After graduating University of California, San Diego (Go Tritons!), I knew I wanted to travel to Europe. I initially wanted to study aboard when I went to college but because of reasons x, y and z, I didn't but still thought traveling was important. The time was now! I needed to celebrate getting my degree. I didn't have any financial responsibilities, my apartment lease was done and my loan payments wouldn't start until 6 months after graduating. Lastly, I didn't have a full time job yet so there was none of that "I have to save two weeks of PTO (paid time off) and that's all the vacation I would get for the year" talk. I was FREEEE! Free to go wherever I wanted, for however long I wanted, with only my bank account stopping me.
For me, backpacking was perfect for what I wanted to accomplish. Here's how I sent only $3600 for 6 weeks in Europe, including airfare.
Make sure to subscribe to my e-mail list to get my exact spreadsheet I used for this trip! It breaks down all my cost per day! It's pretty awesome if I do say so myself. *This post contains affiliate links
Tik Tok
I began planning by figuring out the best time to go on my European adventure, which I dubbed "Europe Love Me." (#EuropeLoveMe) When shopping, I'm always looking for the a good deal and that comes with research, patience and a little luck. I found out the best time to fly is low seasons, which are fall and spring. Fall worked perfectly because I graduated spring and was finishing my college part time job in the summer.
My plane ticket ended up being around $550 one way from Los Angeles, California, to Berlin, Germany (though I had 2 stops, one in Chicago and the other in Frankfurt. I know...sucks...). Student Universe was the cheapest option I could find to get a flight from LAX to Berlin, they connected my domestic flights and I flew Lufthansa when going to Germany. I later booked my $360 return flight using Norwegian Airlines, a 10 hour straight flight from Stockholm, Sweden to LAX making sure it was a weekday.
Pro Tip: Weekdays, especially Tuesdays and Wednesdays, tend to be cheaper days to fly. For this trip, my flight out from LA was on a Tuesday and my flight back was on a Thursday. Another great reason to travel low season is because there are less travelers. Traveling won't be as crowded and accommodations sometimes have a low season price.
Breaking the Piggy Bank
I now knew when I wanted to go, but had to figure how I'd be able to do it. Let's talk finance!
I started saving money at a very young age. My parents made a savings account for me as a child and all my birthday money and Christmas money would go straight to the bank. In addition to my savings piggy bank, I worked part time in college. Occasionally, I would splurge on shopping trips with the roomies, go on late night food trips and attend last minute concerts, but my frugal self made sure that I always deposited something when I got my pay check.
So when I sat myself down to decide on a budget, I came up with about $3,600. I saved $1000 for airfare (which I only spent $1000 - ($550 + $360) = $90). I had $2,690 ($3,600 - $910 airfare = $2,690) for the rest of my trip. *I bought my return flight ticket when I was in Europe (not before my trip) so I wasn't sure how much it would cost. Therefore, I assumed that my trip budget excluding the airfare was $2.600.
Knowing I would be there for 6 weeks + 2 days = 44 days, I divided my Europe budget ($2600) by the number of days I would be traveling, giving me about $59 per day to work with, but felt like I should add a couple dollars to my daily budget, just in case. I added $16 to my daily budget, giving me$75 to work with. *At the time of this trip (August 2015) the Euro and US dollar conversion was €1 = $1.15 I set my daily budget to $75 = €65. It was very important that I knew I could only spend €65 ($75) per day in order to stay within budget.
Oh, the places I'll go!
With €65 ($70) per day, where could I go?
This backpacking trip was a two part adventure. The first half was a solo trip and the second half was a girls getaway with my best friend. For the first half of the trip I knew I wanted to see as much as possible, while ideally spending less than my daily budget . By recommendation from friends, central Europe was the place to go; it was cheap, historic, and had beautiful sights.
Price of Travel comes out with a great Europe Backpacker Index every year that breaks down the average price per day of travel in a specific city. The parts of central Europe I ended up visiting were Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. For the 15 days I was in this area, I averaged €32 per day (not including accommodations. I'll be talking about that later)(Refer to my spreadsheet to see exactly how I did it). That's half my planned daily budget! YAY to saving! I went on to going to Italy, my number one must-see country. Strolling thorough the maze of canals in Venice, perusing the arts of the Uffizi in Florence, marveling at St. Francis hometown in Assisi and finally making it to the Rome. As the saying goes, "All Roads Lead to Rome!" For the second leg of the trip, we tackled more touristy areas like Barcelona and Paris. As a bonus, since we were to Europe during September/October, we decided to go to Oktoberfest in Munich. When in Germany, drink beers like the Germans do.
In Barcelona and Paris, I was spending beyond my daily budget, some times spending over €100. But, I saved so much on the first half of my trip that I was okay with it. Europe Love Me 2015 Route Berlin, Germany ➳ Prague, Czech Republic ➳ Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic ➳ Vienna, Austria ➳ Bratislava, Slovakia ➳ Budapest, Hungary ➳ Venice, Italy ➳ Florence, Italy ➳ Assisi, Italy ➳ Rome, Italy ➳ Vatican City, Vatican ➳ Cinque Terre, Italy ➳ Milan, Italy ➳ Stuttgart, Germany/Ulm, Germany/Munich, Germany ➳ Barcelona, Spain ➳ Paris, France ➳ Brussels, Belgium ➳ Amsterdam, Netherlands/Utrecht, Netherlands ➳ Stockholm, Sweden. A total of 12 countries and 22 cities (don't worry I didn't include the cities that I only saw the airport)
Staying Organized!
My Google spreadsheet was my best friend (other than the friend who went on this trip with me)! It allowed me to stay organized and have control of my past, present and future spending on this trip.
The reason I chose to create a Google sheet instead of using good ole Microsoft Excel was because Google automatically saves my work every couple seconds, and I would be able to access the document on my Iphone or Ipad. Google Drive also has an app, making it simple and easy to access!
What happened when I didn't have WiFi? I downloaded the document before hand just in case. I had a small notebook that I carried around and would write down all my expenses throughout the day. At the end of the day when I got home, I calculated all the costs, itemized them, and added it to my hand dandy spreadsheet. Before I go through the organization of this wonderful document, subscribe to my e-mail list! *Shameless Plug in!* I promise you won't regret it!
Subscribe to my e-mail list to receive MY Europe Love Me spreadsheet I used on this trip as well as have YOUR VERY OWN blank copy!
Got that Europe Love Me 2015 document in front of you? I know! It's crazy!!! I was very organized. The document recorded my notes, itemizes the different cost per day and then goes into showing the current cost of the entire trip that day. The costs were categorized by cost of food, cost of accommodations, cost of transportation, and cost of miscellaneous. These cost were added together to give me a cost per day. You see those red and green shaded boxes? That's my favorite part. This column showed me if I spent less than my daily budget or more. Like I said earlier the first half of my trip in central Europe has green shaded areas, which means that I spent below my daily budget. The second half has a couple red areas, which is where I went over my budget. Ouch! The last two columns show what I projected to spend from my entire budget and what I actually spent. Though daunting to do, I would say this was why I had a successful trip. If you know how to use excel formatting it can make things efficient. In my exclusive resource library I include both a blank excel sheet and a pretty printable one. Feel free to comment below or contact me at theiridescentwings@gmail.com if you have any questions!
My Bed for the Night
Couchsurfer
My bank account saver was a website called Couchsurfer. I initially heard about this website through a college friend, who used it when she was traveling during her summer studying abroad in Europe.
It is free accommodation. Hosts can't charge a couch surfer for staying with them. Basically it's like online dating for finding a place to stay. I made a profile, searched the city I was planning to go to, contacted a million people asking them if I could stay at their place, waited and waited, and finally got accepted by a lovely host. Note, I only contacted women because as a solo female traveler, I felt more comfortable staying at another female's home. Sounds a little sketchy and shady? Hear me out. Couch surfing made my trip unique and special. It allowed me to make friends in different countries, get a local's perspective of life in that city or country, and sleep in some awesome places. Hosts offer their home to travelers for two reasons, to learn about another culture first hand without actually traveling, and to pay it forward. Couchsurfer is built on community and hospitality. It cost me nothing. In the future, I hope to host other people, or invite the people that hosted me to my home. (If you do use this option please, please don't use it just for a free place to stay. Make sure to spend time with your host). I gave each host a little present and thank you card. *I'll be writing a more in depth post on Couchsurfer. Subscribe to that e-mail list :P
*These are just a few of the ladies that invited me into their beautiful homes.
Hostels
Hostel is synonymous with backpacking. I only did it once on my entire trip. When I went to Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. I got a single for only €12 ($13.80). They are cheaper than hotels but I decided to use my next accommodation type.
Airbnb
I was surprised that Airbnb was well established in Europe at that time, I had only recently heard of it when I was back home. Prior to this trip I had never used Airbnb and now it's my go to accommodations website whenever I am traveling. For the most part, the prices I found between booking an Airbnb and a hostel were similar for 2 guests.
The best part of Airbnb was booking private rooms instead of the typical shared, possibly mixed gender, dorm room style you usually find at a hostel. On Airbnb, I was able to choose the location and price range, as well as amenities I wanted at my temporary home. The average cost per person was €22 ($25.30)
Our Airbnb in Milan, Italy included a stocked kitchen. My friend and I were planning to go out to eat dinner, but with all the food that was provided we feasted. We had toast, jams, eggs, different biscuits, juices and more.
Friends & Family My second visit to Germany on this trip was to go to Munich for Oktoberfest with my friend. We had flown from Milan to Stuttgart (because Munich was a lot more expensive to flight into) and was picked up by her uncle. She has family in Ulm, Germany which is between Stuttgart and Munich. We were able to stay with her family and spend time with them. One of my close friend's from University was studying abroad in Utrecht, Netherlands which is a short train ride from Amsterdam. We got to stay in her dorm and explore Amsterdam with her.
*If you have my spreadsheet in front of you, you'll be able see what type of accommodations I used per city and how much it cost me.
From City to City
Train
When researching, a lot of travel websites I stumbled upon said to buy the EuroRail or Rail Europe pass. a train pass that can be used a number of days to visited a number of countries. The price of the pass depends on which option you choose. I didn't purchase either passes because for the places I was visiting, I was able to find cheaper ways to travel. In Italy, I traveled between all the major cities by train, through Trenitalia because it was the more efficient, time and money-wise. The train tickets cost between €15-€35 ($18-$40).
Bus For the first leg of my trip through Central Europe (Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava and Hungary), I used buses. I bought bus tickets from Student Agency and Flexibus for as low as €9 ($10.35) for a one way ticket. Both companies have trips multiple times a day and are easy to book online.
Airplane
Unlike the U.S., Europe has budget airlines that can be a very cheap option if booked at the right time. I used Skyscanner to book all my flights. I flew 5 times this trip on different airlines including RyanAir, Easyjet, Vueling, and Transvania. I got my one way RyanAir ticket from Budapest to Venice for $15?! I could never find a ticket that cheap in America! Since I was a backpacker, I didn't have to pay for any extra check-in luggage and just had to pay the base plane ticket.
Tip: When deciding how to travel from city to city, I always weighed out the cost and the duration. Even though riding a bus would be the cheapest means of transportation most of the time, I would rather pay twice or even three times as much for an hour plane ride than a ten hour bus drive. Time is money!
In the City
Metro All the big cities have a metro system that include stops close to the big tourist attractions. Tickets are sold as one way tickets, packs of tickets, or day tickets. The metro ticket option I bought depended on the city I was visiting. Sometimes I only got one ways. Some cities I got packs. Some I did the day tickets. Each city is different in size.
When I went to Prague, I got one way tickets because everything is walk able. Who wouldn't want to walk around the cobble stone roads? It's like those Disney movie story book towns! For bigger cities like Berlin, I got the day tickets (more specifically the 72 hour metro ticket) since everything is far apart and I was there for multiple days.
Hop-on Hop-off An option I had but didn't use was the Hop-on Hop off bus. Many major cities have the these double decked red buses where you can buy one or two day tickets and take tourist around to the most popular attractions. They cost more than the metro days tickets of course. When my parents went to Europe, they really liked it and always recommend it, but I personally liked the local experience of using the metro. Plus, this was a frugal trip. This option was too fancy for me.
The Foodie In Me
I love trying food, especially authentic cuisine. Eating street food and dining only during lunch was another way to be thrifty. Street food and small shops were cheap and provided various options such as wieners in Berlin, trdelník in various parts of Central Europe, and fried herring in Sweden.
Eating in restaurants during lunch, allowed me to have quality food and a cheaper cost than dining at dinner. But in Italy, it's difficult to not eat at restaurants during the summer/fall nights. I splurged here a bit. For all those Yelpers, when I was traveling in 2015 there wasn't much of a Yelp presence. Most of the time, I used TripAdvisor or recommendations from locals.
OVERALL
44 days. 6 week. 12 countries. 22 cities. $3600. My Europe Love Me 2015 trip is one of my greatest accomplishments and adventure. It taught me how to budget, research options, and be flexible. As I said earlier, my parents made me save my money and not spend it as a child which I'm very grateful for in retrospect. I didn't get to buy myself my own game boy or splurge on more Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon cards but I got to spend my money as an adult on an experience that not everyone has the privilege to do at my age.
Traveling is seen by some as expensive, but I don't agree. If you save a little at a time, stay flexible and resourceful, you can plan pretty much any trip your heart desires. I did it! I spent only $3600 on a 6 week European adventure!
This was my first big girl trip that I planned and financed all by myself and I did pretty well if I do say so myself. Until next time Europe!
Unforgettable | Financial Independence | #Treatyoself
Thank you Europe Love Me!
» Experienced: August 25, 2015 - October 8, 2015 « » Last Updated: April 21, 2017 «
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