Europe vacation on a budget. Is it possible?

[krystalleigh1]

Ok, so here's my story. I've been working FT and going back to college for a few years. It takes FOREVER to get a Bachelor's degree at a part time rate but I'm dedicated, get good grades, and will be graduating in 2 years. My kids will be 11 and 6 when I graduate.

Now to the Europe part. I have always wanted to go but life gets in the way. Before I knew it I was married, had kids, and there was just no way to take 2 small kids, take time off from work, etc.

However, having 2 years to save I'm starting to research my European vacation options. After I graduate I'll be teaching so I'm planning on vacationing the summer before my job starts. I'm thinking of taking 2 weeks to explore Europe and take the train around to a few different countries to explore. Kids and DH WILL be coming with too. It'll be my graduation present to myself.

So . . . .anyone have any words of wisdom for me? I do have time to save, but at the same time I know that 2 weeks anywhere can be expensive. Is there a way to do Europe safely, and on a budget? Since we want to check out a few different countries, what places do you recommend?

 

[crisi]

Sure, Europeans do it all the time.

Some hostels are family hostels in Europe - you'll want to research to figure out which ones are packed with more typical college students and which ones are appropriate for families, but they might be a good choice.

Otherwise, there are tons of options for other sorts of accomodations.

Eat from the grocery store. Go in, buy yourself bread, meat and cheese and make yourself a sandwich. It will be an adventure to try and shop in German.

As to where to go, where does your heart call you? I like England and Germany, my sister likes Eastern Europe, my in laws LOVE Amsterdam and Rome, a friend revisits Spain each chance she gets, another goes to Greece. If you spend your nights in smaller cities rather than huge cities or tourist traps, you are more likely to find affordable accommodations

 

[eliza61]

I think Europe is extremely affordable. I spend just about what I spend in Disney (after airfare)
Here are some of my tips.

1) Airfare is usually the killer. sign up for fare watching sites. tripadvisor, kayak will all give you fare updates.

2) go "shoulder" season for the best rates on hotels. We're doing Paris/London in a few weeks and the hotels were cheaper than full summer and the weather is a lot nicer than full winter.
3) I've found that most attractions in Europe are actually free for kids under 15.
4) get rick steves book on traveling Europe. He always has the best places for the budget traveler.
5) not sure about England but Italy and France it's so very easy to eat inexpensively. Both places have a wide variety of establishments. Cafe's, bistros, brassieries all serve excellent food. France has "Prix Fix" meals for excellent prices. You get an entrée and appertizer or an entrée and dessert. Sorry the ddp is over 50 bucks per person. I was in Paris a few summers ago and never ever spent 50 bucks a day on food. Most hotels give complimentary breakfast.
6) Crisi is absolutely right. many European cities have smaller bakeries, meat shops and grocery stores. It's very easy to put together a cheapy lunch of great sandwiches and soups.
7) if you're staying for a week consider renting an apartment. very popular and very easy.
Go for it.

 

[redsonja76]

I live in Europe (thanks to Uncle Sam) and while it *can* be expensive, it doesn't have to be. Your children will receive great discounts on everything from entrance fees to train tickets. Here a "child" is anyone up to 15 or 16, and even over that they have "student" rates. A lot of entrance fees to things like castles are not too bad, and churches and such are almost always free (unless you're going to somewhere super famous like Sagrada Familia). Trains are super easy to navigate and can get you most anywhere you want to go. Try to stay in hotels/apartments outside of city centers but on the transit line, you'll save a boatload that way. I am partial to Germany because that's where I live and there are too many wonderful places to see here, but I'm also completely in love with Scotland. You never know what's going to really grab you until you go for it!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Check out the eurail pass options and also some larger cities have a city pass.

The city pass is good for attractions and some have transportation passes too

If you want to cover a lot of ground stick to the major cities and explore them.

In 2 weeks we did everything by train, boat and bus but that also involved sleeping on some of the trains too.

We did amsterdam,oslo, bergen, copenhagen and stockholm. I think I remember hitting the wall by day 10 though. We went with dh friend and he had everything planned down to the minute for us.

This was without kids though. I would like to see Paris one day.

 

[shortbun]

I can tell you that a 6 and 11yo will have no memory of this trip. Better you make memories with your husband and leave your kids with Grandparents or Aunties. You will save enough on their air tickets that you and your husband could have a great time. Also difficult to find rooms with beds for four in Europe. You COULD find two apartments in two central spots and do day trips, allowing the children to have a home base-which is much more civilized for travelling with small children. I've sent loads of families to Europe. 6yo children do not do well getting on and off trains day after day.

 

[stayhomemom77]

I can tell you that a 6 and 11yo will have no memory of this trip. Better you make memories with your husband and leave your kids with Grandparents or Aunties. You will save enough on their air tickets that you and your husband could have a great time. Also difficult to find rooms with beds for four in Europe. You COULD find two apartments in two central spots and do day trips, allowing the children to have a home base-which is much more civilized for travelling with small children. I've sent loads of families to Europe. 6yo children do not do well getting on and off trains day after day.

I'm sorry but I disagree! I think it depends entirely on the kids and the experiences involved as to whether or not they will remember and enjoy the trip. Some kids do fine, others great..others poorly while travelling.

Having said that...there ARE things to keep in mind when you travel with kids. OP, you obviously know the interests, strengths and weaknesses of your young fry so you'll need to ensure that you make this an adventure for them and minimize the negative aspects of travelling. Get them involved in the planning process and then the success of the trip falls on everyone's shoulders.

I do agree that finding rooms to accommodate the four of you will be more challenging in Europe than in North America and may cost you a pretty penny so you'll need to take a hard long look at what you'd like to accomplish and see if you can find an itinerary to suit you.

My advice is to be sure that you take the pace of the kids into consideration...and take them to the park or the pool or the beach!! After endless hours exploring ruins and churches and museums, they'll need a little time on the swings, in the sand and/or in the water. I'm talking 30-45 mins here...not every day perhaps, but a couple of times over the course of a week.

A cruise might be an option worth investigating since you can often get "American" food (if you have picky eaters) and can be sure of your accommodations each night. This would give you a taste of a bunch of places with the "safety" of more familiar surroundings to return to after each day's adventures!

Good luck and happy planning!!

 

[Fyrefly]

I remember the trips we took when I was 7 and 10 (I'm 24 now). I absolutely remember. It's good for kids to be out of the country and learn to go with the flow. The world doesn't eat your food or speak your language all the time - it was a definite shock for me!

We stayed in Bed and Breakfasts most of the time and I spent a lot of time on a cot or pull out sofa but it was doable. Most of the B&Bs are people just renting out spare rooms in their house so you can find good deals there. Eat at local pubs (England) and small cafe places. When we did Germany, we would go to the grocery store every other day or so and buy beautiful chunks of sausage and cheese and have it with some bread as our picnic lunches.

Use public transportation, its been stated that kids will be cheap. On the ethical fuzzy side you can see if your school ID will get you student rates at places even though technically you will have graduated by then.

Get airfare as far in advance as humanly possible once you can set your plans in stone. In our experience it only ever went up.

I wouldn't recommend getting a credit card for this express purpose but if you think it would be useful, get a card that offers airline miles with terms you like and start charging all of your daily expenses that you possibly can on it. (Assuming again you're comfortable with using a credit card in this way.) My family did that for about 4 years, paying off in full every month and not changing our spending habits at all and we got 3 tickets to Australia for free out of it. Two years could get you a ticket or two and that's the real killer for Europe - the airfare.

 

[krystalleigh1]

So much to think about!

We will be taking the kids. The younger of the 2 is super easy going and easy to travel with. I wouldn't be able to leave them for 2 weeks anyway but I also want them to experience a different culture. For me, it's not about whether or not they'll remember. They'll learn a lot from the experience.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

So much to think about!

We will be taking the kids. The younger of the 2 is super easy going and easy to travel with. I wouldn't be able to leave them for 2 weeks anyway but I also want them to experience a different culture. For me, it's not about whether or not they'll remember. They'll learn a lot from the experience.

Good for you. Children that age WILL remember. (The above they won't remember was unbelievable).

Let then pick a few things, put them in charge of some research and 'guiding'


I second the Rick Steves suggestion. His Europe Through the Back Door book is a great 'how to' and has a section in travel with kids

 

[clh2]

We took our DD to Berlin Germany when she was 14. So a bit older than the OP's children. The trip wouldn't have been the same without her!!!

She was very appreciative of the opportunity. We had a great time with her, and I am glad we made that decision!

I agree with some of the comments from other posters:

• It was more challenging for us to find a hotel that would accommodate the three of us.
• When you start to look at hotel rates - at least in Germany - it includes the taxes. So - where we stayed it was ~$110 per night, which included breakfast and the taxes.
• The lunches that have been suggested - i.e. the bakeries on the corners had awesome food, and it wasn't that expensive. Even for dinner - we found some great restaurants and generally only spent ~$30 for dinner. We did spend more the night we went to the Berlin Hard Rock Cafe. Don't know why we did that...I would never, never, ever spend that money on the Hard Rock in the states.
• I don't know if they have "pension hotels" in other parts of Europe - but that is what we stayed in Berlin. As we started to research lodging, that seemed to be a nice compromise between a 5-star hotel and a hostel. Worked for us - and we loved the inn-keeper and his family. The innkeeper asked us every day what we were doing, and he made sure that if he knew about and good deals for what we were doing - that he shared that with us.
• And - our DD was fabulous on the trip - we loved that for most things we did that she was free or highly discounted.

Our airfare was the best part of the trip - DH was sent to Germany (that is why we were in Berlin) for a conference. DD and I came out a few days later and used points that DH had available. It was a lot of points, but worth every single one of them. So - for us - it was a no-brainer to bring DD, and have her miss school.

If I had the money - I would take us there again, but DH is no longer travelling as much as before we did this trip. And, DD is now in college, and "gasp" our travel dollars are now paying tuition.

 

[RunDanceSkate]

The people who posted before me have given you some great advice. I just want to add department store cafeterias. Just follow the locals at lunch time, it was a great way to get vegetables with our meals, thanks to salad bars.

We went to Europe for the summer on a budget when our kids were 12 and 10. we had a blast. With the 4 of us we found a rental car to be cheaper then train tickets. we flew into Amsterdam, took a cab to a rental place in the city, cheaper due to no airport fee. We paid about $900 Canadian for 6 weeks through auto Europe.

We stayed in hotels, hostels, with friends/family and spent a few night in tents. We had an apartment outside of Paris for a few days.

 

[natfrac]

I agree with the previous posts that Europe doesn't have to be expensive. A couple of years ago I went to visit my step-son who was stationed in Germany. My parents had warned me how expensive Europe was, but I was very surprised how affordable most of our trip was. Even in London, I did not feel things were terribly overpriced. It all depends on where you stay and where you eat. My DSS and I stayed in hotels, ate in decent restaurants, and still stayed on budget. The only shock I had was when I filled up his car with gas--yikes. A mini cooper and it cost over $90 to fill.

Another tip is to make sure your credit/debit card will work over there. I couldn't figure out why my card worked sometimes but not others, and it was due to my card not having a "chip" like European cards do.

 

[scrapbooksellman]

We traveled in Europe last spring using money from an inheritance. Otherwise we could not have gone.
My DH, DD 11, DS9 and I went to London 4 days, Paris 3 days, Rome 4 days, and the island of Malta 4 days. My DH was born on Malta, Navy station at the time.
I would say to plan everything! Check airfares. It was $2000 cheaper for us to go in March instead of June just in airfare!


We used airbnb.com to rent apartments in the last three places. Very affordable and nice to have a whole apartment instead of a cramped hotel room.
In London, we stayed in a Travelodge brand hotel, very clean and convinent.

We bought the London Pass. Very easy to use, helps with traveling by bus and subway. Great entrances to sites we wanted to see.

We did not really enjoy Paris, except Disneyland Paris
The people were rude. Transportation hard to use, and dirty.
We are glad the kids saw the Louvre and Eiffel tower but wouldn't do it again.

Rome was wonderful. Lots of helpful people. beautiful sites. So much to do.

We loved Malta and want to return. This is where many Europeans vacations.


I can share more info if you want to PM me.

Have fun planning!

 

[TheRustyScupper]

. . . 4) get rick steves book on traveling Europe. He always has the best places for the budget traveler. . .

1) Probably the best advice.
2) Also, check other touring books.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Another vote for Rick Steves.

Two weeks isn't that long, you will lose a day at the beginning and end. So if you are really looking at 12 days I would stick to one country with lots to do, or two countries.
Italy could be 3 days in Rome, 4 days in Florence (with a day trip to Pisa and another to Chianti), 2 days in Venice, 2 days in Como/lake towns, Milan and then fly out.
Or a Germany/Austria trip - 2 days in Munich, 4 days in some Bavarian towns, then into Austria 4 days in Salzburg (can do a day trip to Hallstat, another to see the ice caves, sound of music tour, and 2 days in Vienna and fly out.
Or Switzerland/Italy, or Belgium (I love Brugges), Amsterdam, Paris, or just Paris/London, Spain/Portugal, etc..

It's hard to narrow down!

When you have 12 days, you don't want to waste a few traveling from country to country. I could easily do 12 days in any one country - Switzerland, Germany, France or Italy.

If you can add on a couple of days for travel time so you have a full two weeks there it will give you some extra time. I barely ever remember anything the first day while I adjust to the time change so don't count that day either. I never do anything really important that I want to see the day we land unless we will be returning again during that trip.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Forgot to add, I've bid on Priceline for hotels in European cities - Brussels, Vienna, Madrid, Amsterdam, etc., and usually paid $100 a night, the most I paid is $139 a night but I only bid on 4 star/5 star hotels. They often end up being in more business type hotels, but are always in a good location (easy transportation) and very nice. I think though they are only for 2 people, but I've never stayed in a room for more than 3 in Europe.

 

[crashbb]

I can tell you that a 6 and 11yo will have no memory of this trip. Better you make memories with your husband and leave your kids with Grandparents or Aunties. You will save enough on their air tickets that you and your husband could have a great time. Also difficult to find rooms with beds for four in Europe. You COULD find two apartments in two central spots and do day trips, allowing the children to have a home base-which is much more civilized for travelling with small children. I've sent loads of families to Europe. 6yo children do not do well getting on and off trains day after day.

Depends on the kids.

My parents took us the UK when I was 7, France when I was 8, and back to the UK when I was 10. My grandparents took me five European countries when I was 11. Except for the UK trip when I was 10 (which was basically just London), all trips involved a lot of train trips and I loved them. I also have great memories of all the trips.

OP - If you are making a home base somewhere for 5+ days (which is actually how I like to travel), getting an apartment can be great for your budget.

Train passes (e.g. one of the Eurail passes) can also be good, if you plan on taking many trains (just do the math first).

Many airlines make doing an open-jaw (into one city and out of another) no more expensive than doing a normal return trip. This can be useful to prevent the need to backtrack (and also save you the cost of a train trip).

 

[pocomom]

How fun and what a great experience for your kids!
The best thing I can recommend is renting a flat. You won't have to drag your bags all over, the kids will have a homebase. If someone is not feeling well for a day you can kick back and relax and it will enable to save some buy having some snacks/meals at home.
You could even split it up one week flat in one area, second week flat in another. Europe is easy to get around... start thinking about your must sees and do's and plan from there!
Also I don't know about budget and it seems like you are looking more for an off the beaten path exploring thing, but there are some affordable cruises that "Do" Europe... might be a good way to see all the top spots with the kiddos!

 

[Poohforyou]

I can tell you that a 6 and 11yo will have no memory of this trip. Better you make memories with your husband and leave your kids with Grandparents or Aunties. You will save enough on their air tickets that you and your husband could have a great time. Also difficult to find rooms with beds for four in Europe. You COULD find two apartments in two central spots and do day trips, allowing the children to have a home base-which is much more civilized for travelling with small children. I've sent loads of families to Europe. 6yo children do not do well getting on and off trains day after day.

Maybe your child has no memories of vacations taken at 6 and 11 years old but trust me mine does and so do millions of other children.

OP, if you set realistic expectations you s/b fine and your kids will have wonderful memories. Get some books for your kids to look at and help them plan the trip. Maybe allow them to each pick out something they'd like to see in each place you visit. I'd also recommend packing light so it's easier to get around. We took our DD to China for 10 days when she was 10 yo and had a wonderful time full of lots of memories.