Europe on a Budget??

[Soulsearching]

Can it be done?

It's my 25th wedding Anniversary and we would love to go to Europe. We have been to Italy and France and loved them both.

Can anyone tell me where they have been and who they booked through?

I would love to here it all.

 

[Justsyd2]

If you'll go to www.ricksteves.com, he specializes in this. There are tons of tips on his board.

 

[bonoriffic]

Can anyone tell me where they have been and who they booked through?

Are you looking for arranged tours? I've been to Europe several times and always booked everything myself directly. (Hotel, airfare, train/car, etc.)

Are you looking for a whirlwind tour or have certain areas you want to concentrate on? London is one of my favorite places to visit. Taking the train to Paris is simple and easy. From there the rates to fly to Euro Airport is very cheap and quick, which gives you easy access to Germany, Switzerland, and Southern France. I really liked the black forest area of Germany, with Freiburg being a bus ride away and an amazing pedestrian friendly village.

 

[shortbun]

Wow, the dollar isn't exactly in great shape(won't buy much) right now but it may never rebound so go now. The stuff in Rick Steves' books are usually not available as everyone has the same idea but if you can, check now for availability and make reservations. I love the internet for cheap housing. Weekly apartment rental can save a whole lot if you can center yourselves in two areas and spend a week in each with day trips from your center. Then, breakfast is taken care of, you can do laundry, even cheap dinners can be done by shopping local markets and making whatever is fresh. Ask a travel agent for recommendations on budget tour companies(be prepared to make your reservation through the travel agent IF you use the tour company). I recommend London and Amsterdam with day tours from each and taking the chunnel between. I actually stayed in Maastricht for a week once and travelled from there. It was very cool!

 

[kelleyrn2000]

My dad has done several budget trips to Europe. He typically gets a group together, and they go in on renting houses. This summer they are renting in France (his favorite country). The group splits a cost for the house, rental cars, etc.

As far as airfare, I believe he has a United Mileage card that he puts all his expenses on, then he earns a free roundtrip ticket to fly there and back. But he puts literally all his expenses, plus I think you get miles when you first sign up.

GL!

 

[kelleyrn2000]

deleted for duplicate post

 

[muscarello4]

We just did Italy using Rick Steves' suggestions for two people. We were at $5000 ALL in. This was for an 11 night trip. Hotels, Airfare, Food, Souvies, awesome sightseeing. We booked EVERYTHING ourselves. (And saved tons of money). We saw Venice, Florence, Rome, and Sorrento.

Here is what we did:

Airfare from BA.com (found it on Orbitz): 1440 for two
Hotels from Trip Advisor (awesome site): generally $125-175 per night - $1500
Rail Tickets: $400
Food: I budgeted 70 Euro per day for two. (We ate great, but not extravagantly) - $1100
Excursions: top of cathedrals, gondola ride, SEGWAY tours (awesome). We had something planned every day - $500

Total: $5000
(My title is off a bit. I thought it was $4500, then I REALLY looked at the costs. Turned out more like $5000. I forgot to change the title. Whoops!)


Take a look at organized tour prices...I don't think you can do much better! Plus, we loved having the freedom of touring independently. Granted, I spent over 50+ hours researching. The trip was amazing! It CAN be done on a budget. Good Luck.

 

[alyssa810]

We booked a 40% off package directly on the Disneyland Raris UK site, and our package there is going to be less than the same package if we booked a value hotel at WDW!

 

[digitalsiren]

If you are an able walker, I would definately make time for the Louvre and Pompeii (via train from Rome.) That's my two favorite activities from those countries. I did all of my own booking so no suggestions there.

 

[bumbershoot]

Going during the off season will lower your costs.

But there are things that will be closed; in some of the areas in Europe, everyone goes on a month long vacation pretty much at the same time, so you'll have lots of closed restaurants, etc.

I would definitely get the most recent Rick Steves guidebooks, if ONLY just for info on museums and other tourist spots...I have heard him talk (bonus of living up near where he lives and has his store) and it sounds like working out the gardens and museums in Paris is like complicated math! Libraries are great for guidebooks, but ONLY if you're getting the absolute most recent one!

 

[Forevryoung]

Tripadvisor Tripadvisor Tripadvisor

Last summer DBF and I did 5 days in London and 5 days in Paris for around 4000.

We found the best hotel in Paris (tripadvisor) off the beaten path BUT it was close to a metro stop, clean, friendly wonderful helpful staff, and an amazing bakery next door. I tell everyone about the hotel who is thinking about Paris. I want to say that it was $150 a night (yes, in dollars).

So doing it on a budget again, I would definitely stay close to a metro but not in the tourist area of the city. It was worth every dollar saved and outside the tourist areas shopping and food were cheaper and less touristy and the people were more helpful/friendly.

We liked Rick Steves books for London and Paris and also found Frommers Day by Day books/maps to be extremely portable and helpful (with very concise descriptions of what to do in what order)

 

[Cajunjan]

Forevryoung, do you mind sharing the name of the hotel in Paris? We are currently dreaming ..... Got the passports and checking flights!


Thanks!

 

[beansmom]

so...what IS the off season? I want to make the same Italian trip--Rome, Venice, Florence, Sorrento. We have enough miles to fly free and go enough that MOST of the hotel will be free also. That leaves food and excursions, right?

I want to next spring ideally. Ideas?

 

[eliza61]

I'm doing a girls only trip to Paris May 25th. Here's a few suggestions

Sign up for Kayak for airfares. I got a flight from Philly to Paris w/ 1 stop in Iceland for $745.00 pretty good. Oh European carriers do not have baggage fees.

Go to booking.com. Great hotel rates and you can cancel without a fee and your credit card is not going to be charge. I'm staying at a 4 star hotel in the 1st andross. near the Louvre for $200 bucks a night. So pretty much my entire trip so far is $2150 for 6 nights/7 days.

Paris has dining options from pretty cheap to . I'm budgeting another $100/day for food as I'll probably only do 1 or 2 very fancy dinners.

 

[eliza61]

so...what IS the off season? I want to make the same Italian trip--Rome, Venice, Florence, Sorrento. We have enough miles to fly free and go enough that MOST of the hotel will be free also. That leaves food and excursions, right?

I want to next spring ideally. Ideas?

Spring is generally the beginning of high season. Italy and France weather is a bit like the Northeast coast of the US. So spring is when every thing begins to bloom and weather is moderate. but if you're airfare is free you've got a big chunk of the bill covered and can splurge on a really nice hotel.

 

[beansmom]

i'm actually hoping to get free hotels most of the time...courtesy of our FF miles.

I'm hoping we can do Italy for $2500 or less cash. Food can be flexible...and souvenirs is defintely an area I can be frugal in (I'll just have to leave Carlo there to fend for himself instead of bringing him home to be my cabana boy).

As for time, perhaps late February then?? What do ya think?

 

[trinchick]

I've been to Europe several times - and budget is the ONLY way I know how to travel!

We've done a bunch of different things:

Booked package through GoToday.com . This worked out great in Paris, where we stayed at an awesome hotel in the first district (Mayfair Hotel) and the price was great and included transfers. We didn't do as well with this strategy in London, where we ended up in a pretty run-down hotel.

Booked hotel through Priceline. We did this in London and got an Intercontinental hotel for $100 US per night. Great hotel; great location; great deal. I stalked www.biddingfortravel.com and www.betterbidding.com to figure out how much to bid and which hotels I would likely get.

Rented an apartment. We did this in Rome through www.vrbo.com . We ended up in a great residential neighborhood. Didn't end up using the cooking facilities (the kitchen was tiny and the restaurants are too good to pass up!) but got a lot of space for our money, and we had access to less touristy restaurants and cafes as we were in a residential section.

Picnics. We have had a great time buying local breads, cheeses, cold cuts, and wines to make great picnics in some of the world's most beautiful locations (like Versailles, Hyde Park, etc.) After all that restaurant food, we're usually happy for a lighter meal, and by eating a picnic lunch we can free up some of our budget for a bigger splurge at dinner. And it's also fun to visit the local grocery stores and experiment with the local language! We also make a lunch on our travel days between cities, since we don't care for the options in most train stations/airports.

Cheap European Airfare. There are small airlines that work routes within Europe that have amazingly low fares. Ryan Air b/w Ireland and the continent and Midland Express (I think that was the name) are a couple that we've taken. You can get one-way tickets very reasonably.

I also recommend visiting the message boards on fodors . com for some ideas of great restaurants. Many folks there are not on a budget, but you can also glean some good tidbits from others who are a bit more careful with their funds.

Have a great time!

 

[CoP Luv]

To take this another direction, have you thought about taking a Mediterranean cruise? We did this a year and a half ago for our honeymoon and it was fantastic!!! Our trip wasn't really budget because we went when oil prices were through the roof and just to get to Europe cost the same as our 12 night cruise.

We spent a few days in Rome and then went to Naples (Pompeii and Sorrento), Dubronik, Venice (0vernight), Sicily, Barcelona, Monaco (we also took the train to Eze, France for the afternoon), and Livorno (port for Florence, Pisa, Tuscany - we went to Cinque Terre instead).

I did a TON of research on cruise critic to find out how to make the most of the trip without booking the very expensive cruise excursions and was extremely successful! By doing almost everything on our own, we saved a lot of money and were able to do whatever we wanted, not having to wait for a tour group, etc.

DH had never really been to Europe outside of London, so this was a great way to see a lot of places without having to unpack!

I have been writing about my trip in my blog.

 

[Soulsearching]

Wow! there is some great tips and advice here. Thanks.

Paris, France was wonderful. Loved it, loved it. The Metro System is great.

I also loved Italy(went 20 years ago). we visited, Rome, Venus, Milan, Florence, Sorrento, Pompei, and Padua.

(I see one poster has been to Germany)

Germany and Spain have come up in conversation. Has anyone been to Germany or Spain? or Prague?

 

[Jewel1310]

I have been to Ireland, Germany and Scotland. I loved Germany - it was unexpectedly my favorite country. I really liked heidelberg with a hotel on the river.

My son and i are heading to Ireland in May (round trip air $1042 combined for both of us through aerlingus - great sales) My daughter just got back from a trip that included France. She and my niece stayed at the hotel muguet for 145 euros per night. We found cheaper hotels, but this had a location that we wanted. They could see the top of the Eiffel Tower from their room (which ended up being a triple with a little futon type extra). As mentioned before Tripadvisor and Fodors are great resources!

Have fun.