Hi everyone. Excuse my Anandtech inactivity.. College devours my time. I'm looking for some input for my trip to Europe this summer. Here's some background information.
My friend and I (both of us are 19) are going to Europe this summer for 4 weeks, from June 18th to July 17th. Both of us have a passable knowledge of French and Spanish. We are booking a flight for those dates from Philadelphia to Dublin, and the return flight from Dublin back to Philadelphia. So far, the loose itinerary looks like this:
4 nights in Dublin ^
4 nights in London ^
3 nights in Amsterdam ^
3 nights in Brussels
7 nights in Paris ^
3 nights in Marseille
3 nights in Switzerland
and that leaves us 2 days to get back to Dublin. The "^" indicates a city we without-a-doubt want to visit. The other 3 are up in the air. We are serisouly considering scrapping the last 6 nights, and seeing somewhere in SW France, as well as Spain.
But did I mention our budget is unreasonably small?
That's the catch!
We each have about 2,000-2,500 to spend on the trip. And that includes the $750 roundtrip flight. I've done some preliminary budgeting, and I've come up with this
$750 --- Airfare
$500 --- Meals (28 days @ $18/day)
$500 --- Travel *
$200 --- Lodging **
$200 --- Misc
$2150 -- Total
* A 5 day select Eurorail pass for 3 countries (in our case, France, Benelux, and Switzerland) is $285. The rest is for inter-city traveling and traveling within the UK.
** We will be using the couchsurfers service (couchsurfers.com) for what is ostensibly free lodging. There are couches in every city we want to hit. The $200 is for emergency Hostel booking.
Here's where I need some help:
-The $18/day meal budget. The American dollar isn't what it used to be. I mean, neither of us have any problem eating street vender crap and bread sandwhiches most of the time. But will $18/day even buy us that in most cities? I imagine food will be somewhat cheaper in Spain than South France or London, but I'm just looking for an idea of what I can expect for $18.
-Traveling in and out of the UK seems a little steep. A Bus from Dublin to London is $30, but I havn't found a reasonable price for getting from London to mainland Europe.
-Is public transportation in the cities roughly equivalent to the major cities in the United States as far as price, accesability, and safety?
-Do any of these countries charge for entering/exiting their borders?
-Are any of the cities up there not worth visiting? Unfriendly? Unappealing to students? Overwhelmingly expensive?
-Are there any unexpected costs I didn't budget for?
Thanks for any help in advance. If you need any more information, or if I was unclear about anything, feel free to ask.
-Matt
My friend and I (both of us are 19) are going to Europe this summer for 4 weeks, from June 18th to July 17th. Both of us have a passable knowledge of French and Spanish. We are booking a flight for those dates from Philadelphia to Dublin, and the return flight from Dublin back to Philadelphia. So far, the loose itinerary looks like this:
4 nights in Dublin ^
4 nights in London ^
3 nights in Amsterdam ^
3 nights in Brussels
7 nights in Paris ^
3 nights in Marseille
3 nights in Switzerland
and that leaves us 2 days to get back to Dublin. The "^" indicates a city we without-a-doubt want to visit. The other 3 are up in the air. We are serisouly considering scrapping the last 6 nights, and seeing somewhere in SW France, as well as Spain.
But did I mention our budget is unreasonably small?
That's the catch!
We each have about 2,000-2,500 to spend on the trip. And that includes the $750 roundtrip flight. I've done some preliminary budgeting, and I've come up with this
$750 --- Airfare
$500 --- Meals (28 days @ $18/day)
$500 --- Travel *
$200 --- Lodging **
$200 --- Misc
$2150 -- Total
* A 5 day select Eurorail pass for 3 countries (in our case, France, Benelux, and Switzerland) is $285. The rest is for inter-city traveling and traveling within the UK.
** We will be using the couchsurfers service (couchsurfers.com) for what is ostensibly free lodging. There are couches in every city we want to hit. The $200 is for emergency Hostel booking.
Here's where I need some help:
-The $18/day meal budget. The American dollar isn't what it used to be. I mean, neither of us have any problem eating street vender crap and bread sandwhiches most of the time. But will $18/day even buy us that in most cities? I imagine food will be somewhat cheaper in Spain than South France or London, but I'm just looking for an idea of what I can expect for $18.
-Traveling in and out of the UK seems a little steep. A Bus from Dublin to London is $30, but I havn't found a reasonable price for getting from London to mainland Europe.
-Is public transportation in the cities roughly equivalent to the major cities in the United States as far as price, accesability, and safety?
-Do any of these countries charge for entering/exiting their borders?
-Are any of the cities up there not worth visiting? Unfriendly? Unappealing to students? Overwhelmingly expensive?
-Are there any unexpected costs I didn't budget for?
Thanks for any help in advance. If you need any more information, or if I was unclear about anything, feel free to ask.
-Matt