Hello!
I am a Scot with a budget of £3000 GBP prepared for a 2 month trip this coming summer starting in June (this is after buying the pass). Would this be enough?
For context - I go through Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna and Budapest which I know are pricy but I will be spending most of my time throughout Romania, Bulgaria and the Balkans.
Any information would be helpful in helping me get the most out of this, thanks!
Best answer by BrendanDB
I think you'll manage quite well with that budget. You're not travelling through reservation heavy countries, which also saves you some money. You'll be travelling throughout July too, which means holiday season and more expensive prices for accommodation. It might be wise to keep the more expensive places for June, to avoid high season prices.
Except Amsterdam, many of the places you visit are considered rather cheap (you generally skip Western Europe, Scandinavia or Switzerland) . The further (south)east you go, the cheaper it gets.
In July you might want to avoid popular routes on weekends (busy trains) or at least reserve seats. For the rest it seems okay, only getting you in/out of the UK will cost you a bit extra (Eurostar, or the ferry) - presuming you don't fly.
In the end, it all depends on what you do as well on your journeys. If you like hiking, nature and you take a tent you'll be very cheap. If you're more of a city trotter and like museums, and gastronomical pleasures of all sorts you'll obviously spend more money. Probably it's gonna be a combination of both. Enjoying summer in a city, and week later you'll be chilling with your feet in a nice mountain river, in a deserted place with only a book as company.
Although if you choose your accommodation carefully, a hostel with self-catering possibilities e.g., you can cut costs very good as well (presuming you travel solo - in group self-catering units might be a wiser choice).
With a continous pass it's also a good idea to stay in the cheaper outskirts of the city, and take a train to the centre. It'll cost you a bit more time, but no extra budget. Or if you don't find accommodation with acceptable prices, find a smaller town with cheap accommodation a bit further, with good train connections, making it your base of operations for some days.
If you need any other advice of any sorts, like scenic routes, less trodden paths to discover, how to plan trains, which trains we recommend taking or how to avoid (expensive) reservations, or cruising around the more adventurous Balkans, the community is a collective beacon of wisdom happy to help. 😉
Good luck planning!
According to 1000s of old folktales you Scots are amazing frugal savers, but lets just put that in the book of history for now.
That makes roughly 50gbp=55€ (the money of choice in nearly all of EUR)/day. You put the question wrong: it is not CAN it be done-anything is possible- but HOW it can be done-or: what can I expect to get for that money-incl.- what are my basic needs.If you drink+smoke and have to pay for that-forget it, even though fags+booze will often be cheaper on the continent.
I assume you are young-around 20 and have NO real exp. at all to travel out of that funny island in the NorthSea, and even from that northern part that wants to break off it, or at least its female president.
The usual Brits that follow this forum will now all shout out; canNOT-shorten trip time or save more.
In fact you got it wrong already; Berlin-medium, Prahy-medium, B-lava-cheap, Bpest-cheap are not among the costlier places. And RO may present you a nasty surprise, also becse cheap there also means very low std.. PL may be better choice. Plus that there are simply no feasible trains Balkans´ over its borders when youve done BG.
A tipical day expense for a young+smart traveller is: stay in hoStel (check prices on booking or hostelworld)-15/20€, 3 meals-can cut cost a lot by some self-prepare in hoStel kitchens, same, some entry, local transit. That leaves very little for ´amusements´.
Every now&then save hoStel by using seat in overnite. Local transit over there is usually astonishing cheap for Brits, entry to some culture-places may also be discounted or free on some days. THis puts a real challenge on you: finding it out and sticking to it. That is also how you grow up.
BUT if you follow the way that seems the way for such young people; party hoStel- rounds of beer+More to nice freinds found there, the notsofree after all guided tours with colored umbrellas, followed by yet another party-binge-the money goes down the drains pretty quick. Plus that ´cheap´countries often make you spend much more-as it is so cheap!
Now there are dozens of sites+blogspots detailing this much more-also per city (try ´inyourpocket´ for most east_EUR), so take a look there.
Also: Scots would know that taking your fancy kilt+pipebag (or how you call it) and making this wailing noise here+there can also bring money in your cap-but it often is not allowed without permits.
The nice thing of a pass is that even if you cannot stick to budget, you can still return home-earlier as planned maybe, with naging ears, but at last you got the experience.
Hello!
At the time of travel, I'll be 22 at the time and will have gone through 4 years of university so I'm done with all the relentless alcohol and I'm also not a smoker.
I aim to stay away from the attention grabbing umbrellas and groups and sort of go my own way through it all with a bit of advice. The stereotypes you will have on British are, albeit a fair stereotype, not applicable to me I believe and so the big party and booze stuff isn't very attractive for me on this journey.
Hopefully this gives context as to the longevity of my budget in extending my stay!
A bit of reality from an old Brit.
The general costs for all need considering before any luxuries. These are food and accommodation and, unless you fancy sleeping on park benches and eating one small Mac IMHO, you will need at least your 55 euro for many of these days if you consider hidden costs such as local taxes and local transport costs.
My policy, developed over many years, is to plan for 3000, have 4000 available and bring as much as possible home. Also always have a plan B on getting home quickly and cheaply.
Assuming you have a continuous pass you can always find a low cost accommodation for longer and day trip the region. You can then travel light and always revisit places. Vienna iregion s one such place
One last tip, consider a cheap flight each way,say to Poland with Ryanair or similar. Gets you to your adventure for a fraction of the price of Eurostar and accommodation costs.
I wish I could try this so have a great time. By the way two can travel together much cheaper by sharing self catering accommodation.
Hey!
yeah, most of the places on your itinerary are pretty cheap, so with 3000GBP you should easily get around…
I wouldn’t suggest you taking a flight, because it contradicts the idea of interrail and also regarding environmental aspects it is not advisable. There are many better ways to get from the UK to mainland Europe.
+5As all the above posts suggest a definitive answer is not possible. If you can find a base for day trips economies os scale kick in. I’d just go and when your money runs out come home! As you’re in Scotland a cheap flight home might be the best value in monetary terms.
+7I think you'll manage quite well with that budget. You're not travelling through reservation heavy countries, which also saves you some money. You'll be travelling throughout July too, which means holiday season and more expensive prices for accommodation. It might be wise to keep the more expensive places for June, to avoid high season prices.
Except Amsterdam, many of the places you visit are considered rather cheap (you generally skip Western Europe, Scandinavia or Switzerland) . The further (south)east you go, the cheaper it gets.
In July you might want to avoid popular routes on weekends (busy trains) or at least reserve seats. For the rest it seems okay, only getting you in/out of the UK will cost you a bit extra (Eurostar, or the ferry) - presuming you don't fly.
In the end, it all depends on what you do as well on your journeys. If you like hiking, nature and you take a tent you'll be very cheap. If you're more of a city trotter and like museums, and gastronomical pleasures of all sorts you'll obviously spend more money. Probably it's gonna be a combination of both. Enjoying summer in a city, and week later you'll be chilling with your feet in a nice mountain river, in a deserted place with only a book as company.
Although if you choose your accommodation carefully, a hostel with self-catering possibilities e.g., you can cut costs very good as well (presuming you travel solo - in group self-catering units might be a wiser choice).
With a continous pass it's also a good idea to stay in the cheaper outskirts of the city, and take a train to the centre. It'll cost you a bit more time, but no extra budget. Or if you don't find accommodation with acceptable prices, find a smaller town with cheap accommodation a bit further, with good train connections, making it your base of operations for some days.
If you need any other advice of any sorts, like scenic routes, less trodden paths to discover, how to plan trains, which trains we recommend taking or how to avoid (expensive) reservations, or cruising around the more adventurous Balkans, the community is a collective beacon of wisdom happy to help. 😉
Good luck planning!
I think that accommodation will be the most expensive part so you need to look for cheap places to stay. If you look at e.g. booking.com you will get a feeling of the price level in different cities. Maybe AirBnB could be a solution.
My daughter and I stayed a night in Berlin for 25 EUR incl breakfast for both of us in the beginning of August. In Prague we paid around 50 EUR per night for 2 and in Bern, Switzerland about 200 EUR.
The price for one person is not that much less than for 2 persons unless you get a bed in a dormitory in a hostel.
Bonjour,
Voici notre petite experience perso
Au mois d octobre nous avons le voyage suuvant, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Cracovie, Budapest, Ljubljana, Venise et Rome.
Prague, Cracovie et Budapest etant hors zone euro, nius avons changé sur place en monnaie locale mais pas pour Budapest au final, car le fait d avoir la monnaie locale et de ne pas trop savoir quel sera votre budget vous oblige au final a tour depenser en sachant en plus qu il y a une commission pour chaque change.
Donc, mon avis, utilisez votre carte bleue, ou les frais seront bien moins importants et vous pourrez maitrusez votre budget.
😉
Simple sums for flight v train from Scotland. Edinburgh to Lon min 4 hrs, 2 hrs to E*, 2 hrs to Brussels. Overnight then a full day ICE to mid Europe. 30 pound E*, 1 overnight, 2 days food. Say 100 euro and 2 days.
Fly with low cost airline UK to central Europe easily for 50 euro each way and plenty of time for onward travel.
Even allowing10 euro for meals it is still both cheaper and quicker.
Personally I travel by plane with a clear conscience, but will travel by train when it is in my interest.
Simple sums for flight v train from Scotland. Edinburgh to Lon min 4 hrs, 2 hrs to E*, 2 hrs to Brussels. Overnight then a full day ICE to mid Europe. 30 pound E*, 1 overnight, 2 days food. Say 100 euro and 2 days.
Fly with low cost airline UK to central Europe easily for 50 euro each way and plenty of time for onward travel.
Even allowing10 euro for meals it is still both cheaper and quicker.
Personally I travel by plane with a clear conscience, but will travel by train when it is in my interest.
Congrats to you. You don’t understand train traveling and Interrailing it seems.
It is not about the speed but about the way in between two places.
and the guy has a budget of 3000 pound, not 300. so nothing to care too much about budget.
and btw: do you care about fair salaries for employees? Seems like no, because otherwise you wouldn’t advertise low cost airlines in every second post.
Thanks for the help everyone - I'll be travelling with my partner which has the same budget so hopefully we can sustain the budget for as long as possible...we really do not want to go back to Scottish weather early.
Im really surprised at how quick and thorough the replies have been, a treasure trove of information!
Thanks for the help everyone - I'll be travelling with my partner which has the same budget so hopefully we can sustain the budget for as long as possible...we really do not want to go back to Scottish weather early.
Im really surprised at how quick and thorough the replies have been, a treasure trove of information!
As you are travelling as a couple you should find it easier. Accommodation is going to be your biggest cost and assuming you want private rooms not dorms that is effectively the same price for 2 sharing as it is for 1.
€50/day for 1 person would be a tight budget but €100/day for 2 should be easily achievable with some planning and flexibility.
Do some research on the places and days you are looking at, if you find a particular city very expensive then search other towns in the region, there can be big differences within short distances.
Use the big combined sites like booking.com, Trivago and Google maps but be aware some hotel chains do not appear on these and some hotels or individual hotels will give better rates booking directly so it is always a good idea to check these out before booking.
For some of the chains, for example Accor group, you can get discounts or perks on stays for being members of their loyalty programs as well as points towards future stays.
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.
