Budget for European holiday

[gvix]

Eg in Barcelona in a restaurant of La Ramblas, wine by the bottle was 8 euros. We thought we were buying it by the glass but the bottle showed up.

That is where the Flamenco show is right? That was good value for money.

 

[wattch]

Hi Blinky,

I took the wife and my two girls 12 and 5 to UK, France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany over 7 weeks including stop overs in Hong Kong and Singapore. Our average daily spend on food, drinks, shopping and attractions was $370. That included going to Hong Kong Disney, Paris Disney and my wife buying a Louis Vuitton hand bag. So I'd say your budget sounds ok.

FYI, Rome was the cheapest for LV handbags, real ones that is

 

[Dougo]

If you are in your senior years, you can always ask for a senior's discount.

For some reason or other, it was no problem getting a senior's discount in Italy, particularly if you have a Centrelink Card.

For us, the trick was to book and pay for as much as possible before we went. And certainly if you are staying longer than a couple of days, look into the Paris Museum Pass or the London Pass or the 2 for 1 offers as noted previously ... they can all save you money if you use them to get the best value out of them.

Just as importantly, they can save time ... we found that particularly so with the Paris Museum Pass when we went to Versailles. We got there reasonably early and queued for only a few minutes but those who did not have a pass or pre-paid tickets had an estimated wait of an hour +. It was the longest queue I saw during our time in Europe apart from the queue to St Peter's Basillica.

 

[RB]

All Scandinavian countries are expensive. Czech Republic can surprisingly be more expensive than Germany or France... Careful with cost of taxi in Spain, on the other hand taxis are ridiculously cheap in Portugal.

I guess it does not affect the OP but I am unsure of what parts of Czech Republic you find to be expensive-I just found this from a trip report I did for May 2011 travel & in Mikulov I wrote

"2X500ml beers, 2Xlarge white wines, 2X broccoli soup and 2X home made lasagne are had for the very modest cost of $13.40 Aust for very nice food."

 

[Blinky]

Thanks again for all these great suggestions. I've taken note of all of them.

Dougo, I certainly will be taking advantage of the seniors discount (even though, in all modesty I'm fitter than most 40 year olds). It's Mrs Blinky who simply hates the idea. I'll talk her around.

 

[Angela Muir]

My daughter and I arrived back on Tuesday from London and France and found the food and drink in London really well priced. Paris we found was slightly dearer for food but we weren't impressed on what we ate in Paris and go for american coffee and ask for milk as well or you will be drinking mud. Watch out for the cheap souvenir sellers in Paris, they were scarey. They get right up into your face trying to sell you cheap cheesey trinkets. We went on a bus tour to Versailles and I was the second person to get off the bus and I had one in my face before my feet had touched the ground and when we came out there were about 2 dozen of them in a semi circle outside the gates and you had to walk between two of them to get out. They are usually from Somalia and Sudan etc. We used the Multi Cash Passport from Travel Money OZ loaded with Euros and pounds and it was fantastic. Accepted in all the shops etc and was fee free from atm's which accepted Mastercard. Travel Money OZ gave better rates and we were able to load fee free in cash before we left. We always knew how much we had and didn't have to try and do conversions in our heads and no bank fees which was even better.

 

[Angela Muir]

On wine in France, we stayed with relatives in La Blatiere about an hour from La Rochelle in France for 5 days and we were drinking all different types and labels which were bought from the local supermarket which has an extensive range and most were priced between 3 and 4 euros. They were brilliant. Also the cheeses and the pate's were awesome and the butter was out of this world. Coles here now sells a french butter which I picked up yesterday so will be trialling it today, here's hoping it will be equal to what we had over there. The Paris metro system is fantastic and cheap to use to get around and if in London for only a few days use the daily tickets from the machines at the stations. Also the christmas lights are up in Oxford st in London and the shops are starting to put up their decorations too.

 

[vbroucek]

I guess it does not affect the OP but I am unsure of what parts of Czech Republic you find to be expensive-I just found this from a trip report I did for May 2011 travel & in Mikulov I wrote

"2X500ml beers, 2Xlarge white wines, 2X broccoli soup and 2X home made lasagne are had for the very modest cost of $13.40 Aust for very nice food."

I am in Europe 3-4 times a year and each time I visit Czech Republic since I have family there. I came back three weeks ago... Well, yes, you can get what you described in Mikulov, and some other smaller places, but try to get it in Prague, Brno, Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary) or any other major city. I used to enjoy cheaper diesel in Czech Republic before and I used to top up the car every time I was leaving CR - nowadays, I try to come there with full tank and leave with empty - diesel is cheaper in Austria and Germany... Accommodation is another example. Hilton/Marriott are usually significantly more expensive in Prague than let's say in Berlin or Vienna... So go and figure yourself...

BTW, if you were eating in Mikulov, I guess you visited nearby castle Lednice... Is it still in such a dilapidated condition as it was when I visited 3 years ago? Do they still charge three separate entry fees to visit the castle (each floor of the castle requiring separate ticket)? Most of the castles on Loire in France have no entrance fee…

 

[vbroucek]

Angela Muir, you are surprising me little bit with your statement about the butter. We found Australian butter equally good (not every brand and it has to be unsalted), if not better than butter usually sold in Europe (unless you are talking about some specific brand of French butter). Paris metro system and RER are indeed fantastic, although it is becoming bit neglected. This June we travelled without car and stayed at little B&B near the Odéon Theatre and were using regularly RER station named Luxembourg (next to the Luxembourg Jardins). The falling pieces of celling were rather scary!!!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

french butter. yummmm.

 

[Julesmac]

Check this out, minus the parts you have booked. Trip budget planner.

Notwithstanding that I don't know your budget -
France: woodfired pizza AUD$10, salad AUD$10 max, beer is super cheap. We buy spirits/beer in supermarkets to save.
Higher end places can be tres expensive - I think French cuisine, unless you know where to go, does not provide value for money (pizza aside). Can be very expensive.

This is all from a cyclists perspective, though and through lots of travel in Provence, Alps, Pyrenees. Paris should be a bit more competitive.

Breakfast will run to AUD$5-10 each max. That's 2 very bad French coffees (check out wherespresso.com and its iPhone app to find coffee in France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere) and croissants jam, etc etc.

Lunch in France can be a baguette, la vache qui rit cheese, ham, avo etc. YUM.

Sneaky Heinekens are cheap cheap cheap.

Again: French woodfired pizzas are awesome. Avoid lasagne (they do it poorly).

By the way, if you need mobike prepaid internet, check this post out (i.e. roaming is for chumps).

That iphone app for coffee is gold !

 

[Julesmac]

We just had two weeks away prior to the Olympics, mostly in France, in Paris & then travelling by car through the SW regions. Divine - you can eat amazingly well if you try the little delis and even the MonoPrix supermarkets have great deli/bread/fruit. Whilst travelling, try the Paul chain of bakeries which are well priced - even in every petrol station on the motorways - delicious filled baguettes etc, really good quality and reasonable price. So you can have a very hearty lunch with a coffee at I would say around $10-12. We did notice the difference in pricing when we got to the UK but admittedly it was in London.
Can I suggest you try the Museum of London - it's at the Barbican, and gives a fantastic history from the very beginnings of settlement. Not a dry and dusty museum at all, and if you haven't been to London before it's a terrific starting point. Sounds like you have a super trip planned. Enjoy

 

[RAM]

I just got back from Paris and London and thought they were cheap cheap cheap.

London - Accom and transport is more expensive than Australia, everything else is cheaper. Food and drinks were particularly cheap - pub mains all under 10 pounds, pint of beer under 4 pounds. Cant remember the price of a coffee - 2 pounds?

Shopping in both places was much cheaper than back home. Overall we spent far less than we thought we would. Head to Stockholm if you want to see some truly outrageous prices!

The secret to UK accommodation is not to believe travel agents or often travel writers. The competition between the hotel chains is cut throat. Frequently our family has stayed at airport hotels (normally the most over-priced) for 19 pounds a night (booking 21 days in advance) for example. Holiday Inn often has 'sales' and the Premier inn chain (approx 1,000 across the UK, 6 or so in central london) is the McD of motels - every room looks the same but will sleep 4 adults (King size bed & 2 singles) and most have free parking as well as reasonable meals (part of the old Whitbred Pub & Inn chain).

Booking in advance across the UK chains (subscribing to their newsletters) will save hundreds per week in accom costs.

I found the Premier Inns when in the midst of winter, after driving through the 4th seaside major resort town in the south a local publican directed us to Premier. Previously we had been paying 90-120 pounds a night (travel agents were far worse with a 200 pd rate for London for us). Turning up with no booking saw us pay 39 on the night for a clean, comfortable room with a full sized bath not just a shower.

That was in Jan 2006 and since then we've used then over 30 times since. You can be unlucky but if you plan ahead they have so many locations that we've never been unable to stay with a few km of where we wanted. Some of their airport hotels have a free shuttle (though not many).

 

[RAM]

Depending on where you travel in London it might be worth investing in an Oyster card - you pre-load money on to the card and you don't need to worry about having change for individual tickets.

The Oyster card sounds a good idea but can turn into a nightmare.

Two holidays in a row it became a nightmare for us.

It is supposed to be swipe in swipe out system - so you get charged by the distance travelled (or within zones). Trouble is, like many places in the world - the infrastructure is crumbling.

With the Oyster card, if the gate you swipe out through is not working properly then you get charged with the mandatory MAXIMUM charge so what was supposed to be a 1 pd fare can become 4 pds or more. With 5 of us all going through the same gate (swipe card, gate opens) you think it has worked but on average every day 4 out of 5 of us would get the max charge.

Worse the first time was when 1 pd = 2.50 AUD. So stored value on cards disappeared very quickly and trying to get a refund was a nightmare.

Sympathetic operator said to go check after going through to check balance every time.

 

[overrun]

I have had the same sort of experiences as Fantic 125 – not all countries / ATMs / banks accept all Australian cards. Some can be quite parochial, and it is very disconcerting to be in a foreign land with the ATM refusing to hand out any money. I have also had the same call as Pushka from a bank security department cancelling my credit card as I was sitting in the Qantas international departure lounge.

From these sorts of experiences over the last 20 or so trips to Europe, I have got more prepared when taking money overseas.

My solution is to take at least 2 credit cards from different banks (in my case, one is Visa and the other is Mastercard), and a debit card (in my case, an ANZ one because it seems to work really well in Europe), and plenty of cash. My wife carries her own credit card and another debit card, and some of the cash. So that is 3 credit cards and 2 debit cards between us. While we are travelling, I never let my own cash on hand drop below 500 euros – spread between my wallet and passport pouch. If I am going for a long trip (more than 3 weeks), then I carry a third credit card as well. I spend quite a bit of time in Germany where, as others in this thread have said, cash is king.

The credit cards are handy for big ticket items like hotels. I am trying to use cash for most daily transactions overseas these days, because the card fraud is widespread and it is getting more common to have your card cancelled. The fewer the transactions on the card, the less the chance of fraud occurring. To my surprise, fraud can occur doing transactions in even the best of places. So while hotels and dinners in expensive restaurants are usually paid by card; lunches, beers, minor shopping, coffees, local train fares, taxis, are all by cash. I never use a card at an airport shop now since mine was cancelled in Malaysia (probably an over-zealous reaction by my bank which had been hit by a lot of fraud from there at the time).

My caution pays off. When banks close – as they did in Greece for a few days earlier this year – there was enough cash on hand to survive and there was enough on hand to buy a ticket out of the country if things turned nasty. As credit cards get cancelled during the trip, there is a backup. I got a bit worried on a trip last October to Germany and Greece, when the first card got cancelled in the departure lounge (as mentioned above). Then a few days later I got a SMS giving me the PIN number for an online transaction on another credit card that I hadn’t made. I ummed and erred about cancelling that card, and was reluctant to do so because then I would be reduced to my wife's credit card plus my debit card, and still had 2 weeks to go on the holiday. In the end, I didn't call the bank but checked my credit card transactions every day to make sure nothing untoward went through.

I have to complement the smart phone banking apps, which are very handy for keeping on top of your bank security overseas. I use mine every few days while overseas to watch what is happening. I have had the app running in Indonesia while I was checking out of the hotel and I watched the transaction go through on my app a few seconds after the hotel processed it. Of course, you really need to be connected by wi-fi otherwise the data roaming charges on the phone will cost you more than any fraud – but that is another story.

 

[RB]

I am in Europe 3-4 times a year and each time I visit Czech Republic since I have family there. I came back three weeks ago... Well, yes, you can get what you described in Mikulov, and some other smaller places, but try to get it in Prague, Brno, Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary) or any other major city. I used to enjoy cheaper diesel in Czech Republic before and I used to top up the car every time I was leaving CR - nowadays, I try to come there with full tank and leave with empty - diesel is cheaper in Austria and Germany... Accommodation is another example. Hilton/Marriott are usually significantly more expensive in Prague than let's say in Berlin or Vienna... So go and figure yourself...

BTW, if you were eating in Mikulov, I guess you visited nearby castle Lednice... Is it still in such a dilapidated condition as it was when I visited 3 years ago? Do they still charge three separate entry fees to visit the castle (each floor of the castle requiring separate ticket)? Most of the castles on Loire in France have no entrance fee…

I cannot claim to be in Europe 3-4 times per year-Where I live means more to me. My initial response was OT from the original question but I figured future readers should not be concerned that Czech Republic is expensive. Maybe we will leave it at me travelling away from cities (they are not my style of holiday) and I know what I paid was generally super cheap compared to some other spots I have been in Europe-I wrote my trip report on here from the perspective of someone travelling independently with no preconceived ideas other than having a good time, prices available in probably 99% plus of the country & not staying in brand name hotels. We stayed in the Charles Bridge Residences in Prague (our 2nd visit to the city) & had a great time-again maybe not your style of stay but let the other forum readers have an idea of what is available. With the Aust $ worth about 20 odd czk I don't think the average Aussie is going to complainn about entrance fees

 

[Simo]

Are you still going Blinky even with your upcoming change in your employment status.

 

[Blinky]

Are you still going Blinky even with your upcoming change in your employment status.

The only thing which will stop me is if my new job won't give me the leave, and I'm hopeful they will (I haven't got another job yet, but things are promising). The J class flights are courtesy of Velocity, and all accommodation and tours are paid for, and spending money has been put aside. If I have to cancel, I'll be up for a penalty to get the points re-allocated (not sure how much), and will lose $2,000 out of an $18,000 spend on accommodation and tours, so it won't be a disaster. But I doubt if it will come to that. The 25K extra I wrangled out of my ex employer will certainly help.

 

[Simo]

The only thing which will stop me is if my new job won't give me the leave, and I'm hopeful they will (I haven't got another job yet, but things are promising). The J class flights are courtesy of Velocity, and all accommodation and tours are paid for, and spending money has been put aside. If I have to cancel, I'll be up for a penalty to get the points re-allocated (not sure how much), and will lose $2,000 out of an $18,000 spend on accommodation and tours, so it won't be a disaster. But I doubt if it will come to that. The 25K extra I wrangled out of my ex employer will certainly help.

8 weeks is a long time when you have only just got your feet under the desk at your new job.

Maybe you might have to shorten the trip by a little bit as a compromise.

 

[Blinky]

8 weeks is a long time when you have only just got your feet under the desk at your new job.

Maybe you might have to shorten the trip by a little bit as a compromise.

Possibly. I plan to guarantee that I won't take any leave for the next two years, so it will all, theoretically, balance things. I could cancel some of the trip if need be.