BootsnAll Travel Community

So it's probably the most common question. I have asked various people and got different answers from all of them. I've posted the question on here before - and have got little response.

The thing is I'm starting to stress now - we are 8 weeks away from our 3 mth trip, and I'm still unsure whether we have enough or not.

From your experiences is $AU20,000 ($US14,700 or 12,280 Euro)enough for two of us to visit Germany, Poland, Prague, Salzburg, Amsterdam,Alicante, London (only 4 days) and Rome for 3 mths? This money needs to cover us for food, accomodation, petrol and general sightseeing.

We will be travelling from June - August.

Jules

Hey there

Ok so thats roughly about £8000 right? I only backpacked in europe for a month and with everything included i spent about £1300. I ran out of money at the end and had to miss out on a few things but i stayed in dorms in hostels, eat out almost every night and went to a couple of museums in each place and had a wicked time - so I reckon you should be fine.

My tip is to budget yourself with so much per place and only spend that amount. If you go over a little it wont matter and in Poland and the Czech Republic you wont spend as much as you think so you should be able to save some there.

I always take the bulk of my money in travellers cheques because i find them helpful as a budget tool.

Looks like a fantastic trip have a wicked time
Michelle

That sounds like enough, but whether it is or not completely depends on the decisions you make along the way. Since you are going in summer camping is an option. You will meet people who are having a great time and spending around $AU20 per day. You'll also meet people who feel like they are unhappy with how little they can get for $AU150 per day or more.

A pint of beer in Amsterdam is between €2 and €5 in a bar, but you can get six cans for under €3 in a supermarket and share them with some friends on a warm evening in the park. In other words, there is a really cheap way of doing almost everything. Trains are reasonable and buses are cheap. Some people hitchhike.

One thing you might want to look at is the Lonely Planet Europe On A Shoestring book. I found it annoying because that series emphasizes the cheapest of everything and my budget was a bit higher. That one book will give you a good idea of the minimum bed costs in every city you are going to, as well as budget food and transportation options.

You should have no problem at all. I would hope that you could get by on a lot less than that and have some left over when you go home.

Unless we know how you will live there we can't give you an accurate answer.

And make sure you do not wear as much makeup as you have on the avatar, as that will be running down your face come summer in Europe!!! (as well as costing money from the budget

Seriously, you need to give more info. Are you going with a rough and tumble girlfriend or a boyfriend where you want privacy and a bit of luxury? Do you have any friends in the places you are visiting? What is your idea of a good time while traveling abroad? The reason you have gotten very few responses in the past is that you have given very little in your original posts. Think of it this way. If you are asking people if 2+_ = 6, they can't really answer unless you give them a bit of guidance filling in your own personal blank ...

AaA

I have to agree with the posy above, a little more detail would help us be able to give you a better, more accurate answer.

The sort ogf thing we need to know.....
1. In what sort of accomodation do you plan to stay? Hostels? Cheap hotels? Expensive hotels?
2. How are you planning on eating? Nice restaurants all teh time? Eating out a couple of times a week? Making your own? Supermaket food? Street food?
3. What do you plan to do whilst in these places? Lots of museums, trips, tours? maybe its just a lot of walking and wandering around?
4. Are you night people or day people? What I mean by that is...will you be out taking in teh night life, spending time and money in a lot of bars etc.


These things can vary your busget hugely. To give you some idea. I did a month around Europe for around £1200 which included my travel, accom, food and drink and all my sightseeing. I'm also planning on doing a year around teh world on about the same sort of budget that you have. Make of that what you will.

You should by ok if you are planning to be a backpacker and not a tourist
You should check out couchsurfing.com for free places to stay
Piper

Thanks guys! for all your responses.
Firstly I won't be wearing that much make-up.. no! Although that lipstick is hot come on!

Ok, in terms of our trip - we want to do it pretty much backpacker style.I mean we'd like to get a twin room in a backpacker type place or a cheap bed and breakfast. No 5 star hotels - but I don't want to be sleeping with 20 people in the same room either.

We have accomodation arranged at relatives and friends in about half the places in germany (except Berlin). Accomodation with family and friends in all of Poland too. Alicante we have free accomodation too. So it's really only Dublin, Amsterdam, Prague, Salzburg, London & Rome we need to find accomodation.

We plan to eat out in restuarants occasionally and will be doing some supermarket buying. All our travel will be done by car. So we will travel approx. 3000kms in total by car. So petrol will be a factor.

In terms of sightseeing - we would like to see at least a museum and art gallery in each place. I'd say we would be drinking most nights!

Does this help a bit more? Are we screwed?

J

Also... is it best to budget by country / place? Or have a budget per day?

J

There will be as many opinions as members posting here.

I prefer the method of rounding off the budget per day; obviously, costs vary in different countries. This is part of "Backpacking 101: Introduction to backpacking"

You would be well served by buying a copy of "Let's Go: Europe", the best (in my opinion) of the guidebooks for Europe.

Judging by all that I'd say you'll be more than fine on that budget.

You can get private rooms in hostels at very good prices (although be aware that these rooms book fast!!) or a cheap hotel (hosteworld.com is a great site to check for hostels and cheaper hotels - You can make your booking on there as well) - It might be worth a look there (and hostels.com) as it will give you an idea of whats available and for what sort of money.

I made a post a few weeks ago about doing London on the cheap that you may be interested in....If I find the link i'll post it otherwise just do a search.

Prague you can do pretty cheaply, Amsterdam I found relativly expensive to eat out in (that's compared to other places in Europe i went to). You could have a decent night out (meal, few drinks etc for about £10-15 Aus PP. We managed a grat meal, 3 drinks and an Irish Coffee for under £5 each.

I think you'll be fine doing a museum and an art gallery (you could probably do a little more if you wanted on that budget). Might be an idea to check with some of the main museums as a lot will have 1 day a week or a month taht is free to get in. In London you can get into a great deal of the top museums/galleries for free anyhow.

Personally I think you'll be just fine with that budget. Its mainly accom that will get you by teh danglies so I really do suggest using those web sites to give yourself an idea.

As for budget, budget per place, some will be more expensive than othrs, you may wish to take that inmind or just satrt out splitting it evenly and see how you go with the first couple of places.

If you would liek any advice specific to Cities....Just ask away, you;ll likely good a good response on peoples fave museums/galleries/hostels/tips etc

im sure you'll be fine with 20,000au if not less

Im from aus and i just got back from a 3 month trip around europe with eurail to around 12 countries and spent about $10,000 (this is including my flights around europe, so around 3 flights) but i went for the cheap accomodation, no fancy stuff...

gotta admit, did A LOT of planning and booked all our accomodation online beforehand and booked mainly hostels but to break it off splurdged on hotels and apartments throughout as well, sometimes apartments were cheaper cos i was with 4 people (you need to do this so you dont tire yourself out especially the time youre going its gonna be hot and you need the aircon from some of those 2-3 star hotels as opposed to hostels) p.s. i travelled the same months as you - we spent around 30-35euro a night on accom each mostly sharing a 4 bed hostel dorm or double room for hotels

We were stingey on the food side of things and lived off sandwiches for most of the time bought from deli's and supermarkets, but dont get me wrong, we went to restaurants and had a good meal as well but we were generally very careful with our money - we bought heaps of souviners as well! a lot of money was spent on going into the touristy places, i.e. rome expect to pay i think its 10euro to get into the colloseum and NOTE! this pass can get you into the Palantine hill as well! so dont do what i did and pay 10euro again! i think the only cathc is there is a time limit and u might need to do both in the same day - Sistine chapel is around 12euro to get in but most Churches are free which is a good change...the Castel is also around 10euro so budget this in to your trip

word of advice, give ureself a rest day every now and again - no site seeing no nothing just sleeping cos 3 months straight travelling can get to you in the end if youre not careful!

p.s. How are you getting around? we found eurail to be the cheapest way and the easiest (u dont have to rush to buy your tickets and we found tickets to be more expensive if bought seperatley on the day but i guess it depends where you are and ive heard other people say they have found cheap tickets on the day, but i guess its how you want to travel - u can be spontaneous or do what i did and have accom and travel tickets already done and paid for beforehand (less stress and its good to not have to worry about pulling out the money there and then)

p.s. i wouldnt recommend traveller cheques, annoying and there are atms everywhere!! no worries as long as u have a visa card and a cirrus card u will be fine...i had 2 saving cards and 2 credit cards always keeping 1 saving and 1 credit together and in my main luggage and the other 2 on me...its alwasy difficult to look for a HSBC bank to cash ure travellers cheques thats all and they charge heaps...the atms charge around $5au each time u withdraw so we would take out 400euro at a time, we had no issues at all

Well, hope i helped! if u have any other questions about anything else let me know babamjan@hotmail.com - as u can see, i love talking travel!

You are gonna have the best time!

Nugget


p.p.s i just read your last post! ok, so uve got a car...you will be fine!! no need to stress um, but petrol is a hell of a lot of money, and i thought $1.35 was expensive here in aus! pfft... can u research petrol prices online for each country just to get an idea of how much u will be spending?

p.p.p.s NO! youre not screwed!!