Europe 2011 – Part Two (Traveling again)

As I mentioned, I’m leaving for Europe (again) pretty soon and I managed to get some numbers out this time because I’ve just booked everything.

Where I am going:

  • Paris, France
  • London, England
  • Vienna, Austria
  • Brussels, Belgium
  • Stockholm, Sweden

Where the money is going:

We had estimated about $4000 per person and we weren’t too far off the mark, although I am thinking it will be $4500 after everything is said and done (not including the shopping I may or may not be doing 🙂 )

TOTAL = $8069.61 for 2 people

Per person = $4034.80

CATEGORIES & AMOUNTS

  • Flights: $2748.52
  • Hotels: $3431.33 — We used as many points as possible (see below)
  • Food: $1215 — For 25 days
  • Entertainment: $200 — We have contingency money
  • Travel Insurance: $74.76 — A must! Booked with Seven Corners Travel Insurance again
  • Trains: $200 — We’re taking day trips and traveling from city to city

USING POINTS FOR HOTELS

We used points to book as many hotels as possible. We book through Hotels.ca and they give us reward nights that average out how much we’ve spent on the site to book other hotels.

That said, you can only use ONE discount reward night per booking, which meant that we booked 3 separate nights at one hotel in a row, so we could use each of our discount nights. *rolls eyes* I found it frustrating and troublesome, but that’s what you have to do to save a little money, I’m gonna do it.

We didn’t save a huge amount, but we saved about $500, I’d wager which isn’t bad at all. If not, we’d be looking at a $4000 hotel bill. 🙂

FOOD

We don’t really like going to restaurants, so we’re saving a ton here especially over the 25 days we’ll be traveling. What we prefer is buying fruit from the grocery stores, eating at patisseries and having the occasional meal out, rather than eating out all the time.

We’ll see how we do in this category.

TRAINS

We’re taking trains from Paris to London and to other cities, so we won’t be flying there. I am not sure how much we’ll need, so I put $400 but it may be more or less.

SHOPPING/SPENDING/ENTERTAINMENT

I have a feeling my Spending/Entertainment budget will be bringing that up to $4500.

BF is pretty good at staying under budget. Once he sets a goal, there is no stopping him. If he wants to spend only $4000, he will only spend $4000 come hell or high water.

He has even refused to buy a drink when he was super thirsty, JUST to stay under budget!! 😛

I am not like that.. so..heh.. 🙂

As for entertainment, I am not sure what we will spend the money on. I’d really like to see more of the museums in Paris this time, so that’s a big deal for me. There will also be less tourists this time of year, so I’m thrilled I won’t have to stand in line as much.

$200 seems pretty low for entertainment, but we’ll see. Last time I tried to over budget for Asia’s entertainment and we ended up spending WAY below my estimates.

Hello Europe! 🙂 Here we come..! Again.

 

 

About the Author

Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver. I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year. Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about my story here, or visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist.