Itinerary

Randy
Minneapolis, MN USA Thanks for the input. IDK what to say about the airfare. I have the Kayak mobile app and have the alert set and have been tracking my flight religiously for months. JFK to BRU 914-10/7. Yes normally it is around $800 out of JFK, but I have seen a pattern where every few weeks in the middle of a work week late in the night the price drops for a few hours to $595ish. But these alerts always go off at 3 or 4:00am EST. So you have to be crazy to grab these prices. But to an insomniac I jump for the phone when it lights up. Anything to break counting sheep. Just last night I was ready to buy through Delta on their sight for a total of $1216 ish for two tickets. The alert came through on my phone via Kayak but I always double check through the carrier in question. I have countless though seen this price at these hours. I should just grab them, but I keep hoping it might just once nudge a little cheaper. Like $550. But I am probably playing with fire. haha

I also saw this deal on skyscanner.com. I always cross check to be sure its not a scam. Though now the price will show $800 ish it was cheaper last night.

Sharon, Re the airfare; It sounds legit. SNAP IT UP - DO NOT WAIT FOR IT TO GO $1 LOWER. Congratulations! Insomnia finally pays off...

P.S. Also, am I being too ambitious? I am allowing enough days for each destination?

"$100 to spend on transport for each leg between major destinations." For ONE, or for TWO? "We leave NYC on Sept 14th and are returning home on Oct 7th. We are flying roundtrip in/out of Brussels. This means we have 22 nights. The plan is: 3 nights Bruges, 3 nights Amsterdam, 3 nights Bacharach, 3 nights Munich, 3 nights Salzburg and 7 nights Paris. Somewhere I must fit in Heidelberg for atleast 4 hours" It sounds like you forgot to get yourselves to Brussels on the last night. Maybe that's 6 nights in Paris and 1 in Brussels? Or are you planning to travel from Paris to Brussels on the day of your flight out? I think your plan sounds fine otherwise. Fares to/from/within germany: A'dam-Bacharach: adv. purchase tickets 92 days in advance should be available for about 70-80€ for two (train-specific, penalties for changes.) http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en Bacharach-Munich: about 50-60€ for 2, adv. purch. Munich-Salzburg: 29€ for 2 on a Bayern Ticket, buy in Munich at ticket machine, use direct regional trains (2 hours, no IC, ICE, or RailJet with the Bayern ticket): http://www.munich-touristinfo.de/Bavaria-Ticket.htm Munich-Paris: maybe 80-200€ for two adv. purchase.

Four daytrips from Paris in a total of 6 days,, cut two. Also, daytrips will cut into budget, if you buy well in advance , cheapest ticket to Rouen will be about 25 EUROS return each, have you counted on the daytrips in your transportation budget? I would cut Rouen and Reims or Rouen and Giverny, and I have been to all of them and like all of them, but you can't do everything and see Paris too!

Yes, the $6,000 (roughly maybe $7,000) is for me and my husband (2 people) collectively. I know this seems shocking to some but we are backpacking. Like I said I expect to use about $1,000 on ground transport collectively between and and my husband. Some will say I can't do it but those are the people most likely who eat out at a restaurants at least once a day and will pay for transport inside a city instead of walk a mile to the hotel. We are young, very fit and capable of pinching cost in these ways in order to be there. Otherwise I would have to cut my trip and miss out on a part of the world, which I am not willing to do. I rather sleep in a hostel and eat bananas all day just to be there. Rather than say oh I can't go because I don't have the money to live there like I do on a daily basis at home. I know some people can't do this, but we can so please answer accordingly. Also, we are planning on training to Brussels on our last day to flight home. It is still cheaper that way than buying a multipoint plane ticket. THe airfare I keep looking at is $595 roundtrip from NYC. This means I spend about an $1,200 for two people to go to and from Europe. I would be willing to fly somewhere else if it was cheaper and relatively close to our destinations (i.e. bordering countries)

Sharon, $595 from NYC to Brussles 9/14-10/7? I just did a Kayak search and didn't find anything close to that. The lowest price they list that isn't a terrible connection/odd airline is in the upper $800's. Most are closer to $1000. I have my doubts that Brussles is the most economical destination on your list, but no matter where you fly to, in today's economy, you'll have a hard time finding a sub-$800 flight. Were you looking at some sort of charter? I admire your thrifty approach. We do that as well. But I would guess your expences for the two of you together to be; Airfare $1900 Lodgings (21 nights ) $1700 Food $800 Ground Transport $1000-$1600 (highly variable!)
Entertainment/Admissions/Misc. $800 That's very much on the low end and requires you avoid service restaurants and pricey attractions. Total: $6200-$6800 depending on exactly where you go. ***estimate does not include beer Otherwise, I think your itinerary is sound. A person could quibble with the details, but overall doable. PS; I am very curious about your flight. I've never found upen-jaw/multy-city flight options to be any more expensive than round-trip.

You have a duplicate post on the transpiration forum that I answered there. Russ seems to have found a cheaper ticket from Amsterdam to Bacharach than I did but if you see my answer there, you'll see that $100 per leg for both of you is really pushing it. If you're willing to buy every single ticket at the smartest time and commit to that particular train you're still going to be over a little, but not by too much. I admire your thriftiness, but just...be wary. Some of the places you're going are pricey and it will be hard to be "budget" travelers there, although possible. My estimate is for your cheap airfare (!) and and major train legs alone will cost you a little over $2,000. That leaves $4,000 for 3 weeks. So that's $190 per day for two people (or 146 euro). That's doable but you're gonna have to live real cheap. The cheapest hostels will likely cost at least 50 euro for both of you, so that's 95 for transit, food, admission fees for two. Ouch. Like I said it's doable but you will want to budget this out very carefully in advance, use websites to calculate admission fees and local transit to make sure you can pull it off. Also do you have a hostel yet for Oktoberfest? "The Tent" is the cheapest, although it's nowhere near the grounds. But you can get floor space during Oktoberfest for 14 euro pp which is as cheap as it's going to get in Munich duing that time. But it's already filling up fast.

Because you're planning this so far in advance, I'd suggest that you also check the "Touring" website for cheap promotional international bus fares between Germany and the Netherlands / France / Belgium. You can get from A'dam to Cologne for 9€ each on one of their adv. sale "Promo" fares on some dates. The 2 of you could then reach Bacharach for 29€ with an adv. purchase DB train ticket, or 40€ with a happy weekend daypass, or use a Rheinland-pfalz ticket (25€ for 2 for Bonn-Bacharach + about 13€ for Cologne-Bonn tix) or just pay the standard regional train fare for two of 52€ from Cologne to Bacharach. At the Touring site, I also found 28€ fares for Paris to Cologne, 31€ fares Paris to Frankfurt, 42€ fares Munich to Paris. http://www.touring.de/index.php?id=2&L=1

As for your time on the Rhein/Mosel, there is a transit district, Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Mosel (www.vrm.info) that includes the Rhein from Oberwesel to Remagen and up the Mosel to Bullay (Bacharach is not in it). If you stay in St. Goar, all your travel except to/from Bacharach will be covered for both of you by a "Minigruppenkarte" for €20. If you stay in Bacharach, your travel to and in the same area would be €25 for both of you with a Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket. Both of these are one day, unlimited on/off use of regional trains and buses. You need to get very familiar with the German Rail (Bahn) website for schedules and fares. As for the Rhein to Munich, you can book tickets to Munich via a 4 hr stopover in Heidelberg by using the "Stopover" function. Using express trains and Saving Fare tickets, the trip, with the stopover, would take about 9 hrs. With advance purchase you might get Saving Fare tickets for €49 for two of you, but with the most advance purchase, I can find (June 1) fares start at €79 for 2. There might be earlier dates available with lower fares; I only checked that date. These Saving Fares are tiered and go up as the cheaper ones sell out. On the other hand, if you travel by regional trains, the same trip, Bacharach to Munich, with a four hour stopover will take 12 hrs and cost €48 on a weekday with a Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket, €40 on a weekend day with a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket The regional passes are always that price, even if you buy them that morning from and automat at the station. So, if you can find a €49 or even a €79 fare online, it might be worth the extra cost to save 3 hours, but if those Savings Fares go up by the time you want to purchase, you can always fall back on the regional passes.

For Amsterdam to Bacharach, you should be able to get a Saving Fare all the way to Bacharach. For the day I checked, Amsterdam to Bacharach it was €20 more (€78 vs €58) for 2 than Amsterdam to Köln, but that's pretty cheap for Köln to Bacharach.