Travelling to Europe next year, cost, living expenses - food, hotels, shopping etc?

Question

I'm planning to travel to Europe next year for roughly 2 months (July and August). My flight is from Sydney to London and i'm planning to stay with family in Paris as a sort of "homebase", cost of flight is handled and so is accommodation in Paris, so that saves me a bit.

Hoping to go to England, France(obviously), Italy, Portugal and maybe a short Contiki Tour. I was thinking about taking $12,000 AU (7,500 Euro)

Not planning to live large but hoping to stay at some nice'ish hotels and do some shopping for the family and myself.

Will $12,000 AU (7,500 Euro) get me by or am i dreamin?

Are items such as clothes, electronics and food roughly equivalent to what you pay in other countries?

Planning to get Eurail pass as well

Cheers

Answer 1

You can expect to pay twice as much as you would in Australia, for hotels and for food.

I budget €100 per day for staying in hostels or cheap hotels, eating out and sight seeing.
If you feel you need to stay in hotels with stars you might need to budget €150 or skip sightseeing.
Shopping can get expensive, unless you go to the cheapest shops in town, you will have to work out a budget for yourself for that.
I have been in Australia and did not find shopping there cheap nor expensive, nor did I see or miss things that I find in the shops here. (Exept for Roo leather, that was much cheaper overthere.)

The days you stay with your relatives will cost you less, but if you take them out, you will still end up paying a lot.

Whether an Eurail pass is worth buying depends on how much you plan to travel, often it is not worth it, but if you think you want to have a pass, you should buy it before coming over.

England (UK) is not included on an Eurail pass, so you would use it in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, (that is if you use the train to go to Portugal.)
It might be worth to check the cheaper airline fares between Paris and Portugal and Italy.
Might well be cheaper and will be faster.

Here are links for the travel planners of the national railway companies of
England: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
France: http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/_SvHomePage?_DLG=SvHomePage&_CMD=cmdHomepageUK&WB=HP&rfrr=4685ac17fd2e7656e4918c53b246a3f7
Italy: http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html
Spain: http://horarios.renfe.es/hir/ingles.html
Portugal: http://www.cp.pt/cp/displayPage.do?vgnextoid=87cbd5abe2a74010VgnVCM1000007b01a8c0RCRD&lang=en

Eurail: http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/passes/eurail_index.htm
Bus, long distance: http://eurolines.com/
And a few pages out of a blog explaining how to calculate whether the pass is cheaper for you:
http://www.scottstravelblog.com/
and travel by plane:
http://www.scottstravelblog.com/2007/06/inexpensive-airfare.html

Answer 2

I think you should be able to manage with the money you have, but I would recommend skipping the niceish hotels and put more into travel itself....the tours, activities,etc cuz those things really make the trip! Be prepared to burn a hole in your pocket in England, the pound is strong and the UK is expensive, especially London. I personally think flying is cheaper (and faster) than train, so look into budget flights, although by train you see more of the beautiful countryside but the downside is, when you reach your destination you are exhausted.

Answer 3

Get a eurail pass before u come , which u can only get by post outside of europe.