What's the Cost?

My adult daughter and I just got back from 4 nights in Edinburgh. I figured we spent about 105-110 GBP per day. Our room was 64 GBP per night, we spent about 5 each for lunch, 10 each for dinner and a coffee or water here and there. We mainly walked every where, but took the bus a couple of times. Museums were free, and but we did pay for a tour of the underground vaults, with Mercat tours which was really cool.

We did some shopping at the myriad charity stores which was a ton of fun and super cheap. So, am guessing we spent about 450 GBP for the 4 days. Our flight was with Ryan Air, and the total cost for that was 106 €.

If I was traveling by myself, I would have probably spent less.

My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to London, Berlin, Prague, Munich, and Amsterdam. I don't know how useful these figures are, since most of this board is older and not a backpacker/hostel type, but our daily budgets are as follows:

Average €30 lodging (hostels)
€30-40 on food/drinks (we prefer take-away/street food to sit-down restaurants, but do plan to go out for drinks)
Up to €25 for any admissions (maybe higher in London)
About €10 for in-city transport (travel cards in each city)

The Euro is about $1.20 today; here's to hoping it won't skyrocket by October.

We figure about $2000 for both of us per week including housing, car, petrol, admissions, relatively good food and drink (which I can really rack up at times). I'll usually pay more to stay at an apartment versus a hotel but we make up the difference by eating a few meals at the apartment.

Grocery shopping has now surpassed museum/church visits as the most memorable outings :)

So daily about $145 pp

We managed on less than 100 euros per day for 2 people (not per person) as we stayed in hostels the majority of the time. We also stayed in a hotel in Paris for 65E per (5) night and one in Amsterdam for @ 135E last 2 days of our 8 week trip.

We ate inexpensive meals, bought items from delis, fruit stands, grocery stores and bakeries. We ate very well.

We had an eleven day rail pass (1free) and purchased point-to-point tickets when they were less than a rail pass day.

I must add that in Prague we stayed with friends for several nights.

It can be done.

BTW, the Euro was 1.29 to USD at the time.

"BTW, the Euro was 1.29 to USD at the time.

That's the problem with making comparisons in US$, not Euro. In the beginning of this decade, I went to Europe when the Euro equivalent was 89¢. Want to compare my costs in US$?

I travel alone, by train, stay in small, family-run Gästehäuser, not hostels, eat most meals, unless I'm on the go, at sit down restaurants. My daily cost, for everything (room, meals, transportation, misc) over those 52 nights, has been €72 per "day" (about $86 today). When it was $1.43/Euro, it was over $100.

Family of 5 with three children, three long trips, excluding airfare, traveling cheaply, but well;

$70 per person per day.

However, that includes a lot of freebies for the children. If you figure the children only cost 1/2 as much as adults (a rough estimate), then it comes out to;

$100 per person per day for a number of adults.

Anna- You will be surprized how many of London's museums, etc are FREE!!! and if you get a paper travel card at one of the Rail stations (not just a tube station) you can get 2 for 1 admissions to lots of the ones that do cost, like Tower of London.

here's a previous thread presenting Rick's Trip Costs, with commentary by 80 Helpliners

Kent,

There is certainly nothing at all wrong with pointing out old threads that covered similar information as the current thread.

However, when you do it multiple times and in each case the old thread was started by YOU, it certainly appears to be desperately self-serving.

Since this thread was getting several responses within a short period of time, perhaps it would be best to simply leave well enough alone, don't you think?

Perhaps in the future, when you provide the link, instead of calling it "Here's a thread that.." you could call it "Here's MY thread that..." so we could all see it was desperately self-serving before we bothered to click on it.

Besides, costs change over time...

"Besides, costs change over time..."

In my experience, costs in Euro have been very stable. It's just the Euro in US Dollars that has been varying wildly (that's why I suggest that we give our costs in Euro).

All travel books will give an average daily expense guide ( RS books included). The cost is usually based on 2 people sharing a room. Bare in mind the average cost does not include airfare or trnsportation between major cities. On my up-coming trip I am budgeting $150.00 a day per person, ($600.00 a day for my family of 4).

Wow, Cheri,

We came in significantly lower than that with a family of 5, INCLUDING airfare.

Very posh :-)

Toni - yes, that's true about the London museums. However, this will be my first time in London after many years of being obsessed with it, so I will be dragging the BF to incredibly touristy sights like the Tower of London and the London Eye, which are a tad on the expensive side as far as attractions go :)

Randy, this is a Travelers Helpline board. Not a place to come and put down other posters.

As the old saying goes, if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything.

Kent has contributed much to this board.

Threads like this are usually a comparison of apples and oranges---everyone's travel style is different. Our trips are usually a road trip of about 16 days and then 4 days in a major city (London, Paris, or even NYC).

We fly non-stop if possible because I want to get it over with ASAP. We stay in nice B&B or small hotels, opting for a view if available. Our dinners are mostly in pubs, sometimes picnics. We picnic lunch whenever we can. We buy a British Heritage pass or museum pass if it is cost effective. (And we have to pay kennel costs for 4 pets which is at least $100 a day.)

In the cities we mostly walk, but we use a cab for airports because we have checked bags and I don't want to twist an ankle or shoulder. So, if this sounds like your travel style (comfortable, but it sure "ain't the Ritz,") the trips cost about $18,000.

When we retire, we will probably switch to renting apartments and not change locations as often. I am posting this to share information, not to elicit self-righteous comments on our travel budget.

And Kent, thank you for all of your help. You were the only source I could find for first-hand information about Brittany in 2008.

I agree JB. In the beginning of this board, Kent and a few others were the only ones around to answer questions. Thank you, Kent.

Our last trip in 2008, taking out airfare, was about $70 a person per day for 6 people (4 kids of various ages). That included rental car, trains, lodging, museums, shopping/food money, tolls, gas, etc. Budget isn't fully set for this trip, yet- I have a couple of locations to reserve, still. We should come in a little cheaper, since we will be gone longer, have one less adult, and will spend longer at a low cost location. We will also be aiming for less sit-down restaurants this time.

Randy - don't you be badmouthing Kent.

He helped build this board long before you were here.

And as others have come on seeking to promote themselves with relentless, sometimes irrelevant posting just to boost their counts, Kent continually self-deletes and only adds his comments when he truly has something to contribute.

If this board has a wise elder, it's Kent (Sorry, Kent, I mean in terms of modeling behavior, not age...)

Uh, Randy my friend, Kent is about the least self-serving person on this forum! Just because he started many a thread on here, does not mean that he has some kind of agenda.

I know you are rather new on this forum, but Kent is the peacemaker, the steady one, the low-profile contributor, though he also has a wicked sense of humour. Many of us remember the silly threads and posts on here about wearing Lederhosen, or singing Sounds of Music songs where he has contributed much laughter to us all.

We all have different budgets for traveling. For some, 150 a day is low budget, for someone else, like you, it is Posh. Others won't stay in hotels for under a 150 a day, some people want to eat in train stations and in their hotel rooms the whole time in Europe, others want the experience of dining in traditional restaurants. Some people want to walk around with a guidebook, others want a tour. It isn't up to us to decide who is traveling the correct way or who is wrong.

Obviously, traveling solo is more expensive since European rooms are often priced per person. My costs for my current trip are coming in at about $145 per day, including some splurge items like a few flights as a trade off for more time and a baggage service to transport my bag while I am hiking sections of the long walks in Scotland (by the way, the baggage services charge per bag, with a two bag minimum. I only have one, so essentially I pay double the rate here, as I do for my rooms).

Of course, my expenses are in pounds rather than euro, but the pound is currently at about $1.46. I also plan to eat and drink as I desire, since I will be traveling in Orkney and Scotland where fresh local produce is a feature of the cuisine, so I've budgeted somewhat generously for dinners (20-30 pounds) and more moderately for lunch (5 pounds), since I'll be eating sandwiches on the go most likely. Most of my accommodations are moderate or inexpensive B and Bs (25-40 pounds/night, most toward 40 pounds). Most of them charged me at least a 50% premium for a single, if not simply double the rate per person for a double (that is, I paid the same as two people might have who were sharing the room, for most of the rooms I have reserved. This is typical.)

I would estimate that two people could take the same trip for about $110-125 per day per person, unless the pound rises above $1.50. The relatively good exchange rate is one reason I am taking this trip now.

Judging on past overseas trips and I expect our upcoming one in September will be the same, we average about $2000 Aud per week. Because we won't drive 'on the wrong side of the road' in Europe, we travel by rail and take day tours from most cities we spend time in. This bumps up the budget a bit. But hey, as a retired couple, we figured we might as well spend the kid's inheritance!!

I did Italy way below EUR 100 per day/person.
When I travel I tend to eat less, but drink a lot of water.
I went to at least one museum per day: E20-30
Hostel:E20/day
Food: not sure, but maybe E10/day. Some days I might have spent more on beer, ice cream etc.
You can buy water very cheap, like 30 cents per litter from Super Markets, vs E2 per small bottle.
In city transportation:E4 per day unlimited day pass.
Restaurants in Italy and otehr parts of Europe are more expensive then here, more money for less food.
However I spent a lot of money on clothes and some souvenirs.Other costs were the trains. The most expensive ticket I thing was E20.

"You don't tug on Superman's cape!" Kent (is he Clark?) has earned the respect of others here by taking a leadership role in a low key, courteous and respectful manner. His reference to other threads are relative to the subject at hand and to me is his way of making a positive contribution to the discussion. I hope he continues to do so in the future.

Concerning average cost per day we usually average between $100-130 per day. We have a budgeted amount set aside for each trip and will splurge in certain areas and cut in others in order to stay within that budget. Certain costs for us are not flexible on the go but others such as food, entertainment, souviners and lodging (if not pre-booked) are so we may make adjustments along the way as necessary. As mentioned the U.S. dollar vs the current rate of the Euro or currency of the local country can change the average cost. In June 2002 the dollar and Euro were close together so the avg per day spent in U.S. dollars was more favorable for us.

Maybe by now Randy realizes that if he messes with Kent, he messes with all the people on this board who have been here a long time. Kent has had a bigger, more positive influence on this board than anyone else. Yes, there are people with bigger "counts", but that doesn't mean anything. Just because some people have to respond to every question, even if they don't have an answer, or just to provide a link to something, doesn't mean they have the actual experience that someone like Kent has. Post counts mean nothing. Kent only has good, positive things to say, and he should be respected for that. Not dismissed by someone who doesn't have a clue about what he has contributed.

We spend about $170 per day for a couple.(not including airfare to get to Europe) We stay in inexpensive lodgings (but rarely hostels) picnic often, and rarely eat an expensive meal (food isn't our main reason for traveling. If you love to experience restaurants and indulge in expensive drinks your costs may be higher. For us, we don't enjoy our trip more if we do that, so we tend to skip it and indulge ourselves only once or twice the whole trip. Other times it is family restaurants and inexpensive places to eat) We do spend freely on admissions and experiences since that is what we enjoy most. The biggest change has been the value of the dollar. (Our last trip is was $1.35 to the euro). We have had to look for alternatives to offset that. Our first trip to Salzburg we stayed in a family run hotel with in walking distance of the old town. The last 2 trips, we stayed in a B&B on Moostrasse for a lot less money and that has worked out great By adjusting some trip elements, we have always been able to travel for the about the same amount of money.

Our last trip we saved money by traveling with another couple. We shared the cost of the car and were able to rent 2 bedroom apartments for about the price of one hotel room and split it. (We did this in Lauterbrunnen and it costs $60.00 a night per couple.) We ate out once a day and the rest of the time used the kitchen to make light meals. Once we got to a destination, we did not feel "tied together". We spent whole days doing our "own thing". It was their first trip and much of what they wanted to do had already been done by us. It worked out really well, but you do need to choose someone that you can travel with for an extended time.