Spending money??

Hi Lisa: The best budget estimate I've seen is the one given by Rick Steves in the chapter Your Budget in his book Europe Through The Back Door 2009. In that book Rick has made a general estimate of $185/day for a couple traveling in 2009 in Western Europe for 30 days and sleeping and eating in places we might call "moderate." The $185/day includes everything except airfare. Rick gives an itemized detail of his budget estimate in the book--the detail would help you adapt his general estimate to your actual trip.About half of the destinations you listed are the more expensive destinations (examples: London and Venice) but that is partly because of accommodations costs, and if I understand your original question correctly, you are not including accommodations in your €100/day.Some people report here that their trip cost less than this, and some people report their trips cost significantly more than this amount. When people post here comparing their trip to Rick's standard estimate of $185/day for a couple, it's impossible for us to tell if these are apples to apples comparisons with Rick's budget--the year of their trip, the exchange rate at that time, and many other variables significantly affect actual costs.

Lisa, that is a tough one, you have so many places,and they will have very different expense levels.
Just going on my personal experiences. I can eat fairly cheap in Paris and Athens. I found London and Venice more expensive. Amsterdam was years ago for me, but I do not recall it being impossible to eat cheaply .. alot of frites and mayo !

Frankly I think you can say 100 euros average per day,, but keep in mind some places will be 150 and others 50... If you buy a picnic and eat on the beach or at a park , versus places like Venice, where I struggled to find anything cheap..
Some places are cheap in that there are really no musuems or sites to pay admissions to( Greek isles are about beaches)others will end up costing more.

It sounds like you are doing alot of travelling, and that in itself can really add up.. maybe cut out a few places?

Also when is trip?? And, how long? Have you considered renting an apartment in some places?

Hi Lisa,

The problem with calculating that is that your itinerary will dictate how much everything costs. For example, in Paris do you plan on seeing the Eiffel tower? The Louvre? Versailles? A cruise on the seine? Or more free things like seeing the Tuilleries gardens, Notre Dame, and walking the Champs d'Elysses?

The prices for all these attractions can easily be found online. Although this forum would be great with helping you determine how much food or transportation expenses you should prepare for, the attractions cost will entirely depend on your itinerary, and I strongly encourage you to price it out through the attractions' websites.

Thanks for the help everyone! I realise that it's a totally vague question, I was just trying to see if there was some kind of magic formula!

The trip is in May, and we've pared down the locations all we can. We realise it will be busy, hectic, stressful at times, but it is what it is at this point (ie. everything is booked! hehe) and we're excited regardless.

That's mainly why we're not being really strict about what we're seeing in each place. If we're feeling really tired, we'd happily skip a museum or attraction to sit in a park and enjoy the location!

Thanks again everyone! Keep the replies coming if anyone has experiences to add :)

Remember that London uses Pounds not Euros, and that Pounds cost more than Euros. Very expensive place to visit!!

I noticed that you have some of the more expensive destinations on your list, so you have to be more diligent to stay in budget, but seeing that figure excludes accomodations it sounds reasonable.

I will say as long as you are flexible, and have some means to exceed your budget if necessary, I would say that 100E is fine. By that I figure maybe 15 euro for snacks and lunch, 30 euros for Dinner, maybe up to 10 euro fore metro fares and such, leaving 45 euro for admissions. That would cover one major site or a couple smaller ones most of the time, plus you will not see sites every day (like a travel day) so it evens out. If I am forced to compromise, I will focus on the Cheap/Free sights (many, many, everywhere) and splurge on my evening meal.

Venice has some very inexpensive eating options to keep your costs down. I would not spend a great deal of money for a restaurant meal there because the Venetian cuisine is seafood based - not my favorite. Instead, I look forward to eating inexpensice cichetti in the bacari - basically Venice tapas, and enjoying very inexpensive wine. The usual pizza choices are everywhere and there are tavola calda - hot buffet types of places. If you steer away from the tourist oriented places along the Grand Canal, you can eat quite reasonably.

I'd save my restaurant splurges for Florence or Rome.

Doug's suggestion to steer clear of where most tourists eat in Venice can, and should, be applied to all the other cities on your list as well. Dine where the locals do and you can find better food at much better prices.

Even in London it is possible to keep to your budget. London is full of ethnic restaurants and take-aways, and you can find some really good items for picnic lunches at some of the food halls and grocery stores (Marks & Spencer is excellent, and Tesco also has some decent ready to go items). London might be operating on the pound, but there are so many major sights that are absolutely free that what you save in admission costs you'll be able to splurge on at least one nice restaurant.

Just take note on how much you and your husband drink things like alcohol, bottled water, soft drinks and coffees...just like in North America, these things add up if you expect to include them in your life every single day.

Before you finalize your budget be sure to include the costs you might incur on the occassional night you might want to do things like go see some live music, a play, a movie...you won't be hermits every night and go back to your hotel room.

Check the currency exchange rates. A British pound now cost .93 Euro. So, a Euro is worth more than a pound.

I find having a nice lunch is more cost effective than a big dinner, as many restaurants have lunch specials. Do your picnic in the evening instead. The farther away from main tourist attractions you get, the cheaper the food and drink.

You should estimate your transportation costs separately. I was surprised when I added up my expenses in Italy to find what a significant portion that was, especially the train travel between cities.

Buy the Paris museum pass and see as much as you can while you are there. But that's getting ahead of the game. When you have your itinerary worked out, come back and ask for money-saving tips (also search the site) by destination.

Lastly, don't skip an attraction because of the entrance fee. After you've paid so much for the planes, trains, hotels, etc., don't try to save a few $$ on the very things you came to see!

Wow, thanks again everyone for the great tips! Really very helpful :)