How much money do I need to travel to Europe?

The other day I got a Facebook notification from one of my travel buddies who had tagged me on a photo. When I clicked it, it was a picture from 2011 of the entire Work & Travel group in Utah, USA. The funny thing is that he had commented “Yanina became a drug dealer and travelled all around the damn world”. I thought it was hilarious! and it inspired me to write this post which I’ve been delaying for so long.

Anyway, what I’m going to do is to show you in detail how much Pablo and I have spent in our trip around the world. It is going to take more than one post, and I am going to divide them by continents, starting with Europe. After all, we travelled around the world with the money we made chopping onions and serving coffee in Australia!

First of all, I always say that if you travel and pretend to live with luxuries that you don’t normally have in your real life, you will have to save for 5 years to spend 7 days in Europe. However, if you do the stuff you do at home, like cooking and sleeping in a decent though not fancy place, travelling abroad it’s going to cost the same as going on holidays at home. The biggest expense is the plane ticket, but you can always get special offers, sales and deals.

Our trip to Europe started in Paris. We flew from Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, in an Airfrance flight, operated by Vietnam Ailines, which was fantastic. As we bought that ticket together with the ticket to come back to Argentina (Hanoi-Paris, Lyon-Buenos Aires), I am not sure how much it was. We paid about U$S 750, which is NOTHING if we consider that we literally crossed the world with these two plane tickets.

To be honest, we were a little scared about prices in Europe, so we tried hard to find Couchsurfers who could let us crash into their couches in Paris, even for a few days. Our budget was approximately €50 a day each, which is what the blogs I read recommended. We stayed in Paris for four days, two of them we slept with Couchsurfers and two in an Airbnb room. After that, we headed to Grenoble, where Pablo’s friend from Uni, Rodrigo, was doing an exchange programme. We stayed there for four days. Then three days in Aix-en-Provence, two in Marseille, two in Niza and at the end of the trip we stayed two more in Grenoble and one night in Lyon.

OH LA LA!

In 18 days in France, we spent a total of €835,21 (U$S 925,64) between both of us! Which is €417,60 each and €23,20 per person per day. Do you remember our budget was €50 a day? It was pretty damn good! Wasn’t it? If we add entrance tickets to museums and exhibitions, then you will need around €15/20 more that day. We only visited the Louvre museum, Versailles Palace and the Eiffel Tower. The Bastille in Grenoble and the museum of the French Revolution are free of charge.

This is how much we spent between the two of us:

TRANSPORT: €235,20 This is both, inside cities and to go from one city to another. We also walked a lot, rode a Uber once and never took a taxi or the touristic bus.

In Paris the subway is €1,80. We travelled from one city to another by bus, mainly by FLIXBUS, which is quite comfortable and it has WiFi and a charger. There is an app you can download and it is pretty awesome! The driver just scans the QR code that the app generates and done! No printing or walking to the bus station.

A bus from Paris to Grenoble, for example, is €25 but if you buy it a week before you can get it as cheap as  €5. From Niza to Genova, Italy, we paid €9! Yes, you can travel to another country for €9!

FOOD: €182,51. When cooking, we ate whatever we felt like! We tried cheese, ate different kinds of cured meats and drank Coca Cola. We always made sure to rent Airbnb where we were allowed to use the kitchen, so we could eat well and save some money at the same time! Our Couchsurfers invited us for dinner and Rodri also treated us a few times. But we also bought food for everyone, so it is more or less the same. At lunch we normally had sandwiches; we bought a baguette, cheese and salami and yummmmm!

HOUSING: €353 As I said, we were hosted for about 7 days and the rest we stayed in Airbnb. The last night in Lyon, just before flying back to Argentina, we had to stay in a hotel since we hadn’t planned anything and nobody could host us with such a short notice, and that one night was €53! So expensive...

EXTRAS: €64,50 Of course we also like a little treat! We had coffee a couple of times; we went to the bakery, had beer and watch a music show. You can get a coffee for €2

Price of the most important excursions:

Louvre Museum: Adults €15; free entrance for minors of 26 with European passport / Citizenship.

Versailles Palace: Adults €15, free entrance for minors of 26 with European passport / Citizenship.

Eiffel Tower: Adults €17, minors of 26 and students €14,50.

LA BELLA ITALIA

Let’s talk about Italy! When we started planning our Euro-Trip, I told Pablo that I didn’t want to do the typical crazy capital to capital tour, since I always thought that judging a country by its capital city wasn’t fair. Imagine coming to Argentina and just visiting Buenos Aires! You would miss the best! Iguazú Falls, Los Andes mountains, the seven lakes in the south and so much more!

For that reason, and because we are Italian descendants and we love our culture, we decided to see a lot of Italian cities. We saw it from North to South. 

We arrived from Niza by bus to our first city, Genova, where we spent two beautiful days and we met Edel. Then we went to Venice for two days, Verona another two, three days in Florence, including an afternoon in Pisa. Then, we set off to Rome for four days, which we really took advantage of! After Rome we took a train to Napoli and spent some hours in Pompeii for two days. From there, we flew to Palermo, Sicily, where we stayed for two days and we visited Cefalú on our way to Messina for another couple of days. We crossed almost all the island by train! Next, Catania for four days. We took advantage of the low price of Catania’s housing and from there we commuted to Taormina and Siracusa. It was a total of three weeks between continental Italy and Sicily.

We always stayed in Airbnb rooms. We shared with single people, couples, families and even with dirty College students!

This dream trip around Italy cost us:

TRANSPORT: €475,16. This time we travelled by bus, train and plane. From Genova to Rome we used the bus and BlaBla car once, and then we went to Napoli and Pompeii. We flew from Napoli to Palermo and in the island we used the train since we couldn’t find any bus company.

HOUSING: €802 Always in Airbnb.  In some cases we couldn’t get a cheaper price because it was too close to the date and we didn’t have many choices. If you plan ahead you can do way better!

FOOD: €378,96 We usually cooked or had sandwiches or pizza when we were sightseeing. You can even get a beer for €1!

In Venice we sat in the cheapest restaurant we found to have lunch and we spent €20. We had pasta and drank water.

EXTRAS: €60 I must admit we had plenty of gelatto and café :)

Price of the most popular excursions:

We tried to do as much as we could. In Venice we saw the cathedral, which is free, and in Verona we were recommended the Verona Card that costs €18. It gives you access to Giulietta’s house and tomb, all churches and cathedrals, the Arena, and many more. Only the entrance to Giuletta’s house is €10 so it is very convenient!

The Academy Museum in Florence is wonderful! You can see David by Miguel Angel and many other of his works of arts. The sculptures are amazing! Highly recommended! The entrance cost us  €18,75, I think Pablo had a discount for being under 26. The Duomo Museum is totally worth it as well! It is €15 per person, and you get to climb to the top of the dome!

Climbing the Pisa Tower is €19, we thought it was too much and we decided not to do it. In Rome we went to Vatican Museum which was €17 and it gives you access to Sixtine Chapel. I don’t know if I would recommend going to the chapel. What I liked the most was seeing the Pope and listening the Mass he gives every Wednesday at 10am and the San Pietro Basilica, which is free. So if you want to save some cash, may be you can cross the Vatican Museum out.

The Coliseum is €18 per person and you have to pay with credit card only. This is a MUST! and it is really interesting. Then in Napoli we tried going to Napoli Sotterranea but it was too late and you are only allowed to go in with a guide. We went to Pompeii, the ancient Roman city which was buried under Vesubio’s ashes for decades.  It is a huge place, an entire city, so were comfy shoes and bring water. The fee was €12 each. Last but not least, in Catania we went to an old Roman Theatre and we paid €9, adults €6 and Pablo €3 because he was under 26 and European citizen.

That adds up to a total of €187,75 in tickets between the both of us (€93,87 each).

Our final budget was €1903,87 in three weeks in Italy. That’s about €45 per person per day. Not too bad!

ESPAÑA, OLÉ!

In Spain we spent just a few days. We were in Madrid for a couple of days, city which I fell in love with! and after that we went to Barcelona. I must admit that we were already pretty tired of museums and churches by then so we took it pretty easy and just relaxed, shop and did some sightseeing.

We arrived to Madrid from Catania. We took the METRO downtown (€10), where we had an Airbnb room booked (€82 for two people two days). The location was great! right in the middle of the city, a block away from the metro stop.

To be honest, I forgot to take note of our expenses, as I said, we were exhausted! but you should know that Spain is one of the cheapest countries to visit. You can get sandwiches of Jamón Ibérico from €2,50, coffee €1 in Mc Donalds, and buying food for dinner at the supermarket is around €10.

LONDON, BABY!

I travelled to London by myself since Pablo decided to stay in Barcelona with a host family he met in Couchsurfing. I had the pleasure to meet them too. They are Argentinian too and they were so welcoming and nice to us!

London is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and they have the strongest currency as well. So £1 is U$S1,30. However, you can totally go to London without expending all your life savings!

I wanted to enjoy and live and breathe London as much as I could! So I did whatever I felt like it. I ate sushi, which I love and Pablo hates. I visited Westminster Abbey £20, Tower Bridge£9 y Tower of London £25,50 (includes audio guide). I took the double-decker bus and the underground. I went to Winchester to visit a friend, we had lunch at a typical British Pub and had coffee.

I flew from Barcelona with Norweigian Airlines, which was £25 (without luggage) It is cheaper to fly to airports which are close to London like Gatwick and Luton. Heathrow is considered one of the most expensive airports in the world, so your flight will be more expensive if you arrive to that terminal. My flight arrived to Gatwick airport and I left from Luton (flew to Lyon, France for £41). You can always get lower prices if you book your flight with as much as 30 days ahead.

As I was by myself, I decided to book a bed in a shared room in a Hostel. I chose a ladies only area, which was a whole flor just for women. I paid £65, 81 for four nights, including a big breakfast. Public transport in England, especially in London, is quite expensive. So it is important to bear in mind this when you choose your hostel. Try to get one with a good location, so you can walk and spend less. I was close to London Bridge, and there was an underground (subway) station just a block away. I took the underground to the neighbourhood I wanted to see and then walked around. The city is beautiful! You won’t want to be underground!

You should get an OYSTER CARD. It is very convenient, since the trips are cheaper when you travel using the card. It costs £5 which you can get back if you return your card. You can get it in the ticket machines in the train stations.

So, in three days in London I spent a total of:

HOUSING: £65.81 4 nights in a shared ladies room in St Christopher’s Inn Oasis- London Bridge Hostel. It has a great location, close to London Bridge, Tower Bridge and subway station. It includes breakfast.

TRANSPORT: £140,45 Including flights, bus to Winchester, train from and to the airport, bus and subway.

FOOD: £40,72 This hostel didn’t have I kitchen, as far as I knew! I had dinner at the hostel’s restaurant a couple of times. I also had sushi twice, sandwiches and drinks.

EXTRAS: £17.65 This includes coffee with two friends I met, and snacks.

There are some places that you simply must go! Most of these places are £20, which is quite a lot! I was in London for just three days so I decided to visit Westminster Abber, Tower Bridge, Tower of London and I totally recommend them! I didn’t have time to visit Saint Paul’s cathedral or some museums which are free, and since the weather was so nice, I spent my wonderful days walking around this lovely city!

I hope my tips are useful for your next trip! Comment and ask any questions you may have!

Until we meet again :)

Yanina