The Simple Three-Part Budget Plan for Travelling Europe
If there’s one thing budget travellers in Europe are good at it’s surviving on bread and cheese and not showering for weeks probably budgeting. Because we’re trying to leave home and keep travelling on the smallest amount of savings, every scrap of income is carefully stored and cared for until we hit the continent.
My wife and I travelled through Europe from March 2006 to September 2008. We visited over 30 countries during this time and — as well as creating the Indie Travel Podcast, an award-winning website about budget and independent travel — figured out how to keep ourselves alive while we weren’t working.
The difficult thing is figuring out how much you might spend each day. How many days can you survive? In Travelling Europe I suggest a simple three-part budget to help you get a good idea of how much you’ll spend each day. This isn’t a fool-proof method and, depending on your travel style, you may need to increase it or you may be able to travel for less.
The Three-Part Budget Plan
Travel costs from your home to your point of arrival are fixed and easily worked out: the cost of the flight plus transport to and from the airport. It’s everything else that becomes difficult. You’ll probably have at least a rough idea of where you want to go and how many days you’d like to spend in one place. From there, we can figure out how much cash needs to be in the bank.
If you’re staying in a hostel, head to a hostel booking site and find out how much you’re going to be spending for a bed each night. This will differ from place to place and it allows you to get an idea of local costs. Then, multiply by three and that’s your daily budget.
Finally, I would look at the total (the cost of getting to the country plus your new daily budget) then add 5-10%. This money is good for emergencies, overspending and, near the end of the trip, splurging.
How does this work? One third is obviously your accommodation budget then another third will go towards your next ticket or coach trip and the last third will pay for food, drink and modest entry fees to various attractions. If you’re really travelling on a budget, this is all you’ll need to spend. If you’re a big drinker spender, you might like to multiply your accommodation price by four instead.
This system is not perfect, but it has the advantage of easy-to-find figures and it scales well across different countries. If you’re going to be doing specialist activities like sky-diving or snowboarding, you’ll obviously need to add these on. If you’re a fan of theatre or need to go to daily yoga classes, you’ll need to add this on. I’m giving you a liveable base budget for independent travel.
I hope this post finds you in good financial health and heading towards your Europe savings goal. If you’ve found it useful, subscribe to my independent travel podcast or buy a copy of Travelling Europe, which is filled with nuggets of wisdom from almost three years of full-time European travel. And has just been reduced to US$5.95.
About the author:Podcaster and writer Craig Martin has been living on the road since leaving Auckland, New Zealand in February 2006. With a degree in Media Studies and English plus a penchant for Coleridge, he's currently somewhere in Australasia. Craig podcasts at the Indie Travel Podcast and irregularly blogs at Our Crazy Travels along with his wife Linda.
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Posted by Craig Martin from Indie Travel Podcast. on April 7th, 2009 in Articles.
#1Cuckoo » April 14th, 2009 at 2:07 am:
This article is quite informative. Thanks for sharing this. Have stumbled it as well.
#2Katherine » April 30th, 2009 at 4:02 am:
Great tips – this is a great time to visit Europe, particularly countries like Iceland because their currency exchange rates are more favorable to the dollar.
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