Europe for poor college kids - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

HotPops · 08-09-2005, 07:53 PM

The situation: Four twenty year old girls want to backpack europe during summer break 2006. Back breaking labor, blind luck, and divine intervention will get them enough money there, around and back again. We were wondering whats the cheapest 2 month trip anyones pulled off. We want to see as much as possible, but not spend more than 4000 us dollars. any advice or feedback would be EXTREMELY appreciated.
Thanks!

**space virgin** · 08-09-2005, 08:56 PM

$4000 US for all four of you or *each*? And is that the amount of money you'll have before purchasing your plane tickets or after?

I would recommend getting an open-ended ticket, so that you can come home if you run out of cash.

Or just have really understanding parents ready and able to wire you money in the middle of the night if need be!

Some people have managed to make it on $40 or so per day, but personally my minimum is $50/day for a bed, food, sights and transport to different places. There will be days that you don't spend that much and days that you spend more. It all depends on what you want to do. You could also look into camping, but that's going to significantly increase the amount of stuff you need to bring with you. *shrug*

Sounds like fun though!

xanthuos · 08-09-2005, 11:01 PM

As spacevirgin said, is the $4,000 figure for EACH of you or combined? Also, would your plane tickets need to come out of that amount? Where are you all from?

I'm working on doing a trip next summer as well! Thankfully, I have friends various places in Europe that I should be able to stay with, which will cut down on my accomodation/food/transportation costs - but I'm still going to bust my ass to give myself as large a cushion as possible.

**omisan** · 08-10-2005, 01:11 AM

My typical burn rate is probably around $600 a week, and that includes hostels, eating out at least once a day and drinking like a fish, shopping, drinking some more, and paying too many club cover charges. Realistically, this figure can be cut roughly in half for most places (watch out for London, Amsterdam, and Paris prices!), so SV's figure of $50/day is about right - that'd be $350/week or $2800 for two months. Figure in another $1k+ for transport, and you'll be hovering at just around the $4000 mark.

Arthur · 08-10-2005, 11:36 AM

my brother and i pulled off one month for 1000 USD with out includeing air fair or eurail. but we eat bread and water for a while, and only bought things from grosary stores,
and find the cheapest beer you can get ( .52 euro per Litre)