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.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
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Definitely buy a Paris Pass so that you don’t have to wait in line.
Travelling to Paris next month. Any recommendations on hotel(s) you like under $250 US?
Anything Ibis 🙂
wow 200$ for a trip that length does not seem like a lot…
In London you will save a lot on museums and such, as most are free. I enjoyed the V&A, the British Museum, the British Library, the new Globe Theatre, the Museum of Natural History (housed in a lovely building with hundreds of stone animals all over the facade), the National Portrait Gallery… very nice.
When I travel I like to eat out, though. I like trying the local food as per some initial research done before the trip, and usually I have already made my reservations beforehand when necessary.
Things not to miss: hot chocolate in Paris (can’t really go wrong almost anywhere), Pierre Herme macarons, tea from Mariage Freres, window shopping at Colette, crazy lot of food at Les Halles.
Hot chocolate in Paris – really recommend Angelinas on Rue de Rivoli, metro is either Tuileries or Concorde. Best we’ve ever tasted.
Can’t argue with that, as it is the first I’ve tasted too way back when. 🙂 But Fauchon also makes a good cup, as well as Laduree.
I agree with others who said train travel will be quite expensive when booked at the last minute, especially London-Paris. Within Belgium we got good rates, but we were only going to the next city, not far. I didn’t find Brussels that great, I much preferred Bruges (stay overnight if you can, during the day it’s packed with tour buses) and Ghent (my favorite of the 3)… I hear Antwerp is very nice too, though we didn’t make it there this time. The Grand’ Place is very impressive though, as was Cook&Book (worth checking out the website http://www.cookandbook.be
Vienna is definitely one I’d like to see too… looking forward to pics and reviews!
Have fun and safe travels!
Vienna is not impressive. Stockholm was much much better.
I love your budgets. But, I think that the trains are going to cost you a little more than $200/person if you’re planning on using them to get city to city! I was pricing out
Oops, cut me off.
Anyway, I was pricing out trains for a recent trip we took around Italy, and was considering the overnight train to Vienna. From Venice, it was about $120/person. And I’ve taken the train from Paris to Vienna, and it was similarly priced. Granted, you can pay more for better cars, etc, but those were the base prices for the 6 bunk overnight sleep cars. Just a heads up! 🙂 Have an amazing time – I love Europe and am already plotting my next trip.
Ooo.. So $400 per person won’t be enough eh? We’re only going from Paris > London and Paris > Brussels and back by train..
No worries, we’ll have extra money just in case 🙂
Hey!! We are looking at going to London next April. My hubby and I are saving little by little for the next 6 months to have it covered. But to help you with the Paris or London site seeing look at getting the London Pass &/or the Paris Pass. It will save you a lot of $$$! 😀
http://www.parispass.com/
http://www.londonpass.com/?wgSrc=wgus&aid=222
You can also get the London Pass on the http://www.visitbritainshop.com I think it’s a little cheaper there. Good luck!! Let us know how it goes!! 😀
Thanks! Will do 🙂
Oh, I love trains 🙂 and at least train tickets don’t have the ridiculously complicated pricing that airplane tickets have.
This advice probably comes a little late if you’re leaving pretty soon, but pretty much all train tickets for international routes go on sale 3 months before the actual travel date. So it is best to try and book your tickets three months in advance if you want to get the cheapest tickets (they’ve only got a limited amount of those for each journey). If you book later (especially in summer or other busy months/days) you can’t always get the special discount tickets and you’ll have to shell out more money for exactly the same kind of seats and the same journey.
When I get back to Europe I’m going to buy a railcard for Europe and travel through Portugal-Spain-Italy and maybe Eastern Europe by train.
I thought about it but we didn’t have our dates until last week so there was no way I could have booked my train tickets in advance anyway…
We’ll just buy them there
I understand how hard it is to purchase train tickets in advance, but I have to second Corianne’s comment that they’re going to be much more expensive on such short notice. For example, even booking a couple of months ahead and in the off season, a ticket from Frankfurt to Amsterdam ran my husband and I about 100 each. Tickets from Frankfurt to Paris cost closer to 200 each (we chose to fly instead). And even a day trip that was only 50-70 km away would be 30 each. If you’re not opposed to flying in Europe, you might want to check RyanAir for cheap flights — not the best customer service, but you can often find flights for one euro plus taxes and fees (which makes them about 20-25 r/t). Just something to think about! I know I was shocked at how expensive the trains were in Europe…
Yes, trains can be quite expensive, but they can also be quite cheap! This year I paid 38 euros for a return ticket from Utrecht to Koln, but only because I was frantically checking the website that sold the tickets around the three month mark before my travel dates. As far as I know the ICE trains to Germany (at least from the Netherlands) can have really good deals on cheaper tickets but you have to snatch them up right when they become available.
The Thalys is a little more expensive and according to the Dutch website that sells train tickets there are three price classes: cheap tickets (very limited availability) at 35/45 euros one-way, mid-price (slightly limited availability) 65-111 euro one-way, full-price (always available) at 130 euro one-way. These are of course prices if you’re travelling from the Netherlands, so from Brussels might be a little less, but I still think you should keep over a 100 euros in mind for a one-way ticket for just one person and adjust your budget accordingly for the Paris-Brussel leg of your trip.
Seeing the costs laid out this way it amazes me how big of a chunk the flights are. Look forward to seeing your pictures.
Flights are the worst.. but the hotels are where the wallet really hurts per night
I agree… I’m just lucky my brother’s mother-in-law works for the Marriott group, and we get the friends and family discount. Otherwise, minimum of 200Euros/night, and in London if I find 240Pounds/night, I feel lucky. LOL
I can’t wait to hear about your experience in Austria and Belguim! Have fun!
I hope it’s as beautiful as I think it is
Sounds like good times FB. I would love to hear the details on your trips to both London and Paris as I hope to be there myself next year. Happy travels!
I LOVED London. I hope that Paris will be a better experience for me this time, as the last time, I had been bitten by bugs all over my face and body (oak mites, looks and feels like chicken pox)
Exciting! How long are you going for?
1 month 🙂