trying to nail down a workable budget

That would be 150 euros per person? Czech Republic is not on the euro, however. They use Czech crowns (CZK). You will find CR to be a bit cheaper than the rest of your trip. Maybe you can stretch your dollar a bit by adding a day to the Prague part of your trip and taking one from Vienna (which is quite expensive, but bargains can be found like everywhere)

Just checked my last trip. 300 euro a day for 2 sounds about right. We might have been a bit more, but we splurged occasionally on meals and entertainment. When are you going? I'm seeing nonstops RT DTW-FRA in the $1400 range next spring. Going prime time summer may put you in the $1750 range.

It might be easier to pin down a number if you break out your long train trips from your daily costs - if you know your dates buying train tickets in advance will save considerable $$. We averaged €150 - 160 a night for hotels and about €90 per day for food, wine & beer. We stay in 3 star hotels - generally small family run properties and always had dinner in a sit down restaurant or cafe with wine. Your €300 per day is a pretty good number.

I think your 300 Euro a day sound reasonable, too. When I am trying to see if I am on track for budget planning, I go to the train sites for the area, like Deutsche Bahn for Germany, and put in the trips I think I might take, such as Rothenburg-Fuessen, to see what the price would be. I also start checking some prices of hotels in the different cities. That helps me to get a better idea if I am on track for the cities I am planning on and for the travel between these cities.

That was twice what we spent on our last trip - Sept/Oct 2013. Trip report at www.bensbauernhof.com

OK thanks..... I am assuming the Euro is around 1.50 USD, give or take. 300 Euro per day would then work out to be around 450 USD per day. The Czech money I will look into. So then assuming I will be on the ground for 16 days, I would need to save approx. $7,200-7,500 bucks for this trip. Excluding airfare of course. I won't be going nuts and buying everything I see, but it would be nice to be able to afford a beer at the end of the day. I don't want to get there and then go into sticker shock.

Thanks for the replies so far.... I was thrilled to see them this morning when I got up. :)

"I won't be going nuts and buying everything I see, but it would be nice to be able to afford a beer at the end of the day. I don't want to get there and then go into sticker shock."

I'm with you Judy on this one! I prefer not to travel on a shoe string either - actually beer o'clock came about noon everyday! If I want to splurge a bit I don't want to have to worry about it. If I over budget and there's money left over (never happened but it could, maybe, I doubt it) then apply it toward next trip!

Sweet. Thanks! We have a few things working in our favor... neither of us can stand wine so that will save us right there. We're not opposed to picnicking or grabbing something to eat on the fly. We mostly want to see the beautiful sights. Nothing is reserved yet so if it's better to fly into Prague and out of Frankfurt, then that's fine too. We also dont want the heat, crowds, or high costs of summer travel. Hoping for fall of 2015. We're more than halfway there as far as the budget goes.

A lot depends on your level of "acceptable" hotels, meals and sightseeing tours/DIY touring. Our last trip in Oct 2013 to France / Munich /Austria came in at about $7,500 for 30 days ex airfare including one week of auto rental/gas/traffic ticket in France and point-to-point trains for the rest.

And except for the K+T Boardinghouse in Vienna (recommended!!) the hotels were not listed in RS books, just picked from booking.com for location, price and reviews.

Your budget is workable, and will get confirmed or refined as the plan comes together. You can see Rick's map for an overview of regular-fare train ticket costs and travel time, which show the maximum you would expect to spend for 2nd-class tickets. Booking hotels ahead for the bigger cities can help ensure that you stick to your budget. For instance, a double at K & T Boardinghouse costs about €80/night, and Rick's book has a few other hotel suggestions around the same price. I would find those rooms quite acceptable, with no reason to spend €125-150 for others on the list.

Oh thanks so much for your reply.... I was looking around at one of the websites for the trains, and I found it to be awfully confusing. I couldn't figure out anything. It will be something that I really need to study, I'm afraid. I love the idea of booking so far ahead to save the most cash, but it makes my head spin. lol

www.bahn.com is the easiest to navigate for trains all over Europe. Just put in the start point, end point, date and time and hit search. Voila! All the trains. hit "earlier" or "later" to see more. Practice, practice. Go to individual country sites to get prices.

Thanks for that... Way too much for me to comprehend at the moment! I will have to read a bit more and try to familiarize myself with that site before I do anything. Ugh.... I need a tutor! lol I get how to enter dates and cities, etc but the rest of the filters will take some getting used to. I love the idea that I can pre book and pay in advance, and that it is a lot cheaper that way.

You're probably going to have money left over if you figure three hundred euro per day.

There's not a doubt in my mind that we couldn't hop a plane today, land, rent a car, spend a month along your track for a month with no reservations, and do it all for right at six grand (4500 euro). As a greenhorn newbie you ought to be able to pull it off for six thousand euro instead of the nine you're anticipating.

Austria will be the most expensive, but the Czech Republic will balance it out.

You'll have the money. Concentrate on what you want to see. Stay away from stupid guidebook hotels.

Thanks Ed! I hear over and over just how expensive Europe is. I dont want to live like a king but I dont want to be panhandling in the streets either. Lol. I am a greenhorn for sure, and I don't want to make expensive mistakes. I hate to waste, especially money! And I don't like surprises, I like to know what I'm up against. ☺

And Ed... holy crap... I was thinking more like 15 grand. So you made my day.

This link to the DB Bahn search screen might help you -- http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. If you were talking about this site for searching for trains, I'm not sure what you meant by all the filters. Just put in your starting location and your destination along with the date and time of departure. When you get the results, pay particular attention to the number of stops, train changes, etc. My favorite part of this website is the "show map" link you can click on after you select a suitable time of day to leave. You get to see where you are going. It does take practice, so play with it.

You don't say exactly what month you are planning to go. I did a test search for taking the train from Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Fussen on August 26. I started with a departure at 07:00. When the results shown had what I thought were too many train changes, I clicked on the "later" button and selected the first one with only 2 which departs at 11:06. Then I chose it from the list and clicked on the route map. These were the results I got, but I don't know if this link will work as an example for you -- http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query2.exe/en?ld=9689&seqnr=1&ident=8i.03238389.1406042425&rt=1&rememberSortType=minDeparture&REQ0HafasScrollDir=1. I will come back and edit this if it doesn't. Update: It didn't show everything, so click on the train that leaves at 11:06 and has 2 train changes. Then click on the "show map" link at the bottom of that entry.

As for the exchange rate, my favorite source is Oanda -- http://www.oanda.com/. Today it costs $1.35 to buy 1 EUR, so your budget of 300 EUR (which I think is perfect) would cost you about $406. You can easily check on the exchange rate for many currencies.

Planning is half the fun for me, and I faced a very steep learning curve when I started doing my own in 2009. It's still a lot of work, but well worth the effort.

Thanks! I am at work sneaking on my phone so I will look at those sites tonight. I better put this away and quit while I am ahead. I am thinking more like late September or early October, or mid spring. Definitely not the hot and expensive and super crowded summer. I have a lead on a couple of day trips (or tours) and there is just so much to see! Trying hard to save.... these websites will be a huge help. So thanks again!

Although you originally didn't say when you were going on your 18-day trip and from what city you were leaving from, I see now you are thinking "off-season". That's good, because air tickets to Europe are a lot cheaper in the off-season vs. summer, as mentioned above by another poster. Plus, in general, the sights are much less crowded. In fact, if you went in March, for example, when I have gone to Europe during the past two years, you should be able to find air tickets for much less than $1,750 each that you anticipate (assuming departure from the East Coast and flying "open jaw" as you describe). For example, I just entered 6 March 2015 departure (Philadelphia to Frankfurt) and 25 March 2015 return (Prague to Philadelphia) and Kayak.com had a number of flights (maximum 1 stop) for $1,099 per ticket. You can also enter your info on airfarewatchdog.com and get email alerts when fare sales are on. Of course, you might be wanting to travel at a different time of the year and are not from the East Coast, but I just tried to illustrate a possibility. Regardless, have a great trip!

I would more than likely be flying out of Detroit MI but I actually live in Ontario so flying from Toronto isn't out of the question either.

so wow.... I was looking around at the kayak.com site and they have flights anywhere from 800 per person (flying through Moscow for Petes sake) up to something like 13,000 per person. Craziness! Some also show a connecting flight through Jordan, or Turkey. Sigh... I have not been on a plane in 17 years. (other than to jump out of one a couple times LOL) So much has changed.

And, what is this Bayern ticket I am hearing about? Something like 26 euro or dollars for two people for a day of train travel anywhere in Bavaria? Something else to investigate!

How I wish I had someone by my side, weeding out 99% of all these unsuitable options.... Good Grief.

"And, what is this Bayern ticket I am hearing about? Something like 26 euro or dollars for two people for a day of train travel anywhere in Bavaria?"

Yes, but there are two catches:

1) On Monday through Friday, it's only good after 9 AM. If you want to leave earlier, just buy an additional ticket to cover you until the station you reach by 9 AM. On weekends, it's good anytime.

2) It's only good on non-fast trains (regionals). On some routes, there are only regional trains anyway, or the regional trains don't take much more time than the faster trains. On some other routes, you save a lot of time with the faster trains, so it's worth booking them in advance for the Saver fares.

If you can live with these two restrictions (and on many routes, they are not even restrictions), it's a great deal. Furthermore, it's available for each Land (German state), of which Bavaria is only one. For instance, I used a Saxon ticket to travel from Dresden to Goerlitz.

"How I wish I had someone by my side, weeding out 99% of all these unsuitable options.... Good Grief."

You can use the filters on the left of the Kayak screen. Play with these, and you'll see you can eliminate unsuitable airlines or connecting airports, can select a minimum or maximum connection time, etc. And near the top of the screen, you can also choose to sort by price, duration of flight, time of departure, etc., and you can sort ascending or descending (earliest to latest departure or latest to earliest departure, for example). Very handy.

Judy - you have all of us by your your side helping you weed out unsuitable options!

My numbers are all screwed up. I thought it was a month-long trip.

Two hundred euro a day should do it. We could for a hundred fifty, so there's a cushion.

"Judy - you have all of us by your your side helping you weed out unsuitable options!"

Well I just eliminated 90% of the screwball airlines that I never heard of, and some of the prices are just astronomical. $13,100 for ONE ticket on United?? Come on.... What am I doing wrong?? Even the cheapest is a bit over $950 for one ticket on Lufthansa. Non stop, mind you, but still.... That's a little over $1900 and I still need to get home. Yikes!!

Judy, are you looking at multi-stop ("open-jaw") flights as opposed to two one-way flights ?? One-way is VERY expensive.

no I don't think I am. I will re-do

OK see that's why I need help. LOL In my mind, 'multi-stop' sounds like changing planes multiple times. So I filtered it to the 'multi stop' and it instantly became much more reasonable. Going over was non stop and coming back was a 4 hour lay over at JFK. About $900 less than my estimate. But I am sure that all the taxes and fees will eat into that. So thank you!!!!!

I use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ for flight research. Right now, I see $1300 pp on Delta in April for 18 days on the ground. Nonstop over to FRA, and 1 stop on the way back from PRG. It is too early for Sept-Oct prices to up yet. Give it a couple of months.

Judy - you have all of us by your your side helping you weed out unsuitable options!

Taxes and fees aren't separate/additional, they're included in the ticket price that you see.

For something real simple use kayak.

Judy, I think you have conflated two separate things.

1) When you fly into one city and fly out of another, that's a "multi city" itinerary, which is also called open jaws. For instance, Chicago to London and Rome to Chicago. Booking this all on one ticket as a multi-city itinerary is MUCH cheaper than booking it as two one-way tickets. To look at these flights, use the multi-city option on Kayak, Matrix ITA, or the airlines' own websites.

2) When you fly from one city to another, the flight can be nonstop, can be direct (which means you don't change planes, but do make one or more stops), or can have one or more plane changes. Sometimes it's cheaper to take a flight with stopovers vs. a nonstop - and sometimes it's actually cheaper to fly nonstop. Of course, the fewer stopovers and changes, the easier and shorter the flight. So, it's your choice how much "pain" you will endure to save money.

And pay close attention to departure and arrival times. Often I find the cheapest flight will get me to my destination more than a half-day later than a more expensive one, or that it will involve an insanely early departure from Europe. For me, these sacrifices are not worth saving money, but that's for you to decide.

Ed's right - the mandatory taxes and fees are shown on Kayak. What won't show are any additional fees for selecting seats at the time of booking (some airlines give this for free, some don't), checking more than one bag (on almost all flights to Europe, you get one free checked bag), upgrading seats for more legroom, etc. When you book your ticket, you are frequently shown lots of optional add-ons, like travel insurance, hotel or rental car, etc. But these are indeed options, not requirements.

Thanks! Much easier when you actually understand what to do. I will play around with those websites and see what comes up. I may not need to budget quite as much as I originally thought. I just wish I could stay over there longer... way too much to see and do on just one trip.

I sincerely thank everyone who took the time to respond, I appreciate everybody's input.

Judy :)

PS: I get such a thrill when I come back here and see yet another reply!

Ed's right - the mandatory taxes and fees are shown on Kayak. What won't show are any additional fees for selecting seats at the time of booking (some airlines give this for free, some don't), checking more than one bag (on almost all flights to Europe, you get one free checked bag), upgrading seats for more legroom, etc. When you book your ticket, you are frequently shown lots of optional add-ons, like travel insurance, hotel or rental car, etc. But these are indeed options, not requirements.

I do like the idea of extra legroom, I am 6 ft tall and all legs. My husband has had blood clot issues so the idea of us both wedged into a tight seat for 8+ hours isnt too appealing. Maybe that is the one extra I would be willing to pay for.

We're going to Germany/Austria this fall (Oct/Nov), and our budget will average 160-200E per day, over 30 days. We're going to be in smaller towns in Germany for half the time so rooms will not be expensive, Salzburg for 7 nights (rented a nice apartment for 70E/n on the outskirts), and Vienna for 11 nights (nice apartment for 50E/n - yes, really ! ). We'll be renting a car for 22 days, so gas, tolls, rental, etc will be around 30-40E/day. I normally budget 50E per day, on average, for food for 2. Breakfast is usually included in the B+B's, and we'll either picnic, cook - if we choose, or go out for the other meals. It's very easy to find lunch specials for 7-10E and there are lots of inexpensive restaurants that serve great food for the evening meals. We don't starve, and we definitely eat well (and drink... lol !) In past holidays this has worked well for us.