice meal more than every three nights. But we also had nights where we had sandwiches, yogurt and fruit. We found some great cheap pizza near our apartment in Rome. And since we did stay in apartments many nights, we usually ate breakfast there before leaving for the day. A stop at a Hofer grocery store in Austria was a blessing, since we loaded up on inexpensive cereal, jam, coffee, etc.
We traveled with another couple and were able to split transportation costs, and stayed much cheaper in 2 bedroom apartments than we would have stayed in 2 double rooms. Many days, we ate breakfast together and didn't see each other again until late that night. I planned and reserved everything, and my sister and brother-in-law loved all the places we stayed. My goal wasn't to travel as "cheap" as we could, but to always get good value. We never scrimped on sights and one highlight was our gondola ride.

To Kim from Iowa city, my $95 in (Aug 2008 )a day does include entertainment & museums. Mind you we are not into alcoholic beverages or nightlife. But we have moderate dinners and an occassional cafe with fine french pastries. You can email be directly if you need more guidance. In fact now that the xchg is better I could prob make it work for about $70 per day.

Kent - Thanks for the post. I find this information very helpful. Our family(2+2) will be traveling to Paris & UK in June 2009.

I spend WAY more on food! If I had to spend only $15 on lunch and $25 on dinner I would cry. Food is one of the main reasons I travel to Europe and not a place to skimp IMO.

Hi,

Just thought I'd add my two cents here. After 5 recent trips to Europe (Austria, Germany, Dolomites) and although we spend 11 nights typically, we've never spent more than $3,900 total (for 2 people) on any of our trips. This includes flights from NJ to Germany, rental car for the entire trip (picking up at the airport), gas, lodging, meals, etc. I can't see that adding 4 nights would bring us anywhere close to $8k-$9k.

"2 people sharing a €100/night typical "Rick pick" accommodation that includes breakfast"... we always find very nice, family run places for half that amount. Our typical place costs from 50 to 60 Euro for two. We will spend more just to be close to the airport on the last night of our trip though.

Flights... we've spent no more than $670 r/t pp., including last year. Never close to the $1,000-$1,500. It helps, of course, that we travel in October and fly from the east coast.

We are not "rock-bottom budget travellers" by any means. We stay outside of the cities, we travel shoulder season and we stay in local, family run Pensions and Gasthofs. I guess what I'm saying is, it doesn't cost a lot to travel to/in Europe. Especially Germany, Austria and the Dolomites from our experiences.

Paul

I agree with Paul, you don't have to spend a ton of money to travel to Europe. We have never spent as much on a trip, as we would have to if we took a RS tour.

Connie, thanks for posting back!! Glad you had a great trip, and your cost cutting measures sound great.

Christy,, paying more for a meal doesn't make it a better meal all the time. I can have a wonderful meal of the best cheese and bread, and it may only cost me a few euros, I have also had sit down , "cystal, linen and china" dinners, in the triple digits, that were dissappointing and mediorce .

I think the idea of skimping on some meals, ( not really skimping , but eating simply , a sandwich or take out) and then having a nicer sit down meal every other dinner is a good plan.

I do think that this issue is one where it would be impossible for everyone to agree on,, I mean, I personally know people who would just not stay in a hotel unless it was at least a 3-4 star , and whos idea of skimping is only getting one Chanel bag,, LOL

I do thank Kent again for this fine thread though as I do think it is very educational,, and of course , many of us neglect to look at the new RS books unless we have a trip planned in the immediate future. Its great to know Rick does adjust and change each issue also.

I was in Italy, solo, in October, spent 1400 euro, not including airfare, for 13 days, 12 nights. Averages:

54 euro/night for hotels, because I stayed in a hostel in Florence for 5 nights. The other nights were Milan, Venice and Riomaggiore/CT (60-100 euro/night).

19 euro/day on food and drink: I only had a couple of restaurant meals, but a serious diet coke habit!

14 euro/day on local transportation (no skimping)
12 euro/day on entrance fees & audio guides (no skimping)

Then about 150 euro for souvenirs, gifts, and sundries.

I hardly bought gifts/souvenirs because I kept thinking about shlepping them and my suitcase was getting heavier by the minute anyway. I skimped on food - it's just not my thing to spend hours in restaurants eating expensive food. I'd much rather munch as I go. BTW my reasonably priced restaurant lunch was $15 and dinners were well over $30, all without drinks or dessert!