Trip to Europe with low budget, young adult couple.?

Question

We have accumulated about $4000. We would like to visit one or more of the following countries:

London, France, Italy, and Germany.

I've traveled all over Europe, but with much more money, and as part of a tour. I have no idea how to go on a low budget, but I know lot's of young people our age do it.

Is there any information out there on a website that includes a how-to for this kind of thing? Any info you can give us would be great!

Answer 1

An other tip to safe is to eat a cooked lunch, often supermarkets, department stores and even pretty good restaurants have lunch offers that are cheap, and for dinner get your bread and toppings in supermarkets, markets and the odd butchers and bakeries.

Traveling in eastern Europe is cheaper, (if you are willing to change your plans,) traveling countryside mostly works out cheaper as you do not have many expensive sights and museums, but check that there is a cheap place to sleep where you want to stay the night.

As said, get a Lonely Planet guidebook, you will safe more because of it than it cost you to buy a copy, but you might also be able to find them cheap, secondhand.

Hostels are often a good place to stay when traveling, but do not ignore the cheap hotels, as for two sharing a room they can work out cheaper, and might be more pleasant for a couple that want some privacy at times.

I budget between $100 and $200 a day, that is including local travel, sightseeing and eating out, just for myself. If you keep a tight budget you should be able to travel with two for the same money, the lower amount for traveling by bus using the cheapest lodgings.
The higher amount is for your few days eating out, a more expensive museum or traveling a longer distance.

On top of that comes your intercontinental ticket.
If you shop well you might get a cheap ticket, you can surely do better when you go to the websites that sell the cheaper tickets.

Some people are able to travel for less by coach surfing, for that I add a few links too.

If possible, work out with relatives that they can lend you some money if you get really stuck, so you can eat the last days abroad.

http://eurolines.com/
http://www.couchsurfing.com/
http://www.hospitalityclub.org/
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
http://www.letsbackpack.com/forum/

Answer 2

London is by far the most expensive of these locations, so naturally your money will run out a lot sooner there. Does the 4000 include money for airfare or not? If it does, then you honestly won't have much to work with for more than maybe a week.

I lived/travelled all over Europe a few years ago and used to play the "I only have 10 Euro to spend today (not including hostel or train tickets) so I better use it wisely" game. My friends that I travelled with and I were all of this mentality, which made it a lot easier to actually accomplish.

It's amazing how many things are free (man did we see a lot of churches) and how much you can absorb by just walking around the city and people watching. Also, you can always buy bread, cheese and wine from a grocery store instead of spending money on meals in restraunts, only stay in hostels that provide breakfast, and eat crappy food from street vendors. I won't pretend this was a glamorous way to travel but I definatly prefered it to the "travel on the parent's dime" trip I took.

If you're still under 26, you'll also get discounted train tickets and hostel prices. Check out hostelz.com and hostels.com. Definatly buy the Lonely Planet guide - ignore their hostel recommendations but splurge on their restruant rec's at least once or twice.

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

You should check out www.go-today.com and see the deals they have on packages for airfare, hotel, and sometimes train travel. It's pretty much independent travel (not in a group) and you can choose different levels of hotels. $4000 can get you a pretty nice vacation for a couple weeks if you pick your accommodations wisely and don't splurge on big sit-down dinners. If you're looking to go longer, stay in hostels, and do lots of research in Lonely Planet and Let's Go books, and plan your trip carefully. It's better to go cheap than not go at all, so have a great time!

Answer 4

try getting a last minute deal on a one way flight there and do the same to come back... ex. last min from Orlando to Frankfurt...

then once you are there only try staying at hostels.

there are also very good campgrounds around europe you can stay at, so travel with light camping gear.

You can hitch hike

also try www.couchsurfing.com

think about if you have any family or far away family living in europe

Answer 5

If you come to Italy..... regardless where, The only advise I can give you is PLEASE, DO NOT sleep at the train station. I always see many US young people sleeping there. They think its cool but....Once A young guy got jumped by a group of extracommunitary gang and they stole everything from him. It is such a dirty, bad people infested place.
Save your lives and at least go to a cheap hotel or a hostal try a pensione!!!

happy travels...

Answer 6

Lots of good suggestions above.
try www.djh.de for accomodation, look for a Eurail Pass.