Funding travels: knowing if you have enough

How do you determine this? (obviously research, and finding out what others spend and of course working out a budget of your own tailored to your needs; but that could cause you to under budget if you don't do it right). I'm more concerned at knowing how I know I'm doing it correctly.

So here's what I need to know I have about $7k USD which translates to about 5.3k Euros; that doesn't seem like a lot; but I went to budgetyourtrip.com and got an average daily costs IN USD of $190/day for Switzerland but there are certain things I wouldn't spend my money on so I gave it more like $145/day and I would be there for two weeks and that translates to roughly $2k USD.

Then I'll be going to Hannover at the end of the 2 weeks in Switzerland and it looks like I will stay in Germany for almost 2 weeks (10 days) and the average cost according to the budgetyourtrip.com site again is about $107/day and so I ran that around $100/day so for 10 days that's $1k bringing my total allotment to $3k USD leaving me with $4k; this doesn't sound right what am I missing here?

If what I'm calculating at; its telling me I'm running about $1k/week (3 weeks total) of course I have to remember, the budget is going to fluctuate based on two things: costs I can't predict and currency exchange rate fluctuations (not so greatly that it throws my balance way off).

At the end of my 10 days in Germany, I'll fly to Argentina (that airfare is about $820 one way in business class), and I looked at the average daily costs of Argentina in general as where I'm going doesn't have any data (yet). I was being shown roughly $60/day so I calculated at a flat $50/day (USD again) for 7 days came to $350; but I'm going to put this on a sliding scale of $400-$500 which now brings me to $3.5k remaining plus by the time I spend a week in Argentina I will be paid again for the next month giving me $4k of new money to add to my $3.5k (giving me $7.5k again)

So, am I doing this right? Does that seem logical to have that much surplus after being in Europe for almost a whole month? (14+10=24 (24 days total). I plan to stay in good cheap places, but cheap isn't going to always be possible.

Not to mention I've already spent quite a bit pre-trip so most of that "expense" doesn't count towards this current budget prediction/allottment.

Need to know before I book my next segment in fear of losing a good fare

Not familiar with budgetyourtrip.com. How do they determine those figures? Switzerland is expensive but 190USD/145 EUR per day seems higher than necessary if you don't mind hostels. And you can certainly get away with less than 100 USD/70 EUR a day in Germany, again if you stay in some hostels.

Bob R wrote:Not familiar with budgetyourtrip.com. How do they determine those figures? Switzerland is expensive but 190USD/145 EUR per day seems higher than necessary if you don't mind hostels. And you can certainly get away with less than 100 USD/70 EUR a day in Germany, again if you stay in some hostels.

You got it backwards its $190 USD but I was using $145 USD as a basis because there are some things I won't spend on. I don't use Euros to calculate my budget because my bank is USD not Euros.

But I do have to make sure that I have enough equivalence in Euros though so $7k USD is a bit over 5k Euros.

I have no reason to shy away from Hostels, I'm not anti social but I'm not also the most outgoing either. I stayed in a YHI in NYC for $200 for 4 nights, I was floored with the quality and price compared what you will find in NYC.

Shoot even my 253Sfr hostel for 7 nights (its being changed) to me that's a good deal; most hotels are $80-$100/night I actually gain 4-5 extra nights for the same amount of money and yet it might still be higher than some might pay for a hostel.

I didn't get it backwards. I converted 190 USD (which at the moment is roughly 145 EUR) to wrap my mind around the figure. If you're in Europe you have to think in Euros (or in CHF in Switzerland); I live in Europe so it's necessity.

Bob R wrote:I didn't get it backwards. I converted 190 USD (which at the moment is roughly 145 EUR) to wrap my mind around the figure. If you're in Europe you have to think in Euros (or in CHF in Switzerland); I live in Europe so it's necessity.

Oh oops! my bad, cuz I was also using a figure of $145USD (which is about 110 Euros)

As for your question about how they factor costs: they determine it based on type of travel what the total costs are and then they average it out based on reports they get from other users.

So the $190 USD range is based on a mid-range travel (Luxury travel would have put it about $320USD/day. Remember these are AVERAGES, some people spent more than others so that's why I was concerned that even mid range was kind of low. I have a friend who does not think hostels are good, he would rather stay in B&Bs and hotels but like I was saying before: if you can stay somewhere for 3-4 nights for $150-$200 vs paying $80/night you might actually come out ahead if not that at least you'll be able to splurge in certain areas.

I don't know where else to go (besides budgetyourtravel.com) other than to travel bloggers I know who have been to Zurich who report their own expenses.

No worries. I go to Zurich once a year but it hasn't been on my dime in about four or five years so that's probably clouding my judgement. I now remember being somewhat elated when I found a place in Lausanne for 66 eur/night four years ago.

Seems that budgetyourtravel is slightly on the conservative side of things, which isn't a bad thing.

If you haven't checked 'em out, try hrs.com and venere.com to scope out some hotel prices (venere also includes some hostels) to give you an idea of what might be available.

Bob R wrote:No worries. I go to Zurich once a year but it hasn't been on my dime in about four or five years so that's probably clouding my judgement. I now remember being somewhat elated when I found a place in Lausanne for 66 eur/night four years ago.

Seems that budgetyourtravel is slightly on the conservative side of things, which isn't a bad thing.

If you haven't checked 'em out, try hrs.com and venere.com to scope out some hotel prices (venere also includes some hostels) to give you an idea of what might be available.

$66/night isn't bad either, a friend uses tiscover.com which is specific to that region (Germany, swtizerland, northern Italy, Austria, etc.

I will check those out, haven't tried that.

Also some hostels do offer private rooms for $40-$60/night so if you're into that; then there's that plus not to mention airbnb.com, couchsurfing.com; there are quite a few sites I cannot remember them all but I have some of them bookmarked which is crazy!

Conservative is ok but that's how some might run into problems, that's exactly how under budgeting happens.

Those numbers seem high. It sounds like you're planning to be away for a month, and you will have more than enough money for that, unless you're looking for ways to blow cash. Europe is expensive, but not absurdly so. Five years ago, I was budgeting around €60/day in western Europe, and hitting that budget wasn't a problem. Adding €10 to account for 5 years of inflation should be plenty. My style of travel is to cheap out on accommodation, and occasionally cook my own meals, but I don't pinch pennies when it comes to enjoying myself. However, that trip did not go to either Germany or Switzerland (I was last in Germany in 1998 and Switzerland in 1993), so can't directly comment on either country.

Of course, as soon as you up your accommodation to a standard hotel, your budget basically doubles, since a night in one of those can be absurdly expensive, given that they don't really offer much value. In more recent years, I've been focusing more on middle-road options like private hostel rooms and inexpensive B&Bs.

Either way, I think you've got lots of money for a month away.

2wanderers wrote:Those numbers seem high. It sounds like you're planning to be away for a month, and you will have more than enough money for that, unless you're looking for ways to blow cash. Europe is expensive, but not absurdly so. Five years ago, I was budgeting around €60/day in western Europe, and hitting that budget wasn't a problem. Adding €10 to account for 5 years of inflation should be plenty. My style of travel is to cheap out on accommodation, and occasionally cook my own meals, but I don't pinch pennies when it comes to enjoying myself. However, that trip did not go to either Germany or Switzerland (I was last in Germany in 1998 and Switzerland in 1993), so can't directly comment on either country.

Of course, as soon as you up your accommodation to a standard hotel, your budget basically doubles, since a night in one of those can be absurdly expensive, given that they don't really offer much value. In more recent years, I've been focusing more on middle-road options like private hostel rooms and inexpensive B&Bs.

Either way, I think you've got lots of money for a month away.

ah, I'll be in Europe barely a month; I hope to got to Argentina, etc (heck if I know where else to go! (maybe after meeting someone I might take a surprise detour)

blowing cash is easy to do if I'm not interested in budgeting; but just because I know I will get funds each month doesn't mean I'm interested in wasting it either. Given the dollar vs Euro (or Swiss Francs) to me it almost sounds like I needed to spend about 1/2 of a dollar MORE on top of a US dollar; as it is right now $1USD = .75 Euros, so if I need to spend $1 Euros I'm going to pay around $1.35USD and no its not double (double would be you'd spend $2 for every Euro) but looking at the numbers "enlarge" makes it look like you will need double the funds.

I have heard of people doing 5-7 months in Europe on $6-7k but that was a couple years ago; and who knows what I'll do after my 3 weeks if I even decide to stay a bit.