Europe Travel Answers

It has been far too long since I travelled in Western Europe to give you any meaningful specific answers but what I would say is this. Don't ever feel the need to apologise for well-written and well thought out travel itinerary and asking for help. That is precisely what this site is here for, as best I can tell. I wish you and your friend well on your travels. Never forget, ever one of us was a first timer once.

Agree with Fergy, we all once were newbeies and young. Whole point is that we are here to help. Here are few saving tips which might help those €1000 to go long way. Become member of Couchsurfing, quite few of our members here are part od CS as well, that will safe you few penies on the accomodation. https://m.couchsurfing.org/login also for museums enteries Louvre is free every first weekend in the month. Make sure you have ISC (international Student Card, assuming you are under 26 ) if you don't just walk into any STA travel agency and get one for £11. This card will give you extra discount at youth hostels, discounts at many museums and attractions. Also will entitle you free entrances at any museum in France, Germany & Austria. By law all 3 countries do not charge students & kids up to 18 yrs old, but if you can prove that you are student goes up to age of 26. In Italy good source of cheap food are the bekeries. They have cheap but filling pasteries and sandwiches. On my recent trip to north Italy I got cheese, olives and veg from supermarket and fres bread every day and I could have 2 meals for €5. most expensive food wise will be Paris and Rome. Do some research on freebies / discounts you can have, trust me there is lots to be had specially for young ppl. Also look for pop up restaurants specially in France. They are hosted in ppl homes and don't cost much, but you get to meet locals and eat authentic home cooked meals. Look on line for pop up restaurants in the area you are visiting. Checking the tourist info office in every new destination is must, as often they have info on free local happenings or offer vouchers for heavy discounted entrances or meal deals. Hope this will help you with your trip planing. Good luck Macedonian

hi Yeah, i agree with the otehr guy who said about checking in CoachSurfing, at least in Italy they have many members so you might saveup few euros. Even if you are staying in hostels, local CS members might give some good advice about eating or visiting places, etc. I don't know how it's now but at least few years ago in Barcelona -eating in central market was rather cheap and good. And i think it's the same in most places- bars and restaurants in or around main market are good for budget travellers. have fun:)

Is 1000 Euros enough... First off, it wasn't clear whether that's 1000 each, or 1000 for both of you. (It sounded like you were calculating travel and accommodation for both of you.) Either way, if travel and accommodation are all accounted for, you can survive on that (in the sense of "not starve"), but it's hard to say how much more you'll be able to do. You've listed some expensive cities. (Note, I haven't been back for some time, so don't have current prices.) I'd recommend you add two other line items to your budget, rather than lumping them in with the rest: basic food allowance (your weekly supermarket food), and your "must-see's" with the costs. ("Must-see's" are the things you will do regardless of the cost.) That would give you an idea of how much you'd really have for things you'd like to do but wouldn't be disappointed if you had to miss. As said above, though, there are discounts available and lots of ways to stretch what you have if you look. Also, since you're moving around a good bit, see whether a rail pass makes sense for you, using overnight trains instead of accommodation. Have a great trip!

Hi, sorry, I realized that it was a bit confusing! The costs in my post are just for one of us. So it's individual accom, transport and 1000 euros each to spend on food/attractions. Sorry and thanks for all the advice! Keep it coming! Some of those suggestions are awesome!! :D

Random thoughts.. I think you'll manage, but it's not a budget which will allow you much leeway. As noted, some of the places you have listed are potentially pretty expensive...Paris, Venice, Nice, Rome, Barcelona, Florence... Entrances may be a problem. Do you want to see e.g. the Forum/Palatine/Colosseum or the Vatican Museums? Either of those will eat a big chunk of your daily budget, as will other galleries/sights/sites in other places. You can get into the Prado for free from 6pm on weekdays (it closes at 8pm), so that's useful. The self-service restaurant chain Ciao in Italy is excellent value and offers very decent food...but you can also get tranci (slices of pizza) and panini (filled bread) everywhere for not very much. Don't buy bottled water. Save your money and fill up the bottles as you go. The places you are visiting all have perfectly drinkable water. The street fountains in Rome(the drinking fountains, not the decorative ones!) provide fresh water from the mountains as they have done since Roman times. The CT may be expensive for accommodation and food; these are tiny villages which make their money from visitors (and rightly so), It might be better to base yourselves in La Spezia and use the cheap, frequent trains to visit the CT villages. Venice is also very expensive for accomm and food. Mestre, on the mainland and linked by trains across the causeway every couple of minutes...and buses..offers much cheaper eating. Walk as much as you can, everywhere. Buy longer-term public transport tickets when and if they work for you...Rome, for example, has a 3-day transport pass for 11 euro which will get you on all buses, trams and Metro and the commuter train out to Ostia Antica. Venice is tiny and very walkable. You will not need to use the vaporetti (water-buses) unless you choose to do so or wish to visit an island. Florence's historical centre is also very small. You will not need to use the buses unless you want to visit Fiesole or don't fancy the walk up to Piazza Michaelangelo. Pisa too is very walkable. No need to use a bus at all there, imo. You might like to take a daytrip to Lucca on the train though: Lucca is an easy daytrip and a lovely and historical little town. I walked Madrid too, only taking the Metro once (my legs were extra-tired that day!).

Paris and Rome are the longest stops, and most expensive I think Might be wort looking into Paris Museum Pass en.parismuseumpass.com/rub-t... and Rome Museum Pass romapass.it/p.aspx?l=en&tid=... Both are very good value for money as will allow you to enter many museums and archaeological sites and you do not need to wait in the q. They look as lots of money up front but only 3-4 entries and the pass pays itself. Madrid have similar pass http://www.madridcard.com/en/inicio look into it and make informed decision..

I think that budget should be enough, especially when you dont intend to go inside each and every museum and attraction ! I mean in a place like Rome and Paris you can enjoy the special athmosphere of the place also by walking through the city, admiring the architecture etc. make an average budget per day and you will soon see, what extras are possible and what is out of range for you. In case that you want to see the "Mona Lisa" and pay the high entrancefee just for that, I can predict you you will be disappointed: the painting is much smaller than you thought and you have to queue for almost nothing ! On every reproduction and postcard it looks much better ! ;-)

Since you clarified that the budget is for each person, you should be fine. Lots of excellent tips for budgeting above. Street food is fun and cheap. Supermarket and bakery food is usually good and cheap. In Paris, buy a carnet of 10 metro tickets for 12.70 euros and share them. That will last the two of you several days. It lasts us a week and we're seniors. You can walk nearly every place in Paris. Traveling on the cheap is not only a challenge, it's fun and you meet a lot of people you wouldn't normally meet. We traveled on a budget when we were young because we had to; we do it now because we enjoy it. Have a great time.

hi again Have you already booked your transport tickets? You should check Euro train passport- they give double passes for 2 people travelling together, it's cheaper. Also those internet booking cheap bus lines. Quite often i choose night busses and trains for longer than 6 hour travels- saves you both: time and money for hostel.

1000 look enough on top of accommodation and travel expenses...

What is a 'Euro train passport'? Do you mean an Interrail/Eurail pass? They are no longer the budget option they once were and, even for those under 26, are only very rarely cheaper than a point-to-point fare total. There are also restrictions on the number of passholders who can use any one train (certainly in France), reservations fees to pay and supplements for many faster trains. In order to decide if a pass is worthwhile it is essential to find the accurate point-to-point fare cost on the relevant country's official railway website (all have English pages, mots give fares..and those which do not have very reasonable fares indeed). Some countries, such as Germany, have excellent advance online discount fares which can save you large amounts of money. Don't use Raileurope unless you absolutely must. It's only a ticketing agency, does not list all departures and charges admin fees. www.eurolines.com is the portal for most long-distance bus carriers in Europe.