I’m thinking I want to go to London and see the city, but I don’t know how much time I should budget for it. My parents went a couple of years ago for 5 days, and two of them were spent traveling, and my dad wishes he had more time there… But I know they spent a lot of time in museums and going slow.

The English countryside sounds awesome, and I want to hit that up too if possible and see places like Stonehenge, and that would be a day in itself.

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Hey guys and gals,

Two friends of mine from back home are coming to visit me in Europe. They are really excited but price is a huge concern for them. I am recommending the following route (they also want to stay with my sister (pugkeys) and me the entire time so we don´t have much wiggle room–and their father was not happy about allowing them to stay out of the country “so long” when the trip was 10 days. 14 is an unfortunate, to me rather arbitrary, rule for two people that are 25 and 19, but alas some travel is better than none).

Arrival in Munich
1 Munich (Schlöss/Neuscwanstein)
2 Munich (Dachau?)
3 Munich city center tour
-Night train to Venice-
4 Venice
5 Venice
-(Night?)Train to Ljubiana-
6 Ljubliana
7 Ljubliana
8 Ljubliana
9 ?
10 ?
11 ?
12 Budapest
13 Budapest
14 Budapest depart for Tampa

I dont know what to do with days 9-11. My thoughts are that I can

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1) I contacted my bank about using my debit card in the UK and they told me that they do not charge any fee, just the current exchange rate. So, if I use my debit card at a cash point to take out some money, will that cash point charge me a fee? What’s the typical fee? Are there certain brands I guess you would call them that charge less (and what are their names if so)? I know here in the states some ATMs charge you more than others.

2) I plan on being in London for three months, but I’m also going to be getting a job and renting a room as soon as possible. The first week or so that I’m there I’ll be staying with a friend’s parents. In this scenario, how much cash should I bring? And where is the best place to exchange? My bank allows you to order British pounds but their rate to get cash is currently $2.10:1 pound. If I can get a better deal that’d be nice. I’ve seen some online exchange companies, from like Wells Fargo and such; anyone have any experience with this?

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8. Backpacking Europe Trip Budget and Finances

Budgeting for your trip is dependent on many things. It all depends on what kind of trip you want.

I saw website that said that you can travel for $25 a day, but who want’s to sleep on park benches, beaches, and camp grounds for a month?!

Not me. I need to know that I can take a nice hot steaming shower whenever I damn well wanted and there’s nothing like sleeping in a nice comfortable warm bed after a long day of wandering through the city.

Having said that, after further research, it appeared that $50-$75 US dollars a day would do the trick.

If your research leads you to believe that $50 a day will do, then you should budget at least $75 US a day. That is AFTER you get squared away with your Eurail Pass and major plane fare.

This $75 bucks a day will cover your accommodations, food for the day, any attractions/museums/drinks/clubs/souvenirs, etc…

But, knowing me, I always like to “pad” that number. I always suggest to backpackers and student travelers that you should “over budget.”

I waaay over budgeted my first trip. I took a loan from my 401k plan at the time and combined it with what I had already saved.

I budgeted a whopping $160 per day on my first trip to Europe, and made sure I didn’t spend more than that each day. Highly unlikely.

The reason for this amount was because I went guerilla style and decided to find hostels/hotels “on the fly” and prepared myself for worst case scenarios. Now I book ahead because I found too many places full and the ones that had vacancies would charge higher rates for the few beds they had left.

I rationalized and said, “If I absolutely cannot find hostels available, then I can always stay at a nice hotel like the Hilton or what not…”

In fact, my average expenditures came out to almost $60 a day and I didn’t deprive myself of anything (remember, I chose to stay in private rooms and or hotels instead of dorm beds which will be cheaper).

Spending only $60 a day left me an extra $100 a day for the remaining 2 weeks left of my month long trip, which meant I now had about $260 per day for the last two weeks. Confused yet?
(more…)

$75 for 30 days= $2,250 consevartive budget for 1 month. You can do it for half that and have a great time, if you want. But, how often do you travel to Europe?
Don’t blow your whole wad, but at the same token, don´t deprive yourself either. Alrighty now, don´t freak out. I budget this way because I prefer to have my own room in hostels.
If you were to share a room with one or more backpackers everywhere you traveled, your cost would come down, but you will have to alwasy be dealing with noisy backpackers comeing in and out of the room at all hours of the night and the possibility of peole rummagin through your belongings.
If you have to live on credit, so be it. How often do get to travel overseas on your own? You’ll come back home to debt, but better to go to work and pay that off and have memories that will last a lifetime, than to continually hold off on your travel dreams because of the lack of finances or because you just don’t want to rack up some debt.

Also, go easy on the souvenirs. (Read more on the bottom of the page).

You have to be conservative with your finances and budget when planning any kind of trip. Period. You must give allowance to the unforseen and unexpected elements that always seem to creep up on you while traveling especially to foreign countries.

Traveling through Western Europe three times, I have had days where I have spent $20 including food and hostels, and a rare day that I spent $105 alone on a hotel room. That was due to that fact that I couldn´t find a hotel with a vacant room next to the train station in Barcelona.

After walking 2 hours in drizzle, I decided to bite the bullet and sleep in style in a luxury hotel across the street from the train station. Save time and money by reserving your hostels online.

The sad part was that I checked in at 2am and my train was leaving at 8 am the next morning. The most expensive hotel room on all 3 trip´s and I couldn´t even enjoy it. What a shame.

On a side note, there were quite a few days that I spent $45 per night for a hotel room. If you happen to be in a European city during the summer or when that city is celebrating a holiday, it may be tough to find a decent price for accomodations and hostels book pretty fast. Now, I know that I could do it for $40 a day, or even $30 a day if I did some super planning, but I don´t always want to think about ¨what is my account balance like now?¨ If I plan a budget of almost twice as much as I needed, I know that I will have no problems maximizing my enjoyment in any given country. Plus, I can still come home with money in my account.

What if you met some cool people that were bee-lining to a different country that wasn´t on your itinerary but sounded like it would be a blast? If you over budgeted and needed to buy another train/bus/plane ticket, you´d have no worries. Go for it! That´s what backpacking is all about. Meeting people, get´n some culture in ya, seeing the world, living in the moment, and taking that unexpected trip with your new found friends to Greece or that exotic party haven island of Ibiza! Do your budget, then add more for the ¨unexpected element.¨ In Madrid, Disco-tecs and night clubs will cost you entrance fees and around $7-$9 (Euros) and upwards, per drink! Thats almost twice the prices in Los Angeles!

Assuming again that you already had a Eurail pass, your biggest daily cost will most likely be your accomodations. An example of my conservative daily budget in Europe for the bare essentials (not counting club entrance fees for attractions, tours, and souvenir shopping).

Here’s an example of the costs breakdown:

Daily cost (US Dollars) Train of thought What I want to spend What I budgeted.
Hostel or Hotel I shoot for under $30 for a single room. (Staying in a hostelroom with multi beds, your cost can come down to $10-$15 a day). $30 $45
Food, Cafe (coffee $5-$15 some days more. Example: In Spain, you don´t eat Paella everyday. Mostly you´ll find ham and cheese in french rolls. Do what you gotta do! $10 $20
Night clubs, bars, and pubs. Drinks can be expensive, so watch out! Not a nightly thing for me, but the money I don´t spent on this each day allows me to have a nice financial cushion $5 $10
Total daily amount: actual & conservative = $45 $75
Can you see? If I did’t spend that extra $30 a day, it would add up to over $200 a week!

Museums, attractions, souvenirs, tours, etc…These are not daily things but more like once or twice a week things.

Going to the beach, ruins of a castle, walking across a famous river, strolling through the street markets, sitting at beautiful parks and cafes, are all attractions that you will probably do more of and spend nothing.

Meeting people, locals, other travelers, and having them take you to a local party or a killer hole-in-the-wall restaurant off the beaten path, or a pub on the outskirts of town where the local hip people your age are hanging, as opposed to crowded touristy bars, are what´s going to make your trip memorable, unforgettable, and down right spectacular!

Traveling with a friend? Do yourself a favor and split up for a few hours a day and do your own thing. Discuss this with them before your trip so you go in with a plan. See Europe (or any country) through your own un-tainted eyes and then meet up later in the day to discuss the days events and the people that you´ve met. Being on your own FORCES you to talk to the locals and the local singles may be more interested in chatting with you as you´re not as preoccupied with conversations (that you can talk about at home) with your buddy. Get it? Good.

Remember, you took time off of work(or whatever). You worked your ass off to save money! You made a ton of sacrifices and stressed out about everything to get to this point where you can escape the uncomfortable realities of life in order to embark on your personal journey of self discovery, and maybe hook up with a local:). It´s also your travel buddies trip, so get them to understand the importance of daily separation. If they think it´s hogwash, send them to this site and hopefully they´ll be enlightened. Ask any solo traveler how they like traveling solo and the over-whelming response is that they wouldn´t have it any other way. Check out our message boards for some topics regarding this.

Be careful on souvenirs.

I´ve brought home many things from Europe and I can honestly say, that the only things that I use most are the leather shoes I bought in Amsterdam for $40, the $2 keychain from Paris, and mostly the countless pictures that ‘ve taken.

Do yourself a favor and bring a digital camera and or a nice camera with lots of film, and go easy on the souvenirs. Chances are- you won´t use them after a while. However, you´ll always be looking at them pictures you took!

Ebay.

Sell your unwanted and/or unused possessions on eBay! Sell that old laptop, camera, pc, Harley Davidson leather jacket, good used tires, those collectors baseball cards, comics, cell phones, whatever!

You will be surprised what some of your unused belongings are selling for these days. It’s kind of like having a garage sale, but only much better and with a world wide audience as opposed to just your homely neighbors down the street.

This is a very popular way to start building up your savings for that ultimate backpacking Europe, Australia, Asia, (or wherever) adventure.A whole new chapter of your life is about to be written, and if chucking your old items will help you to achieve your objective much sooner than you thought, then get busy!

“Success comes to those who make it happen, not let it happen.”

THIS IS YOUR TRIP- SO OWN IT, BABY!